"We had a graveyard on the place. Whites were buried inside of railing
and the slaves on the outside. The members of the white family had
tombstones, the colored had headstones and cedar post to show where they
were buried.
"In Charles County and in fact all of Southern Maryland tobacco was
raised on a large scale. Men, women and children had to work hard to
produce the required crops. The slaves did the work and they were driven
at full speed sometimes by the owners and others by both owner and
overseers. The slaves would run away from the farms whenever they had a
chance, some were returned and others getting away. This made it very
profitable to white men and constables to capture the runaways. This
caused trouble between the colored people and whites, especially the
free people, as some of them would be taken for slaves. I had heard of
several killings resulting from fights at night.
"One time a slave ran away and was seen by a colored man, who was
hunting, sitting on a log eating some food late in the night. He had a
corn knife with him. When his master attempted to hit him with a whip,
he retaliated with the knife, splitting the man's breast open, from
which he died. The slave escaped and was never captured. The white
cappers or patrollers in all of the counties of Southern Maryland
scoured the swamps, rivers and fields without success.
"Let me explain to you very plain without prejudice one way or the
other, I have had many opportunities, a chance to watch white men and
women in my long career, colored women have many hard battles to fight
to protect themselves from assault by employers, white male servants or
by white men, many times not being able to protect, in fear of losing
their positions.
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