SLAVE NARRATIVES - Library of Congress

"My grandfather and grandmother were both whipped sometimes* I don't
know the man that whipped them* I don't know whether it was the agent or
the owner or whot but they were whipped* Lots of times they had work to do
and didn't do it* Naturally they whipped them for it* That was what they
whipped my grandparents for* Sometimes too, they would go off and wouldn't
let the white folks know where they was going* Sometimes they would
neglect to feed the horses or to milk the cows—something like that* That
was the only reason I ever heard of for punishing than*
"I heard that if the boss man wanted to be with women that they had,
the women would be scared not to be with him for fear he would whip them.
And when they started whipping them for that they kept on till they got
what they wanted* They would take them 'way off and have dealings with
them* That is where so much of that yellow and half-white comes from*
"There was some one going through telling the people that they was
free and that they was their own boss* But yet and still* there's lots of
them never did leave the man they was with and lots of them left* There
was lots of white people that wouldn't let a nigger tell their niggers that
they was freef because they wanted to keep them blind to that for years*
Kept them for three or four years anyway* Them that Bullocks liked was
crazy about him* He would give them a show—so much a month and their
keeps* I don't remember exactly how much it was but it was neighborhood
price* He was a pretty good man* Of coursey you never seen a white man
that wouldn't chaat a little*
"He'd cheat you out of a little cotton* He would have the cotton
carried to the gin* He would take half the corn and give us five or
six shoats* After he got the cotton all picked and sold* the cotton
it would all go to him for what you owed him for furnishing you*
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