SLAVE NARRATIVES - Library of Congress

"There was a colored man there that they were keeping too.
One Sunday, they were taking him to church and leaving my mother
behind♦ She said to them, f Well, I will he gone when you come
hack, so you better leave Bill here this morning. f Her old mis-
tress said to her, f Yes; and we ! ll come after you and whip you
every step of the way back* f But she went while they were at
church and they did not catch her either.
"The Saturday before that she made me a dress out of the
tail of an old bonnet and a big red handkerchief. Made waist,
sleeves and all out of that old bonnet and handkerchief♦ She
left right after they left for church, and she dressed me up in
my new dress. She put the dress on me and went down the road.
She didn f t know which way to go. She didn f t know the way nor
which direction to take. She walked and she walked and she walk-
ed. Then she would step aside and listen and ask the way.
"It was near night when she found a place to stay. The
people out in the yard saw her pass and called to her. It was
the youngest daughter of Mrs. Kelly, the one she had overheard
telling her mother she ought to set her free and pay her. She
stayed with John Kelly ! s daughter two or three days. I don ! t
know what her name was, only she was a Kelly. Then she got out
among the colored people and got to working and got some clothes
for herself and me. From then on, she worked and taken care of
me.
"From there she went to Pocahontas and worked and stayed
there till I was about fifteen years old. Meanwhile, she married
in Pocahontas. Then she moved to Newport. When I was fifteen,
I married in Newport. My mother supported herself by cooking and
3.