The Narrative of Lunsford Lane, Formerly of Raleigh, N.C. | Page 2

to convey an idea more
than should be expressed.
Those of whom I have had occasion to speak, are regarded, where they
are known, as among the most kind men to their slaves. Mr. Smith,
some of whose conduct will doubtless seem strange to the reader, is
sometimes taunted with being an abolitionist, in consequence of the
interest he manifests towards the colored people. If to any his character
appear like a riddle, they should remember that, men, like other things,
have "two sides," and often a top and a bottom in addition.
While in the South I succeeded by stealth in learning to read and write
a little, and since I have been in the North I have learned more. But I
need not say that I have been obliged to employ the services of a friend,
in bringing this Narrative into shape for the public eye. And it should
perhaps be said on the part of the writer, that it has been hastily
compiled, with little regard to style, only to express the ideas accurately
and in a manner to be understood.
LUNSFORD LANE.
Boston, July 4, 1842.

NARRATIVE.
The small city of Raleigh, North Carolina, it is known, is the capital of
the State, situated in the interior, and containing about thirty six
hundred inhabitants.[A] Here lived MR. SHERWOOD HAYWOOD, a
man of considerable respectability, a planter, and the cashier of a bank.

He owned three plantations, at the distances respectively of
seventy-five, thirty, and three miles from his residence in Raleigh. He
owned in all about two hundred and fifty slaves, among the rest my
mother, who was a house servant to her master, and of course a resident
in the city. My father was a slave to a near neighbor. The apartment
where I was born and where I spent my childhood and youth was called
"the kitchen," situated some fifteen or twenty rods from the "great
house." Here the house servants lodged and lived, and here the meals
were prepared for the people in the mansion.
[Footnote A: 175 whites--207 free people of color--and 2,244 slaves.
Total 3,626; according to the census of 1840.]
On the 30th of May, 1803, I was ushered into the world; but I did not
begin to see the rising of its dark clouds, nor fancy how they might be
broken and dispersed, until some time afterwards. My infancy was
spent upon the floor, in a rough cradle, or sometimes in my mother's
arms. My early boyhood in playing with the other boys and girls,
colored and white, in the yard, and occasionally doing such little
matters of labor as one of so young years could. I knew no difference
between myself and the white children; nor did they seem to know any
in turn. Sometimes my master would come out and give a biscuit to me,
and another to one of his own white boys; but I did not perceive the
difference between us. I had no brothers or sisters, but there were other
colored families living in the same kitchen, and the children playing in
the same yard, with me and my mother.
When I was ten or eleven years old, my master set me regularly to
cutting wood, in the yard in the winter, and working in the garden in
the summer. And when I was fifteen years of age, he gave me the care
of the pleasure horses, and made me his carriage driver; but this did not
exempt me from other labor, especially in the summer. Early in the
morning I used to take his three horses to the plantation, and turn them
into the pasture to graze, and myself into the cotton or cornfield, with a
hoe in my hand, to work through the day; and after sunset I would take
these horses back to the city, a distance of three miles, feed them, and
then attend to any other business my master or any of his family had for

me to do, until bed time, when with my blanket in my hand, I would go
into the dining room to rest through the night. The next day the same
round of labor would be repeated, unless some of the family wished to
ride out, in which case I must be on hand with the horses to wait upon
them, and in the meantime work about the yard. On Sunday I had to
drive to Church twice, which with other things necessary to be done,
took the whole day. So my life went wearily on from day to day, from
night to night, and from week to week.
When I began to work, I discovered the difference between myself and
my master's white children. They began to order me about, and were
told to