Thirty Years a Slave | Page 6

I can not forget how he looked, the sore was a sickening sight;
yet, when he was able to walk he had to return to work in the field.
I had not been at Pontotoc very long when I saw the hounds run a slave,
by name Ben Lyon. "Old Ben," as he was called, ran away and had
been gone a week when he was seen by a woman who "told on him,"
and then I was sent to get the man who had trained dogs, or hounds as
they were called. The dogs ran the slave about ten miles when they lost
track at a creek, but he was caught that night in a farmer's house getting
something to eat.
* * * * *
INSTRUCTIONS IN MEDICINE.
After some time, Boss began to tell me the names of medicines and
their properties. I liked this and seemed to grasp the idea very well.
After giving me a number of names he would make me repeat them.

Then he would tell me the properties of each medicine named, how it
was used and for what purpose and how much constituted a dose. He
would drill me in all this until I knew it and, in a short time, he would
add other names to the list. He always showed me each medicine
named and had me smell and carefully examine it that I might know it
when seen again. I liked this, and used to wish that I was as wise as my
master. He was very precise, steady and gentle in any case of sickness,
and, although he had long retired from the medical world, all
recognized his merit wherever he went. I used to go to the woods and
gather slippery elm, alum root and the roots of wild cherry and poplar,
for we used all these in compounding medicines for the servants.
* * * * *
THE OVERSEER--WHIPPINGS AND OTHER CRUELTIES.
The overseer was a man hired to look after the farm and whip the
slaves. Very often they were not only cruel, but barbarous. Every
farmer or planter considered an overseer a necessity. As a rule, there
was also on each plantation, a foreman--one of the brighter slaves, who
was held responsible for the slaves under him, and whipped if they did
not come up to the required task. There was, too, a forewoman, who, in
like manner, had charge of the female slaves, and also the boys and
girls from twelve to sixteen years of age, and all the old people that
were feeble. This was called the trash gang. Ah! it would make one's
heart ache to see those children and how they were worked. Cold,
frosty mornings, the little ones would be crying from cold; but they had
to keep on. Aunt Polly, our forewoman, was afraid to allow them to run
to get warm, for fear the overseer would see them. Then she would be
whipped, and he would make her whip all of the gang. At length, I
became used to severe treatment of the slaves; but, every little while
something would happen to make me wish I were dead. Everything was
in a bustle--always there was slashing and whipping. I remember when
Boss made a change in our overseer. It was the beginning of the year.
Riley, one of the slaves, who was a principal plower, was not on hand
for work one Monday morning, having been delayed in fixing the
bridle of his mule, which the animal, for lack of something better,

perhaps, had been vigorously chewing and rendered nearly useless. He
was, therefore, considerably behind time, when he reached the field.
Without waiting to learn what was the reason for the delay, the overseer
sprang upon him with his bull whip, which was about seven feet long,
lashing him with all his strength, every stroke leaving its mark upon the
poor man's body, and finally the knot at the end of the whip buried
itself in the fleshy part of the arm, and there came around it a festering
sore. He suffered greatly with it, until one night his brother took out the
knot, when the poor fellow was asleep, for he could not bear any one to
touch it when he was awake. It was awful to hear the cracking of that
whip as it was laid about Riley--one would have thought that an ox
team had gotten into the mire, and was being whipped out, so loud and
sharp was the noise!
I usually slept in the dining room on the floor. Early one morning an
old slave, by name of "Uncle Jim," came and knocked at the window,
and upon my jumping up and going to him, he told me to tell Boss that