I have known the slaves to be so much fatigued from labor that they could scarcely get to their lodging places from the field at night.  And then they would have to prepare something to eat before they could lie down to rest.  Their corn they had to grind on a hand mill for bread stuff, or pound it in a mortar; and by the time they would get their suppers it would be midnight; then they would herd down all together and take but two or three hours rest, before the overseer’s horn called them up again to prepare for the field.

At the time of sickness among slaves they had but very little attention.  The master was to be the judge of their sickness, but never had studied the medical profession.  He always pronounced a slave who said he was sick, a liar and a hypocrite; said there was nothing the matter, and he only wanted to keep from work.

His remedy was most generally strong red pepper tea, boiled till it was red.  He would make them drink a pint cup full of it at one dose.  If he should not get better very soon after it, the dose was repeated.  If that should not accomplish the object for which it was given, or have the desired effect, a pot or kettle was then put over the fire with a large quantity of chimney soot, which was boiled down until it was as strong as the juice of tobacco, and the poor sick slave was compelled to drink a quart of it.

This would operate on the system like salts, or castor oil.  But if the slave should not be very ill, he would rather work as long as he could stand up, than to take this dreadful medicine.

If it should be a very valuable slave, sometimes a physician was sent for and something done to save him.  But no special aid is afforded the suffering slave even in the last trying hour, when he is called to grapple with the grim monster death.  He has no Bible, no family altar, no minister to address to him the consolations of the gospel, before he launches into the spirit world.  As to the burial of slaves, but very little more care is taken of their dead bodies than if they were dumb beasts.

My wife was very sick while we were both living with the Deacon.  We expected every day would be her last.  While she was sick, we lost our second child, and I was compelled to dig my own child’s grave and bury it myself without even a box to put it in.

CHAPTER XI.

I attend a prayer meeting.—­Punishment therefor threatened.—­I attempt to escape alone.—­My return to take my family.—­Our sufferings.—­Dreadful attack of wolves.—­Our recapture.

Some months after Malinda had recovered from her sickness, I got permission from the Deacon, on one Sabbath day, to attend a prayer meeting, on a neighboring plantation, with a few old superannuated slaves, although this was contrary to the custom of the country—­for slaves were not allowed to assemble for religious worship.  Being more numerous than the whites there was fear of rebellion, and the overpowering of their oppressors in order to obtain freedom.