One privilege given slaves on the plantation was appreciated by all and that was the opportunity to hear the word of God.  The white people gathered in log and sometimes frame churches and the slaves were permitted to sit about the church yard on wagons and on the ground and listen to the preaching.  When the slaves wanted to hold church they had to get special permission from the master, and at that time a slave hut was used.  A white Preacher was called in and he would preach to them not to steal, lie or run away and “be sure and git all dem weeds outen dat corn in de field and your master will think a heap of you.”  Charles does not remember anything else the preacher told them about God.  They learned more about God when they sat outside the church waiting to drive their masters and family back home.

Charles relates an incident of a slave named Sambo who thought himself very smart and who courted the favor of the master.  The neighboring slaves screamed so loudly while being whipped that Sambo told his master that he knew how to make a contraption which, if a slave was put into while being whipped would prevent him from making a noise.  The device was made of two blocks of wood cut to fit the head and could be fastened around the neck tightly.  When the head was put in, the upper and lower parts were clamped together around the neck so that the slave could not scream.  The same effect as choking.  The stomach of the victim was placed over a barrel which allowed freedom of movement.  When the lash was administered and the slave wiggled, the barrel moved.

Now it so happened that Sambo was the first to be put into his own invention for a whipping.  The overseer applied the lash rather heavily, and Sambo was compelled to wiggle his body to relieve his feelings.  In wiggling the barrel under his stomach rolled a bit straining Sambo’s neck and breaking it.  After Sambo died from his neck being broken the master discontinued the use of the device, as he saw the loss of property in the death of slaves.

Charles was still a carriage driver when freedom came.  He had opportunity to see and hear many things about the master’s private life.  When the news of the advance of the Union Army came, Mr. Hall carried his money to a secluded spot and buried it in an iron pot so that the soldiers who were confiscating all the property and money they could, would not get his money.  The slave owners were required to notify the slaves that they were free so Mr. Hall sent his son Sherard to the cabins to notify all the slaves to come into his presence and there he had his son to tell them that they were free.  The Union soldiers took much of the slave owners’ property and gave to the slaves telling them that if the owners’ took the property back to write and tell them about it; the owners only laughed because they knew the slaves could not read nor write.  After the soldiers had gone the timid and scared slaves gave up most of the land; some few however, fenced in a bit of land while the soldiers remained in the vicinity and they managed to keep a little of the land.