"The first work I ever did in slave time was dining-room service. When I
left the dining-room table, I left carrying my young mistress to school
six miles from Fayette. They give me to Lela, my young mistress. She was
the young girl I was carrying to school when I got the whipping. When
ol' mis' was whippin' me, I asked her what she was whipping me for, and
she said, 'Nothin', 'cause you're mine, and I can whip you if I want
to.' She didn't think that I had done anything to the girl. She was just
mad that day, and I was around; so she took it out on me. After that, I
never did any more work as a slave, because the whole family ran away
about that time. I don't reckon pa would ever have run off if ol' miss
hadn't whipped me and if ol' massa hadn't struck him. They rats good
till then; but it looked like the war made them mean.