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My marriage—­birth of Twins.

Matilda had been there three years when I married her.  The Boss had always promised that he would give me a nice wedding, and he kept his word.  He was very proud, and liked praise.  The wedding that he gave us was indeed a pleasant one.  All the slaves from their neighbor acquaintances were invited.  One thing Boss did was a credit to him, but it was rare among slave-holders—­he had me married by their parish minister.  It was a beautiful evening, the 30th of November, 1858, when Matilda and I stood in the parlor of the McGee house and were solemnly made man and wife.  Old Master Jack came up from Panola at that time, and was there when the ceremony was performed.  As he looked through his fingers at us, he was overheard saying:  “It will ruin them, givin wedins-wedins.”  Things went on as usual after this.  The madam grew more irritable and exacting, always finding fault with the servants, whipping them, or threatening to do so, upon the slightest provocation, or none at all.  There was something in my wife’s manner, however, which kept the madam from whipping her—­an open or implied threat perhaps that such treatment would not be endured without resistance or protest of some kind.  This the madam regarded as a great indignity, and she hated my wife for it, and, at times, was ready to crush her, so great was her anger.  In a year there were born to us twin babies; and the madam now thought she had my wife tied, as the babies would be a barrier to anything like resistance on her part, and there would be no danger of her running away.  She, therefore, thought that she could enjoy, without hindrance, the privilege of beating the woman of whose womanhood she had theretofore stood somewhat in fear.

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MADAM’S cruelty to my wife and children.

Boss said from the first that I should give my wife assistance, as she needed time to care for the babies.  Really he was not as bad as the madam at heart, for she tried to see how hard she could be on us.  She gave me all the extra work to do that she could think of, apparently to keep me from helping my wife in the kitchen.  She had all the cooking to do for three heavy meals each day, all the washing and ironing of the finest clothes, besides caring for the babies between times.  In the morning she would nurse the babies, then hurry off to the kitchen to get breakfast while they were left in charge of a little girl.  Again at noon she repeated her visit to the babies, after cooking the dinner, then in the evening, after supper, she would go to nurse them again.  After supper was over, dishes all washed and kitchen in order, she would then go to the little ones for the night.  One can see that she had very little time with the children.  My heart was sore and heavy, for my wife was almost run