It is the practice when a church is crowded, to turn the blacks out of their seats.  My brother did not like this, and on one occasion preached a sermon from a text, showing that all are of one blood.  Some of the whites who heard it, said that such preaching would raise an insurrection among the negroes.  Two of them told him that if he would prove his doctrine by Scripture, they would let him go, but if he did not, he should have nine and thirty lashes.  He accordingly preached another sermon and spoke with a great deal of boldness.  The two men who were in favor of having him whipped, left before the sermon was over; those who remained, acknowledged that he had proved his doctrine, and preached a good sermon, and many of them came up and shook hands with him.  The two opposers, Scott and Brockley, forbid my brother, after this, to come upon their estates.  They were both Baptists, and my brother had before preached to their people.  During the cholera at Richmond, my brother preached a sermon, in which he compared the pestilence to the plagues, which afflicted the Egyptian slaveholders, because they would not let the people go.  After the sermon some of the whites threatened to whip him.  Mr. Valentine, a merchant on Shocko Hill prevented them; and a young lawyer named Brooks said it was wrong to threaten a man for preaching the truth.  Since the insurrection of Nat.  Turner he has not been allowed to preach much.

My twin brother was for some time the property of Mr. John Griggs, of Richmond, who sold him about three years since, to an Alabama Cotton Planter, with whom he staid one year, and then ran away and in all probability escaped into the free states or Canada, as he was seen near the Maryland line.  My other brother lives in Fredericksburg, and belongs to a Mr. Scott, a merchant formerly of Richmond.  He was sold from Mr. Larrimore’s plantation because his wife was a slave of Mr. Scott.  My only sister is the slave of John Smith, of King William.  Her husband was the slave of Mr. Smith, when the latter lived in Powhatan county, and when he removed to King William, she was taken with her husband.

My old master, George Larrimore, married Jane Roane, the sister of a gentleman named John Roane, one of the most distinguished men in Virginia, who in turn married a sister of my master.  One of his sisters married a Judge Scott, and another married Mr. Brockenbrough of Charlottesville.  Mr. Larrimore had three children; George, Jane, and Elizabeth.  The former was just ten days older than myself; and I was his playmate and constant associate in childhood.  I used to go with him to his school, and carry his books for him as far as the door, and meet him there when the school was dismissed.  We were very fond of each other, and frequently slept together.  He taught me the letters of the alphabet, and I should soon have acquired a knowledge of reading, had not George’s mother discovered her son in the act of teaching me.  She took him aside and severely reprimanded him.