“I lived with my mother, father and sister in a log cabin built of log and mud, having two rooms; one with a dirt floor and the other above, each room having two windows, but no glass.  On a large farm or plantation owned by an old maid by the name of Sally McPherson on McPherson Farm.

“As a small boy and later on, until I was emancipated, I worked on the farm doing farm work, principally in the tobacco fields and in the woods cutting timber and firewood.  I slept on a home-made bed or bunk, while my mother and sister slept in a bed made by father on which they had a mattress made by themselves and filled with straw, while dad slept on a bench beside the bed and that he used in the day as a work bench, mending shoes for the slaves and others.  I have seen mother going to the fields each day like other slaves to do her part of the farming.  I being considered as one of the household employees, my work was both in the field and around the stable, giving me an opportunity to meet people some of whom gave me a few pennies.  By this method I earned some money which I gave to my mother.  I once found a gold dollar, that was the first dollar I ever had in my life.

“We had nothing to eat but corn bread baked in ashes, fat back and vegetables raised on the farm; no ham or any other choice meats; and fish we caught out of the creeks and streams.

“My father had some very fine dogs; we hunted coons, rabbits and opossum.  Our best dog was named Ruler, he would take your hat off.  If my father said:  ‘Ruler, take his hat off!’, he would jump up and grab your hat.

“We had a section of the farm that the slaves were allowed to farm for themselves, my mistress would let them raise extra food for their own use at nights.  My father was the colored overseer, he had charge of the entire plantation and continued until he was too old to work, then mother’s brother took it over, his name was Caleb.

“When I was a boy, I saw slaves going through and to Bryansville town.  Some would be chained, some handcuffed, and others not.  These slaves were bought up from time to time to be auctioned off or sold at Bryantown, to go to other farms, in Maryland, or shipped south.

“The slave traders would buy young and able farm men and well-developed young girls with fine physiques to barter and sell.  They would bring them to the taverns where there would be the buyers and traders, display them and offer them for sale.  At one of these gatherings a colored girl, a mulatto of fine stature and good looks, was put on sale.  She was of high spirits and determined disposition.  At night she was taken by the trader to his room to satisfy his bestial nature.  She could not be coerced or forced by him [TR:  ‘by him’ lined out] so she was attacked by him.  In the struggle she grabbed a knife and with it, she sterilized[HW:?] him and from the result of injury he died the next day.  She was charged with murder.  Gen. Butler,