of a “pet” around the plantation and did almost as he wanted to.  He would go hunting, fishing and swimming with his master’s sons who were about his age.  Sometimes he would get into a fight with one of the boys and many times he would be the victor, his fallen foe would sometimes exclaim that “that licking that you gave me sure hurt,” and that ended the affair; there was no further ill feeling between them.

Education:  The slaves were not allowed to study.  The white children studied a large “Blue Back” Webster Speller and when one had thoroughly learned its contents he was considered to be educated.

Religion:  The slaves had their own church but sometimes went to the churches of their white masters where they were relegated to the extreme rear.  John Kelley, a white man, often preached to them and would admonish them as follows; “you must obey your master and missus, you must be good niggers.”  After the beginning of the war they held “meetings” among themselves in their cabins.

Baptism:  Those slaves who believed and accepted the Christian Doctrine were admitted into the church after being baptized in one of the surrounding ponds.

Cruelties:  There was a very wealthy plantation owner who lived near the Davis plantation; he had eleven plantations, the smallest one was cultivated by three hundred slaves.  Oftimes they would work nearly all night.  Will states that it was not an unusual thing to hear in the early mornings the echoes of rawhide whips cracking like the report of a gun against the bare backs of the slaves who were being whipped.  They would moan and groan in agony, but the whipping went on until the master’s wrath was appeased.  John Stokes, a white plantation owner who lived near the Davis’ plantation encouraged slaves to steal from their masters and bring the stolen goods to him; he would purchase the goods for much less than their value.  One time one of the slaves “put it out” that “Massa” Stokes was buying stolen goods.  Stokes heard of this and his wrath was aroused; he had to find the “nigger” who was circulating this rumor.  He went after him in great fury and finally succeeded in locating him, whereupon, he gave him a good “lacing” and warned him “if he ever heard anything like that again from him he was going to kill him.”  The accusations were true, however, but the slave desisted in further discussion of the affair for “old Massa Stokes was a treacherous man.”  On another occasion one of the Stokes’ slaves ran away and he sent Steven Kittles, known as the “dog man,” to catch the escape. (The dogs that went in pursuit of the runaway slaves were called “Nigger dogs”; they were used specifically for catching runaway slaves.) This particular slave had quite a “head start” on the dogs that were trailing him and he hid among some floating logs in a large pond; the dogs trailed him to the pond and began howling, indicating that they were approaching their prey.  They entered the pond to get their victim who was