“Mr. Harvey Brown, the overseer, he mean sure ’nough I tell you, and de onliest thing that keep him from beatin’ de niggers up all de time would be old mars or Mr. Mark Sillers.  Bofe of dem was good and kind most all de time.  One time dat I remembers, ole mars, he gone back to Panola County for somepin’, en Mr. Mark Sillers, he attendin’ de camp meeting.  That was de day dat Mr. Harvey Brown come mighty nigh killin’ Henry.  I’ll tell you how dat was, boss.  It was on Monday morning that it happened.  De Friday before dat Monday morning, all of de hands had been pickin’ cotton and Mr. Harvey Brown didn’t think dat Henry had picked enough cotton dat day en so he give Henry er lashin’ out in de field.  Dat night Henry, he git mad and burn up his sack and runned off and hid in de canebrake ‘long de bayou all of de nex’ day.  Mr. Harvey, he missed Henry from de field en sent Jeff an’ Randall to find him and bring him in.  Dey found Henry real soon en tell him iffen he don’t come on back to de field dat Mr. Harvey gwine to set de hounds on him.  So Henry, he comed on back den ’cause de niggers was skeered of dem wild bloodhounds what they would set on ’em when dey try to run off.

“When Henry git back Mr. Harvey say, ’Henry, where your sack?  And how come you ain’t pickin’ cotton stid runnin’ off like dat?’ Henry say he done burnt he sack up.  Wid dat Mr. Harvey lit in to him like a bear, lashin’ him right and left.  Henry broke en run den to de cook house where he mammy, ‘Aunt Mary’, was, en Mr. Harvey right after him wid a heavy stick of wood dat he picked up offen de yard.  Mr. Harvey got Henry cornered in de house and near ’bout beat dat nigger to death.  In fact, Mr. Harvey, he really think too dat he done kilt Henry ’cause he called ‘Uncle Nat’ en said, ’Nat, go git some boards en make er coffin for dis nigger what I done kilt.’

“But Henry wasn’t daid though he was beat up terrible en they put him in de sick house.  For days en days ‘Uncle Warner’ had to ’tend to him, en wash he wounds, en pick de maggots outen his sores.  Dat was jus’ de way dat Mr. Harvey Brown treated de niggers every time he git a chanct.  He would even lash en beat de wimmens.

“Ole mars had a right good size house in dar ’mongst de quarters where dey kept all de babies en right young chillun whilst dey mammies workin’ in de fields pickin’ en hoein’ time.  Old ‘Aunt Hannah’, an old granny woman, she ’tend to all dem chillun.  De chillun’s mammies, dey would come in from de fields about three times er day to let de babies suck.  Dere was er young nigger woman name Jessie what had a young baby.  One day when Jessie come to de house to let dat baby suck, Mr. Harvey think she gone little too long.  He give her a hard lashin’.

“Ole mars had a big cook house on de plantation right back in behind he own house en twix his house en de nigger’s quarters.  Dat was where all de cookin’ done for all de niggers on de entire place.  Aunt Mary, she de head cook for de mars en all of de niggers too.  All of de field hands durin’ crop time et dey breakfast en dey dinners in de field.  I waited on de table for mars en sort er flunkyed ’round da house en de quarters en de barns, en too I was one of de young darkies what toted de buckets of grub to de field hands.