My sister Tamar, who belonged to the same master with myself, had children very fast.  Her husband had hard owners, and lived at a distance.  When a woman who has many children belongs to an owner who is under age, as ours was, it is customary to put her and the children out yearly to the person who will maintain them for the least money, the person taking them having the benefit of whatever work the woman can do.  But my sister was put to herself in the woods.  She had a bit of ground cleared, and was left to hire herself out to labor.  On the ground she raised corn and flax; and obtained a peck of corn, some herrings, or a piece of meat, for a day’s work among the neighboring owners.  In this way she brought up her children.  Her husband could help her but little.  As soon as each of the children became big enough, it was sold away from her.

After parting thus with five, she was sold along with the sixth, (about a year and a half old,) to the speculators; these are persons who buy slaves in Carolina and Virginia, to sell them in Georgia and New Orleans.  After travelling with them more than one hundred miles, she made her escape, but could not obtain her child to take it with her.  On her journey homeward she travelled by night, and hid herself in thick woods by day.  She was in great danger on the road, but in three weeks reached the woods near us:  there she had to keep herself concealed:  I, my mother, and her husband, knew where she was:  she lived in a den she made for herself.  She sometimes ventured down to my mother’s hut, where she was hid in a hollow under the floor.  Her husband lived ten miles off; he would sometimes set off after his day’s work was done, spend part of the night with her, and get back before next sunrise:  sometimes he would spend Sunday with her.  We all supplied her with such provisions as we could save.  It was necessary to be very careful in visiting her; we tied pieces of wood or bundles of rags to our feet, that no track might be made.

In the wood she had three children born; one of them died.  She had not recovered from the birth of the youngest when she was discovered and taken to the house of her old master.

She was afterwards sold to Culpepper, who used her very cruelly.  He was beating her dreadfully, and the blood was streaming from her head and back one day when I happened to go to his house.  I was greatly grieved, and asked his leave to find a person to buy her:  instead of answering me, he struck at me with an axe, and I was obliged to get away as fast as I could.  Soon after this he failed, and she was offered for sale in Norfolk; there Mr. Johnson bought her and her two children, out of friendship for me:  he treated her exceedingly well, and she served him faithfully; but it was not long before she was claimed by a person to whom Culpepper had mortgaged her before he sold her to Johnson.  This person sold her to Long, of Elizabeth City, where again she was very badly treated.  After a time, this person sold her to go to Georgia:  she was very ill at the time, and was taken away in a cart.  I hear from her sometimes, and am very anxious to purchase her freedom, if ever I should be able.  Two of her children are now in North Carolina, and are longing to obtain their freedom.  I know nothing of the others, nor am I likely ever to hear of them again.