It was not long after I had entered my new work before they put me upon the back of a horse which threw me to the ground almost as soon as I had reached his back.  It hurt me a little, but that was not the worst of it, for when I got up there was a man standing near with a switch, in hand, and he immediately began to beat me.  Although I was a very bad boy, this was the first time I had been whipped by any one except father and mother, so I cried out in a tone of voice as if I would say, this is the first and last whipping you will give me when father gets hold of you.

When I had got away from him I ran to father with all my might, but soon found my expectation blasted, as father very coolly said to me, “Go back to your work and be a good boy, for I cannot do anything for you.”  But that did not satisfy me, so on I went to mother with my complaint and she came out to the man who had whipped me; he was a groom, a white man master had hired to train the horses.  Mother and he began to talk, then he took a whip and started for her, and she ran from him, talking all the time.  I ran back and forth between mother and him until he stopped beating her.  After the fight between the groom and mother, he took me back to the stable yard and gave me a severe flogging.  And, although mother failed to help me at first, still I had faith that when he had taken me back to the stable yard, and commenced whipping me, she would come and stop him, but I looked in vain, for she did not come.

Then the idea first came to me that I, with my dear father and mother and the rest of my fellow negroes, was doomed to cruel treatment through life, and was defenceless.  But when I found that father and mother could not save me from punishment, as they themselves had to submit to the same treatment, I concluded to appeal to the sympathy of the groom, who seemed to have full control over me; but my pitiful cries never touched his sympathy, for things seemed to grow worse rather than better; so I made up my mind to stem the storm the best I could.

I have said that Col.  Singleton had fine horses, which he kept for racing, and he owned two very noted ones, named Capt.  Miner and Inspector.  Perhaps some of my readers have already heard of Capt.  Miner, for he was widely known, having won many races in Charlestown and Columbia, S.C., also in Augusta, Ga., and New York.  He was a dark bay, with short tail.  Inspector was a chestnut sorrel, and had the reputation of being a very great horse.  These two horses have won many thousand dollars for the the colonel.  I rode these two horses a great many times in their practice gallops, but never had the opportunity to ride them in a race before Col.  Singleton died, for he did not live long after I had learned so that I could ride for money.  The custom was, that when a boy had learned the trade of a rider, he would have to ride what was known as a trial, in the presence of a judge, who would approve or disapprove his qualifications to be admitted as a race rider, according to the jockey laws of South Carolina at that time.