John C-N

I live at the concession line and farm about four miles from Chatham. I was many years a slave, and have been up and down the Mississippi a great deal. In the morning the great bells ring on the plantations. Before you can see persons on the farms, you hear the whips crack and the slaves cry out. I have heard them every morning, when passing up or down the river,—”Oh Lord! master!—Oh Lord! master!” It seems to me always as I heard them in the dark, as if hell was there, and I heard the cries of them who were just going into it.