Sam Davis

I was in bondage, in Virginia, from birth until thirty years of age. I have had no instruction at all. My mistress used me only tolerably well—she used the switch. At sixteen she began to hire me out at farming. I have worked on several different farms. Sometimes my employers would be good, sometimes bad: three bad masters to one good one.

I have seen a great deal of punishments. My brother and I were once set to breaking stone for a turnpike: he stopped work to straighten up for a minute or two, when the overseer threw a stone and hit him on the ankle. My brother said, “If you have not any thing better to do than to throw stones, you had better go home.” For this he was tied up to a chestnut tree, stripped, and whipped with hickories until his back was raw. My brother’s owner sued the man he was hired to, and a white man who happened to be a witness, swore that he counted a hundred lashes. The master recovered, I believe, two hundred dollars and the doctor’s bill, but my brother received none of the money. I have been whipped by different persons I have been hired to: once with a cowhide, several times with hickories,—not over thirty-nine lashes at one time.

The man I was last hired to did not give me enough to eat, and used me hardly otherwise: I then thought I would leave for a better country. I travelled on three days and nights, suffering for want of food. When I was passing through Orangetown, in Pennsylvania, I went into a shop to get some cake. Two men followed me with muskets. They had followed me from a village I had passed through a little before. They took me, and were going to carry me before a magistrate,—they said to Chambersburg. I walked just before. By and by, watching my chance, I jumped a fence and ran. They were on horseback. I got into a piece of woods,—thence into a wheat field, where I lay all day; from 9, A. M. until dark. I could not sleep for fear. At night I travelled on, walking until day, when I came to a colored man’s house among mountains. He gave me a good breakfast, for which I thank him, and then directed me on the route. I succeeded, after a while, in finding the underground railroad. I stopped awhile at one place sick, and was taken good care of. I did not stop to work in the States, but came on to Canada. I arrived here a few months ago.

I know that liberty is far preferable for every colored man, to slavery. I know many who are very anxious to be free, but they are afraid to start. Money is almost necessary to start with. When I set out, I had seven dollars: it cost me five to get over a river on my way. They knew I must cross, and they charged me as much as they thought I could pay.

I have had work enough to support myself since I have been here. I intend to work, and save all I can.