Dey come,
two tree thousand ob dem. Dey form long skirmishing line, five or
six mile long, and dey go ober mountain. Ebery nigger dey find who
not surrender when dey call to him dey shoot. When I heard ob deir
coming I had long talk wid wife. We agree that it better to leave
de mountains altogether and go down and live in the bushes close
to the old plantation. Nobody look for us dere. So we make our way
down and lib there quiet. We get the yams out ob de plantations and
lib very comfortable. When we tink all ober in the mountain we go
back.
"Well, sar, when we tink it all safe, and we get widin a mile ob de
huts whar we had libed, all at once we came upon a lot of soldiers
in camp. Dey see us and make shout. I call to my wife to run, when
dey fire. A bullet hit de baby, which she hab at her back, and pass
through both deir bodies. I did not run any more, but jus' stood
looking at my wife and chile as if my senses had gone. Dere I stood
till the soldiers came up. Dey put a cord round my arms and led me
away. After a time I was taken down the country. Dere I was claimed,
and when it was known I had killed a white oberseer I was tried.
But de new oberseer did not want me to be hung, for I was a strong
slave and worth money, so he told a story about how it happen, and
after dey had flogged me very hard dey sent me back to plantation.
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