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added weight to his reputation as a "nigger-breaker." I was aware of all the facts, having
been made acquainted with them by a young man who had lived there. I nevertheless
made the change gladly; for I was sure of getting enough to eat, which is not the smallest
consideration to a hungry man.
Chapter 10
I had left Master Thomas's house, and went to live with Mr. Covey, on the 1st of January,
1833. I was now, for the first time in my life, a field hand. In my new employment, I
found myself even more awkward than a country boy appeared to be in a large city. I had
been at my new home but one week before Mr. Covey gave me a very severe whipping,
cutting my back, causing the blood to run, and raising ridges on my flesh as large as my
little finger. The details of this affair are as follows: Mr. Covey sent me, very early in the
morning of one of our coldest days in the month of January, to the woods, to get a load of
wood. He gave me a team of unbroken oxen. He told me which was the in-hand ox, and
which the off-hand one. He then tied the end of a large rope around the horns of the in-
hand ox, and gave me the other end of it, and told me, if the oxen started to run, that I
must hold on upon the rope. I had never driven oxen before, and of course I was very
awkward. I, however, succeeded in getting to the edge of the woods with little difficulty;
but I had got a very few rods into the woods, when the oxen took fright, and started full
tilt, carrying the cart against trees, and over stumps, in the most frightful manner. I
expected every moment that my brains would be dashed out against the trees. After
running thus for a considerable distance, they finally upset the cart, dashing it with great
force against a tree, and threw themselves into a dense thicket. How I escaped death, I do
not know. There I was, entirely alone, in a thick wood, in a place new to me. My cart was
upset and shattered, my oxen were entangled among the young trees, and there was none
to help me. After a long spell of effort, I succeeded in getting my cart righted, my oxen
disentangled, and again yoked to the cart. I now proceeded with my team to the place
where I had, the day before, been chopping wood, and loaded my cart pretty heavily,
thinking in this way to tame my oxen. I then proceeded on my way home. I had now
consumed one half of the day. I got out of the woods safely, and now felt out of danger. I
stopped my oxen to open the woods gate; and just as I did so, before I could get hold of
my ox-rope, the oxen again started, rushed through the gate, catching it between the
wheel and the body of the cart, tearing it to pieces, and coming within a few inches of
crushing me against the gate-post. Thus twice, in one short day, I escaped death by the
merest chance. On my return, I told Mr. Covey what had happened, and how it happened.
He ordered me to return to the woods again immediately. I did so, and he followed on
after me. Just as I got into the woods, he came up and told me to stop my cart, and that he
would teach me how to trifle away my time, and break gates. He then went to a large
gum-tree, and with his axe cut three large switches, and, after trimming them up neatly
with his pocketknife, he ordered me to take off my clothes. I made him no answer, but
stood with my clothes on. He repeated his order. I still made him no answer, nor did I
move to strip myself. Upon this he rushed at me with the fierceness of a tiger, tore off my
clothes, and lashed me till he had worn out his switches, cutting me so savagely as to
leave the marks visible for a long time after. This whipping was the first of a number just
like it, and for similar offences.
I lived with Mr. Covey one year. During the first six months, of that year, scarce a week
passed without his whipping me. I was seldom free from a sore back. My awkwardness
was almost always his excuse for whipping me. We were worked fully up to the point of
endurance. Long before day we were up, our horses fed, and by the first approach of day
we were off to the field with our hoes and ploughing teams. Mr. Covey gave us enough to
eat, but scarce time to eat it. We were often less than five minutes taking our meals. We
were often in the field from the first approach of day till its last lingering ray had left us;
and at saving-fodder time, midnight often caught us in the field binding blades.
Covey would be out with us. The way he used to stand it, was this. He would spend the
most of his afternoons in bed. He would then come out fresh in the evening, ready to urge
us on with his words, example, and frequently with the whip. Mr. Covey was one of the
few slaveholders who could and did work with his hands. He was a hard-working man.
He knew by himself just what a man or a boy could do. There was no deceiving him. His
work went on in his absence almost as well as in his presence; and he had the faculty of
making us feel that he was ever present with us. This he did by surprising us. He seldom
approached the spot where we were at work openly, if he could do it secretly. He always
aimed at taking us by surprise. Such was his cunning, that we used to call him, among
ourselves, "the snake." When we were at work in the cornfield, he would sometimes
crawl on his hands and knees to avoid detection, and all at once he would rise nearly in
our midst, and scream out, "Ha, ha! Come, come! Dash on, dash on!" This being his
mode of attack, it was never safe to stop a single minute. His comings were like a thief in
the night. He appeared to us as being ever at hand. He was under every tree, behind every
stump, in every bush, and at every window, on the plantation. He would sometimes
mount his horse, as if bound to St. Michael's, a distance of seven miles, and in half an
hour afterwards you would see him coiled up in the corner of the wood-fence, watching
every motion of the slaves. He would, for this purpose, leave his horse tied up in the
woods. Again, he would sometimes walk up to us, and give us orders as though he was
upon the point of starting on a long journey, turn his back upon us, and make as though
he was going to the house to get ready; and, before he would get half way thither, he
would turn short and crawl into a fence-corner, or behind some tree, and there watch us
till the going down of the sun.
Mr. Covey's FORTE consisted in his power to deceive. His life was devoted to planning
and perpetrating the grossest deceptions. Every thing he possessed in the shape of
learning or religion, he made conform to his disposition to deceive. He seemed to think
himself equal to deceiving the Almighty. He would make a short prayer in the morning,
and a long prayer at night; and, strange as it may seem, few men would at times appear
more devotional than he. The exercises of his family devotions were always commenced
with singing; and, as he was a very poor singer himself, the duty of raising the hymn
generally came upon me. He would read his hymn, and nod at me to commence. I would
at times do so; at others, I would not. My non-compliance would almost always produce
much confusion. To show himself independent of me, he would start and stagger through
with his hymn in the most discordant manner. In this state of mind, he prayed with more
than ordinary spirit. Poor man! such was his disposition, and success at deceiving, I do
verily believe that he sometimes deceived himself into the solemn belief, that he was a
sincere worshipper of the most high God; and this, too, at a time when he may be said to
have been guilty of compelling his woman slave to commit the sin of adultery. The facts
in the case are these: Mr. Covey was a poor man; he was just commencing in life; he was
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