Twelve Years a Slave

The Hot Sun--Yet bound--The Cords sink into my Flesh--Chapin's Uneasiness--Speculation--Rachel, and her Cup of Water--Suffering increases--The Happiness of Slavery--Arrival of Ford--He cuts the Cords which bind me, and takes the Rope from my Neck--Misery--The gathering of the Slaves in Eliza's Cabin--Their Kindness--Rachel Repeats the Occurrences of the Day--Lawson entertains his Companions with an Account of his Ride--Chapin's apprehensions of Tibeats--Hired to Peter Tanner--Peter expounds the Scriptures--Description of the Stocks, 118

CHAPTER X.

Return to Tibeats--Impossibility of pleasing him--He attacks me with a Hatchet--The Struggle over the Broad Axe--The Temptation to Murder him--Escape across the Plantation--Observations from the Fence--Tibeats approaches, followed by the Hounds--They take my Track--Their loud Yells--They almost overtake me--I reach the Water--The Hounds confused--Moccasin Snakes--Alligators--Night in the "Great Pacoudrie Swamp"--The Sounds of Life--North-West Course--Emerge into the Pine Woods--Slave and his Young Master--Arrival at Ford's--Food and Rest, 131

CHAPTER XI.

The Mistress' Garden--The Crimson and Golden Fruit--Orange and Pomegranate Trees--Return to Bayou Boeuf--Master Ford's Remarks on the way--The Meeting-with Tibeats--His Account of the Chase--Ford censures his Brutality--Arrival at the Plantation--Astonishment of the Slaves on seeing me--The anticipated Flogging--Kentucky John--Mr. Eldret, the Planter--Eldret's Sam--Trip to the "Big Cane Brake"--The Tradition of "Sutton's Field"--Forest Trees--Gnats and Mosquitoes--The Arrival of Black Women in the Big Cane--Lumber Women--Sudden Appearance of Tibeats--His Provoking Treatment--Visit to Bayou Boeuf--The Slave Pass--Southern Hospitality--The Last of Eliza--Sale to Edwin Epps, 146

CHAPTER XII.

Personal Appearance of Epps--Epps, Drunk and Sober--A Glimpse of his History--Cotton Growing--The Mode of Ploughing and Preparing Ground--Of Planting, of Hoeing, of Picking, of Treating Raw Hands--The difference in Cotton Pickers--Patsey a remarkable one--Tasked according to Ability--Beauty of a Cotton Field--The Slave's Labors--Fear of Approaching the Gin-House--Weighing--"Chores"--Cabin Life--The Corn Mill--The Uses of the Gourd--Fear of Oversleeping--Fear continually--Mode of Cultivating Corn--Sweet Potatoes--Fertility of the Soil--Fattening Hogs--Preserving Bacon--Raising Cattle--Shooting-Matches--Garden Products--Flowers and Verdure, 162

CHAPTER XIII.

The Curious Axe-Helve--Symptoms of approaching Illness--Continue to decline--The Whip ineffectual--Confined to the Cabin--Visit by Dr. Wines--Partial Recovery--Failure at Cotton Picking--What may be heard on Epps' Plantation--Lashes Graduated--Epps in a Whipping Mood--Epps in a Dancing Mood--Description of the Dance--Loss of Rest no Excuse--Epps' Characteristics--Jim Burns--Removal from Huff Power to Bayou Boeuf--Description of Uncle Abram; of Wiley; of Aunt Phebe; of Bob, Henry, and Edward; of Patsey; with a Genealogical Account of each--Something of their Past History, and Peculiar Characteristics-- Jealousy and Lust--Patsey, the Victim, 176

CHAPTER XIV.

Destruction of the Cotton Crop in 1845--Demand for Laborers in St. Mary's Parish--Sent thither in a Drove--The Order of the March--The Grand Coteau--Hired to Judge Turner on Bayou Salle--Appointed Driver in his Sugar House--Sunday Services--Slave Furniture; how obtained--The Party at Yarney's, in Centreville--Good Fortune--The Captain of the Steamer--His Refusal to Secrete me--Return to Bayou Boeuf--Sight of Tibeats--Patsey's Sorrows--Tumult and Contention--Hunting the Coon and Opossum--The Cunning of the latter--The Lean Condition of the Slave--Description of the Fish Trap--The Murder of the Man from Natchez--Epps Challenged by Marshall--The Influence of Slavery--The Love of Freedom, 191