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Dretty clos e eye on us . We al 1 hated what they calle d the ‚ nine ninety-nine‘, usually a f1og~in~ untilfell over unconscious or begged for mercy. We stuck pretty close to the cabins after dark, for if we were caught roainin~ about we would be u~nmercifu11y whipped. If a slave was caught beyond the limits of the plantation where he was employed, without the company of a white person or without written permit of his master, any person who apprehended him was permitted to give him 20 lashes across the bare back.

	“If a slave went on another plantation without a written permit from his master, on lawful business, the ovrner of the plantation v~ould usually give the offender 10 lashes, We were never allowed to congregate after work, never went to church, and could riot read or write for we were kept in ii~orance. We were very unhappy.

	“Sometimes Negro slave runaways who were ap~reIiended by the patroliers, who kept a constant watch for escaped slaves, besides being flogged, would be branded with a hot iron on the cheek with th~ letter ‘R‘.‘! Simms claimed he knew two slaves so branded.

	~	Siinms asserted that even as late as 1856 the Constitution of Maryland enacted that a Negro convicted of murder should have his right hand cut off, should be hanged in the usual manner, the head severed from the body, divided into four quarters and set up in the most public places of the county where the act was committed. He said that t~e slaves pretty well knew about this barbarous Maryland law, and that he even heard of dismemberments for atrocious crimes of Negroes in Maryland. .

	“We lived in rudely constructed log houses, one story in heighth, with huge stone clthnneys, and slept on beds of straw. Slaves were pretty tired after their long day‘s work In the field,~ Sometimes we would, unbeknown to ôur master, assemble in a cabin and sing songs and spirituals. Our favorite spiritual s were ~ 2ringiii‘indesheaires, De Stars am shinint for us all,

~! ~ ~ and ~ hasno place ~ The singii~g was