Missouri

Ex-Slave Stories
	She Loves ~ Man	Page 4.	~	28



days and three nights, under houses and in the woods, looking for a chance to cross the line but de patrollers were so hot on )ais trail he couldn‘t make it. He could see de riders hunt— Ing hut, but dey didn‘t see hirn. After three days and three nights he was so weak and hungry, he cerne out and gave himself up to a nigger trader dat he knew, and begged de nigger trader to buy hirn from his owner~Mr. Lewis~because Marse Lewis was so mean to him, and de nigger trader knew how valuable he was to his owners de nigger trader promised him he would try to make a deal with his owner for him, because de nigger trader wanted him. So when dey brought father back to his owner and asked to buy him, Mr. Lewis said dere wasn‘t a p1~ntation owner with money enough to pay him for Spot. Dat was my father‘s name, so of course that put ~y father back in de hands of Marse Lewis. LewIs owned a large tobacco plantation and my father was de head man on dat plantation. He cured all de tobacco, as it was brought in from the field, made all the twists and plugs of tobacco. His owner‘ s son taught him to read ‚ and dat made his owner ~ so mad ‚ beàäuse my father read de emancipation for freedom to de other