3».Slave Stories	Page Two	33
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marry Presto~a Martin. Ui~s Liza argues but my mother is just stubborn, so Mie. Liza sa~s, ‘VII talk to the marster.‘ He says, ‘I can‘t lose property like that, and. if you can ratai $1,200 y~ can buy yourse‘f free.1 So my mother and my father saves money and it takes a long time, ~t one da~y they goes to the aarster and lays down the money, and they git. married. ~arster don‘ like it, but he‘s promised and he can‘ t back out.

	~‘So me and iiy brothers and. sisters is free. And we sees others soi‘ on the diction block. They‘re put in stalls like pens for cattle and there‘s a curtain, eś&etisnes just a sheet in front of them, so the bidders can‘t see the stock too soon, The overseer‘s atandin‘ just outside with a big black snaics whip ~ncI a pepper box pistol in nie hand.. Then they pulls the curtain up and the bidders crowds ‘round. The o~erseer tells the age of the slaves and that they can do. One bidder t&ces a pair of white gloves they have and rubs his fi*gere over a man‘s teeth, and he s~i, ‘Toit say this buck~s a~ yeare old, but there0. cups worn to his teeth. He‘s 40 years 1f he1s a day. So they knock that buck down for $1,000, ‘cause ;fley calls the men ‘bucks‘ and the women ‘wenches.‘ Then the overseer make, tem walk across th. platform, he makes ~em hop, he makes ‘em trot, he makes ‘em jump.

	u When I ‚ m oli enough, I ~in tmzght t o be a saddler and when I ~m 1~/ or 18 I enlist in the Conf,d‘rate Az‘~.

	“Did they whip the slaves? Well, they jus‘ about half killed ‚~. When it was too rough, they slipped into Canada.

	“A marriags was a event. The bride and groom had to jump over