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CROSSING THE BA Y IN A SKIFF. 483
mistress were members of the Methodist Church. According to William Thomas' testimony hia mistress as well as his master was very hard on the slaves in various ways, especially in the matter of food and clothing. It would require a great deal of hard preaching to convince him that such Christianity was other than spurious.
JOHN stated that David Henry Houston, a farmer, took it upon himself to exerciee authority over him. Said John, " If you didn't do the work right, he got contrary, and wouldn't give you anything to cat for a whole day at a time; he said a ' nigger and a mule hadn't any feeling.' " He described his stature and circumstances somewhat thus: "Houston is a very small man ; for some time his affairs bad been in a bad way ; he had been broke, some say he Lad bad luck for killing my brother. My brother was sick, but master said he wasn't sick, and he took a chunk, and beat on him, and he died a few days after." John firmly believed that his brother had been the victim of a monstrous outrage, and that lie too was liable to the same treatment
John was only nineteen years of age, spare built, chestnut color, and represented the rising mind of the slaves of the South.
HENRY was what might be termed a very smart young man, considering that he had been deprived of a knowledge of reading. He was a brother of John, and said that he also had been wrongfully enslaved by David Houston, alluded to above. He fully corroborated the statement of his brother, and declared, moreover, that his sister had not long since been sold South, and that he haer. Both master and mistress were Methodists. Isaac said that he " could not recommend his mistress, as she was given to bad practices," so much so that he could hardly endure her. He also charged the blacksmith .with being addicted to bad habits. Sometimes Isaac would be called upon to receive correction from his master, which would generally be dealt out with a "chunk of wood " over his "no feeling" head. On a late occasion, when Isaac was being chunked beyond measure, he resisted, but the persistent blacksmith did not yield until he had so far disabled Isaac that he was rendered helpless for the next two weeks. While in this state he pledged himself to freedom and Canada, and resolved to win the prize by crossing the Bay..
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