THE
WILLIAM L. CLEMENTS
LIBRARY
- -
Purchased from the
Trust Fund of
Lathrop Colgate Harper
LITT. D.





A Slave's Adventures
Toward Freedom
Not Fiction, but the True Story
of a Struggle
By
PETER BRUNER
OXFORD, OHIO


I DEDICATE THIS BOOK
TO
MY CHILDREN AND GRANDCHILDREN


Introductory
In this book I have given the actual experi-
ences of my own life. I thought in putting it in this
form it might be of some inspiration to struggling
men and women.
In this great, free land of ours, every person, no
matter how humble or how great seems the handi-
cap, by industry and saving, can reach a position
of independence and be of service to mankind.
PETER BRUNER.

A speaking likeness of Peter Bruner as he appeared to the students of
Miami University where he served as janitor for many changing and
interesting years.



A Slave's Adventures
Toward Freedom
CHAPTER I
I was born in Clark County, Winchester, Kentucky,
in the year of 1845. I do not know exactly the month or
day. My mother had two other children besides myself.
Of those two one is living and the other is dead. My mas-
ter's name was John Bell Bruner. I used to quite fre-
quently see him and my mother fighting over her children.
About this time I was about 8 years old.
My master was a tanner in partnership with his brother
Joe. The slave traders would buy the slaves at market and
take them down the river on a boat. Then he would tel1
them to start up a song, and then I would hear them begin
to sing:
“O come and let us go where pleasure never dies,
Jesus my all to Heaven is gone,
He who I fix my hopes upon.
His track I see and I’11 pursue
The narrow road till him I view.
Oh come and let us go,
Oh come and let us go where pleasure never dies.”
Some of them seemed very much distressed because
they had to leave their children and mothers and friends
behind. Those that refused to sing they would throw that
big whip in among them and make them sing. Then they
would take them to Lexington where they owned a trading

12 A SLAVE'S ADVENTURES TOWARD FREEDOM
yard and put them in there and feed them well before the
slave trader came from New Orleans to buy them, just
the same as horse purchasers came from Richmond and
Cincinnati to purchase horses at Oxford. After they
remained in the trading yard for 3 or 4 weeks they would
ship them to New Orleans. Some few of the white people
were good to their slaves and desired them to have what-
ever they had to eat, and would never sell them to a slave
buyer. If they had more slaves than they could find employ-
ment for they would hire them out by the year to some
good man who would deal justly with them.
In some cases we had there what you call patrolmen;
they called them padarollers there. If they caught you
off of your master's premises after nine clock at night with-
out a pass they would whip you, and if you attempted to
fight them back they would take you to the whipping
post and give you 39 lashes, or sell you down the river.

CHAPTER II
When I was about 10 years old a man from Lexington
by the name of Allen offered $800 for me. My master told
him he would not sell me and he also stated that I was just
growing into money, that I would soon be worth $1,000.
One day my master sent me from the shop to the house
to procure some paste, and I forgot to bring it for him, so
he whipped me with a stirrup-strap and sent me back after
it. And that made me so mad, for revenge I went imme-
diately and poured it all down my breast, which almost
killed me; they had to send for two doctors to spare my
life. That was the only time that he ever whipped me
while I resided in Winchester.
About this time he removed from Winchester to Irvin
where his brother Joe resided, about 35 miles from Win-
chester, so they took my sister and myself with them. After
he had got us there he said he was going to break us in so
then trouble began with us. When I lived in Winchester
I did get good food to eat but when we moved to Irvin we
did not have anything to eat but corn-bread, fat meat
and water to drink, blackeye peas and greens which I
gathered, and we had to eat that out of the skillets. We
did not have any tables to eat upon like we do now. There
were also a lot of other slaves that belonged to Joe and
John Bruner in partnership. And when they did not have
enough food to satisfy their hunger they would step up and
take ours from us so we had to do without. The white
people had plenty of the best of food but we never got any
unless we stole it. Whenever they would have biscuits
they would count them so they could tell if we stole any.
They took me then as a house boy to nurse the children.
Then I had to sleep on the floor and have nothing but a
few ragged quilts to lie on and cover with also.
Just across the road from our house there lived a man

14 A SLAVE'S ADVENTURES TOWARD FREEDOM
by the name of Mr. Joe Clark who treated his slaves respect-
fully and gave them good food and good clothing to wear.
Mr. Curtis was also very good to his slaves. About this
time my master commenced to drink whiskey and of course
he grew meaner and meaner every day. Sometimes he would
come home drunk and whip all of the slaves about the place.
He would hit them with anything that he got hold of.
One Saturday evening I went down to the beef club to
get the beef. There were a couple of white lads at our
house and one of them threw a rock and struck me with it.
I put my horse up down to the tanyard and he and I went
to fighting. So I whipped the boy, knocked him into a
tan vat. It was at those times against the law for a colored
boy to fight a white boy. The boy's father came up and
told my master that he would have to whip me or he would
have to take me to the whipping post and give me 39 lashes.
If a white boy jumped on a colored boy and whipped him
it did not make any difference how poor he was you were
not allowed to touch him and besides the whipping the
boy would give you your master would give you another
one. There was a colored boy of Mr. Dewitt's who stabbed
a poor white boy on election day. The cause of this fracas
was the colored boy had gone in Swimming and the white
boy hid his clothes while he was in there. There were
two or three hundred after him with clubs and boulders
trying their very best to take his life. They ran him in a
cornfield and went home. He had a very good master
who went his bail which was $1,000. He kept putting the
trial off until the war broke out and then he went to war.
And the white boy got well again.
They took me out of the house now and put me to hard
work. They made my sister and myself carry all the
water and wash all the clothes every week. We had to
carry the water about 350 yards on our heads in pails and
you know what nice work that is. If we did not get the
clothes clean my mistress would send me over to the tan-
yard and have my master whip me. And I let you know
she examined every piece thoroughly. He had to go to
town every morning to get full of that horrid, poisonous,

A SLAVE'S ADVENTURES TOWARD FREEDOM 15
intoxicating liquor before he was prepared to whip any
person. On one wash day my mistress had him to whip
me. The first thing he did was to take a piece of sole
leather about 1 foot in length and 2 inches in width and
cut it full of holes. Then the next thing he did was to
make me undress and he had a bucket of salt water setting
beside him. This was to dip that strap into, and when
he was through whipping me my back was full of knots
all over where those holes had been. I know my reader
will sympathize with me. At nights he would have me to
beat hominy. This hominy was beat out of corn. It was
beat in a mortar a large piece of timber similar to a water
bucket. They had a pestle to beat the hominy with. By
the time I would get this beaten it would be about 10:30
o'clock and the next duty I was to perform was to go and
wake my mistress up in order for her to see if it was fine
enough. Then I would return and next time beat it into
meal. Then I would have to go and get another peck
of corn and beat it, and by the time I had accomplished
this it would be about 1 o'clock I think that was good
bedtime) and had such a nice bed to sleep upon, old rags
on the floor). When morning came my master would go
to town and get drunk. Then the first thing he would
do on his return was to call me up and whip me for no
other purpose than because I got the hominy too fine to
suit him.
One night while we were beating hominy my sister and
myself thought we would change the programme, so we
undertook to make a pound cake. The first thing we did
was to steal out some flour and sugar. I do not know
whether you call it stealing or not but it was our own labor.
Then my master's brother Joe came in on us, and asked us
what was in the skillet and we told him it was corn-bread.
And the next thing he said was “get me a plate, I will take
a piece of that.” We then told him it was not done yet
and he said “he would wait until it got done.” We did
not know what to do then, we knew it was not any corn-
bread and we knew we had told a story about it also. Oh!
we felt so cheap we could have taken a cent for ourselves.

16 A SLAVE'S ADVENTURES TOWARD FREEDOM
He then told us to take the lid off, it was through cooking
by this time and he would take a piece of it. This cake
was baked in a skillet by an old-fashioned fireplace. We
do not bake cakes in skillets in this enlightened age, neither
do we bake them by fireplaces, but we bake them in cake
pans and in ovens. He said it was a peculiar kind of cake
made out of flour and sugar and that he was not used to
eating that kind of corn-bread and he wanted to know
whereabouts we got the sugar and we informed him that
we got the flour out of the pantry and the sugar out of the
sugar desk. We anticipated a whipping the next morning
but he did not tell my mistress about it for he knew we
did not have the pleasure of eating cake very often. But
if he had informed my mistress of our cake we would have
received a whipping, and a good one it would have been.
But Joe Bruner was a good natured man, he was not
cruel like his brother. He never would whip me very
much not more than two or three times, sometimes he would
kick me every now and then, but I did not mind that for
I was used to such hardships those days. They had nine
or ten more colored slaves there, they were composed of
men, children and one woman. They were in partner-
ship and belonged to John and Joe Bruner both. Some-
times John and his brother would get terribly angry and
nearly fight on account of the way my master treated the
slaves. And he would go away from home and remain
away for five or six weeks on this account. I have known
them to have revolvers drawn on each other. If it were
not for a man by the name of Bill Bellows interfering with
them and separating them they would have ended their
lives.
My master possessed one man by the name of Tandy
Bruner whom he had purchased for $1,500. He purchased
him from a man by the name of Mr. Johnson. Tandy
was a good worker but he would not stand to be whipped.
He said he would do the best he knew how, but he would
not be whipped and stated that they could kill him first,
and they did not whip him very often, only occasionally.
He was like good old Uncle Tom. Tandy went to town

A SLAVE'S ADVENTURES TOWARD FREEDOM 17
one night. The patrolmen caught him down town and
attempted to whip him but they did not succeed, it was
just the reverse. Tandy whipped them, threw four of them
into a large mud hole and then they were in a dilapidated
condition when they came out. And Tandy returned
home and the patrolmen never molested him any more that
night.
I was down in the tanyard one day when my master
came home from town and informed Tandy that he intended
to whip him. He was busily engaged cleaning out a tan
vat. He attempted to strike him and Tandy informed him
that he would not be whipped and walked off to the house
and never said another word. And my master did not
trouble him and went to the house also.
One day I went to a place where they were raising a
mill. There was a white man employed by the name of
Jerry Cox. He took it on himself to tell Tandy that he
was not lifting enough. So he threw down his hand spike
and proceeded to whip him. Then Tandy gave him one
of the most severe thrashings that he ever had. Tandy
was a fellow that would not take any foolishness. The
building in the tanyard was a very large building, it had
three stories. Joe Bruner took him up there and locked
the doors and pretended that he was going to whip Tandy,
but he did not touch him Tandy said afterwards, and the
people never knew the difference.
Tandy had for his wife a woman by the name of Dulceny
Bruner and she and Tandy could not agree so they separated.
They had a little girl by the name of Amandy. She was
hired out to a man by the name of Mr. Price, down town.
And one day as Tandy was passing by there, his wife sent
her little girl Amandy to take him some cakes, so he took
them and ate them, and about an hour after that he took
sick about two miles from home, driving a four-horse wagon.
He had gone out after a load of wood accompanied by two
little boys. He died within three days and before he died
he stated that there was something on him like a large
bear or dog and asked his master to pray for him, and he
was nothing but a big black sinner himself. Tandy died

18 A SLAVE'S ADVENTURES TOWARD FREEDOM
a terrible death. After he died they cut him open and
found out that he had been poisoned. They intended to
hang his wife and then they thought they could not prove
it on her, and then they thought they could not afford to
lose two slaves at once so they never did anything with
her. Oh how many deeds that are committed never receive
punishment. But there is a day when all deeds shall be
punished.

CHAPTER III
My master owned another man by the name of black
John. He was always in trouble, he was always fighting
and he would steal the hat off of a man's head if you did
not watch him very closely. They always trusted him with
four horses and a wagon. He hauled leather to Lexington
and Winchester to sell. One trip would be about 30 miles
and the other about 41 miles.
Black John was a good scholar. He could read and
write and that was something more than we could do.
I do not know how he learned to read and write. He was
a skillful hand for breaking into some man's smoke house
and procuring all of their meat, and you never could catch
him; and after he had obtained the meat he would always
sell it to some white man. One time he took his departure
from home and forgot to come back, and he has not returned
to this day. Where he is no person ever knew. We
did hear from him once, when he left our town he took
away about $500 worth of property and money. He is
now in Canada and is doing well. This was about 38 years
ago. He owned a wholesale store in that place. He wrote
back to his master and told him if he would come there he
would pay him for all the damage he did while on his
plantation. They thought once that they would go after
him and bring him back home and then they thought it
might not be a safe plan so they never molested him. I
have never heard of his death, and I am not bothered much
about him, for he will not aid me any by knowing.
Now the next thing I will proceed to relate is the way
they conducted the election. They had no schools there
whatever for the poor white people, their aim was to keep
them ignorant as long as they possibly could. About two
or three weeks before the election they would give them a
little work. On our plantation there were three and four

20 A SLAVE'S ADVENTURES TOWARD FREEDOM
hundred cords of wood to cut and also about three or four
hundred cords of tan bark to be peeled. (They only paid
25 cents a cord for cutting wood and 50 cents a day for
peeling bark.)
The elections generally came on the first Monday in
August. Then my master and a few more of the leading
Democrats would go out and electioneer. Then they would
have these low-class of people to come into the building
there at the tanyard and they would play cards and drink
whiskey all night. And the next day they would take
them down and vote them. And my master and those
other men would have no more use for them until next
election day. After that I have known them to come to
our house to purchase some leather for the purpose of
making their children some shoes who were without them.
And they did not have the money at that time to pay for
it, but my master would not let them have it under any
circumstances. He had procured their votes and what
did he care for those men then. This is the way they
carried their elections there.
At that time I was a Democrat myself, but you see I
have changed now. I went in front of the column carrying
a long hickory pole with a large red handkerchief attached
to it. The colored people would sometimes give these
poor white people a piece of meat or a peck of cornmeal
when they would say that they did not have anything.
We always kept very bad dogs at our house. Sometimes
these poor people would come and steal the meat from the
smoke house (they had no way to lock it) and would get
but a little distance away with it before our dogs would
be after them, and they would climb up the trees and then
my old master would be aroused by this time. He would
make them take it back and give them a whipping beside.
So they would not gain much after all. I am afraid they
were the losers.
The reason why there were so many poor white people
there was on account of the iron furnace they had there.
They had come there from another country. You could
travel ever so far and you could see no fences and the land

A SLAVE'S ADVENTURES TOWARD FREEDOM 21
would not be cleared up; they had abundant forests there
and all they had to do was to enter into the woods and cut
down the trees and build them rude huts. And they were
rude huts, too. They had no floors in their houses, simply
the ground and did not have any chairs, but had long
benches instead. They did not know anything about
church, they never were seen going there. Instead of
going to church where they might have been benefited by
hearing the word of God, they would go hunting and fish-
ing. That was their occupation on Sunday; they were more
like heathens than anything else. There were three things
that they were well versed in and that was drink whiskey,
fight and kill people. I have seen as many as twenty and
thirty fighting at once. Sometimes they would strike
you over the head with a weight.
Most of their work was to cut hoop poles and dig iron
ore; some of them would only work when they would have
high tide on the river. They would help load up pig iron,
and some of them did not do anything, and some would cut up
barrel staves, and raft saw logs together. There were several
still houses there and that is all these poor people wanted.
They would spend the last cent they had for that ruinous,
intoxicating drug which ruins so many families.
By this time they had put me in the tanyard to work,
to a man's work, for the purpose of laying away leather,
clean out tan vats, wheel out tan bark and handle the
heavy hides in the beam-shop, taking them out of the vats
called limes. And when a pack of leather was tanned I
would have to carry it upstairs to be scoured out. About
three days in the week I had to run the engine and tend
to the mill and every evening I would have to go out in
the mountains in search of the cows, the time for me to do
this was about 4 o'clock. And when I would not be suc-
cessful in finding them they would send me again for them
way after dark, like I could see a cow in the mountains
long after dark where they would roam ever so far.
Whenever any misfortunes would befall us at the mill,
a belt would fly off or anything like that, my master would
always convict me of the charge and would whip me so

22 A SLAVE'S ADVENTURES TOWARD FREEDOM
severely, it got to be nothing but whippings all the time now.
When I would take the right toll out of the corn, the
sack would contain just as much then as it did before it
was ground. He would have me to take five toll dishes
out of three bushels of corn, where there should only have
been three, that was all the law allowed. And if I did
not take out five he would whip me for it, punish me for
doing right. I would tell him sometimes that I wished
he would kill me at once and I would be done suffering in
this world. He went to town that night and when he came
back he cowhided me until the blood streamed down my
back. He was mad because I said I wished he would kill
me, but he was full of whiskey every time he did this.
One Christmas morning he was returning from town
and so I thought I would catch his Christmas gift; it was
always customary in those days to catch peoples Christmas
gifts and they would give you something. Instead of
giving me the kind of Christmas present I desired, he took
me and threw me in the tan vat and nearly drowned me.
Every time I made an attenpt to get out he would kick
me back in again until I was almost dead. At last I came
up on the other side and jumped out before he was able to
get around there.
Sometimes he would tell us to go to church but that
was not very often. But we were not benefited any by
going, we did not hear anything but “servants obey your
master.” That is what was preached to the slaves. He
thought that was all that was necessary for us to hear.
My master's employment on Sunday was to go fishing
and he would take me with him, and he would take a large
bottle of whiskey with him for company. I have known
some of those slave holders to go to church on Sunday
and would pretend to be so good while they were there,
and no sooner than they had arrived at home they would
commence to whip some of their slaves. And some of them
would have their slaves hauling fodder all Sunday forenoon to
feed the cattle on. So one night I went down town and
did not ask him and when I came back that night he took
me off of my pallet and took me out to a barrel full of water

A SLAVE'S ADVENTURES TOWARD FREEDOM 23
and stuck my head in it with my heels sticking up. This
almost drowned me. I thought I was nearly drowned
when I came out, but as it happened I was still living.
One evening they sent me down on the other side of
town to take mules to the pasture; and on my way back they
had the patrolmen to catch me. It was about half past
eight o'clock. So these patrolmen caught me and whipped
me. Their object in doing this was to keep me from going
to town, they wanted to break me in. But they did not suc-
ceed for after this occurred I went to town every night.
At night the aristocrats would come in to see my master
and mistress for the purpose of playing euchre and remain
until one and two o'clock. One night they came there,
took a notion that they wanted some apple jack. So
they sent me down to Dr. Shell's drug store to get the
whiskey and apples. I took a notion that I wanted a drink
like the aristocrats. I asked his son Alfred to give me
a drink and he asked me how much I could drink, I
told him a goblet full, so he gave it to me and I drank it
and it made me drunk, and on the way home I lost the
jug of whiskey and my apples. And the next thing I knew
the children were on me riding and whipping me just the
same as if I had been a horse or some other dumb animal.
So the white people did not get any apple jack that night
and I got it all.
Soon after this it came the time to gather ice. We had
a very large ice house at our house. A man by the name
of Nelan went in partnership with him to help fill it.
About two or three weeks after they had succeeded in
filling the ice house, Mr. Nelan and my master could
not agree, so they fell out. They commenced fighting
and he shot my master and put two or three balls into him.
It did not kill him but I was terribly sorry that it did not.
Then they took me into the house to wait on him and you
know that was pleasant work. And when the least little
thing did not go to suit him he would call me up to the
bed and proceed to whip me with a large stick or maybe a
cowhide. He would even strike me when his pains would
hurt him. I wanted him to die but it seemed like he would

24 A SLAVE'S ADVENTURES TOWARD FREEDOM
not die. He is dead now at the time I write this but he
did not die until all of the slaves were taken away from him.
Now I am going to tell you about a little trick I played,
but I payed very dearly for it before it was finished. It
was not my fault though. I came upon a fellow by the
name of Henry Wagle down to the Estle springs. He
had shot a cat and skinned it, so he gave it to me and told
me it was a rabbit. So I met Alfred Myers and told him
if he would give me a nickel and let me ride to town I would
let him have the rabbit. So we traded and the boy took
it home and the next morning his parent cooked it for
breakfast. So they ate the cat and his daughter declared
that it had the finest liver that she had ever seen, and also
stated that it was a very good rabbit. I guess it must
have been a young cat or they surely would not have relished
it so much. They would never have known it if Henry
Wagle had not told them any better. He went down town
and heard them boasting about what good rabbit they
had. After old Milt Myers found it out and told my
master that he would have to punish me in some way. So
my master told me he would have me taken down to the
whipping post and get a whipping. So that would not do
he must whip me himself. They took me down there and
he gave me one hundred lashes and the white fellow got
away unpunished. So that ends the cat story.
The next bad deed that I did was I went down town
one day and got into a fight with a fellow by the name
of Fount Suel, and I shot him with a little single barrel
pistol loaded with beans. It did not hurt him, it just
made a little blood come. Then about 25 men commenced
fighting over that. The next morning Joe Bruner had
me taken down to the whipping post where I was to receive
39 lashes, but the remaining portion of the fellows were not
there so I escaped uninjured.
It always fell to my lot to do all of the trading and we
always run a bill lasting from one year until another. So
I thought I would get even with the white people. I
thought I would go down and get one dollar's worth of
maple sugar. It sold at 10 cents a cake and so I received

A SLAVE'S ADVENTURES TOWARD FREEDOM 25
ten cakes and charged it to the white people, and enjoyed
those cakes and don't you forget it I ate them in three
days. I ate them up in a mountain under a pine tree,
which you know was very pleasant. When Christmas
arrived they looked over the account and saw the sugar
recorded there but they were under the impression that
they had purchased the sugar themselves and there I had
enjoyed that all to myself. One day I went down on White
Oak to old Miss Patsy White, where the colored people
held meeting. A Baptist preacher was preaching. I was
sitting on a fence post directly in front of the stand, they
held their meeting in the yard. So he was preaching about
Peter and pointing his finger at me, I thought he was talking
about me and it made me very angry, and I cried out I
did not do any such a thing and called him an old liar, and
then jumped off of the post and returned back to town.
By this time my old master had regained his health and
had returned back to the tanyard meaner than ever.
About this time we had a large quantity of corn to
grind. We ground it for the furnace hands and of course
they expected me to do the work of two hands. So he
began to whip me more and more every day. He would
go down town and get full of that poisonous liquor, and
we all know when whisky is in, wisdom is out. We always
let our horses graze out on the commons, and about a half
mile from our house was the Sulphur Springs, which were
owned by old Billy Childs at that time. So they sent me
after the horses and I was driving them back. They did
not have any bridles on, so old Mrs. Childs came out on
the road on horseback going to town. The horses kicked
up so very much dust they would be behind her, then they
would run around in front of her, and kick up dust. And
Mrs. Childs was dressed in a very nice black silk dress, and
of course she hated to have it soiled but I could not stop
the horses from running, if I could have I would, for you
know how much dust a drove of horses makes. Mrs.
Childs was very angry indeed and in return she had me
to come in and take off my coat and vest and had all of
her slaves come in and look at me while she cowhided me.

26 A SLAVE'S ADVENTURES TOWARD FREEDOM
I do not know how many lashes she gave me but I do know
that she whipped me a long time. I tried to persuade the
boys to let me loose but they would not. I even offered
them my old pen knife which I had stored in my pocket,
but all in vain, they would not yield. My master talked
of making them pay for it, but he did not once put his
talks into execution.
One day it was very very dry and we had a large amount
of corn to grind for a lot of people from the mountains and
some of them had conveyed it ever so far on their backs.
And it seemed like everything had gone wrong that week,
some of the belts had flown off and my old master had
gone to town and purchased some more whiskey which he
drank immediately and which took effect as soon as he
had partaken of it. And when he returned he then com-
menced whipping me. So when he went to the house to
eat his breakfast, Mr. Sheppard and Rollins and some
more fellows told me if they were me they would run off
and go to the free state. So when night came on I took a
notion that I would run off, and out I started to a free
state. But I happened to go the wrong road, and the first
thing I knew I was in Richmond, Kentucky, in Madison
County. I arrived there about eleven o'clock in the day.
I went to the woods and wandered around there till it
was nearly night. I then started out on the Lexington
pike, the one leading from Richmond to Lexington. So
I proceeded on my way until I found myself about two
miles from Clays Ferry where I stayed all night at a widow
woman's house. I told those people that I was a free
man and informed them that my name was Dick Kieth;
I knew a fellow that was free by that name and so I thought
I would assume his name. I also told them that I was
on my way to Lexington. So a man came along with a
large drove of horses and mules. I made a contract with
him to go down to New Orleans with him and I went on
to Lexington with him and his drove of horses, and there
I gave him the slip. That night I went to Phoenix Hotel
and called for my supper, and at that place I also gave
my name as Dick Kieth and a free man, too. The waiters
the
S
i University folks.
er Bruner wa
ast, Pet
of Miam
teed of days p
st s
quipped with the faste
E.
--
“boy
fleet and much-wanted messenger

Enjoying the
Sunset Years
of Life, Mr.
and Mrs. Peter
Bruner, as They
are Today.
The Best
Gift Life
Has to Offer,
a Happy
Family.








A SLAVE'S ADVENTURES TOWARD FREEDOM 27
gave me my supper in the kitchen. While I was enjoying
my supper a white man came down and wanted to know
whereabouts I came from and wanted to know my name,
and I told him the same thing, that my name was Dick
Kieth and was free, and he then wanted me to show him
my free papers. I then told him I did not bring them with
me, that I had left them at home (for I did not have any
to bring). He then wanted to know if there was any per-
son here that knew me and I told him to go up in the office
which was full of men, and ask them if they did not know
me and while he had gone to seek information I skipped
out and left that hotel. I knew this man but he did not
recognize me. He was foreman at the Estle springs not
far from our house. (All this time my master was looking
everywhere for me, and he even searched my mother's
and grandmother's house for me in Winchester, and he had
spies out in every direction. But I did not even go towards
Winchester. I took another route.)
So I went out in the town of Lexington and walked
around until about one or two o'clock and then I became
sleepy and went and climbed in a stage and remained there
all night. Next morning I got up and went out and wan-
dered around until I came to a railroad which I had never
seen before. I saw a train approaching, and I had it in
my head that all of the trains went to the free state. In
the meantime there was a freight train standing on the
track waiting to be unloaded. It contained horses and
cattle. So I climbed up there between the two trains
where they were attached together and seated myself
there for a half hour, and kept waiting and waiting for
the engine to hitch on and pull me out, and the train had
already passed and I was getting down every now and
then looking for the train, and I might have been sitting
there yet. So at last I became tired and thought I would
get down and look for the train which had passed long ago.
I thought I was going to the free state, and the train had
gone clear out of my hearing. I then began to wander
around town again, and a man came up and told me that
I was a runaway slave and took me before the Magistrate

28 A SLAVE'S ADVENTURES TOWARD FREEDOM
and swore that I was a runaway. They then asked me
what my name was and I told them as I had told them
before and that I was free born also. Then they took me
and put me in jail. The man that had charge of the jail
was named Mr. Lulsby, and the colored fellow that con-
veyed our food to us was named Henry. About two days
after I had remained there in came two men with a leather
strap and a cat-o'-nine-tail. When this hit you once you got
9 lashes. He was going to whip me and make me tell him
who I belonged to and what my name was. But I did not
wait until they struck me one lick I cried out that I be-
longed to John Bell Bruner and that my name was Peter
Bruner. They then wrote a letter to my master and in-
formed him that they had me and I remained there about
two weeks.
While I was in jail I had for company two of John C.
Brackenridge's slaves. What they were in there for I
did not learn, but we had good times anyway. They were
about my size. They had a large lot with a large brick
wall around it and they would let us stay in there all day
and lock us up in the cells at night. And in about two
weeks Joe Bruner came after me and asked me if I wanted
to go back home and I told him I would rather he would
sell me down the river than go back home, but you see I
did not get my choice. Joe Bruner had to pay forty dollars
for me for jail fee and for the catching of me. They took
me out and started me to walking and said I could go by
Winchester and see my mother. So I stayed there two
or three days. While I remained there she presented me
a penknife.
I went from there to Frank Emerson's, my mistress'
father, about nine miles from Winchester. The knife
which my mother gave me got me into trouble while I
remained there. He had a very nice watermelon patch
so I thought I would try my new knife on them, and I
plugged about a dozen or more which were all green and
so I turned them over the plugged side down towards the
ground. I was not looking for green melons, I was looking
for ripe ones. So old man Emerson got after me with an

A SLAVE'S ADVENTURES TOWARD FREEDOM 29
old crooked cane which he had, and he ran me and ran me,
but all in vain. At last I ran in the house and he shut
the door, then he had me. He beat me and beat me with
that old cane until I did not feel very good.
Then Joe Bruner came along and took me up to Irvin
my home. We arrived there that night. I did not see my
old master that night, and the next morning I got up and
went out with the rest of the boys to cut wood, in the woods.
So the next evening while I was out to the stable feeding
the horse of Mr. Garret, who was visiting there, John Bruner
who had just arrived home from town came past the barn
and saw me in there and he came in and told me to come
to the house that he wished to settle with me. So when he
came into the stable I started to run out and he picked up
a large stone and threw at me and cut me in the head,
the scar remains there yet. I ran and he told the other
slaves to run after me and I ran through a gang of Irish
fellows, and informed them that I was going to the river
and drown myself. I did jump in and went about two
or three hundred yards and came out again. The Irish
fellows came down to the river looking in it for me, they
supposed that I had drowned myself. I came back again
over the Sweet Lick mountain, where my sister gave me a
hat and something to eat. It was about ten o'clock in
the night. Dan Ridle cut my hair and put some balsam
or something else on it. This fellow lives at Xenia, Ohio.
When this was written, he did not go by that name.
Then I wandered around and the slaves gave me some-
thing to eat whenever they had a chance.
I then went out and stayed with the poor white people
in the mountains. My master looked and looked for me
but all in vain, they did not succeed, so they gave up their
search. Sometimes I would be no more than two hundred
yards from him and sometimes I would be sitting down at
these poor white peoples house enjoying my dinner and
my master would ride along the ridge. He told all the
slaves, ours and other peoples, too, if they saw me to tell
me if I would come home he would not whip me, that he
would hire me out to a Mr. Sheppard. They told me and

30 A SLAVE'S ADVENTURES TOWARD FREEDOM
I came in on Sunday morning while he had gone to town
for his whiskey and procured my bed clothes and I went to
Mr. Sheppard. When I had got about a mile from home
I had stopped to talk to a colored fellow by the name of
Tom Myers. While I was talking to him I happened to
look back and behold there came my master after me.
Before he got to me he asked me if I had my bedclothes
with me and I told him I did have them with me and he
then told me to get upon the fence and he would take me
to Mr. Sheppard's. He came up and grabbed me and had
another fellow to hold his horse while he tied my hands
behind me and took me back home. When he had arrived
at home he took me into a room and undressed me and
bucked me, which is tying my hands together and running
my hands over my knees and then run a stick through
them and that left me entirely helpless without any use
whatever of myself. Then he cowhided and cowhided me
until the blood stood in pools on the floor. Well I guess
he whipped me for about three hours, and his wife never
told him to stop once but urged him on; the more I begged
the harder he would whip me and when he was through
whipping me I was so sore that I could hardly walk.
After this everything went along very smoothly until
one day the cows got lost and I had to go and search for
them. They had gone to Clarke County about thirty
miles from where we lived. The reason they always went
there was because we had purchased them of Mr. Emerson.
I was gone about three or four days, so when I returned
home he started to whip me for staying from home so long
and I ran around the hill. In those days if he just looked
at me I would commence to run, you know catching is
before whipping.
By this time Christmas was approaching and I cut all
of my wood for Christmas, and when Christmas arrived
he promised to give me my first pair of boots. I had never
owned a pair of boots before. This pair was made out of
white leather, it had never been blacked. I was so very
proud of them I did not know what to do, so of course I
had to go some place to show them. I thought I would

A SLAVE'S ADVENTURES TOWARD FREEDOM 31
go up to a town by the name of Procter, about twenty-five
miles up the river. So I went up there and had a jolly
time indeed. I went to quilting parties and dances and
drank whiskey (you see I took after my master in those
days). I stayed there all Christmas. The day I started
home was a cold New Years day, and when I arrived at
home my old master was lying there; he had been to town
and had got full of whiskey while he was there. They
had me pull off my boots and stand up in the chair and
tell them where I had been. He told my sister to go and
look for the cowhide that he intended to whip me. My
sister obeyed and went in search of it and succeeded in
finding it, but after she found it she did not bring it to him
but she hid it and came back and told him that she could
not find it. About that time the cook came and told them
that supper was ready and they all went out to supper.
While they were into supper I ran out and ran down
to Mr. Clark's barn and stayed there in some hay all night.
I did not have any hat, coat nor boots on and there was
snow on the ground. My master looked for me half of
the night but did not succeed in finding me. So I escaped
a whipping that night, but it would have paid me best to
have taken the whipping that night for I received a harder
one that next morning, one for running off and the other
for going to Procter, but he said I might go and I do not
see why he would want to whip me.
He then thought he would hire me out to a man up
the river (by the name of Jimmy Benton, a still meaner
man) to break me in. So that man came and hired me and
took me home with him. I was between seventeen and
eighteen years old at this time. After I was there about
a week I thought I would try him. He always tried to
make me ask him when I went away from the house but I
did not do it. I thought while he was breaking me in I
would break him in.
I had just been there one week and on Sunday night I
went down to his father's house, not very far from there,
and did not ask him. So the next morning he told me to
go out and get some switches to whip myself with, but I

32 A SLAVE'S ADVENTURES TOWARD FREEDOM
told him that was something I did not do for my own
master, and then he jumped on me and I got the best of
the old fellow, and his wife jumped out of bed with the
rifle and she ran to him with it and I got hold of it and it
went off some way or other. All of this occurred about
four o'clock in the morning, it was not day yet. The next
thing he told me to do was to go down to the barn and feed
the stock and while I was employed in doing this he and
his brother ran in and grabbed me. I tell you they downed
me this time. They tied me up by my hands to a horse
rack, and then they both procured two long black hickory
switches and one whipped me on one side and one on the
other. They must have given me one hundred and fifty
lashes or maybe more. When they let me loose I started
for home and old Jimmy Benton was riding behind me
persuading me to go back.
When I arrived home the first man I saw was old Bruner
down to the tanyard. He asked me what was the matter
and I told him hell was to pay this morning. He then
said if I would go back and remain until Christmas he
would give me ten dollars. So I returned back and re-
mained a little while longer.
I then took a notion that I would run off again. I
still wanted to be free. I only wanted to get on free soil,
so I started one morning between two and three o'clock
and traveled ten miles on the road that night and then
I hid in the bushes. The next day I went on through
Madison County near Sugar Creek. I do not know what
part I was in then. This was about the year of 1861, the
war had begun then.
Burnside was at Camp Nelson just preparing to start
out and I thought if I could only make it to that place
I would be all right. Previous to this I had overtaken some
more men and they were going along with me. Just as
we were putting our shoes on after we had been wading
the river, some five or six men came and captured them
all but me and I escaped by taking refuge under some
bushes. I do not know who these men were. After they
had been gone about a half hour I thought I would proceed

A SLAVE'S ADVENTURES TOWARD FREEDOM 33
so I went on until I had gone about a half mile, then I
climbed over a fence and laid down in some tall weeds.
When I awoke some men were cutting the weeds over me
and some of them said kill the d–n nigger. Then they
took me up to an old blacksmith's shop where they had
the remaining part of the crowd. Then they took us from
there to Nickleville which was about eighteen miles below
Lexington. There they took us before the Magistrate and
swore that we were runaway slaves. They then took us
to jail. In the room I occupied were twenty-four more
slaves all running off trying their very best to get free.
Oh, how hard some of us poor slaves labored to gain our
freedom.
A while after we were there they wrote for my master
to come after me. After a week Joe Bruner and his nephew
came and told me they wanted me to go home and I told
him I would not go home. He then went out and purchased
a cotton rope and his intentions in buying this was to tie
me behind the buggy like people do their horses. And
then I came to the conclusion that I would go with him,
I thought the best plan would be to go along with him.
On our way from Nickleville he took me to his sister's,
Elizabeth Muer, and there I remained all night. She said
she wanted to buy me for the sole purpose of whipping me;
she said if she could whip me and break me in she could
stop me from running off. She went and got a lock and
chain and locked me to a post on the porch. She would
not let me come in the house and then she was afraid I
would run off. Joe Bruner told her he did not think I would
run off but she thought it the safest plan to lock me to a
chain so she would have me.
While I remained at that house I saw a house where
she whipped her slaves. She had large staples driven in
the floor, then four large rings were in them and straps
to strap you up. And one day while I was residing there
she sent two little children between nine and ten years
old to gather beans, and they happened to remain a little
1onger than the appointed time, so she took these little
girls and cowhided them terribly right before my eyes.

34 A SLAVE'S ADVENTURES TOWARD FREEDOM
And out in the back yard two little boys were churning
and they did not agree on something and commenced fight-
ing and old Tom Muer came up and kicked them and beat
them around. All of this brutality occurred in one day.
The next morning I went by Winchester to see my
mother on my way home, and the first man I beheld was
old John Bruner. I always made a great mistake every
time I ran away. I always took the wrong direction.
Instead of going north to the free states I went farther
and farther south, just the opposite direction from which
I wanted to go. Previous to this, on his way from Lexing-
ton to Nickleville going after me, Joe Bruner met three
men running off, so he captured these and took them to
jail at Nickleville, but there was not enough room there
for them so he took them back and put them in the jail at
Lexington. And he received forty dollars for this which
was enough to pay the jailer fees and the men who had
pursued and captured me. One of the slaves belonged to
Scott, the other I do not know to whom he belonged.
When I met my old master at Winchester he simply
asked me where I had been and I informed him that I
had been walking about. He did not speak to me cross,
neither did he look at me in the same way for he knew if
he did I would be gone again, for it was my chief delight
to run off. Then he took me back to Irvin and then Jimmy
Benton came and took me back to his house again, but
he did not whip me this time, I guess he thought it the
safest plan to let me alone. He rented a large field in the
bottoms and I remained there and got along nicely farming,
and in turn he gave me a nice large watermelon patch and
a portion of ground on which I raised thirty bushels of
corn, and then he hauled it off for me and received for it
one dollar per bushel which amounted to the sum of thirty
dollars. I tell you I was proud, I had never had so much
money before in my life.
Jimmy Benton rented a large field from widow Broaders
about a mile from home, and it was my duty to break up
this field with oxen. This field contained about 100 acres.
John Cockrel rented about half of this field. He had a

A SLAVE'S ADVENTURES TOWARD FREEDOM 35
colored fellow employed by the name of Phil Stocton, who
resided in the same town that I did. So one day Phil and
I made up our minds that we would run off and go to the
free state.
The people in our town were taking their slaves to Old
Richmond, Va. So one day he and I were plowing in a
field about a mile from the house when we took a notion
all at once. The white people were walking around and
whispering all through the night and of course, we did not
know but what they were pursuing us, but we were mis-
taken. We then left Red River and then went up to Black
Creek, and after we had gone two or three miles up Black
Creek we spied a colored fellow hoeing corn and we went
to him and when we had reached him we found it was a
fellow that I was well acquainted with. He formerly was
owned by Mr. Grubs who resided upon Miller's Creek,
very near to the place from where I had run off. Phil
and myself made a bargain with this fellow that we would
remain there two or three days and help him hoe that corn
if he would furnish us our food.
Everything was just the way we wanted it. It was in
our favor for Mr. Stewart, this man's master, had gone
somewhere and would be gone for several days and this
was about a half mile from the road and was surrounded
by woods on every side except one. And there was not
anything on this side and we had an excellent view and
could see to the road and house and whenever we spied
anyone coming we could conceal ourselves in the woods.
Everything had gone in our favor until the white man
returned home and had heard of Phil and myself running
off and he was speaking of it at the house but he never
dreamed that we were under the roof of his house. So
this colored man told us that we had better take our depar-
ture and he prepared us some food to take along with us
and about midnight he awoke us up and told us in what
direction he thought the North was and so we then started
for the free state.
At daybreak next morning found us nearly to Mt.
Sterling, Ky. Next morning we went right through town and

36 A SLAVE'S ADVENTURES TOWARD FREEDOM
Phil took one side of the street and I took the other and
we went straight through town whistling like we had resided
there all our lives, although it was our first visit to the
town and they had market going on the same time. After
going through town two or three miles we came to a large
rack of rails and we had arrived at a strange part of the
town and thought we would camp there and so we laid
down here to take our rest. When night came on we resumed
our journey, we were now on the Maysville pike.
When we had nearly reached Sharpsburg we came upon
some colored fellow who belonged to Williams and we
persuaded him to procure us some food. So he succeeded
in getting some corn-bread and an old ham bone for us,
but it tasted to us as good as if it had been pound cake.
And on a Sunday morning I came upon a young colored
fellow and tried to persuade him to go with us but we did
not succeed. So I tried to gain all of the information
from him that I possibly could and learned who a great
many of the people were. So we went on two or three
miles until we came to a large cornfield.
This cornfield covered about a mile from Sharpsburg,
and about the center of this field was a locust grove and
a great many sheep occupied this grove. This was a very
pleasant place indeed to lie down, and while we were lying
there asleep a couple of men rode upon us. So they awakened
us up and wanted to know what we were doing there, and
I told them that I had driven the white folks to church
in a carriage. They then wanted to know who I belonged
to and I informed them that I belonged to Mr. Williams
and another white man that I had learned his name from
that colored fellow. They then asked me if I had seen
any men go through the cornfield and I jumped up and
told him about two hundred yards from here I had seen a
fellow running through the field and he then asked me
what kind of looking fellow he was and I told him he looked
to be a heavy set fellow with a white hat on. So they
started out in the direction that I had told them as fast
as they possibly could, and this was a great relief to me.
I had never seen any one.

A SLAVE'S ADVENTURES TOWARD FREEDOM 37
Then Phil and I jumped up and went through town and
passed a hotel just exactly like Mayor Davis,' now the Spin-
ning Wheel (in Oxford, Ohio), and there were ten or twelve
men sitting out there in front of the hotel and we went on
kind of whistling as if we had lived there all the time. We
went on and did not pay any attention to them nor they to
us. And when we had gone out of town we began to get
hungry and we turned to the left and came up into a large
apple orchard; the limbs were hanging full of ripe apples,
and I tell you they looked tempting. So we filled our pockets
and our breast full and then we were ready to leave that
orchard. We went on a little distance farther and came to
a large rack of rails. This was a splendid place to hide our-
selves.
We then started and went down on the Cynthiana pike
about a mile. We stopped at a wealthy white lady's house.
She was a widow by the name of Hawkins and she had
some slaves. She was quite a nice woman. She gave us
our supper and we told her that we belonged to Mr. Williams
who lived on the other side of Sharpsburg. After leaving
there we turned and went back the Maysville pike. We
were then coming towards the Ohio River. We went about
two miles and then stopped in an old barn and went to sleep.
We overslept ourselves; it was an hour before day when
we awakened. We jumped up and on looking around we
discovered an old gray horse. Phil and I both mounted
him and rode for a mile coming to a toll gate which we
found locked. We had to turn the horse loose for their
was no way to get through it. We saw a colored man pass-
ing and we went to the road and stopped him. We told
him about our condition, that we were going to the free
states. He promised to bring us something to eat after
dark but never returned, and I thought and always will
think that he betrayed us, although he told us how to go
to a mill and cross in the mill dam and get out through
the mill. We climbed through the window and came out
on the other side. About 9 o'clock we ventured out and
following his direction we crossed in perfect safety. I
told Phil that I would go ahead and he must follow about

38 A SLAVE'S ADVENTURES TOWARD FREEDOM
20 yards behind me. We got almost through the town of
Sheridan, when I looked back and saw two or three men.
We found afterwards that they were white for one of them
grabbed Phil. Thinking I could fool them by pretending
that I lived in the town I commenced to whistle and started
in the gate that led to a fine residence, but they caught me.
They then took us both back to a large building and
took us up in the third story to a large room that looked
very much as if it was a lodge room by the things it con-
tained. They then brought their revolvers and whiskey
and tried to persuade us to drink it. Their purpose was
t make us drunk so they would not have any trouble.
Phil drank a little but I would not touch it. I attempted
to jump out of the window as I preferred death to slavery.
They caught me and tied us both and guarded us until
the next morning. They then brought us our breakfast
and told us they were Nigger Catchers and that was the
way they made their living, they said that they could
tell when a slave had run off. After we ate our breakfast
they handcuffed us and took us to Flemingsburg.
There was a little town between Sheridan and Flemings-
burg called Pinhook. They stopped there and gave us
some water to drink. They told us we were almost to the
Ohio River and if they had not caught us we would have
reached the Ohio River by 1:20 o'clock the next morning.
They took us before the Magistrate and swore that we were
runaways. Then they asked us who our masters were
and I told them the truth for the first time since we had
started on our journey. They took us to the jail and the
room they put us in was iron and the chairs were iron and
the bed was iron. We told him that Phil belonged to Mr.
Stocton and I to John Bell Bruner in Irvin. The turnkey's
name was Mr. Bowman and he was very good to us. We
remained in jail about two weeks and on the first Monday
in August, John Cockrel came after us. The man that
Phil belonged to came on Jimmy Benton's horse. He
had to pay eighty dollars apiece for us or we would be sold.
The evening that he came he said that we ought to be
killed and he guessed he would kill us before he got through

A SLAVE'S ADVENTURES TOWARD FREEDOM 39
with us. Phil began to beg and plead and said he would
not have run off if it had not been for me persuading him
to go with me. And I told him that I would rather he
would kill me than to take me back home and that it did
not make a bit of difference with me what he did with me,
I would as lief die now as any other time.
The next morning when John Cockrel came in the
jail after us he whipped Phil and myself both with a cowhide
before he took us out of the jail. Then he took out of his
saddle bag a large new chain and two locks. He then locked
one end of the chain around Phil's neck and the other around
my neck and then we were locked together. Then he took
our shoes off and put them into his saddle bag and he said
that he intended to wear all of the skin off of our feet before
we reached home. Now judge for yourselves how it would
be walking along that distance—barefooted.
Every few hundred yards he would whip us that cruel
way until we had reached our destination. Whenever
he would have to stop over night he would just lock us up
in a bareroom with no bed to sleep on or chairs to sit on,
and he told the people where we stopped, that he did
not care whether we had anything to eat or not and all
the time we were in there Phil and myself were still locked
together. He never unlocked us.
Just before we arrived at Red River Phil was begging
him and told him he would not have run away if it had
not been for me. So Phil told him that I had a half pint
of whiskey in my pocket which a colored fellow had given
to me at Mt. Sterling. As soon as Phil told him that he
tried to make me give it to him and I took the bottle out
of my pocket and drank it up and threw the bottle away
and told him he could have the bottle if he went after it.
And when I refused to give him the whiskey he then rode
up and gave me about fifty lashes with the cowhide which
did not feel extra good. When we arrived at the river he
made us wade. It was more than waist deep, I guess it
came up to our arms. By this time I had become mad at
Phil for telling so many tales on me and while he was under

40 A SLAVE'S ADVENTURES TOWARD FREEDOM
the water I attempted to drown him and beat him, but I
did not succeed.
At last we reached Irvin and he took us on by home and
put us in jail. The only thing I hated about it was that he
took me by my girl's house in that condition. She worked
for Mr. Smith and her name was Mandy Suel. So Phil
and I were not on very good terms any more, so they had
to put us in different cells. My master came in jail that
evening and asked me what did I think ought to be done
with me and I told him I did not care what he did with
me. So he had a blacksmith to come in that evening and
take the measure around my neck, he intended to have an
iron yoke made to go around my neck, and extend out about
eighteen inches, then extend up sixteen inches, and he was
going to have a bell fastened to that so whenever I ran
away he could hear the bell ringing, and by that way I
would not be able to get very far before they would catch
1.ne.
Old Bruner did not come into the jail any more until
the next morning. That night some of my old partners
came in and gave me some whiskey, so in the morning I
was prepared to talk. The next morning my master came
in, drunk as usual. I told him if he put that yoke on me
I would jump into the river and drown myself. So then
he took me up to the blacksmith's and had him make a
hobble to fit my ankle and had a new trace chain run through
it and riveted it around my leg. Then he had a long staple
made to drive into the wall to lock me up to every night.
Then they led me all over town just similar to a chained
bear; they led me around to show me. Then Jimmy Benton
came in that afternoon to take me up home with him.
They took Phil out of jail but did not put any chains on
him like they did me. He ran off that afternoon and hid
himself in the barn and they did not get to take him home.
His master was a better man than my master. So Benton
took me home that evening and drove the staple in the
wall and chained me up. My master told him to whip
me every day if it was necessary, to whip me until he was
satisfied, it did not make any difference if he killed me.

A SLAVE'S ADVENTURES TOWARD FREEDOM 41
He thought eighty dollars was a large amount of money to
pay for one prisoner. That evening he got in his cow-
hides, straps and all of his whipping materials.
The next morning while I was sitting down to eat break-
fast I heard a knock at the door. I opened it and there
stood a troop of Union Home Guards. Some of them
were some of the boys that I used to play with. So they
took Jimmy Benton and put him in the same jail that I
was formerly in. This same day they took John Bell
Bruner and put him in prison across the river to Colonel
Lilly's camp. I think they had been sympathizing with
the rebels was the cause of this.
Jimmy Benton also had been taking sides with them.
His father had a slave by the name of Jim Benton; he was
a large fellow that weighed about one hundred and ninety
pounds. This white Jimmy Benton had whipped this
colored Jim until he could hardly lie in bed. This fellow
had told on him is the reason they whipped him. Captain
Shaunce told Jimmy Benton's wife to take me to the black-
smith shop and have those chains taken off of me as soon
as she possibly could. This must have been the Providence
of the Lord. So the blacksmith obeyed immediately and
took the claims off of me at once.
I went on back to town as quick as I possibly could. I
think after I had gone back to town I went back upon
Miller's Creek, and there I worked at anything that I
could find to do, if they would promise to pay me at night,
so if it was necessary for me to go I would not leave any-
thing behind. I got three dollars a day for cradling oats
during harvest. The first time that I ever had a cradle
in my hands in my life.
Old Henry Thomas lived right across the river from
Benton's. He owned a large number of slaves. The old
man died. He had three sons and two or three daughters.
One of his sons was a minister and he married a poor girl
and then his father deserted him and when he died only
left him the pitiful sum of one dollar. About two weeks
after the old man died his youngest son Mark undertook
to whip one of their slaves by the name of Bolan Thomas.

42 A SLAVE'S ADVENTURES TOWARD FREEDOM
He accused the colored fellow of stealing because he found
an empty sack in his cabin. It had just been two weeks
exactly on this day (Saturday) since his father died, and
he went in the house and loaded his gun and came out
and killed this colored fellow, and this broke the will, but
nothing was said about it no more than if he had been a
dumb animal. Two weeks from the time that he mur-
dered this slave, he was at the town of Irvine in a saloon,
when Jack Steel and another gentleman became engaged in
a quarrel, and this other man, I do not know his name,
shot at Steel and as it happened missed him and shot Mark
and killed him instantly, and so it was just a month's dif-
ference between the father's and son's death, and two weeks'
difference between slave, father and son, and they all met
their fate on Saturday. This Mark Thomas left a family
to mourn his loss. He and Bolan were raised together on
the same farm and were playmates all their short lives,
when Mark had to commit this cruel deed for which he
will never obtain forgiveness.
By this time I had gone back to Bruner's to live and
work at the tanyard. Jimmy Benton and John Bell Bruner
still remained in prison. After old Bruner did get out of
prison he was very good indeed, he made me the most
offers. He promised to give me half I made on the farm
and give me half I made on the team on all the wood I
would be fortunate enough to sell. And he also offered me
the horse and buggy to take my girl to Wisemantown to
meeting one Sunday, but I refused the offer. I thought
that I would rather walk. They were getting most too
good anyway, all of a sudden. So you know I knew there
was something behind it for my mistress assisted me in
putting my necktie on. That was the last Sunday that
I spent near Irvin.
I then came back to Jonas Parks and remained all
night, it was about a mile from home. The next morning
about five o'clock I got up and started for Camp Nelson,
which was forty-one miles from Irvin. And at eleven
o'clock I had gone twenty-one miles and had arrived at
Richmond. After I had left Richmond I came upon six-

A SLAVE'S ADVENTURES TOWARD FREEDOM 43
teen colored fellows who were on their way to Camp
Nelson and of course I did not get lonesome. I had plenty
of company. Just a half hour before sun down we arrived
at Camp Nelson and had come forty-one miles in that
day. The officers asked me what I wanted there and I
told them that I came there to fight the rebels and that
I wanted a gun. When I had run off before and wanted
to go in the army and fight they said that they did not
want any darkies, that this was a white man's war. After
I had been there about a week they made up a regiment
and called it the Twelfth U. S. Heavy Artillery.
I was enrolled on the twenty-fifth day of July in 1864
to serve three years or during the war, but I only remained
two years and a half.
We started from Camp Nelson and marched eighteen
miles that day and the dust was about four inches and my
readers well know what nice walking it is when the dust
is so very deep. When we got into the camp two or three
dozen men fell out with the blind staggers, and I was in
the midst of these unfortunate men.
The next morning we took the train for Louisville.
When we arrived at Louisville that night we then took
the freight train for Bowling Green and arrived there the
next morning at about ten o'clock. A portion of the
regiment took charge of Ft. Smith and a portion of Ft.
Baker and some took charge of Ft. Vinegar. After we had
been in the Camp two hours we than received orders to go
to Russelville. We went there and went into stockyards,
remained there a couple of days and the rebels were too
hot for us, so we returned back and took charge of the
Forts at Bowling Green, Ky. When we got back they
made out a detail of fifty men to report to headquarters
for duty and I was one of that number. When we got
there we were given six days’ provisions and eighty rounds
of cartridges. In the meantime we had our knapsacks,
tents and guns to carry with us.
Then we started on our journey from Bowling Green
to Nashville, Tennessee, to guard a thousand head of
cattle. Everything went well with us until we arrived at

44 A SLAVE'S ADVENTURES TOWARD FREEDOM
Franklin, Tennessee, except it rained on us every day. After
we had passed into Franklin the next night we went into
camp, everything then began to go wrong. The food
gave out and the rebels fired in on us. The rebels had
three men to our one but they did not get any of our men
or cattle. All of this occurred after night. We managed
the next day to go to the mill to get some flour and when
we came back we made it up with water and put it on a
board and held it up before the fire to bake it. We did not
have any salt nor any shortening nor anything. That
evening we found a hog that had five little pigs just about
three days old and cleaned them and made soup of them.
About the time that the soup was done the rebels fired in
on us and this made us go and forget all about our pig
soup. So after this we did not have any more trouble
until we had reached Nashville with all of our cattle safe.
Our first Lieutenant of Company C was a man by the
name of Wallace. He was a very brave man. After we
went back to Bowling Green they took the same detail
of men down to a station or a depot. There we laid on our
guns all night and were not even allowed to whisper for
the rebels were coming to burn the depot, but they did
not come. After that I was detailed out to help on Fort
Vinegar I had to help finish the fort and help make maga-
zines. Then we had to go out four or five miles from town
to cut timber to go over the magazines. Once or twice
while I was out I took the chills and fever and was not
able to go back to town, and I would be obliged to crawl
into some man's barn and lay there all night, would not
be able to get back to the camp. So one day the boys all
stacked arms on the old Captain, his name was Toleman.
On account of not giving them their provisions he would
take the food every Saturday and sell it and put the money
in his pocket. So one day he sent a detail of one over
to Fort Vinegar after me. He said I was the cause of the
boys stacking arms, and took me before the Major, and
when I arrived there the Major asked me what I knew
about it and I informed him that I did not know anything
about it for I had not been in camp for two weeks. Then

A SLAVE'S ADVENTURES TOWARD FREEDOM 45
the Major said that he would give me half an hour to makeup
my mind to tell the straight thing about it, and if I did not
he would have me court martialed. I told him I did not
have any education, that I did not know anything about
stacking arms. So he sent me to the guard house, then
he sent for me and I told him that I did not know any more
than I did the first time and that they could do what they
wanted to with me. So he sent me back to the Fort to
where I was working and I resumed my work. After that
I took sick and had to be taken to the hospital and they
looked for me to die every minute. After I got well they
made me nurse in the hospital. So many men died, two
and three every night; I could not stand that so I went
back to camp.
We camped out in little dog tents all winter. The
tents were just large enough for two men to stay in, they
were about four feet high. Often when we awakened in
the morning we would be covered with snow. It blew into
the tents and our blankets would be frozen to the ground
so we could hardly get up. We carried our wood about a
quarter of a mile.
One day while about eighteen miles from home recruit-
ing we came to two or three large plantations. There
were a great many colored people on them and as soon
as they saw us they ran. We started after them and suc-
ceeded in capturing about 15 of the men. We started with
our men and camped out at the foot of a hill and commenced
to get supper when we were fired on by the rebels. This
scared the recruits so bad we had gotten that they ran again.
After this skirmish with the rebels, we coming out vic-
torious, we caught our recruits and took them to camp.
They cried, some of them, like babies and we had to let
them go. “They had no time for war.”
Their masters when they found out where they were,
came after them. Instead of giving them up we would
keep them as prisoners and make them carry water. We
have often had as high as twenty masters' prisoners, who
came after their slaves (who came to us for protection).
At one time we sent away five hundred men, women and

46 A SLAVE'S ADVENTURES TOWARD FREEDOM
children to Camp Nelson. Captain Palmer took us out
one night. We marched about sixteen miles and about
four o'clock the next morning we captured about 40 rebels
without firing a gun. They all rode gray horses and wore
old gray suits and without a doubt were the dirtiest men
I ever saw on duty. Our Captain resigned his office and
Lieutenant Wallace took charge of the Company. Our
Company took the train for Owensboro, Kentucky. When
we arrived there the rebel citizens said that we should not
remain there. Then a man by the name of John M. Hurd
came and took charge of our Company at Owensboro,
Kentucky. Once in a while we would go out and get a
chicken and divide with our Captain but he did not care
where we got them. Lieutenant Wallace would not allow
the boys to take anything. He put one of the boys in the
guard house for stealing a watermelon. So one day we
thought we would go out and get some apples. We took
a sack and got it full of apples. When I got back they took
my apples and a revolver that cost twenty-five dollars
and put me into the guard house, and I remained there,
and then I got out and we went from Owensboro to Colum-
bus, Kentucky. There were eight hundred men on the
boat and we expected it to sink every minute. While we
were at Columbus we did not do anything but drill and
have a good time eating various kinds of fish. Then we
moved from Columbus to Paducah, Kentucky. After we
went up there they all took sick with the Measles in the
Barracks, they had caught cold. While I was standing on
guard facing the Ohio river on that cold New Year in 1865
my feet froze and they had to carry me off duty. My
feet froze so badly that my toe nails came off. So when
my feet got well we then took sick with the Smallpox and
there were eleven men taken out of our company with this
disease. One day I went out and bought some corn-bread
from an old woman and she had the Smallpox. I did not
know it and I took the Varioloid.
After I got well one night some fellows and I started up
stairs to a dance and a colored fellow shot at me three times
and missed me every time, but who the fellow was I did

A SLAVE'S ADVENTURES TOWARD FREEDOM 47
not know. I had never seen him before. So I thought it
was about time I was shooting a little and I took my
revolver out and shot at him and missed him and he ran.
Then we went to Hopkinsville in Elton County and there
we run some very narrow risks. We went down here to
gather up the Government horses wherever we could find
them. Sometimes the people that had them would not
want to give them up, and when we had obtained these
horses we would have to furnish something for them to eat.
One day I was sent out with a detail of three men to
gather up the horses and everywhere that we found a horse
with U. S. on it we would take it. So one Sunday we went
out to forage some food for the horses. We went to two
brothers houses, by the name of Chesnut, to get some hay
and corn. One was a Union man and the other was a rebel.
The Union man sent me to his brother and said that he
had a large quantity, and he said that he did not have any
and that his Union brother had some. So he gave us some
cold ham and light bread and about a quart of whiskey
and when we had disposed of these I told the boys to remain
there. Then I went down about two hundred yards from
the house and there I found three pens of corn and a large
crib full and I rode over the field and there I found a large
stack of oats. Then I made a colored fellow hitch up a
wagon and yoke of oxen and haul a load of corn. Then
I jumped upon the stack of oats and was throwing down
oats when old Chesnut came out quarreling and said that
he was going to report us to Sherman. I told him that he
did not have anything to do with it. He said he did not
have any so I just helped myself.
After that we were informed that at that same time
there was a colored woman in bed that he had nearly beat
to death. If we had known it we would have taken him
too but we did not know it. So then we went back to
Louisville, Kentucky, and was mustered out. Then I came
up to Lexington and five of us hired a rockaway and came
to Winchester and arrived there at one o'clock. I was at my
mother's home then and we ate supper and my mother did
not recognize me until after supper and then I made myself

48 A SLAVE'S ADVENTURES TOWARD FREEDOM
known. She would not believe it was her son. We had
a very nice time after I made myself known. She heard
that I was dead.
Then I hired a buggy and sent James Daniel up to Irvin
to get my sister; she was still working for the white people
and old Bruner would not let her come. She went out
and made a fire and burnt up all of her bed clothing and
put her foot in the road and walked and I never saw her
until she came to Ohio. My old master sent word that he
wanted to see me but I did not want to see him and I have
never seen him since.
After the war I came to Ohio and have remained here
ever since. My youngest sister, then living in Winchester,
now dead; the other one came to Ohio several years back and
died. My mother had not seen me for eighteen years. After
I was mustered out of the army in 1866 I came to Oxford,
Ohio, and went to live with my aunt and uncle, a family
by the name of Brassfields. That winter I donated my
money to them that I had made and went to school to
Mr. Grennan. While I went to school I commenced get-
ting a declamation and I was all winter getting it. I studied
reading, writing, geography and spelling, and have not
got it yet.
In the month of March I went out to work at David
McDill's. I remained there until Fall and then my time
had expired, so I came in and paid my board and started
to school another winter. And then I began to study my
piece again, and I never got my piece this winter. But
once or twice a week I could spell some one down and get
up head of the class. So I found out that that would not
do and I was not learning anything so I thought I would
quit going to school and get married.
I went to see a girl by the name of Fannie Procton,
and finally we became engaged to be married. I went out
in the country and cut wood and furnished a house and
then we got married in March, 1868, and went out to live
in the house which I had furnished. I went to work for a
man by the name of Thomas Buck. It was way back in
the woods. The farm is situated about 1% miles east

A SLAVE'S ADVENTURES TOWARD FREEDOM 49
of College Corner. After I had furnished my house and
got my wife I just had 15 cents left to start on. I went in
debt $42. The man I was working for gave me $26 a month.
Old man Jeff Brown loaned me a cow and gave me a pig
and Mr. Buck gave me a pig, and some of the neighbors
gave me a hen and some a rooster and some a quantity of
dried apples and various other things I will not mention,
and then we were ready to make our fortune. We raised
a great many chickens but the minks and rats caught a
great many of them and then we did not have so many.
Every evening just before sun down my wife would
become frightened and come up to Mr. Buck's. She said
the house was haunted, but it was nothing but rats.
Everything went on smoothly until harvest and I had been
cutting wheat. I started away and I noticed a storm was
coming up and so I returned to the house. I had no more
than got to the house than twenty-five or thirty trees blew
down in the woods. We were just through eating dinner
and I undertook to shut the door and the wind blew the
door down, and the window frames out, blew the roof off
of the house and some logs off of the west side of the house,
and blew the table over and broke some of the dishes.
My wife and I were so scared we hardly knew where to go
so we ran and jumped in the bed.
After the storm had ceased I went up and told Mr.
Buck that he would have to move me out of there that
I could not live in that old house and he said he would
repair it which he did and we remained there until my time
was out. When my time had expired I moved away.
I had fifteen dollars ahead. When we moved from there
we went and rented a couple of rooms from old Mr. East.
Then I hired out to Tommy Roberts by the month. I
hired to him for five months but only worked four, and
during those four months the most I did was to cut wood,
make rails and reset fences. I got $22 a month. The
man lived seven miles from Oxford in Indiana. After I
quit working out there I came in town and purchased
a lot from widow Munns and gave $111.00 for it, and paid
one-third down, and when I would go to pay the principal

50 A SLAVE'S ADVENTURES TOWARD FREEDOM
she would give me the interest back to buy dresses for
my children. Tommy Roberts gave me an old house that
Cale Nutt had given him. But the house would cost
more than it was worth to move it, so I did not move that
house.
At this time Mr. Roberts fooled me a little; he promised
to loan me $25 and when I went to borrow it he went back
on me. He had just invested all of his money in cattle,
and then he said if I would find a man that would loan me
the money he would go my security, but he would not even
do that. So I was in debt about three hundred dollars.
Then I hired to Jim Smith to work on the farm, and Palmer
Smith, the man to whom the farm belonged, sold the farm
to Mr. Ferris and that threw me out of employment.
About this time the Western Female Seminary burnt
down, a college for girls a little distance from Oxford. So
they hired me to help clean out the debris and help rebuild
and do a great many other things. They gave me $1.50
per day and by this way I began to get out of debt. When
the building was finished they hired me as night watchman
for about three or four months and gave me $1.50 a night
and I would work half of the day also. Mr. Lyons was
Superintendent at this time. After school was out they
hired me by the month and gave me $26 per month to do
the chores, milk the cows and do various other things.
The next year I took charge of the boilers and heating
apparatus. This was the year that General Grant ran
for President against Horace Greely. So the girls thought
they must have a jollification over the election. There
was a number of the girls and two of them had to make
a speech, one on the Democrat side and one on the Repub-
lican side and I had to draw them in a cart, the two speakers.
And last I had to make a speech, one that will never be
forgotton. The girls were so well pleased with my speech
that they made up twenty-one dollars and bought me a
velvet suit of clothes. My speech was put in the Harpers
Weekly and some other papers at that time. Perhaps
some of my dear readers have seen it.
I sold my house in town to John Givens. I had it pretty
Amidst
Sunshine
and Flowers,
with Pipe
and Happy
Thoughts.
With His
Two “Shadows,”
One of His Own
Race, the Other
the Small Son
of a Faculty
Member.







PETER BRUNER
While serving as janitor at Miami University.

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A Larger
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the Family
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Prospered.
A Duet of
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Grandfather
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Grandson.







A SLAVE'S ADVENTURES TOWARD FREEDOM 51
hard now as I was doing farming and small wages were
paid. I decided to sell my house and buy in the country.
I bought a house from Mr. East (a colored man) about a
mile from town which I still own, and is very dear to me.
We lived in district No. 5. The teacher, a man by the
name of Nort Greer, told me to send my two children who
were then old enough to go to school. So I did as he
directed me but the directors told the teacher not to teach
them and so they were sent back home, because they were
colored. But they later were compelled to teach them.
I went about $500 more in debt. I went up to Canada
Brooks' and farmed for him about two years. Here I got
a third of all I raised. The crops were poor and I had a
very poor living.
Then I quit farming at Brooks' and went to work by
the month for a man by the name of George Kramer, for
$16 a month. I worked for him for two years; I was not
getting out of debt very fast so I quit working at that
place and went back to the Western Female Seminary in
1881 and hired under Wilber Peabody, who was then Super-
intendent. He gave me twenty-five dollars a month,
house and my board; at this time I had two hundred dollars
to raise and did not know how I was going to raise it. At
last I heard of a man by the name of Charley Cook in
Hamilton, Ohio, about twelve miles from Oxford, who
had money to loan. I went to see this man and he said
he would loan me the money providing that I would buy
a lot from him and let him take a mortgage on both of the
places. But I did not care to do that way. I thought
that would not be getting out of debt, only getting farther
in, so I refrained from borrowing money from this man.
At last I came across Mr. John Fye and he said he would
loan me two hundred dollars and take a mortgage on my
property for two years at 6% interest, which he did. But
I was able to refund the money before the two years had
expired by working at the Western Seminary. I worked
at this place as engineer for three years. I resigned this
position in 1883 and moved out on my property which is

52 A SLAVE'S ADVENTURES TOWARD FREEDOM
located about one mile from Oxford, Ohio, on the College
Corner pike.
After this I purchased a stone quarry from my mother-
in-law and I sold a lot of stone from it. I sold it finally
and got a job as engineer at the Oxford College. Dr.
Walker was president. It was while here I celebrated my
25th wedding anniversary in 1893. The teachers, faculty
and seniors all agreed to make this a day never to be for-
gotten. They were invited to my home in the afternoon
and they gave me many beautiful pieces of silver. At
night we had a reception and invited our friends and we
received many more beautiful presents.
I got a janitor job next under Dr. Thompson at Miami
University, and while here made many substantial friends.
I worked here 13 years under Presidents Tappen and
Benton. I had the pleasure of waiting on President Taft
while employed at Miami
In 1886 our home was made sad when our little baby
thirteen months old was taken.
Two of my daughters having married, and with my
work in town I decided to bring the rest of my family,
two more girls and my wife, to town. So I bought the
house where I now live. I have been a member of Bethel
A. M. E. church for over fifty years, having joined the
church under Rev. Stonewall Jackson.
In 1918 my wife and I had the pleasure of celebrating
our Golden Anniversary. We again had a reception and
had many of our friends to help us celebrate the occasion.
Again we were kindly remembered.
In 1900 God saw fit to take my second daughter, Carrie,
the one who wrote this book when she was a girl. Many
many nights she spent over it. The book was lost awhile
and it was not until my house was burned in August, 1913,
that the book was again discovered. We feel God has
wonderfully blessed us.
Though my life has been one of many hardships, I feel
there awaits for me a crown of righteousness, and I shall
have rest forever more.

A SLAVE'S ADVENTURES TOWARD FREEDOM 53
PETER BRUNER
By EDNA BRADLEY
(Granddaughter)
Up from Kentucky in days that were dark,
Came Peter Bruner on the wings of a stork.
Tho' born as a slave in a little log shack,
He was keen as a squirrel and sharp as a tack.
No sports did he play, like the boys of today,
But worked and toiled with a lash for his pay,
By the hand of a master,
Who was drunk night and day.
But he waxed and grew strong like a tree,
Till Abraham Lincoln, the president to be.
Sent out the word, that all men could fight
And Peter hurried forth away in the night.
Then in the year “65” all men were set free,
As God in heaven intended it should be.
For the Bible tells us and so does “Paul.”
That God’s the Father of us all.
After Peter was set free, to Oxford he came,
To find a wife or probably fame.
But 'twas in Fanny Proctor's heart
Dan Cupid thrust his loving dart.
In the year “68” this couple was tied
In wedlock, so happy and gay.
And lo! in a year a baby appeared,
'Twas Alice, the babe full of play.
Then Carrie the babe with a winsome smile,
Came to brighten this home awhile.
And Stella arrived in a few years more,
Her voice full of gay, childish lore.

54
A SLAVE'S ADVENTURES TOWARD FREEDOM
Then the home was saddened by Goldie Fay,
When God's angel took her away.
But then came the last of the baby girls,
Frances Mildred with a head full of curls.
This happy pair have lived to share
Many joys and sorrows and care.
But God has been good, and protected this home
With fifty-seven wedded years to roam.
Thus after all is said and done,
After many joys and lots of fun,
The greatest thing in this “here” poem,
Is Peter Bruner's happy home.






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