Page:Fifty Years in Chains, or the Life of an American Slave.djvu/95

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had been stationed in the old cotton-gin house about twenty days, had recovered from the fatigues of our journey, and were greatly improved-in our strength and appearance, when our master returned one evening, after an absence of two days, and told us that we must go to Columbia the next day, and must, for this purpose, have our breakfast ready by sunrise. On the following morning he called us at daylight, and we made all despatch in preparing our morning repast, the last that we were to take in our present residence.

As our equipments consisted of a few clothes we had on our persons and a solitary blanket to each individual, our baggage was easily adjusted, and we were on the road before the sun was up half an hour; and in less than an hour we were in Columbia, drawn up in a long line in the street opposite the court-house.

The town, which was small and mean-looking, was full of people, and I believe that more than a thousand gentlemen came to look at us within the course