CHAPTER I.

BIRTH AND EARLY CHILDHOOD.

Author’s Reasons for Writing Autobiography--Ancestry--Mother--Author’s Early Recollections and Impressions of Her--Father--Who He Was--When and Where Author Was Born--A Description of the Cabin Where Born--Dress of the Author in Early Childhood--The “Tow Shirt"--Early Services of Author at Holding Horses and Going to the Mill--Name of Author’s Owner--His Treatment of His Slaves--Author First Hears of the War from the Slaves in the “Quarters"--He Assembles with His Mother at the “Big House” and Hears Freedom to the Slaves Announced--Removal of Author’s Family to West Virginia--Incidents of the Journey--Of Whom the Family Consisted at That Time.