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Lavina Bell
[Lavina Bell was enslaved in Kentucky, and was the mother of four children, at least two of whom were taken from her to be sold. Her husband was hired out by his owners to cook at a hotel, but all his wages went to his owners. She was interviewed in 1863.]
I am a slave woman; my children are slaves, and my husband is a slave. I have been hiring myself for eleven years. The white people have got two of my children over eleven years old. I have to clothe these two children now. I haven't had a chance to see the other two for four months. The last time I saw my little girl, I hadn't seen her for ten months, and I saved a piece of clothing I took off of her. I couldn't help crying when I saw it. I pay them $72 a year for myself, and clothe myself, and pay my house rent and doctor's bill, and soon as my children grow up, they take them. I washed my little girl when I saw her, and young master had whipped the child so that you couldn't lay your hand anywhere along her back where he hadn't cut the blood out of her. And instead of giving the girl a basin of water, and letting her go to a room and wash herself, they make the children go down to a pond, and wash themselves just like beasts.
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