Stepney Underwood

Stepney Underwood was ten when the war began. When interviewed in Alabama he was elderly and shook with a palsy so severe that his speech came in jerks and was hard to follow. His mother belonged to the Johnston family and his father to the Underwoods, on neighboring plantations in Lowndes County. The Underwoods treated him almost like a pet, and at parties the guests always asked to see Stepney dance.

One day after finishing his chores, he slipped across the line to see his mother, and two patrollers caught him in the woods and demanded to know who he belonged to. He ran barefoot over the stones "like a scared rabbit" and got away, but knowing a whipping waited at home, he spent the night alone in the forest under a sycamore, listening to panthers scream and wildcats howl, wishing he were with his mother. He turned his overall pockets inside out to silence a screech owl, since he believed its cry meant death. The next morning the enslaver came looking with the overseer, whip in hand. Instead of a beating, the enslaver scolded him for running off when there were visitors coming who needed him to dance, then smiled and said he supposed he'd have to go over and buy the boy's mother.