Miss Susan first put me to work sweeping and dusting her parlor. The room was big and the carpet was very soft. I swept as hard as I could and then dusted the furniture. When Miss Susan came to check my work, the dust had settled back down on the furniture. She call me stupid, and said that I hadn't done anything and to do it again. I was scared and did it all over again the same way. And of course the dust just settled back down on the furniture again. This time Miss Susan started hollering at me and beating me. Her sister, Emily, heard her screaming at me and came downstairs and asked her, "Why are you whipping her?" She said to her, "How could the child do what she had not been taught to do?" I learned how to sweep and dust in no time after Miss Emily took me aside and showed me how.
Learning how to take care of Miss Susan's baby was another story. I was so little that I had to sit on the floor and have the baby put on my lap. I was told that the baby was not to be allowed to cry. So I would sit and rock back and forth so that the baby would not cry. At night I had to sit by the crib and rock it until the baby went to sleep. Then I could finally lay by the crib and go to sleep myself. If the baby woke up and started to cry, Miss Susan would come and whip me. I got whipped so often that I have scars on the back of my neck that can still be seen. Eventually, I learned to sleep without really going to sleep, to listen for the slightest sound and to sense the slightest movement of the baby. That way I could rock the crib with the slightest warning.