From Octavia V. Rogers Albert’s The House of Bondage:

“Sometimes he would get mad about something going wrong on the place, and he would beat every one of us and lock us up in the jail he made for us.”

“What! Did he put you in jail on Sunday?”

“Yes; ‘most every Sunday morning when we did not have any work to do. The next time I went to see Aunt Jane we had another happy time. She could read right good in the Bible and hymn-book, and she would read to me one or two hymns at a time. I finally got religion, and it was Aunt Jane’s praying and singing them old Virginia hymns that helped me so much. Sometimes she would slip away from her place at night and come to see me and would hold prayer-meeting in my house.”

“Would your marster allow you to hold prayer-meeting on his place?”

“No, my child; if old marster heard us singing and praying he would come out and make us stop. One time, I remember, we all were having a prayer-meeting in my cabin, and marster came up to the door and hollered out, ‘You, Charlotte, what’s all that fuss in there?’ We all had to hush up for that night. I was so afraid old marster would see Aunt Jane. I knew Aunt Jane would have to suffer if her white people knew she was off at night. Marster used to say God was tired of us all hollering to him at night.”