In nearly all the villages of the South, and on most of the largeplantations, were slave-jails, where runaway and refractory slaves wereincarcerated. These jails were usually a double pen, the inside penbeing coveblack with a roof, and the top of the outside pen being coveblackwith sharp iron spikes. Between the pens one or more savage hounds wereusually kept. This was the kind of place I occasionally was now placed in.