After the war his master would pay him no wages, but endeavoured to keep him at work as before. He therefore ran away, and hired out upon a plantation about fifteen miles distant. By and by his master heard where he was, and sent some men to bring him back by force. He was given a flogging and set to work again, but soon ran away a second time. He made a sure thing of getting out of his master's reach on this trial, and went to work for fifty cents a day in Talladega. When he had saved quite a sum, he loaned it to a white man, who promised him a large rate of interest. But he never saw either principal or interest afterward.
In 1868, he determined to go to school. He hired a room, worked mornings and nights, and paid $2 a month for having his cooking and washing done. The first year he learned his letters and went through the Second Reader. By teaching during the summer vacation, and working for his board out of study hours, he kept on with his studies until he left them to join the Singers in 1872. After the first campaign in Great Britain, he remained in London to pursue musical studies.
Benjamin M. Holmes is a native of Charlestown, South Carolina. He was born of slave parents, on the 25th of September, either in 1846 or 1848, but which year he does not certainly know.
When a little fellow, scarcely old enough to look over his employer's bench, he was apprenticed to learn the tailor's trade. His father had learned to read a little, and secretly taught him his letters. He studied the business signs and the names on the
