d my children. My mother's name was Malinda Williams. My
father had seven children, four girls and five boys. Four of the boys
were buried on the Cummins (?) place. It used to be the old place of old
Man Flournoy's. My oldest brother was named Isaac.

"I had sixteen children; four of them are still living--two boys and two
girls. The boys is married and the daughters is sick. No, honey, I can't
tell how many of em all was boys and girls.

House

"My folks lived right in the white folks' yard. I don't know what kind
of house it was. My mother used to cook and do for the white folks. She
caught her death of cold going backward and forward milking and so on.

How the Children were Fed

"They'd put a trough on the floor with wooden spoons and as many
children as could get around that trough got there and eat, they would.

How Freedom Came

"Dolly and Evelyn were upstairs spinning thread and overheard the old
master saying that peace was declared but they didn't want the niggers
to know it. Father had them to throw their clothes out the windows. Then
he slipped out with them. Malinda Williams, my mother, came with them.
Dolly and Evelyn were my sisters. I don't know my master's name, but it
must have been Williams because all the slaves took their old master's
names when they were freed. I was a baby in my daddy's arms when he ran
away.

Patrollers

"I heard my papa talk about the patrollers. He said they used to run
them in many a time. That is the reason he had to cross the bridge that
night going over the Mississippi into Georgia. The slaves had been set
free in Georgia, and he wanted to get there from Alabama.

What the Slaves Got

"The slaves never got nothin' when they were freed. They just got out
and went to work for themselves.

Marriage

"My father tended to the white folks' mules. He wasn't no soldier. When
he married my mother, he was only fifteen years old. His master told him
to go pick himself out a wife from a drove of slaves that were passing
through, and he picked out my mother. They married by stepping over the
broom. The old master pronounced them master and wife.

Slave Droves

"The drove passed through Alabama, but my father didn't know where it
came from nor where it went. They were selling slaves. They would pick
up a big lot of them somewhere, and they would drive them across the
country selling some every place they stopped. My master bought my
mother out of the dro