used 'im like a stud
hoss.

"When you didn't do right Ol' Mack Williams would shoot you or tie a
chain 'roun your neck an' throw you in de river. He'd git dem other
niggers to carry dem to de river an' if dey didn't he'd shoot 'em down.
Any time dey didn't do whut he said he would shoot 'em down. He'd tell
'em to "Ketch dat nigger", an' dey would do it. Den he would tell 'em to
put de chain 'roun dere neck an' throw 'em in de river. I ain't heard
dis--I done seen it.

"In 1927 I wus still in peonage but I wus back in Mississippi on
Gordon's farm. When de levee broke in May of dat same year I lost my
wife an' three chilluns. I climbed a tree an' stayed dere fer four days
an' four nights. Airplanes dropped food an' when I got ready to eat I
had to squeeze de water out of de bread. After four days I got out of de
tree an' floated on logs down de river 'till I got to Mobile, Alabama,
an' I wade fum dere to Palmetto, Georgia, where I got down sick. De boss
mans dere called Gov. Harden an' he sent de Grady Hospital examiners
down dere an' got me an' I been in Atlanta since dat time."

Willie H. Cole
10-8-37

THE STORY OF AN EX-SLAVE
[MRS. LULA WASHINGTON, Age 84]

Mrs. Lula Washington was born a slave. She claims to be eighty-four
years old.

Mrs. Washington was confined to bed because of a recent accident in
which she received a broken leg.

She is the mother of twenty-three children of which only two are living.
She lives in one room at 64 Butler St., N.E. with one of her daughters.
Since the death of her husband several years ago she has been making her
living as a dray-women, driving a mule and wagon.

Following are some of the events she remembers. "Ah wuz born in
Randolph, Alabama on de plantation of Marster John Terrell, de sixth
child of my mammy and pappy".

"When ah wuz six years old marster John sold me an' my sister, Lize and
brother, Ben to Marster Charlie Henson."

"Marster Charlie wuz good to his niggers.

"He never whipped dem 'less dey done somethin' awful bad, like stealin
chickens or slipping off de plantation without permission."

"It wuz funny, de white folks would whipped de niggers for stealin' but
if dey saw a hog in de woods, dey would make the niggers catch de hog an
kill him an hide him under dey bushes. Den at night de niggers would
hafta' go down to de spring, build a fire, heat water an skin de hog."

"De man on de plantation next to us' shore wuz mean to his niggers,
M