ring, ceiling, siding, moldings, and so on.

"My father was still with Simpson when I remembered anything. At that
time the house we lived in was a weatherboarded house just like the ones
we live in now. It was a house that had been built since freedom. Old
man Simpson sent for my father and told him to build a house for himself
on the grounds. My father had been with Simpson for so long and had done
so much work for him during slave time that Simpson didn't want to do
without him. He supplied all the lumber and materials for my father.
During slave time, Simpson had hired my father out to the other planters
when he had nothing for him to do in the line of building on his own
plantation. He had had him to superintend his grist mill. All that was
in slavery time. My father was a highly skilled laborer. He could do a
lot of other things besides building. So when freedom came, he wanted
my father 'round him still. They both fished and hunted. He wanted my
father to go fishing with him and keep him company. My father was a
carpenter of the first class, you see, even in slave time. That was all
he done. He was brought up to be a carpenter and did nothing but that
all his time. My daddy was a mighty good mechanic.

Good Master

"My daddy's master was a very good and kind one. My father was not under
any overseer. He worked directly under his master.

"I remember one incident he told me. His master hired a new overseer who
hung around for a bit watching my father. Finally, my father asked him,
'Now, what are you able to do?' The overseer answered. 'Why, I can see
all over and whip all over, and that's as much as any damn man can do.'

"Nobody was allowed to touch my father. He never had no trouble with
the pateroles either. Old man Simpson didn't allow that. He was a free
agent. When he wasn't working for Simpson, he was working for the next
big farmer, and then the next one, and then the next one, and old man
Simpson got wages for his work. Sometimes he worked a contract. Old man
Simpson couldn't afford to have him handicapped in his going and coming.
He could go whenever he wanted to go, and come back whenever he got
ready, with a pass or without one. His time was valuable.

"The reason why so many slaves suffered as much as they did as a rule
was not because of the masters but because of the poor white trash
overseers. I know of several rich white women that had slaves that
wouldn't allow them to be mistreated. They