keeps up havin' chillen, 'cause de marsters and de drivers
takes all de nigger gals dey wants. Den de chillen was brown and I seed
one clear white one, but dey slaves jus' de same.

"De end of dat war comes and old Pinchback says, 'You niggers all come
to de big house in de mornin'. He tells us we is free and he opens his
book and gives us all a name and tells us whar we comes from and how old
we is, and says he pay us 40 cents a day to stay with him. I stays 'bout
a year and dere's no big change. De same houses and some got whipped but
nobody got nailed to a tree by de ears, like dey used to. Finally old
Pinchback dies and when he buried de lightnin' come and split de grave
and de coffin wide open.

"Well, time goes on some more and den Lizzie and me, we gits together
and we marries reg'lar with a real weddin'. We's been together a long
time and we is happy.

"I 'members a old song like dis:

"'Old marster eats beef and sucks on de bone,
And give us de gristle--
To make, to make, to make, to make,
To make de nigger whistle.'

"Dat all de song I 'member from dose old days, 'ceptin' one more:

"'I goes to church in early morn,
De birds just a-sittin' on de tree--
Sometimes my clothes gits very much worn--
'Cause I wears 'em out at de knee.

"'I sings and shouts with all my might,
To drive away de cold--
And de bells keep ringin' in gospel light,
Till de story of de Lamb am told.'"

420064

[Illustration: O.W. Green and Granddaughter]

O.W. Green, son of Frank and of Mary Ann Marks, was born in slavery
at Bradly Co., Arkansas, June 26, 1859. His owners, the Mobley
family, owned a large plantation and two or three thousand slaves.
Jack Mobley, Green's young master, was killed in the Civil War, and
Green became one of the "orphan chillen." When the Ku Klux Klan
became active, the "orphan chillen" were taken to Little Rock, Ark.
Later on, Green moved to Del Rio, Texas, where he now lives.

"I was bo'ned in Arkansas. Frank Marks was my father and Mary Ann Marks
my mother. She was bo'n on the plantation. I had two brothers.

"I don' 'member de quarters, but dey mus' of had plenty, 'cause dey was
two, three thousand slaves on de plantation. All my kin people belonged
to Massa Mobley. My grandfather was a millman and dey had one de bigges'
grist mills in de country.

"Our Massa was good and we had plenty for to e