othes? Yes Sir, us
half naked all de time. Grown boys went 'round bare footed and in dey
shirt tail all de summer."

"Marse was a rich man. 'Fore Christmus dey would kill thirty hogs and
after Christmus, thirty more hogs. He had a big gin house and sheep,
goats, cows, mules, hosses, turkeys, geese, and a stallion; I members
his name, Stockin'-Foot. Us little niggers was skeered to death of dat
stallion. Mothers used to say to chillun to quiet dem, 'Better hush,
Stockin'-Foot will git you and tramp you down.' Any child would git
quiet at dat."

"Old Marse was de daddy of some mulatto chillun. De 'lations wid de
mothers of dese chillun is what give so much grief to Mistress. De
neighbors would talk 'bout it and he would sell all dem chillun away
from dey mothers to a trader. My Mistress would cry 'bout dat.

"Our doctor was old Marse son-in-law, Dr. Martin. I seen him cup a man
once. He was a good doctor. He give slaves castor oil, bleed dem some
times and make dem take pills."

"Us looked for the Yankees on dat place like us look now for de Savior
and de host of angels at de second comin'. Dey come one day in February.
Dey took everything carryable off de plantation and burnt de big house,
stables, barns, gin house and dey left the slave houses."

"After de war I marry Osborne Burrell and live on de Tom Jordan place.
I'se de mother of twelve chillun. Jest three livin' now. I lives wid the
Mills family three miles 'bove town. My son Willie got killed at de
DuPont Powder Plant at Hopewell, Virginia, during de World War. Dis
house you settin' in belongs to Charlie Caldwell. He marry my grand
daughter, Willie B. She is twenty-three years old."

"Young Marse Sam Still got killed in de Civil War. Old Marse live on. I
went to see him in his last days and I set by him and kept de flies off
while dere. I see the lines of sorrow had plowed on dat old face and I
'membered he'd been a captain on hoss back in dat war. It come into my
'membrance de song of Moses; 'de Lord had triumphed glorily and de hoss
and his rider have been throwed into de sea'."

"You been good to listen. Dis is the fust time I can git to speak my
mind like dis mornin'. All de' people seem runnin' here and yonder,
after dis and after dat. Dere is a nudder old slave, I'se gwine to bring
him down here Saturday and talk to you again."

Project 1885-1
FOLKLORE
Spartanburg, S. C.
Sept. 15, 1937
Edited by:
Elmer Turnage

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