er de baby git quiet and go
to sleep, she said: 'Dinah, I hates to whip you but de Good Book say,
spare de rod and spoil de child.' Wid dat, she goes out and git a little
switch off de crepe myrtle bush and come back and took my left hand in
her left hand, dat had all de rings on de fingers, and us had it 'round
dat room. I make a big holler as she 'plied dat switch on dese very legs
dat you sees here today. They is big and fat now and can scarcely wobble
me 'long but then, they was lean and hard and could carry me 'long like
a deer in de woods.

"My white folks was no poor white trash, I tells you! Good marse and
good mistress had heap of slaves and overseers. One overseer name Mr.
Welch. De buckra folks dat come visitin', use to laugh at de way he put
grease on his hair, and de way he scraped one foot back'ards on de
ground or de floor when they shake hands wid him. He never say much, but
just set in his chair, pull de sides of his mustache and say 'Yas sah'
and 'No sah', to them dat speak to him. He speak a whole lot though,
when he git down in de quarters where de slaves live. He wasn't like de
same man then. He woke everybody at daylight, and sometime he help de
patrollers to search de houses for to ketch any slaves widout a pass.

"Us had all us need to eat, sich as was good for us. Marse like to see
his slaves fat and shiny, just like he want to see de carriage hosses
slick and spanky, when he ride out to preachin' at Ainswell and sometime
de Episcopal church at Ridgeway. My young mistress jine de Baptist
church after she marry, and I 'member her havin' a time wid sewin'
buckshots in de hem of de dress her was baptized in. They done dat, you
knows, to keep de skirt from floatin' on top of de water. You never have
thought 'bout dat? Well, just ask any Baptist preacher and he'll tell
you dat it has been done.

"When de Yankees come, they went through de big house, tore up
everything, ripped open de feather beds and cotton mattresses, searchin'
for money and jewels. Then they had us slaves ketch de chickens, flung
open de smoke-house, take de meat, meal, flour, and put them in a
four-hoss wagon and went on down to Longtown. Them was scandlous days,
boss! I hope never to see de likes of them times wid dese old eyes
again.

"I 'member 'bout de Ku Klux just one time, though I heard 'bout them a
heap. They come on de Robertson place all dressed up wid sheets and
false faces, ridin' on hossback, huntin' for a republi