y did!"

Project #1655
W. W. Dixon
Winnsboro, S. C.

MILLIE BARBER
EX-SLAVE 82 YEARS OLD.

"Hope you find yourself well dis mornin', white folks. I's just common;
'spect I eats too much yesterday. You know us celebrated yesterday,
'cause it was de Fourth of July. Us had a good dinner on dis 2,000 acre
farm of Mr. Owens. God bless dat white boss man! What would us old no
'count niggers do widout him? Dere's six or seven, maybe eight of us out
here over eighty years old. 'Most of them is like me, not able to hit a
lick of work, yet he take care of us; he sho' does.

"Mr. Owens not a member of de church but he allowed dat he done found
out dat it more blessed to give than to receive, in case like us.

"You wants to know all 'bout de slavery time, de war, de Ku Kluxes and
everything? My tongue too short to tell you all dat I knows. However, if
it was as long as my stockin's, I could tell you a trunk full of good
and easy, bad and hard, dat dis old life-stream have run over in
eighty-two years. I's hoping to reach at last them green fields of Eden
of de Promise Land. 'Scuse me ramblin' 'round, now just ask me
questions; I bet I can answer all you ask.

"My pa name, Tom McCullough; him was a slave of old Marster John
McCullough, whose big two-story house is de oldest in Fairfield County.
It stands today on a high hill, just above de banks of Dutchman Creek.
Big road run right by dat house. My mammy name, Nicie. Her b'long to de
Weir family; de head of de family die durin' de war of freedom. I's not
supposed to know all he done, so I'll pass over dat. My mistress name,
Eliza; good mistress. Have you got down dere dat old marster just took
sick and die, 'cause he wasn't touched wid a bullet nor de life slashed
out of him wid a sword?

"Well, my pa b'longin' to one man and my mammy b'longin' to another,
four or five miles apart, caused some confusion, mix-up, and heartaches.
My pa have to git a pass to come to see my mammy. He come sometimes
widout de pass. Patrollers catch him way up de chimney hidin' one night;
they stripped him right befo' mammy and give him thirty-nine lashes, wid
her cryin' and a hollerin' louder than he did.

"Us lived in a log house; handmade bedstead, wheat straw mattress,
cotton pillows, plenty coverin' and plenty to eat, sich as it was. Us
never git butter or sweet milk or coffee. Dat was for de white folks but
in de summer time, I minds de flies off de table wid the peafowl