the meat in there to us colored folks.

"Next mornin' they all dropped off goin' down to take Dardanelles. You
could hear the cannons roarin' next day. They was all night gettin'
away. They went on and took Dardanelles. Had all them white folks
runnin' and hidin'.

"The Secesh wouldn't go far. They would just hide. One night there'd be
a gang of Secesh, and the next one, there'd come along a gang of
Yankees. Pa was 'fraid of both of 'em. Secesh said they'd kill 'im if he
left his white folks. Yankees said they'd kill 'im if he didn't leave
'em. He would hide out in the cotton patch and keep we children out
there with him. Ole mis' made him carry us.

"We was freed and went to a place that was full of people. We had to
stay in a church with about twenty other people and two of the babies
died there on account of the exposure. Two of my aunts died, too, on
account of exposure then.

"The soldiers didn't take anything that night but food. They left all
the horses. What they took was what they could eat. But they couldn't
catch the turkeys. The lieutenant stayed around all the time to make the
soldiers behave themselves. The meals he made my ole mis' and her
daughter cook was for the officers.

"Yes Lawd! I have been here so long I ain't forgot nothin'. I can
remember things way back. I can remember things happening when I was
four years old. Things that happen now I can't remember so well. But I
can remember things that happened way back yonder."

Schooling

"I learnt to read a little after peace was declared. A ole lady, Aunt
Sarah Nunly, learnt us how to spell and then after that we went to
school. I went to school three weeks. I never went to school much.

"Didn't git no chance to learn nothin' in slavery. Sometimes the
children would teach the darkies 'round the house their ABC's. I've
heard of folks teachin' their slaves to read the Bible. They didn't
teach us to read nothin'. I've heard of it, but I've never seen it, that
some folks would cut off the first finger of a nigger that could write."

Father's Children Freed Before Emancipation

"My father had some children that were set free. They lived down on the
river bottom. Their ole master was named ole Crow. He died and sot his
niggers free. He had four slaves. He had five. If any of you know Philo
Pointer, his father was one of 'em. They sot him free. His
daughter--Crow's daughter--wanted the niggers and they would break the
ole man's will. They fur