sky as a boy and states that
he did but very little work and got but very few whippings. Twice he ran
away to escape being whipped and hid in asparagus beds in Sparta,
Georgia until nightfall; when he returned the master would not whip him
because he was apprehensive that he might run away again and be stolen
by poorer whites and thus cause trouble. The richer whites, he relates,
were afraid of the poorer whites; if the latter were made angry they
would round up the owners' sheep and turn them loose into their cotton
fields and the sheep would eat the cotton, row by row.

He compares the relationship between the rich and poor whites during
slavery with that of the white and Negro people of today.

With a face full of frowns, "Parson" tells of a white man persuading his
mother to let him tie her to show that he was master, promising not to
whip her, and she believed him. When he had placed her in a buck (hands
tied on a stick so that the stick would turn her in any direction) he
whipped her until the blood ran down her back.

With changed expression he told of an incident during the Civil War:
Slaves, he explained had to have passes to go from one plantation to
another and if one were found without a pass the "patrollers" would pick
him up, return him to his master and receive pay for their service. The
"patrollers" were guards for runaway slaves. One night they came to Aunt
Rhoda's house where a crowd of slaves had gathered and were going to
return them to their masters; Uncle Umphrey the tanner, quickly spaded
up some hot ashes and pitched it on them; all of the slaves escaped
unharmed, while all of the "patrollers" were badly injured; no one ever
told on Uncle Umphrey and when Aunt Rhoda was questioned by her master
she stated that she knew nothing about it but told them that the
"patrollers" had brought another "nigger" with them; her master took it
for granted that she spoke the truth since none of the other Negroes
were hurt. He remembers seeing this but does not remember how he, as a
little boy, was prevented from telling about it.

Asked about his remembrance or knowledge of the slaves' belief in magic
and spells he said: "I remember this and can just see the dogs running
around now. My mother's brother, "Uncle Dick" and "Uncle July" swore
they would not work longer for masters; so they ran away and lived in
the woods. In winter they would put cotton seed in the fields to rot for
fertilizer and lay in it for w