hat was mos'ly what we had. Many a time when
noontime come an' we'd go to eat our vittals the marster would come
a-walkin' through the fiel with ten or twelve o' his houn' dogs. If he
looked in the pails an' was displeased with what he seen in 'em, he took
'em an' dumped 'em out before our very eyes an' let the dogs grab it up.
We didn' git nothin' to eat then 'til we come home late in the evenin'.
After he left we'd pick up pieces of the grub that the dogs left an' eat
'em. Hongry--hongry--we was so hongry.

"We had our separate cabins an' at sunset all of us would go in an' shut
the door an' pray the Lord Marster Jim didn' call us out.

"We never had much clothes 'ceptin' what was give us by the marster or
the mistis. Winter time we never had 'nough to wear nor 'nough to eat.
We wore homespun all the time. The marster didn' think we needed
anything, but jus' a little.

"We didn' go to church, but Sundays we'd gather 'roun' an' listen to the
mistis read a little out o' the Bible. The marster said we didn' need no
religion an' he finally stopped her from readin' to us.

"When the war come Marster was a captain of a regiment. He went away an'
stayed a year. When he come back he was even meaner than before.

"When he come home from the war he stayed for two weeks. The night
'fore he was a-fixin' to leave to go back he come out on his front porch
to smoke his pipe. He was a-standin' leanin' up ag'in' a railin' when
somebody sneaked up in the darkness an' shot him three times. Oh my
Lord! He died the nex' mornin'. He never knowed who done it. I was glad
they shot him down.

"Sometimes the cavalry would come an' stay at the house an' the mistis
would have to 'tend to 'em an' see that they got plenty to eat an' fresh
horses.

"I never seen no fightin'. I stayed on the plantation 'til the war was
over. I didn' see none o' the fightin'.

"I don't 'member nothin' 'bout Jefferson Davis. Lincoln was the man that
set us free. He was a big general in the war.

"I 'member a song we sung, then. It went kinda like this:

'Free at las',
Free at las',
Thank God Almighty
I's free at las'.
Mmmmm, mmmmm, mmmmm.'

"I only seen the Klu Klux Klan onct. They was a-paradin' the streets
here in Brookhaven. They had a Nigger that they was a-goin' to tar an'
feather.

"When the mistis tol' us we was free (my pappy was already dead, then)
my mammy packed us chillun up to move. We travelled on a cotton wagon to
Covington,