owned 'em. I lived dar wid 'em 'til de chullun drew dey parts an' us was
'vided out. While I was wid old marster, he let Miss Rachel--dat was
his wife--have me fer de house. She larned me how to cook an' wait on de
table, an' I declar', she call me her ver' smartest gal! Sometimes,
tho', I wouldn' come right quick lak when she ring de bell fer me, an'
she'd start ringin' it harder an' harder. I knowed den she was mad. When
I'd get dar, she'd fuss at me an' tu'n my dress up an' whup me--not hard
'cause she wa'nt so strong--_but I'd holler some_!

"Dey had a nigger woman to teach all de house darkies how to read an'
write an' I larned how to sign my name an' got as fur as b-a-k-e-r in de
Blue Back Speller.

"Marse Conley an' Miss Rachel had fo' chullun, Miss Mary, Miss Alice,
Miss Willie, an' Marse Andrew, an' when de time come, dey give me to
Marse Andrew. He car'ied me an' de rest out to Texas whar he thought he
would go an' git rich. We neber stayed long, tho', fer lots of de
niggers runned 'way to de Free State an' Marse Andrew didn' lak dat.

[HW: Pre-War Days]

"It was when he brought us back to Huntsville dat I was sol'. All de
white folks was a gittin' scared dey was gwineter lose dey slaves an'
dere was a pow'ful lot er nigger sellin' goin' on den. Marse Ewing
bought me frum him an' car'ied me to his plantation near Aberdeen,
Mississippi. Den I started to workin' in de fiel' wid de rest of de
hands. De oberseer dat we had was right mean to us when we didn' work
our rows as fas' as de others, an' sometime he whup us, wimmen an' all.
When he did dat some of us most nigh allus tell de marster an' he would
jump on de oberseer an' tell him to lay off de wimmen an' chullun. Dey
was allus sort of thoughtful of us an' we loved old marster.

"I heerd tell one time, tho', of de hired man (he was a nigger) an' de
oberseer whuppin' one of my cousins 'til she bled; she was jes'
sebenteen years old an' was in de fambly way fer de fust time, an'
couldn' work as hard as de rest. Nex' mawnin' afte' dat she died. De
hired man tol' de rest if dey said anything 'bout it to de marster, he'd
beat dem to death, too, so ever'body kep' quiet an' de marster neber
knowed.

"We worked hard in de fiel' all day, but when dark come we would all go
to de Quarters an' afte' supper we would set 'roun' an' sing an' talk.
Mos' of de time we had good food to eat 'cause mos' of us had our
gardens, an' de Quarters cook would fix what we wanted