f de brothers said to de other brothers kinder
easy an' shameful like, 'Brothers don't you think we overdone dis
thing?' Dats what many a slave thought 'bout prayin' for freedom.

"Before two years had passed after de surrender dere wus two out of
every three slaves who wushed dey wus back wid dere marsters.

"De marsters kindness to de niggers after de war is de cause of de
nigger havin' things today. Dere wus a lot of love between marster an'
slave en dar is few of us dat don't love de white folks today.

"Slavery wus a bad thing an' freedom, of de kin' we got wid nothin' to
live on wus bad. Two snakes full of pisen. One lyin' wid his head
pintin' north, de other wid his head pintin' south. Dere names wus
slavery an' freedom. De snake called slavery lay wid his head pinted
south an' de snake called freedom lay wid his head pinted north. Both
bit de nigger, an' dey wus both bad."

EH.

N.C. District: II
Worker: Mrs. W.N. Harriss
No. Words: 396
Subject: Emeline Moore, Ex-slave.
Interviewed: Emeline Moore.
707 Hanover Street, Wilmington, N.C.
Edited: Mrs. W.N. Harriss

EMELINE MOORE, EX-SLAVE

707 Hanover Street, Wilmington, N.C.

"I don' exac'ly know how ole I is, but dey say I mus' be eighty. No
mam, I ain' got nothin' in no fam'ly Bible. Where'd I git a fam'ly
Bible? My mammy (with a chuckle) had too many chillun to look after to
be puttin' 'em down in no Bible, she did'n have time, an' she did'n
have no learnin' nohow. But I reckon I is eighty because I 'members so
much I's jes' about forgotten it all.

"My folks belonged to Colonel Taylor. He an' Mis' Kitty lived in that
big place on Market Street where the soldiers lives now, (The W.L.I.
Armory) but we was on the plantation across the river mos' of the time.

"Of co'se I was born in slavery, but I don' remember nothin' much
excep' feedin' chickens. An' up on Market Street Mis' Kitty had
chickens an' things, an' a cow. The house had more lan' around it than
it got now. I do remember when they thought eve'ybody 'roun' here was
goin' to die an' I got skeered. No'm t'want no war it was the yaller
fever. We was kept on the plantation but we knowed folks jes died an'
died an' died. We thought t'would'nt be nobody left. I don't remember
nothin' about Lincoln travelin' aroun'. I always heard he was President
of the Lunited States, an' lived in Washington, an' gave us freedom,
an' got shot. Of co'se I kno