let nobody else whup me neither. I
'members what it wuz about as if it wuz yesterday. She wuz fretted
'bout de cook. We wuz skinnin' i'sh taters. She tole us to make haste,
if we didn't make haste an' peel de taters she would whack us down. I
laughed, she sent me to git a switch. She hit me on de legs. When we
were whupped we would say, 'oh! pray,' and dey would quit. If you acted
stubborn dey would whup you more. She axed me, 'ain't you gwine ter say
'oh! pray?' I wuz mad. She wuz not hurtin' me much, an' I wouldn't say
nuthin'. Atter awhile I said, 'oh! pray', an' she quit. I had good
owners all o' dem. My masters never did hit me. Missus would not whup
me much. She jes wanted ter show off sometimes.

"We had good doctors when we got sick. I 'members Dr. James o' Clayton
comin' to our house. Dey carried dere pills an' medicine den, an' lef'
it at de house fer you.

"My master had a son in de war, Walter Pool. He wuz a footso'dier at
first. He got sick an' he come home sick on er furlough. He hired er
man to go in his place at first, den de man went. Atter awhile de men
got so skurce, he had to go agin; den he got de chance to go in de
cavalry. Ole master bought him a horse, an' he could ride nex' time. He
belonged to the 1st. Ga. Reg. 2nd Cavalry Gen. Dange's Brigade, C. Co.
N.C. Volunteers.

"I saw de Confederates' General Johnson come through Clayton, an' de
Yankees come de 2nd [HW: second] day atter dey come through. I think I
seed enough Yankees come through dere to whup anything on God's earth.
De Yankees camped three miles from our plantation at Mrs. Widow Sarah
Saunders across White Oak Creek on de Averysboro road. Her son, Capt.
Ed. Saunders wuz in de Confederate Army. She wuz a big slave owner. She
had about 100 slaves. She wuz called a rich 'oman.

"De Yankees played songs o' walkin' de streets of Baltimore an' walkin'
in Maryland. Dey really played it. Dey slaughtered cows and sometimes
only et de liver. I went to de camp atter dey lef' an' it wuz de
awfulest stink I ever smelt in my life. Dey lef' dem cows part o' 'em
lying whur dey were in de camp. Dey killed geese an' chickens, an'
skinned 'em. Sometimes dey skinned de hind quarters uv a cow, cut 'em
off an' lef' de res'.

"When dey tole me I wuz free I didn't notice it, I stayed on and worked
jest lak I had been doin', right on wid missus and master. I stayed
dere a year atter de surrender.

"I dunno what ter think o' Abraham Lincoln. Dey said he