were right near our
house.

"I know when the colored men farmed on share craps, dey were given jist
enough to live on, and when a white man worked a mule until he wuz worn
out he would sell him to de colored man. De colored man would sometime
buy 'im a old buggy; den he wuz called rich. People went to church den
on steer carts, that is colored folks, most uv 'em. De only man I
wurked for along den who wud gib me biscuit through de week wuz a man
named June Goodwin. The others would give us biscuit on Sundays, and I
made up my mind den when I got to be a man to eat jist as many biscuits
as I wanted; and I have done jist dat.

"My mammy used to hire me out to de white folks. I worked and made jist
enough to eat and hardly enough clothes to wear to church until I wuz a
man. I worked many a day and had only one herrin' and a piece of bread
for dinner. You know what a herrin' fish is? 'Twon't becase I throwed
my money away, twas cause we didn't git it, nuther to save up. When we
farmed share crap dey took all we made. In de fall we would have to
split cord wood to live through de winter.

"I will tell you now how I got my start off now, I am going to use dis
man's name. I went to work for a man name George Whitaker. I drive a
wagon for him. He 'lowed me all de waste wood for my own use. This wuz
wood dat would not sell good on de market. I hauled it over home. I
worked for him till he died, en his wife lowed me a little side crap. I
made this crap, took de money I got for it, and built a little
storehouse. I disremember how long I worked fer Mis' Hannah Whitaker.
Den I quit work for her and went to work for myself. I owns dat little
storehouse yit, de one I worked wid Mis' Hannah Whitaker, en from dat I
bought me a nudder home.

"When de Yankees come to Raleigh dere wuz a building dey called de
Governor's Palace, it stood whur de Auditorium now stands. Right back
o' where de courthouse now stands wuz a jail and a gallows an' a
whuppin' pos' all dere together. I know when dey built de Penitentiary
dey hauled poles from Johnston County. Dey called dem Johnston County
poles. Dey hauled em in on trains. Dis post office wuz not built den.
De post office den wuz built of plank set up an' down.

"I remember seeing a man hung down at de jail. His name wuz Mills. He
wuz a white man. When he got on de scaffold he said, 'What you gwine to
do to me do it quick and be done wid it'.

"I think Abraham Lincoln done the colored man a