done tuck all de rations so dar ain't nothin' lef' fer
de niggers ter take but mammy tells Marse Haywood what dey sez anyhow.
Marse Haywood sez dat iffen he ketch any niggers in his smokehouse dat
he'll skin 'em alive. He also sez dat we ain't free an' dat we ain't
never gwine ter be free.

"De nex' year, atter de war, wus a hard year. We ain't had nothin' ter
eat but hardtack an' 'lasses an' sometimes not half enough of dat. My
pappy still farmed fer Marse Haywood, but hit ain't as good as it is in
slavery days.

"Seberal years atter dat, while we wus livin' on Davie Street, I met
Frank Spikes an' I married him. I can't tell yo' much 'bout our
love-makin' case hit warn't much, but he always called me 'honey gal'
an' he axed me ter marry him in de kitchen while I was washin' dishes.
He jist puts his arms 'round me an' he sez, 'I wants ter marry yo',
honey gal.'

"Well we gits married by de Baptist preacher in Raleigh fifty odd years
ago an' we lives tergether till dis past March, when he dies.

"Other boys comed ter see me but I ain't loved none of dem but Frank.
He ain't never whupped me but onct an' dat wus fer sassin' him, an' I
reckin dat I needed dat.

"We had five chilluns an' I'se stayin' wid my daughter since he died,
but I misses him, yes mam, I misses him purty awful."

EH

N.C. District: No. 2
Worker: T. Pat Matthews
No. Words: 817
Subject: ANNIE STEPHENSON
Person Interviewed: Annie Stephenson
Editor: G.L. Andrews

[TR: Date stamp: AUG 6 1937]

ANNIE STEPHENSON
80 years old
1813 Rosewood Ave.
Richmond, Va.

Now at 717 Saunder's Street
Raleigh, N.C.

"I wus born in Hillsboro, N.C. I 'longed to Charles Holman and my
missus wus named Rachel. He owned a plantation near Hillsboro. It wus a
mighty big plantation in Orange County, an' he had a good many slaves
on dat place. We had tolerable good food an' log cabins and clothes dat
you wove in de loom. Home-wove cloth. We had no feather bed. We did not
know nuthin' 'bout feather beds. Slaves like dat had bunks an' some
slept on de floor. We went barefooted most of the time. Slave shoes had
wooden bottoms on 'em. Chilluns wus not give shoes at our place till
dey wus big enough to work.

"I 'member seein' de Yankees. Dey wore blue clothes an had brass
buttons on 'em. De only work I done wus to sweep yards an' nurse small
chilluns. I done very little heavy work. My mother wus nam