r wus named Rilla Pool. Dey said
dey jus fell down an' de Yankees commenced sayin' 'Hello Dinah,' 'Hello
Susie.' Mother an' Susan run. Dey just went flyin'. When dey crossed a
creek my mother lost her shoe in de mud, but she just kept runnin'.
When she got home she tole her missus de Yankees were ridin' up de
railroad just as thick as flies. Den my great-grandmother said, 'Well I
has been prayin' long enough for 'em now dey is here.' My
great-grandmother wus named Nancy Pool an' she wus not afraid of
nothin'. I wus a little teency thing when she died.

"My mother tole we all about dem times dey rode de horses up to de
smoke house an' got de meat. De Yankees went to de clothes line an' got
de clothes an' filled de legs an' arms wid corn an' slung it over dere
saddles an' rode away. Yes, de Yankees freed us but dey lef' nuthin'
for us to live on. Dey give us freedom but dey took mos' everything an'
lef' us nuthin' to eat, nuthin' to live on.

"We lived in Wake County all de time. I did not git only to the third
grade in school. Sister Mary Eliza got to de second grade. Father could
write a little, mother couldn't. Couldn't go to school 'cept when it
wus too wet to work. Work, work, work, thirty acres in cotton an' cawn,
cawn plowed till de 15th of August, plow, plow, plow hard ground, bad
ground. Nine girls an' one boy workin' from sun to sun. My mother had
twenty-three chillun. She wus just as smart as she could be, worked in
de field till just awhile before she died. She been dead 'bout twenty
years. My father been dead 'bout ten years. He died right here in
Raleigh with me, at 121 corner Mark an' Bledsoe Street.

"I've had a hard time workin' all my life. I ain't able to work now but
I does all I can. I have places to work a little every day for my white
folks. I am gwine to work long as I kin. My mother an' father said dey
had good marsters an' dey were crazy 'bout 'em. Sometimes dey sold
slaves an' den de patterollers whupped 'em now an' den, but dey had
nuthin' to say against dere white folks.

"Well, I los' my home. I have worked mos' uv my life since I come to
Raleigh, buyin' a home, but I got ole an' couldn't keep up de payments
an' dey come down ere an' took my home. 'Twas the wurst thing dats come
to me in my whole life. Less you tried it yo' can't 'magine how bad it
makes you feel to have to give up yer home."

AC

N.C. District: No. 2
Worker: T. Pat Matthews
No. Words: 398
Subject: