moved from the place to one three
or four miles from our master's place, and mammy cooked there a long
time.

Abraham Lincoln gits too much praise. I say, shucks, give God the
praise. Lincoln come thoo' Gallitan, Tennessee and stopped at Hotel
Tavern with his wife. They was dressed jest lak tramps and nobody
knowed it was him and his wife till he got to the White House and
writ back and told 'em to look 'twixt the leaves in the table where he
had set and they sho' nuff found out it was him.

I never mentions Jeff Davis. He ain't wuff it.

Booker T. Washington was all right in his place. He come here and told
these whitefolks jest what he thought. Course he wouldn't have done
that way down South. I declare to God he sho' told 'em enough. They
toted him 'round on their hands. No Jim Crow here then.

I jined the church 'cause I had religion round 60 years ago. People
oughta be religious sho'; what for they wanta live in sin and die and
go to the Bad Man. To git to Heaven, you sho' ought to work some. I
want a resting place somewhar, 'cause I ain't got none here. I am a
member of Tabernacle Baptist Church, and I help build the first church
in Oklahoma City.

I got three boys and three girls. I don't know none's age. I give 'em
the best education I could.

Oklahoma Writers' Project
Ex-Slaves
[Date stamp: AUG 13 1937]

DOC DANIEL DOWDY
Age 81 yrs.
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma

I was born June 6, 1856 in Madison County, Georgia. Father was named
Joe Dowdy and mother was named Mary Dowdy. There was 9 of us boys,
George, Smith, Lewis, Henry, William, myself, Newt, James and Jeff.
There was one girl and she was my twin, and her name was Sarah. My
mother and father come from Richmond, Va., to Georgia. Father lived on
one side of the river and my mother on the other side. My father would
come over ever week to visit us. Noah Meadows bought my father and
Elizabeth Davis, daughter of the old master took my mother. They
married in Noah Meadows' house.

My mother was the cook in the Big House. They'd give us pot likker
with bread crumbs in it. Sometimes meat, jest sometimes, very seldom.
I liked black-eyed peas and still do till now. We lived in
weatherboard house. Our parents had corded-up beds with ropes and us
chillun slept on the floor for most part or in a hole bored in a log.
Our house had one window jest big enough to stick your head out of,
and one door, and this one door faced the Big House which was your
m