on de back porch in
warm weather and in de kitchen in winter.

For summer I wore a lowell shirt and for winter I wore de same old
lowell shirt only wid outing slips and a pair of brogan shoes or a
pair of old shoes dat was thrown away by my Mistress' son.

Their house was a 3-room log house unpainted, wid only one bed room
and a dining room and kitchen.

The plantation had 'bout 160 acres and was worked by my Mistress' son
and myself plus poor white hired help, my being de only slave.

I was treated most harshly 'mongst a group of just white people and
who seemed to think me de old work ox for all de hardest work. De
nearest other Negro slaves were 'bout 15 or 20 miles from me.

When I was grown I ran away one night and walked and rode de rods
under stage coaches to Paducah, Kentucky. I got me a job and worked as
a roustabout on a boat where I learned to gamble wid dice. I fought
and gambled all up and down de Mississippi River, and in de course of
time I had 'bout $3,000, but I lost it.

I don't know de month or de year I was born in but I can 'member de
sinking of de biggest circus show in de Mississippi River at Mobile,
Alabama when I was 10 to 14 years old, I ain't sure which.

There wasn't no children for me to play with and it seem like I never
was a child but was just always a man. I wasn't never told dat I was
free, and I didn't know nothing 'bout de War much dat brought my
freedom. Dey kept all of dat away from me and I couldn't read or write
so I didn't know.

I've been married only once. My wife is 54 years old, and her name is
Hattie Lawson. We have no children. Since we married after freedom
there wasn't nothing unusual at our wedding.

Oklahoma Writers' Project
Ex-Slaves
[Date stamp: AUG 16 1937]

MARY LINDSAY
Age 91 yrs.
Tulsa, Oklahoma.

My slavery days wasn't like most people tell you about, 'cause I was
give to my young Mistress and sent away to Texas when I was jest a
little girl, and I didn't live on a big plantation a very long tine.

I got an old family Bible what say I was born on September 20, in
1846, but I don't know who put de writing in it unless it was my
mammy's mistress. My mammy had de book when she die.

My mammy come out to the Indian country from Mississippi two years
before I was born. She was the slave of a Chickasaw part-breed name
Sobe Love. He was the kinsfolks of Mr. Benjamin Love, and Mr. Henry
Love what bring two big bunches of the Chickasaws out fro