m Mississippi
to the Choctaw country when the Chickasaws sign up de treaty to leave
Mississippi, and the whole Love family settle 'round on the Red River
below Fort Washita. There whar I was born.

My mammy say dey have a terrible hard time again the sickness when
they first come out into that country, because it was low and swampy
and all full of cane brakes, and everybody have the smallpox and the
malaria and fever all the time. Lots of the Chickasaw families nearly
died off.

Old Sobe Love marry her off to a slave named William, what belong to a
full-blood Chickasaw man name Chick-a-lathe, and I was one of de
children.

De children belong to the owner of the mother, and me and my brother
Franklin, what we called "Bruner", was born under the name of Love and
then old Master Sobe bought my pappy William, and we was all Love
slaves then. My mammy had two more girls, name Hatty and Rena.

My mammy name was Mary, and I was named after her. Old Mistress name
was Lottie, and they had a daughter name Mary. Old Master Sobe was
powerful rich, and he had about a hundred slaves and four or five big
pieces of that bottom land broke out for farms. He had niggers on all
the places, but didn't have no overseers, jest hisself and he went
around and seen that everybody behave and do they work right.

Old Master Sobe was a mighty big man in the tribe, and so was all his
kinfolks, and they went to Fort Washita and to Boggy Depot all the
time on business, and leave the Negroes to look after old Mistress and
the young daughter. She was almost grown along about that time, when I
can first remember about things.

'Cause my name was Mary, and so was my mammy's and my young Mistress'
too. Old Master Sobe called me Mary-Ka-Chubbe to show which Mary he
was talking about.

Miss Mary have a black woman name Vici what wait on her all the time,
and do the carding and spinning and cooking 'round the house, and Vici
belong to Miss Mary. I never did go 'round the Big House, but jest
stayed in the quarters with my mammy and pappy and helped in the field
a little.

Then one day Miss Mary run off with a man and married him, and old
Master Sobe nearly went crazy! The man was name Bill Merrick, and he
was a poor blacksmith and didn't have two pair of britches to his
name, and old Master Sobe said he jest stole Miss Mary 'cause she was
rich, and no other reason. 'Cause he was a white man and she was
mostly Chickasaw Indian.

Anyways old Master