licensed wife and we is
married in Holly Springs. Her name was Josephine and we has maybe
eight-ten children, I dunno.

And I is thankful they ain't none of my children born slaves and have
to remember all them terrible days when we was ruled by the whip--like
I remember it, just like it was yesterday.

Oklahoma Writers' Project
Ex-Slaves
[Date stamp: AUG 19 1937]

BERT LUSTER
Age 85 yrs.
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma

I'll be jest frank, I'm not for sho' when I was born, but it was in
1853. Don't know the month, but I was sho' born in 1853 in Watson
County, Tennessee. You see my father was owned by Master Luster and my
mother was owned by Masters Joe and Bill Asterns (father and son). I
can remember when Master Astern moved from Watson County, Tennessee he
brought me and my mother with him to Barnum County Seat, Texas. Master
Astern owned about twelve slaves, and dey was all Astern 'cept Miriah
Elmore's son Jim. He owned 'bout five or six hundred acres of ground,
and de slaves raised and shucked all de corn and picked all de cotton.
De whites folks lived in a big double log house and we slaves lived in
log cabins. Our white folks fed us darkies! We ate nearly ever'thing
dey ate. Dey ate turkey, chickens, ducks, geese, fish and we killed
beef, pork, rabbits and deer. Yes, and possums too. And whenever we
killed beef we tanned the hide and dere was a white man who made shoes
for de white folks and us darkies. I tell you I'm not gonna lie, dem
white folks was good to us darkies. We didn't have no mean overseer.
Master Astern and his son jest told us niggers what to do and we did
it, but 50 miles away dem niggers had a mean overseer, and dey called
him "poor white trash", "old whooser", and sometime "old red neck",
and he would sho' beat 'em turrible iffen dey didn't do jest like he
wanted 'em to.

Seem like I can hear dem "nigger hounds" barking now. You see whenever
a darky would get a permit to go off and wouldn't come back dey would
put de "nigger hounds" on his trail and run dat nigger down.

De white women wove and spin our clothes. You know dey had looms,
spins, and weavers. Us darkies would stay up all night sometime
sep'rating cotton from the seed. When dem old darkies got sleepy dey
would prop their eyes open wid straws.

Sho', we wore very fine clothes for dem days. You know dey dyed the
cloth with poke berries.

We cradled de wheat on pins, caught the grain, carried it to de mill
and had it gro