was a jug
or big bottle, a skillet lid or frying pan that they'd hit with a
stick or a bone. We had a flute too, made out of reed cane and it'd
make good music. Sometimes we'd sing and dance so long and loud old
Master'd have to make us stop and go to bed.

The Patrollers, Ku Kluxers or night riders come by sometimes at night
to scare the niggers and make 'em behave. Sometimes the slaves would
run off and the Patroller would catch 'em and have 'em whipped. I've
seen that done lots of times. They was some wooden stocks (a sort of
trough) and they'd put the darky in this and strap him down, take off
his clothers and give him 25 to 50 licks, 'cording to what he had
done.

I reckon old Master had everything his heart could wish for at this
time. Old Mistress was a fine lady and she always went dressed up. She
wore long trains on her skirts and I'd walk behind her and hold her
train up when she made de rounds. She was awful good to me. I slept on
the floor in her little boy's room, and she give me apples and candy
just like she did him. Old Master gave ever chick and child good warm
clothes for winter. We had store boughten shoes but the women made our
clothes. For underwear we all wore 'lowers' but no shirts.

After the war started old Master took a lot of his slaves and went to
Natchez, Mississippi. He thought he'd have a better chance of keeping
us there I guess, and he was afraid we'd be greed [TR: freed?] and he
started running with us. I remember when General Grant blowed up
Vicksburg. I had a free born Uncle and Aunt who sometimes visited in
the North and they'd till us how easy it was up there and it sho' made
us all want to be free.

I think Abe Lincoln was next to de Lawd. He done all he could for de
slaves; he set 'em free. People in the South knowed they'd lose their
slaves when he was elected president. 'Fore the election he traveled
all over the South and he come to our house and slept in old Mistress'
bed. Didn't nobody know who he was. It was a custom to take strangers
in and put them up for one night or longer, so he come to our house
and he watched close. He seen how the niggers come in on Saturday and
drawed four pounds of meat and a peck of meal for a week's rations. He
also saw 'em whipped and sold. When he got back up north he writ old
Master a letter and told him he was going to have to free his slaves,
that everybody was going to have to, that the North was going to see
to it. He also told him th