ay in the night, a knock come at de door--woke
'em up, and it was an old cullud man, and he said dis old man commence
inquiring, trying to find out who dey people was and dey told him best
dey could remember, and bless de Lawd, 'fore dey finished talking de
found out dis old cullud man and de other cullud woman an' man dat was
married was all brothers and sisters, and he told his brother it was
a shame he had married his sister and dey had nine chillun. My husband
sho' told me dis.

I've heerd 'em say dey old master raised chillun by those cullud
women. Why, there was one white man in Texas had a cullud woman, but
didn't have no chillun by her, and he had this cullud woman and her
old mistress there on the same place. So, when old Mistress died he
wouldn't let this cullud woman leave, and he gave her a swell home
right there on the place, and she is still there I guess. They say she
say sometime, she didn't want no Negro man smutting her sheets up.

I think Abraham Lincoln was a good man, and I have read a whole lots
'bout him, but I don't know much 'bout Jeff Davis. I think Booker T.
Washington is a fine man, but I aint heerd so much about him.

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

JOHN BROWN
Age (about) 87 yrs.
West Tulsa, Okla.

Most of the folks have themselves a regular birthday but this old
colored man just pick out any of the days during the year--one day
just about as good as another.

I been around a long time but I don't know when I got here. That's the
truth. Nearest I figures it the year was 1850--the month don't make no
difference nohow.

But I know the borning was down in Taloga County, Alabama, near the
county seat town. Miss Abby was with my Mammy that day. She was the
wife of Master John Brown. She was with all the slave women every time
a baby was born, or when a plague of misery hit the folks she knew
what to do and what kind of medicine to chase off the aches and pains.
God bless her! She sure loved us Negroes.

Most of the time there was more'n three hundred slaves on the
plantation. The oldest ones come right from Africa. My Grandmother was
one of them. A savage in Africa--a slave in America. Mammy told it to
me. Over there all the natives dressed naked and lived on fruits and
nuts. Never see many white mens.

One day a big ship stopped off the shore and the natives hid in the
brush along the beach. Grandmother was there. The ship men sent a
little b