ristian and always kind. I sure did love her. Maybe
old Master Joe Vann was harder, I don't know, but that was before my
time. Young Master never whip his slaves, but if they don't mind good
he sell them off sometimes. He sold one of my brothers and one sister
because they kept running off. They wasn't very big either, but one
day two Cherokees rode up and talked a long time, then young Master
came to the cabin and said they were sold because mammy couldn't make
them mind him. They got on the horses behind the men and went off.

Old Master Joe had a big steam boat he called the Lucy Walker, and he
run it up and down the Arkansas and the Mississippi and the Ohio
river, old Mistress say. He went clean to Louisville, Kentucky, and
back. My pappy was a kind of a boss of the negroes that run the boat,
and they all belong to old Master Joe. Some had been in a big run-away
and had been brung back, and wasn't so good, so he keep them on the
boat all the time mostly. Mistress say old Master and my pappy on the
boat somewhere close to Louisville and the boiler bust and tear the
boat up. Some niggers say my pappy kept hollering, "Run it to the
bank! Run it to the bank!" but it sunk and him and old Master died.

Old Master Joe was a big man in the Cherokees, I hear, and was good to
his negroes before I was born. My pappy run away one time, four or
five years before I was born, mammy tell me, and at that time a whole
lot of Cherokee slaves run off at once. They got over in the Creek
country and stood off the Cherokee officers that went to git them,
but pretty soon they give up and come home. Mammy say they was lots of
excitement on old Master's place and all the negroes mighty scared,
but he didn't sell my pappy off. He jest kept him and he was a good
negro after that. He had to work on the boat, though, and never got to
come home but once in a long while.

Young Master Joe let us have singing and be baptized if we want to,
but I wasn't baptized till after the War. But we couldn't learn to
read or have a book, and the Cherokee folks was afraid to tell us
about the letters and figgers because they have a law you go to jail
and a big fine if you show a slave about the letters.

When the War come they have a big battle away west of us, but I never
see any battles. Lots of soldiers around all the time though.

One day young Master come to the cabins and say we all free and can't
stay there less'n we want to go on working for him jus