ankee soldiers come through and
gathered up all de slaves and took us to Athens, Ala., and put us on a
Government farm. We stayed dere till de end of de War. My father died
jest before dey took us away.

My mother and us children were on de farm together and dey treated us
all mighty good. We had plenty of good food and clothes.

Master Wash came to see us while we was on de Government farm. He was
left in a bad shape and we was all sorry for him. A lot of his hands
went back to him after de Surrender but we never did. Mother married
another man named Goodloe and we all went to Arkansas, near Little
Rock. Dis was his former home. I was about nineteen or twenty years
old at this time.

I never sent to school. My wife taught me how to read de Bible but I
never learned to write. I have good eyesight. I guess dat is cause I
never put dem out reading and going to moving picture shows.

When any of my family was sick I always sent for de doctor. We had a
few of our own home remedies dat we used also. We boiled poke root and
bathed in it for a cure for rheumatism.

A tea made from May apples was used for a physic.

Oklahoma Writers' Project
Ex-Slaves

ANNIE YOUNG
Age 86
Oklahoma City, Okla.

I was born in 1851, makes me 86 years old. I was born in Middle
Tennessee, Summers County. My mother was put on a block and sold from
me when I was a child. I don't remember my father real good. Sister
Martha, Sister Sallie, nor Sister Jane wasn't sold. But my brother
John was. My mother's name is Rachel Donnahue. We lived in a log hut.
The white folks lived in a frame white building sitting in a big grove
yard. Old master owned a big farm.

We ate molasses, bread and butter and milk in wooden bowls and
crumbled our bread up in it. Old master had big smokehouses of meat.
Dey ate chickens, possums and coons, and my old auntie would barbecue
rabbits for de white folks. We ate ash cakes too.

I washed dishes, swept de yard, and kept de yard clean wid weed brush
brooms. I never earned no money. All de slaves had gardens, and
chickens too. My auntie, dey let her have chickens of her own and she
raised chickens, and had a chicken house and garden down in de woods.

I remember in time of de War dey'd send me down in de woods to pick up
chips and git wood. All de men had gone to de army. One morning and
t'was cold dey sent me down in de woods and my hands got frostbitten.
All de skin come off and dey had to tie my hands up