a slave to be
sassy or lazy. Sometimes if dey wouldn't work or slipped off de farm
dey would whip 'em. He didn't whip often. Colored overseers was worse
to whip than white ones, but Master allus said, "Hadn't you all rather
have a nigger overseer than a white one? I don't want to white man
over my niggers." I've seen the overseer whip some but I never did
get no whipping. He would strip 'em to the waist and whip 'em with a
long leather strop, about as wide as two fingers and fastened to a
handle.

When de war broke out everthing was changed. My young Masters had to
go. T. H. McKeown, the oldest was a Lieutenant and was one of the
first to go. It nigh broke all of our hearts. Pretty soon he sent for
me to come and keep him company. Old Master let me go and I stayed in
his quarters. He was stationed at Atlanta and Griffin, Georgia. I'd
stay with him a week or two and I'd go home for a few days and I'd
take back food and fruit. I stayed with him and waited on him 'till he
got used to being in the army and they moved him out to fighting. I
wanted to go on with him but he wouldn't let me, he told me to go back
and take care of Old Master and Old Mistress. They was getting old by
then. Purty soon Young Master got wounded purty bad and they sent me
home. I never went back. I got a "pass" to go home. Course, after the
war nothing was right no more. Yes, we was free but we didn't know
what to do. We didn't want to leave our old Master and our old home.
We stayed on and after a while my pappy come home to us. Dat was de
best thing about de war setting us free, he could come back to us.

We all lived on at the old plantation. Old Master and old Mistress
died and young Master took charge of de farm. He couldn't a'done
nothing without us niggers. He didn't know how to work. He was good to
us and divided the crops with us.

I never went to school much but my white folks learned me to read and
write. I could always have any of their books to read, and they had
lots of 'em.

Times has changed a lot since that time. I don't know where the world
is much better now, that it has everthing or then when we didn't have
hardly nothing, but I believe there was more religion then. We always
went to church and I've seen 'em baptize from in the early morning
'till afternoon in the Chatahooche river. Folks don't hardly know
nowadays jest what to believe they's so many religions, but they's
only one God.

I was eighteen when I married. I had