when I was twelve years old. My grandfather was set free and
given a little place of about sixteen acres. A gang of white men went to
my grandmother's place and ordered the colored people out to work. The
colored people had worked before for white men, on shares. When the
wheat was all in and the corn laid by, the white farmers would tell the
colored people to get out, and would give them nothing. The colored
people did not want to work that way, and refused. This was the cause of
the raids by white farmers. My mother recognized one of the men in the
gang and reported him to the standing soldiers in Louisville. He was
caught and made to tell who the others were until they had 360 men. All
were fined and none allowed to leave until all the fines were paid. So
the rich ones had to pay for the poor ones. Many of them left because
all were made responsible if such an event ever occurred again.

Our family left because we did not want to work that way. I was hired
out to a family for $20 a year. I was sent for. My mother put herself
under the protection of the police until we could get away. We came in a
wagon from our home to Louisville. I was anxious to see Louisville, and
thought it was very wonderful. I wanted to stay there, but we came on
across the Ohio River on a ferry boat and stayed all night in New
Albany. Next morning the wagon returned home and we came to Bloomington
on the train. It took us from 9 o'clock until three in the evening to
get here. There were big slabs of wood on the sides of the track to hold
the rails together. Strips of iron were bolted to the rails on the
inside to brace them apart. There were no wires at the joints of the
rails to carry electricity, as we have now, for there was no electricity
in those days.

I have lived in Bloomington ever since I came here. I met a family named
Dorsett after I came here. They came from Jefferson County, Kentucky.
Two of their daughters had been sold before the war. After the war, when
the black people were free, the daughters heard some way that their
people were in Bloomington. It was a happy time when they met their
parents.

Once when I was a little boy, I was sitting on the fence while my mother
plowed to get the field ready to put in wheat. The white man who owned
her was plowing too. Some Yankee soldiers on horses came along. One rode
up to the fence and when my mother came to the end of the furrow, he
said to her, "Lady, could you tell me where Jim