r children
are located in various cities throughout the country. She has a daughter
who is a talented singer, and has appeared on programs with her daughter
in many churches. She is not certain about her age, but according to her
memory of events, she is about eighty-seven.

Her story as told to the writer follows:

"When the Civil War ended, I was living near Richmond, Virginia. I am
not sure just how old I was, but I was a big, flat-footed woman, and had
worked as a slave on a plantation. My master was a good one, but many of
them were not. In a way, we were happy and contented, working from sun
up to sun down. But when Lincoln freed us, we rejoiced, yet we knew we
had to seek employment now and make our own way. Wages were low. You
worked from morning until night for a dollar, but we did not complain.
About 1870 a Mr. Masten, who was a coal operator, came to Richmond
seeking laborers for his mines in Clay County. He told us that men could
make four to five dollars a day working in the mines, going to work at
seven and quitting at 3:30 each day. That sounded like a Paradise to our
men folks. Big money and you could get rich in little time. But he did
not tell all, because he wanted the men folk to come with him to
Indiana. Three or four hundred came with Mr. Masten. They were brought
in box cars. Mr. Masten paid their transportation, but was to keep it
out of their wages. My husband was in that bunch, and the women folk
stayed behind until their men could earn enough for their transportation
to Indiana."

"When they arrived about four miles east of Brazil, or what was known as
Harmony, the train was stopped and a crowd of white miners ordered them
not to come any nearer Brazil. Then the trouble began. Our men did not
know of the labor trouble, as they were not told of that part. Here they
were fifteen hundred miles from home, no money. It was terrible. Many
walked back to Virginia. Some went on foot to Illinois. Mr. Masten took
some of them South of Brazil about three miles, where he had a number of
company houses, and they tried to work in his mine there. But many were
shot at from the bushes and killed. Guards were placed about the mine by
the owner, but still there was trouble all the time. The men did not
make what Mr. Masten told them they could make, yet they had to stay for
they had no place to go. After about six months, my husband who had been
working in that mine, fell into the shaft and was injured. He wa