ason I won't eat a rabbit today. No Sir! I
won't eat a rabbit. I seed 'em mess wid 'em so much turned me 'ginst
eatin' 'em.

I don't know how much lan' Marster John owned but, Honey, dat wus some
plantation. It reached from Auburn to de Neuse River. Yes Sir, it did,
'cause I been down dere in corn hillin' time an' we fished at twelve
o'clock in Neuse River. Marster John had overseers. Dere wus six of 'em.
Dey rode horses over de fields but I don't 'member dere names.

I never seen a slave whupped but dey wus whupped on de plantation an' I
heard de grown folks talkin' 'bout it. My uncles Nat an' Bert Griffiths
wus both whupped. Uncle Nat would not obey his missus rules an' she had
him whupped. Dey whupped Uncle Bert 'cause he stayed drunk so much. He
loved his licker an' he got drunk an' cut up bad, den dey whupped him.
You could git plenty whiskey den. Twon't like it is now. No sir, it
won't. Whiskey sold fur ten cents a quart. Most ever' body drank it but
you hardly ever seed a man drunk. Slaves wus not whupped for drinkin'.
Dere Marsters give 'em whiskey but dey wus whupped for gittin' drunk.
Dere wus a jail, a kind of stockade built of logs, on de farm to put
slaves in when dey wouldn't mind. I never say any slave put on de block
an' sold, but I saw Aunt Helen Rand cryin' because her Marster Nat Rand
sold her boy, Fab Rand.

No Sir, no readin' an' writin'. You had to work. Ha! ha! You let your
marster or missus ketch you wid a book. Dat wus a strict rule dat no
learnin' wus to be teached. I can't read an' write. If it wus not fur my
mother wit don't know what would become of me. We had prayer meetings
around at de slave houses. I 'member it well. We turned down pots on de
inside of de house at de door to keep marster an' missus from hearin' de
singin' an' prayin'. Marster an' his family lived in de great house an'
de slave quarters wus 'bout two hundred yards away to the back of de
great house. Dey wus arranged in rows. When de war ended we all stayed
on wid de families Griffiths an' Rands till dey died, dat is all 'cept
my father an' me. He lef' an' I lef'. I been in Raleigh forty-five
years. I married Mack Blalock in Raleigh. He been dead seven years.

My mother had two boys, Antny an' Wesley. She had four girls, Katie,
Grissie, Mary Ella an' Emma. I had three chilluns, two are livin' yet.
They both live in Raleigh.

We had big suppers an' dinners at log rollin's an' corn shuckin's in
slavery time ha! ha! plen