t me
side o' de haid. I bet dat hand weighed a hundred pounds an' it wuz as
cold as ice. I ain't been able ter wuck fer seben days an' nights an' I
still can't turn my haid far ter de left as you sees.

I reckon 'bout de funniest thing 'bout our plantation wuz de
marryin'. A couple got married by sayin' dat dey wuz, but it couldn't
last fer longer dan five years. Dat wuz so iffen one of 'em got too
weakly ter have chilluns de other one could git him another wife or
husban'.

I 'members de day moughty well when de Yankees come. Massa Dick he
walked de floor an' cussed Sherman fer takin' his niggers away. All o'
de niggers lef', of course, an' me, I walked clean ter Raleigh ter find
out if I wuz really free, an' I couldn't unnerstan' half of it.

Well de first year I slept in folkses woodhouses an' barns an' in de
woods or any whar else I could find. I wucked hyar an' dar, but de
folkses' jist give me sompin' ter eat an' my clothes wuz in strings'
fore de spring o' de year.

Yo' axes me what I thinks of Massa Lincoln? Well, I thinks dat he wuz
doin' de wust thing dat he could ter turn all dem fool niggers loose
when dey ain't got no place ter go an' nothin' ter eat. Who helped us
out den? Hit wuzn't de Yankees, hit wuz de white folkses what wuz left
wid deir craps in de fiel's, an' wuz robbed by dem Yankees, ter boot. My
ole massa, fur instance, wuz robbed uv his fine hosses an' his feed
stuff an' all dem kaigs o' liquor what he done make hisself, sides his
money an' silver.

Slavery wuz a good thing den, but de world jist got better an'
outgrowed it.

EH

N. C. District: No. 2 [320235]
Worker: Mary A. Hicks
No. Words: 863
Subject: HERNDON BOGAN
Story Teller: Herndon Bogan
Editor: Daisy Bailey Waitt

[TR: No Date Stamp]

HERNDON BOGAN

Ex-Slave Story

An interview with Herndon Bogan, 76 (?) of State Prison, Raleigh, N. C.

I wus bawned in Union County, South Carolina on de plantation o' Doctor
Bogan, who owned both my mammy Issia, an' my pap Edwin. Dar wus six o'
us chilluns; Clara, Lula, Joe, Tux, Mack an' me.

I doan' member much 'bout slavery days 'cept dat my white folkses wus
good ter us. Dar wus a heap o' slaves, maybe a hundert an' fifty. I
'members dat we wucked hard, but we had plenty ter eat an' w'ar, eben
iffen we did w'ar wood shoes.

I kin barely recolleck 'fore de war dat I'se seed a heap o' cocks
fightin' in pits an' a heap o' ho