es
mother. Mollie and Lila Lassiter, two sisters, were also his women.
Dese women wus given to him an' no udder man wus allowed to have
anything to do wid 'em. Mollie an' Lila both had chilluns by him. Dere
names wus Jim, Mollie, Liza, Rosa, Pete an' I can't remember no more of
'em.

De Yankees took jes' what dey wanted an' nothin' stopped 'em, cause de
surrender had come. Before de surrender de slave owners begun to scatter
de slaves 'bout from place to place to keep de Yankees from gittin' 'em.
If de Yankees took a place de slaves nearby wus moved to a place further
off.

All I done wus fer de Rebels. I wus wid 'em an' I jes' done what I wus
tole. I wus afraid of de Yankees 'cause de Rebels had told us dat de
Yankees would kill us. Dey tole us dat de Yankees would bore holes in
our shoulders an' wurk us to carts. Dey tole us we would be treated a
lot worser den dey wus treating us. Well, de Yankees got here but they
treated us fine. Den a story went round an' round dat de marster would
have to give de slaves a mule an' a year's provisions an' some lan',
about forty acres, but dat was not so. Dey nebber did give us anything.
When de war ended an' we wus tole we wus free, we stayed on wid marster
cause we had nothin' an' nowhere to go.

We moved about from farm to farm. Mother died an' father married Maria
Edwards after de surrender. He did not live wid any of his other slave
wives dat I knows of.

I have wurked as a han' on de farm most of de time since de surrender
and daddy worked most of de time as a han', but he had gardens an'
patches most everywhere he wurked. I wurked in New York City for fifteen
years with Crawford and Banhay in de show business. I advertised for
'em. I dressed in a white suit, white shirt, an' white straw hat, and
wore tan shoes. I had to be a purty boy. I had to have my shoes shined
twice a day. I lived at 18 Manilla Lane, New York City. It is between
McDougall Street and 6th Avenue. I married Clara Taylor in New York
City. We had two children. The oldest one lives in New York. The other
died an' is buried in Raleigh.

In slavery time they kept you down an' you had to wurk, now I can't
wurk, an' I am still down. Not allowed to wurk an' still down. It's all
hard, slavery and freedom, both bad when you can't eat. The ole bees
makes de honey comb, the young bee makes de honey, niggers makes de
cotton an' corn an' de white folks gets de money. Dis wus de case in
Slavery time an' its de cas