s, where the Lord makes me happy
And then I'm a goin' home."

I don't remember much about the war. There was no fightin' done in
Newton. Jes a skirmish or two. Most of the people get everything jes
ready to run when the Yankee sojers come through the town. This was
toward the las' of the war. Cose the niggers knew what all the fightin'
was about, but they didn't dare say anything. The man who owned the
slaves was too mad as it was, and if the niggers say anything they get
shot right then and thar. The sojers tell us after the war that we get
food, clothes, and wages from our Massas else we leave. But they was
very few that ever got anything. Our ole Massa say he not gwine pay us
anything, corse his money was no good, but he wouldn't pay us if it had
been.

Then the Ku Klux Klan come 'long. They were terrible dangerous. They
wear long gowns, touch the ground. They ride horses through the town at
night and if they find a Negro that tries to get nervy or have a little
bit for himself, they lash him nearly to death and gag him and leave him
to do the bes' he can. Some time they put sticks in the top of the tall
thing they wear and then put an extra head up there with scary eyes and
great big mouth, then they stick it clear up in the air to scare the
poor Negroes to death.

They had another thing they call the 'Donkey Devil' that was jes as bad.
They take the skin of a donkey and get inside of it and run after the
pore Negroes. Oh, Miss them was bad times, them was bad times. I know
folks think the books tell the truth, but they shore don't. Us pore
niggers had to take it all.

Then after the war was over we was afraid to move. Jes like tarpins or
turtles after 'mancipation. Jes stick our heads out to see how the land
lay. My mammy stay with Marse Jonah for 'bout a year after freedom then
ole Solomon Hall made her an offer. Ole man Hall was a good man if there
ever was one. He freed all of his slaves about two years 'fore
'mancipation and gave each of them so much money when he died, that is
he put that in his will. But when he die his sons and daughters never
give anything to the pore Negroes. My mother went to live on the place
belongin' to the nephew of Solomon Hall. All of her six children went
with her. Mother she cook for the white folks an' the children make
crop. When the first year was up us children got the first money we had
in our lives. My mother certainly was happy.

We live on this place for over fo