ck suddenly fell
asleep too. When he awake it wuz jist at de crack of dawn so no stars
wus dar.

Jack went flyin' ter de marster hollerin', 'please sur marster, hang up
some mo' stars, I done run by dem seben'.

JACK AND THE DEVIL

Onct Jack an' de debil got inter a 'spute 'bout who can throw a rock de
ferderest. De debil sez dat he can throw a rock so fur dat hit won't
come down in three days.

Iffen you can throw a rock furder dan dat, sez de debil, I'll give you
yer freedom.

De debil chunks a rock an' hit goes up an' stays fer three days. When
hit comes down Jack picks hit up an' he 'lows, 'Good Lawd, move de stars
an' de moon case dar's a rock comin' ter heaben'.

De debil sez, 'Iffen you can do dat den you can beat me case I can't
throw a rock in a mile o' heaben'.

AC.

N. C. District: No. 2 [320240]
Worker: T. Pat Matthews
No. Words: 1025
Subject: A Slave Story
Story Teller: W. S. Debnam
Editor: Daisy Bailey Waitt

[TR: Date Stamp "JUN 30 1937"]

W. SOLOMON DEBNAM.
701 Smith Street.

Yes, I remember the Yankees coming to Raleigh. I don't know very much
about those times, I was so young, but I remember the Yankees all right
in their blue clothes; their horses, and so on. I'll be 78 years old the
8th of this comin' September an' I've heard mother an' father talk about
slavery time a whole lot. We belonged to T. R. Debnam at Eagle Rock, Wake
County. His wife was named Priscilla Debnam. My father was named Daniel
Debnam an' my mother was named Liza Debnam. My master had several
plantations an' a lot of slaves. I don't know how many, but I know he
had 'em. He fed us well; we had a good place to sleep. We had wove
clothes, enough to keep us warm. He treated me just like he had been my
father. I didn't know the difference. Marster an' missus never hit me a
lick in their lives. My mother was the house girl. Father tended
business around the house an' worked in the field sometimes. Our houses
were in marster's yard. The slave quarters were in the yard of the great
house. I don't remember going to church until after the surrender.

I remember the corn shuckin's, but not the Christmas and the fourth of
July holidays. They had a lot of whiskey at corn shuckin's and good
things to eat.

I heard pappy talk of patterollers, but I do not know what they were.
Pappy said he had to have a pass to visit on, or they would whip him if
they could ketch hi