itting. Dese soles was made from maple an' ash wood.

We didn' have any horses to haul wid. We used oxen an' ox-carts. De
horse and mules was used to do de plowin'.

When de Yankees come dey didn' do so much harm, only dey tole us we was
free niggers. But I always feel like I belong to Marse Paul, an' i still
live at Staggville on de ole plantation. I has a little garden an' does
what I can to earn a little somethin'. De law done fixed it so now dat I
will get a little pension, an' I'll stay right on in dat little house
'til de good Lawd calls me home, den I will see Marse Paul once more.

N. C. District: No. 11 [320001]
Worker: Mrs. W. N. Harriss
No. Words: 658
Subject: John Evans
Born in Slavery
Editor: Mrs. W. N. Harriss

Interviewed

John Evans on the street and in this Office.
Residence changes frequently.

[TR: Date Stamp "SEP--1937"]

Story of John Evans
Born in Slavery.

I was born August 15th, 1859. I am 78 years old. Dat comes out right,
don't it? My mother's name was Hattie Newbury. I don't never remember
seein' my Pa. We lived on Middle Sound an' dat's where I was born. I
knows de room, 'twas upstairs, an' when I knowed it, underneath,
downstairs dat is, was bags of seed an' horse feed, harness an' things,
but it was slave quarters when I come heah.

Me an' my mother stayed right on with Mis' Newberry after freedom, an'
never knowed no diffunce. They was jus' like sisters an' I never knowed
nothin' but takin' keer of Mistus Newberry. She taught me my letters an'
the Bible, an' was mighty perticler 'bout my manners. An' I'm tellin'
you my manners is brought me a heap more money than my readin'--or de
Bible. I'm gwine tell you how dat is, but fust I want to say the most I
learned on Middle Sound was' bout fishin' an' huntin'. An' dawgs.

My! But there sho' was birds an' possums on de Sound in dem days.
Pa'tridges all over de place. Why, even me an' my Mammy et pa'tridges
fer bre'kfust. Think of dat now! But when I growed up my job was
fishin'. I made enough sellin' fish to the summer folks all along
Wrightsville and Greenville Sounds to keep me all winter.

My Mammy cooked fer Mis' Newberry. After a while they both died. I never
did'nt git married.

I don't know nothin' 'bout all the mean things I hear tell about slaves
an' sich. We was just one fam'ly an' had all we needed. We never paid no
'tention to freedom or not freed