I wus thirty years old when I married. I wus married in my missus'
graduating dress. I wus married in the white folks' church, to James
Henry Harris. The white folks carried me there and gave me away. Miss
Mary Smith gave me away. The wedding wus attended mostly by white
folks.

My husband wus a fireman on the Cape Fear river boats and a white man's
Negro too. We had two children, both died while little. My husband and I
spent much of our time with the white folks and when he wus on his runs
I slept in their homes. Often the children of the white families slept
with me. We both tried to live up to the standards of decency and
honesty and to be worthy of the confidence placed in us by our white
folks.

My husband wus finally offered a job with a shipping concern in
Deleware and we moved there. He wus fireman on the freighter
Wilmington. He worked there three years, when he wus drowned. After his
death I married David Augustus and immediately came back to North
Carolina and my white folks, and we have been here ever since. I am a
member of several Negro Lodges and am on the Committee for the North
Carolina Colored State Fair.

There are only a few of the old white folks who have always been good
to me living now, but I am still working with their offspring, among
whom I have some mighty dear friends. I wus about eight years old when
Sherman's Army came through. Guess I am about eighty years of age now.

AC

N. C. District: No. 2 [320261]
Worker: T. Pat Matthews
No. Words: 908
Subject: A Slave Story
Story Teller: Charity Austin
Editor: Daisy Bailey Waitt

[TR: Date Stamp "JUN 26 1937"]

CHARITY AUSTIN
507 South Bloodworth Street, Raleigh, N. C.

I wus borned in the year 1852, July 27. I wus born in Granville County,
sold to a slave speculator at ten years old and carried to Southwest,
Georgia. I belonged to Samuel Howard. His daughter took me to Kinston,
North Carolina and I stayed there until I wus sold. She married a man
named Bill Brown, and her name wus Julia Howard Brown. My father wus
named Paul Howard and my mother wus named Chollie Howard. My old missus
wus named Polly Howard.

John Richard Keine from Danville, Virginia bought me and sent me to a
plantation in Georgia. We only had a white overseer there. He and his
wife and children lived on the plantation. We had slave quarters there.
Slaves were bought up and sent there in chains. Some were