hoss, an' up driv two strange white mens in a buggy. Dey
hitch dere hosses an' cum in de house, which skeered me. Den one o' de
strangers said, 'git yo clothers, Mary; we has bought you frum Mr.
Shorter." I c'menced cryin' an' beggin' Mr. Shorter to not let 'em take
me away. But he say, 'yes, Mary, I has sole yer, an' yer must go wid
em.'

"Den dese strange mens, whose names I ain't never knowed, tuk me an' put
me in de buggy an' driv off wid me, me hollerin' at de top o' my voice
an' callin' my Ma! Den dem speckulataws begin to sing loud--jes to drown
out my hollerin.'

"Us passed de very fiel whar paw an' all my fokes wuz wuckin, an' I calt
out as loud as I could an', as long as I could see 'em, 'good-bye, Ma!'
'good-bye, Ma!' But she never heared me. Naw, nah, daz white mens wuz
singin' so loud Ma could'n hear me! An' she could'n see me, caze dey had
me pushed down out o' sight on de floe o' de buggy.

"I ain't never seed nor heared tell o' my Ma an' Paw, an' bruthers, an'
susters from dat day to dis.

"My new owners tuck me to Baltymore, whar dey had herded tergether two
two-hoss wagon loads o' Niggers. All o' us Niggers wuz den shipped on a
boat to Savannah, an' frum dar us wuz put on de cyars an' sont to Macon.

"In Macon, us wuz sold out, and Doctor (W.R.) Little, of Talbotton,
bought me at oxion (auction) an' tuck me home wid 'im. Den I wuz known
as Mary Little, instid of Mary Shorter."

In the continuation of her narrative, "Aunt" Mary said that the Littles
trained her to be a nurse. Before the war ended, she was inherited by
Mr. Gus (the late Hon. W.A.) Little.

She remembers that all the "quality", young white men who went to the
war from Talbotton took Negro men-servants (slaves) along with them.
These were usually called body-servants, and it was a body-servant's
duty to cook, wash, and do general valet service for his master. In a
pinch, he was also supposed to raid a hen roost, or otherwise rustle
food for his "white fokes".

According to "Aunt" Mary, the Little Negroes were very religious and
given to much loud praying and singing, which often so disturbed Dr.
Little that he gave orders for them to stop it, and also ordered that
all lights in the slave quarters be out at 9 o'clock each night.

"So us tuck to slippin' off to a big gully in de pastur to sing and pray
whar de white fokes couldn' hear us.

"My fust baby wuz bawned in 1862, during de secon' year o' de war. I has
had several husban