when dey tuk Marse
Alec and Uncle Pierce away. Dey kept Marse Alec in prison off somewhar a
long time but dey sont Pierce back home 'fore long.

"I seed Jeff Davis when dey brung him through Crawfordville on de train.
Dey had him all fastened up wid chains. Dey told me dat a Nigger 'oman
put pizen in Jeff Davis' somepin t'eat and dat was what kilt him. One
thing sho, our Marse Alec warn't pizened by nobody. He was comin' from
de field one day when a big old heavy gate fell down on him, and even if
he did live a long time atterwards dat was what was de cause of his
death.

"I seed Uncle Pierce 'fore he died and us sot and talked and cried 'bout
Marse Alec. Yessum, us sho did have de best Marster in de world. If
ever a man went to Heaven, Marse Alec did. I sho does wish our good old
Marster was livin' now. Now, Miss, I done told you all I can ricollec'
'bout dem days. I thanks you a lot for dat purty yaller dress, and I
hopes you comes back to see me again sometime."

ALICE BATTLE, EX-SLAVE
Hawkinsville, Georgia

(Interviewed By Elizabeth Watson--1936)
[JUL 20, 1937]

During the 1840's, Emanuel Caldwell--born in North Carolina, and Neal
Anne Caldwell--born in South Carolina, were brought to Macon by
"speculators" and sold to Mr. Ed Marshal of Bibb County. Some time
thereafter, this couple married on Mr. Marshal's plantation, and their
second child, born about 1850, was Alice Battle. From her birth until
freedom, Alice was a chattel of this Mr. Marshal, whom she refers to as
a humane man, though inclined to use the whip when occasion demanded.

Followed to its conclusion, Alice's life history is void of thrills and
simply an average ex-slave's story. As a slave, she was well fed, well
clothed, and well treated, as were her brother and sister slaves. Her
mother was a weaver, her father--a field hand, and she did both
housework and plantation labor.

Alice saw the Yankee pass her ex-master's home with their famous
prisoner, Jeff Davis, after his capture, in '65. The Yankee band, says
she, was playing "We'll hang Jeff Davis on a Sour Apple Tree". Some of
the soldiers "took time out" to rob the Marshal smokehouse. The Whites
and Negroes were all badly frightened, but the "damyankees didn't harm
nobody".

After freedom, Alice remained with the Marshals until Christmas, when
she moved away. Later, she and her family moved back to the Marshal
plantation for a few years. A few years still later, Alice married a