siness fer I'se gwine ter wok on pensun er no pensun. No mam, I ain't
gwine ter set back an' 'speck no govermint ter feed me long as I kin'
scratch er 'roun'. I got wuk ter do--I got mo' wuk ter do an' gwine ter
do hit long as I'se able."

It was easy to see from Uncle Manuel's manner he meant every word he
said about "wuk". An independent old soul, and a good example to the
younger ones of his race.

[HW: Ex-Slave]
Mary A. Crawford
Re-search Worker

Susie Johnson--Ex-slave

Susie was only four years old when The War Between the States began, but
recalls a great deal about the old days, and remembers a great deal that
her mother told her. Susie's parents were Jim and Dinah Freeman who
belonged to Mr. and Mrs. Henry Freeman.

The Freemans lived on a large plantation near The Rock, Georgia, and had
so many slaves "they could not be counted".

The old Freeman home is still standing, but is occupied now by negroes
and is in a bad state of repair.

Susie is around seventy-five or seventy-seven years old, as nearly as
she can "figger it out". A good many years ago when she first came over
here from Upson County, she found "Mr. Frank Freeman, her young marster,
away back yonder", and he told her lots and lots about her mother and
father and gave her her correct age--July 4th.

Susie says that Mr. and Mrs. Freeman were "sho" good to their slaves but
they surely did control them. For instance, if any of them had the
stomach ache "Ole Miss" would make them take some "Jerusalem Oak tea"
and if they had a bad cold it was "hoar hound tea". If you did not take
the medicine "Ole Miss" would reach up and get the leather "strop" and
(Susie chuckled) "then you'd take it".

When asked if Mr. Freeman whipped the slaves very much, Susie said he
did not and that if he had been a mean master that "all the niggers
wouldn't a wanted to stay on with him after freedom".

When asked about the negro marriage customs of slavery days, Susie
stated that her mother said that "she and Jim (Susie's daddy) when they
got in love and wanted to marry, jest held each others hands and jumped
over the broom and they was married".

"Yes, I believe in lots o' signs", Susie replied on being asked about
that. For instance, the "scritch' owl is a sho' sign o' death. And the
reason I knows that is cause my papa's death was fo' told by an owl.
Papa was took sick like this morning at nine o'clock and about eleven
o'clock a little scritch'