n for the darkies in the Gresham and Booker
community. They had dances, cornshuckings, picnics and all kinds of old
time affairs. These were attended by slaves for some distance around,
but they had to have passes or "de patter rollers would sho' git 'em. Us
little niggers wuz feared to go 'bout much 'kase we heered so much
erbout de patter rollers." Wheeler enjoyed the cornshuckings more than
anything else, or rather he talked more freely about them. He said that
the corn was piled high in the barn and the men and boys, after a big
supper of "fresh meat and all kinds of good things, and plenty of sho'
nough pound cake"--(that pound cake he can't seem to forget)--would
gather around and to the tune of an old fiddle in the hands of a
plantation musician, they would sing and shuck corn until the whole pile
was finished. Many races were entered into and the winners proclaimed
amid much shouting and laughter. This merriment and work lasted into the
night.

Wheeler was quick to say that the happiest time of his life was those
days of slavery and the first years immediately after. He was happy, had
all that anyone needed, was well taken care of in every way. He spoke of
their family as being a happy one, of how they worked hard all day, and
at night were gathered around their cabin fire where the little folks
played, and his mother spun away on her "task of yarn". His Mistess made
all his clothes, "good warm ones, too." All the little negroes played
together and there "wuz a old colored lady" that looked after them "an'
kept 'em straight."

There was little talk of the war, in fact some of the slaves didn't know
what "de white folks wuz er fightin' 'bout." Wheeler's two Booker
masters, "Marse Simmie and Marse Jabie, went to de war, Marse Jabie wuz
kilt dar." Very little difference was noticed in the plantation life--of
course times were harder and there was a sadness around, but work went
on as usual. When the war was over and the slaves called up and told
they were free: "Sum wuz glad an' sum wuz sorry, dey all wuz at a
wonder--at de row's en', didn't know whar ter go. De most of 'em stayed
on lak we wuz, workin' fer our white folks. Dat's what my Pa an' Ma
done, dey stayed on fer sometime after de war." Wheeler tells about a
few Yankees coming through the country after the war: "Us niggers wuz
all 'feared of 'em an' we run frum 'em, but dey didn't do nothin' to
nobody. I dunno what dey cum er 'round down here fer."

Whee