em to be the leader, stop his
hoss and ask us boys some questions. We answer as best we can, when he
grin at us and pull out some money and give us a nickel a piece.

"We travel on toward Chapin and meet our mammies and many other people,
some them white. They all seem scared and my mammy and Ben's mammy and
us, turns up the river and camps on the hill, for the night, in the
woods. We never sleep much, for it was 'most as light as day, and the
smell of smoke was terrible. We could see people runnin' in certain
parts of Columbia, sometimes. Next mornin' we look over the city from
the bluff and only a few houses was standin' and hundreds of tumble-down
chimneys and the whole town was still smokin'.

"I dreams yet 'bout that awful time, but I thank God that he has
permitted me to live 'long enough to see the city rebuilt and it
stretching far over the area where we hid in the trees."

Project #-1655
Cassels R. Tiedeman
Charleston, S.C.

FOLKLORE

EMMA FRASER--EX-SLAVE

Emma Fraser, a pathetic old character, probably on account of many
hardships, and the lack of family to care for her properly, shows the
wear and tear of years. She was born, in slavery, on a plantation near
Beaufort, of a mother whom she scarcely remembers, and cannot recall the
name of the plantation, nor the name of her mother's owner. She talks
very little but is most emphatic about the time of her birth. "I born in
rebel time, on de plantation down by Beaufort. My ma say I a leetle gal
when dey shoot de big gun on Fort Sumter. All dem people done dead an'
gone now. I aint know dey name any mo'. Wid de troublulation and
bombation I hab to tend wid an' de brain all wore down, you aint blame
me for not know.

"I wants to go to Hebben now an' when de roll is call up dere an' I be
dere, de Lord, he find a hiding place for me. I goes to chu'ch when I
kin an' sing too, but ef I sing an' it doan mobe (move) me any, den dat
a sin on de Holy Ghost; I be tell a lie on de Lord. No I aint sing when
it doan mobe me. You mus'n ax me to do dat.

"One day I see a big automobile on de street wid a old gemmun (gentleman)
ob slavery time settin' in em. I goes up to em an' ax how old he t'ink I
is, an' he say dat I come way, way back dere in de slavery day, an' he
know what he say."

=Source:= Interview with the writer

Emma Fraser, 98 Coming St, Charleston, S.C.
Approx. 80 years old.

S-260-264-N
Hattie Mob