I here to tell you dat I never done nobody no mean
trick in all me life. I does fight cause I cut a man up worth 19
stitches one of dem times back dere. Two of em been on me one time en I
whipped both of em. I tellin you I been good as ever was born from a
'oman. It just like dis, I say fight all right, but don' never turn no
mean trick back. Turn it to God, dat what do. Dem what go to church in
de right way, dey don' have no vengeful spirit bout em. I sho goes to
church cause de church de one thing dat does outstand
everything--everything."

=Source:= Hector Godbold, ex-slave, age 87, Pee Dee,
Marion Co., S.C.
(Personal interview, June 1937).

Project #1855
Stiles M. Scruggs
Columbia, S.C.

DANIEL GODDARD
EX-SLAVE 74 YEARS OLD.

"My name is Daniel Goddard. I was born in Columbia, S.C. Feb. 14, 1863,
to slave parents. You know I recall no contacts I made in slavery for I
was too young during that period. You know too, if I had been born in
Massachusetts, for example, I should have been free, because all slaves
in the United States had been set free when President Lincoln, shortly
before my birth, January, 1863, struck the shackles from bondage.

"The Confederate states had seceded from the Union and they paid no
attention to the freedom proclamation during the war. So the slaves in
the South, generally speaking, stayed on until the Confederacy collapsed
in April, 1865, and even then, some of the slaves were slow to strike
out for themselves, until the Federal government made ample preparations
to take care of them.

"Now you ask, if I heard about escapes of slaves. Sure I did and I heard
my parents discuss the efforts of slaves to shake off the shackles. This
was probably true because my father's brother, Thomas, was a member of
the slave ship which was taking him and 134 others from Virginia to New
Orleans. A few miles south of Charleston, the slaves revolted, put the
officers and crew in irons, and ran the ship to Nassau.

"There they went ashore and the British Government refused to surrender
them. They settled in the Bahama Islands and some of their descendants
are there today. That was about 1830, I think, because my Uncle Thomas
was far older than my father. I heard about the other slave revolts,
where that African prince, one of a large number of slaves that were
kidnaped, took over the Spanish ship L'Amada, killing two of the
officers. The remaining officers pr