for de people to be on dey knees en prayin. De
people talkin bout fightin all de time en dis here talk bout fightin in
de air, dat what got my goat. Might lay down at night sound en wake up
in de mornin en find us all in destructiveness. I say, de Lord all what
can save dis country."

=Source:= Liney Henderson, age 70, colored, Marion, S.C.
Personal interview by Annie Ruth Davis, Nov., 1937.

Project #1655
W.W. Dixon
Winnsboro, S.C.

JIM HENRY
EX-SLAVE 77 YEARS OLD.

Jim Henry lives with his wife, Mary, in a four-room frame house, three
miles southeast of Winnsboro, S.C. He owns the house and nine acres of
land. He has only one arm, the other having been amputated twenty years
ago. He employs a boy to plough, and he and his wife make a living on
the property.

"I was born in the Bratton slave quarter, about six miles northeast of
Winnsboro. I was born a slave of General John Bratton. He use to tell me
I come from 'stinguished stock, dat he bought my father, James, from de
Patrick Henry family in Virginia. Dat's de reason my pappy and us took
dat name after freedom.

"My mother, Silva, and her mother, was bought from de Rutledge family in
Charleston, by General Bratton. My grandfather, on my mother's side, was
name Edward Rutledge. No, sir, I don't mean he was a white man; he just
ginger-cake color, so my mother say. My pappy say his father was a
full-blooded Indian, so, dat makes three bloods in my veins, white
folks, Indian folks, and Negro folks. Derefore, us been thrifty like de
white man, crafty like de Indians, and hard workin' like de Negroes.

"In slavery time, us lived in one of de nice log houses in de Bratton
quarters. Our beds was pole beds, wid wheat straw ticks, and cotton
pillows. De Brattons was always sheep raisers, and us had woolen
blankets and woolen clothes in de winter. My mother was one of de
seamstresses; she make clothes for de slaves. Course, I'm tellin' you
what she tell me, mostly. I was too little to 'member much 'bout slavery
time. All de little niggers run 'round in deir shirt-tails in summer
time; never work any, just hunt for grapes, muscadines, strawberries,
chinquapins, hickory nuts, calamus root, slippery elmer (elm) bark, wild
cherries, mulberries, and red and black haws, and was as happy as de
days was long.

"I just can 'member de Yankees. Don't 'member dat they was so bad. You
know they say even de devil ain't as black as he is painted. De