ey
been set de nigger dog on you. Yes, mam, dey had some of dese high dogs
dat dey call hounds en dey could sho find you out, too. Oh, dem hounds
would sho get you. Don' care whe' you was hidin, dem dogs would smell
you. If you been climb up a tree, de dog would trail you right to de
foot of dat tree en just stand up en howl at you. Dey would stand right
dere en hold you up de tree till some of de white folks been get dere en
tell you to come down out de tree. Den if you never do like dey say, dey
would chop de tree down en let you fall right in de dog's mouth. Would
let de dog bite you en taste your blood, so dey could find de one dey
was lookin for better de next time. Yes, mam, white people would let de
dog gnaw you up en den dey would grease you en carry you home to de
horse lot whe' dey would have a lash en a paddle to whip you wid. Oh,
dey would have a swarm of black people up to de lot at sunrise on a
mornin to get whip. Would make dem drop dey body frock en would band dem
down to a log en would put de licks to dem. Ma was whip twice en she say
dat she stay to her place after dat. I hear talk dey give some of dem 50
lashes to a whippin. Dat how it was in slavery time. Poor colored people
couldn' never go bout en talk wid dey neighbors no time widout dey Massa
say so. I say, 'Ma, if dey been try to beat me, I would a jump up en
bite dem.' She say, 'You would get double portion den.' Just on account
of dat, ain' many of dem slavery people knockin bout here now neither, I
tell you. Dat first hide dey had, white folks just took it off dem. I
would a rather been dead, I say. I remember, we chillun used to set down
en ax Ma all bout dis en dat. Say, 'Ma, yunnah couldn' do nothin?' She
say, 'No, white people had us in slavery time.'

"My God a mercy, I think now de best time to live in cause I ain' gettin
no beatin dese days. If I had been big enough to get whip in slavery
time, I know I would been dead cause I would been obliged to fight dem
back en dey would kill folks for dat in dem days. If anybody hurt me,
dey got to hurt back again, I say. Cose us had us task to do in dem
days, but us never didn' have to bother bout huntin no rations en
clothes no time den like de people be burdened wid dese days. I tell
you, what you get in dese times, you got to paw for it en paw hard, but
ain' nobody else business whe' you do it or no."

"Oh, de young people, dey ain' nothin dis day en time. Ain' worth a
shuck no time. De old