She was a hard worker. She had to be. Old
Mistress see to that. She was meaner than old Marster, she was. She
would sit by the spinning wheel and count the turns the slave women
made. And they couldn't fool her none neither. My mother worked until
ten o'clock almost every night because her part was to 'spend so many
cuts' a day, and she couldnt get through no sooner. When I was a
little shaver, I used to sit on the floor with the other little
fellows while our mothers worked, and sometimes the white folks girls
would read us a Bible story. But most of the time we slept. Right
there on the floor. Then later, when I was bigger, I had to work with
the men at night shelling corn, to take to town early mornings."

"Marster Goforth counted himself a good old Baptist Christian. The one
good deed he did, I will never forget, he made us all go to church
every Sunday. That was the onliest place off the farm we ever went.
Every time a slave went off the place, he had to have a pass, except
we didnt, for church. Everybody in thet country knowed that the
Goforth niggers didn't have to have no pass to go to church. But that
didn't make no difference to the Pattyroolers. They'd hide in the
bushes, or wait along side of the road, and when the niggers come from
meeting, the Pattyroolers's say, 'Whar's your pass'? Us Goforth
niggers used to start running soon as we was out of church. We never
got caught. That is why I tell you I cant use my legs like I used to.
If you was caught without no pass, the Pattyroolers give you five
licks. They was licks! You take a bunch of five to seven Pattyroolers
each giving five licks and the blood flows."

"Old Marster was too old to go to the war. He had one son was a
soldier, but he never come home again. I never seen a soldier till the
war was over and they begin to come back to the farms. We half-grown
niggers had to work the farm, because all the famers had to give,--I
believe it was a tenth--of their crops to help feed the soldiers. So
we didnt know nothing about what was going on, no more than a hog. It
was a long time before we knowed we was free. Then one night Old
Marster come to our house and he say he wants to see us all before
breakfast tomorrow morning and to come on over to his house. He got
something to tell us."

"Next morning we went over there. I was the monkey, always acting
smart. But I believe they liked me better than all of the others. I
just spoke sassy-like and say, "Old Mars