ome back he said Marmaduke ought to sent for him, not put
him in jail. Jim Battle sold 'Big Will'. We never heard or seen him no
more. His family stayed on the plantation and worked. 'Big Will' could
split as many more rails as anybody else on the place.

"I seen people sell babies out of the cradle. Poor white people buy
babies and raise them.

"The Battles had gins and stores in North Carolina and Williams had
farms, nothing but farms.

"When I was a girl I nursed the nigger women's babies and seen after
the children. I nursed Tom Williams' boy, Johnny Williams. He run to
me, said, 'Them killed my papa.' I took him up in my arms. Then was
when the Yankee soldiers come on the place. Sid Williams went to war.
I cooked when the regular cook was weaving. Mother carded and spun
then. I had a ounce of cotton to card every night from September till
March. When I'd be dancing around, Miss Helland Harris Williams say,
'You better be studying your pewter days.' Meant for me to stop
dancing.

"Mistress Polly married a Perry, then Right Hendrick. Perrys was rich
folks. When Marmaduke Battle died all the niggers cried and cried and
bellowed because they thought they would be sold and get a mean
master.

"They had a mean master right then--Right Hendrick. Mean a man as ever
God ever wattled a gut in I reckon. That was in Mississippi. They took
us back and forth when it suited them. We went in hacks, surreys and
stage-coaches, wagons, horseback, and all sorts er ways. We went on
big river boats sometimes. They sold off a lot of niggers to settle up
the estate. What I want to know is how they settle up estates now.

"They parched persimmon seed and wheat during the war to make coffee.
I ploughed during the Civil War. Strange people come through, took our
snuff and tobacco. Master Tom said for us not have no light at night
so the robbers couldn't find us so easy. He was a good man. The
Yankees said they had to subdue our country. They took everything they
could find. Times was hard. That was in North Carolina.

"When Brutten Williams bought me and mama--mama was Liza
Williams--Master Brutten bought her sister three or four years after
that and they took us to (Zeblin or) Sutton in Franklin County. Now
they call it Wakefield Post Office. Brutten willed us to Tom. Sid,
Henry, John was Tom Williams' boys, and his girls were Pink and Tish.

"Master John and Marmaduke Battle was rich as they could be. They was
Joe Battle's uncles