e to do any
heavy work.

"I see sojers and knits socks for 'em by moonshine. Me and my husban'
was married by a Yankee sojer. I was dress in white Tarleyton weddin'
dress and I didn' wear no hoop skirt. I had a pretty wreath of little
white flowers, little bitty, little dainty ones, the pretties' little
things. When I marry, my sister marry too and our husban's was brudders.
My husban' dress in suit of white linen. He sho' look handsome. He give
me a gol' ring and a cup and saucer for weddin' gif'. We git married in
Huntsville and us didn' go no weddin' journey trip. We was so poor we
couldn' go round the house! I's 'bout twenty some year when I marries,
but I don' know jus' how old. We has a big dance that night and the
white folks come, 'cause they likes to see the niggers dance.

"The white folks had interes' in they cullud people where I live.
Sometimes they's as many as fifty cradle with little nigger babies in
'em and the mistus, she look after them and take care of them, too. She
turn them and dry them herself. She had a little gal git water and help.
She never had no chillen of her own. I'd blow the horn for the mudders
of the little babies to come in from the fields and nurse 'em, in
mornin' and afternoon. Mistus feed them what was old enough to eat
victuals. Sometimes, they mammies take them to the field and fix pallet
on ground for them to lay on.

"The las' word my old Mistus Pankey say when she die was, 'You take care
of Charlette.'

420249

[Illustration: Francis Black]

FRANCIS BLACK was born at Grand Bluff, Mississippi, about 1850, on
the Jim Carlton plantation. When five years old, she was stolen and
taken to the slave market in New Orleans. Failing to sell her
there, the slave traders took her to Jefferson, Texas, and sold her
to Bill Tumlin. Francis stayed with him five years after she was
freed, then married and moved to Cass County, Texas. She became
blind a year ago, and now lives at the Bagland Old Folks Home, 313
Elm St., Texarkana, Texas.

"My name am Francis Black, and I don't know jes' how old I is, but
'members lots 'bout them slave days. I was a big gal, washin' and
ironin', when they sot the darkies free. From that, I cal'late I'm in my
eighties.

"I was born in Grand Bluff, in Mississippi, on Old Man Carlton's
plantation, and I was stole from my folks when I was a li'l gal and
never seed them no more. Us kids played in the big