gets shut
of de critters, he says. 'We'll res' for couple days, den starts back.'
I says to me, 'Not dis nigger.'

"I sneaks 'way and was settin' on a bench when 'long comes a white man
and he's tall, had dark hair and was fine lookin'. He says to me, 'Is
you a cowhand?' So I tells him I is, and he says he wants a hand on his
farm in Missouri and he says, 'Come with me.' He tells me his name was
James and takes me to his farm whar I tends cattle and hosses for three
years and he pays me well. He gives me more'n I earns. After three years
I leaves, but not 'cause I larned he was outlaw, 'cause I larned dat
long time afterwa'ds. I's lonesome for Texas and dat's how I comes to
Fort Worth and here's whar I's stayed ever' since.

"I's married 'bout 40 years ago to a woman dat had eight chillens. We
sep'rated 'cause dem chillens cause arg'ments. I can fight one, but not
de army.

420180

RICHARD CARRUTHERS, 100 year old ex-slave, was born in Memphis,
Tennessee. Mr. Billy Coats bought him and his mother and brought
them to Bastrop Co., Texas. He came to Houston 20 years ago and
lives in a negro settlement known as Acres Home, about 8 miles
northeast of Houston. It is a wooded section, with a clearing here
and there for a Negro shack and plots of ground for growing
"victuals and co'n."

"I wants to tell the Gospel truf. My mammy's name was Melia Carruthers
and my papa's name was Max. My papa's papa's name was Carruthers, too.
My brothers names was Charlie and Frank and Willie and John and Tom and
Adam.

"When I was still little Mr. Billy Coats bought my mama and us and with
about 500 of his slaves we set out to come to Texas. We goes to Bastrop
County and starts to work. My old missy--her name was Missy Myra--was 99
year old and her head was bald as a egg and had wens on it as big as
eggs, too.

"In them days the boss men had good houses but the niggers had log
cabins and they burned down oftentimes. The chimney would cotch fire,
'cause it was made out of sticks and clay and moss. Many the time we
have to git up at midnight and push the chimney 'way from the house to
keep the house from burnin' up.

"The chairs was mostly chunks of cordwood put on end, or slabs, just
rough, and the beds was built like scaffoldin'. We made a sort of
mattress out of corn shucks or moss.

"My missy, she was good, but the overseer, he rough. His temper born of
the debbil, himse'f. His name w