f medicine we took but I's know it was mostly
home-made.

"We all wears dat asafoetida on a string 'round our necks and sometimes
we carry a rabbit's foot in our pockets fer good luck.

"When de war was ended and de slaves was free old Uncle Pete, our oldest
slave, comes a-walkin' up from de woods whar he always go to keeps from
bein' bothered, to read his Bible, and he had dat Bible under his arm
an' he say, 'I's know somethin', me an' de Lawd knows somethin'', and
den he tells us. He say, 'You all is free people now, you can go when
you please and come when you pleases and you can stay here or go some
other place'. Well I had to stay 'cause my mother stayed and I's jes'
keeps on ridin' dem race hosses 'til long after my marster was dead, den
I's gits me some hosses of my own and train other men's hosses too.

"I's worked at dat racin' business 'til I's come to Texas and when I
went to work in hotels dat killed me up. I's done ev'r thing from makin'
soap fer de scrubbin', to cookin' de bes' meals fer de bes' hotels. I
aint been no good since, though, and I had to quit several years ago.

"De first time I was married was to Phillis Reed in Missouri and we jes'
jumps over de broom, and after Phillis die and I comes to Texas I's gits
married again to Susie, here in San Angelo; we jes' jumps ov'r de broom
too. I's nev'r had no chillun of my own so I's jes' a settin' here
a-livin' off de ole age pension."

420029

[Illustration: Julie Francis Daniels]

JULIA FRANCIS DANIELS, born in 1848, in Georgia, a slave of the
Denman family, who moved to Texas before the Civil War. Julia's
memory fails her when she tries to recall names and dates. She
still tries to take part in church activities and has recently
started to learn reading and writing. She lives with a daughter at
2523 Spring St. Dallas, Texas.

"They's lots I disremembers and they's lots I remembers, like the year
the war's over and the fightin' all done with, 'cause that the year I
larned to plow and that the time I got married. That's the very year
they larned me to plow. I larnt all right, 'cause I wasn't one slow to
larn anything. Afore to that time, they ain't never had no hoe in the
field for me a-tall. I jes' toted water for the ones in the field.

"I had plenty brothers and sisters, 'bout ten of 'em, but I disremembers
some they names. There was Tom and George and Marthy and Mandy, and
they's all name' Denman,