ould have a big dinner for his slaves and
spread it out in the yard. Corn shuckings were popular and so were
cotton pickings, where big eats were prepared for those who helped.
They had big feasts at marriages, and even the slaves had feasts at
their marriages, the master and his family taking part in the
ceremonies. I was married in 1887, and at that time I was living with
Mr. Renwick, and my girl with Dr. Tom Brown. Dr. Brown had us to marry
in his yard in the grove, and over 200 persons was there to see it. The
next day, he give us a big 'infair' with all kinds of good things to
eat, presents and dances. We never had any children. After we moved to
town, my wife was a nurse or midwife among some of the white families
for a long time.

"In Ku Klux times, I met five or ten of them in the road one night. They
never bothered me. They had long white sheets over them and the horses.
Slits were cut for the head, eyes, nose and mouth.

"The niggers had an old field song: 'Give me dat good ole time religion'
which they sang most of the time. There was another song they sang:
'Dark midnight is my cry--Give me Jesus, You may have all this world,
but give me Jesus.'

"Some old-time cures for the sick was--barks of cherry tree, dogwood,
and olive bush, made into tea and drunk.

"I thought Abe Lincoln was a fine man, done mighty good and saved the
country. Jeff Davis was a good man. Booker Washington was a great man. I
think slavery was bad; yet our white folks was good to us, but some
white masters was mean. I think everybody should belong to the church
and be a Christian."

SOURCE: Morgan Scurry (78), Newberry, S.C.; interviewed by:
G.L. Summer. Newberry, S.C. May 19, 1937.

=S-260-264-N=
=Project #935=
=Hattie Mobley=
=Richland County=
=South Carolina=

=Uncle Ransom Simmons=

=Richland County, South Carolina.=

Uncle Ransom is one of the few remaining slaves who still lives and
whose mind is still clear and active. He has just passed his one-hundred
and fourth birthday, was born in Mississippi, and brought to South
Carolina by his master Wade Hampton, the father of the illustrious
General Wade Hampton, before the Civil War.

When the war broke out and General Wade Hampton went to war Uncle Ransom
cried to be allowed to follow his young master. He went and served as a
body guard. Uncle Ransom learned to read the Bible while attending a
night school held for slaves before freedom, and it was on