ly in recent
years that he was taught to write his name.

This old man lives alone in a shack at Taylor, a little village on the
outskirts of Columbia. He is furnished with all the milk and ice cream
he can eat by the Columbia Dairy. He purchases a little food with the
state pension of twenty-five dollars a year paid to Negroes who served
the Confederacy in some military capacity.

Uncle Ransom says his master was the kindest man in the world, and that
as far as he is concerned, he has never had a worry in his life, and as
he said this, his face radiated with a broad and satisfied smile.

Reference:
Personal interview with Ransom Simmons age 104.

=Project #1655=
=Stiles M. Scruggs=
=Columbia, S.C.=

=ALFRED SLIGH=

=_EX-SLAVE 100 YEARS OLD._=

Alfred Sligh, who lives in a rented house at 1317 Gregg Street, says he
was born in Newberry County, South Carolina, in 1837. His hair is white
and he is feeble. He goes about the city, on fair days, collecting small
sums of money from his white friends and sometimes from his own race. In
this way he earns most of his income.

"My folks was slaves of the Sligh family for many years, befo' I was
born. My mammy and daddy and me b'long to Butler Sligh, at de time I
begin to do chores and take notice of things. I be nearly half grown
when my young master, Butler Sligh, am just four years old. He die, four
or five years ago. I guess you 'member, 'cause he was a powerful
well-known white man. He was seventy-five years old when he die.

"De young master, he name for my old master. De old master and 'most all
de white men of de neighborhood, 'round 'bout us, march off to de war in
1861. One day I see them ridin' down de big road on many hosses and they
wavin' deir hats and singin': 'We gwine to hang Abe Lincoln on a sour
apple tree!' and they in fine spirits. My young master, Butler, who they
call Junior at de time, he am too young to go with them so we stay home
and farm. I go with him to de fields and he tell de slaves what to do.
Durin' de war I see much of de soldiers who say they not quit fightin'
'til all de damn-Yankees am dead. Dis was so, durin' de first two years.
After dat I see more and more of de damn-Yankees, as they pass through
'flictin' punishment on 'most everybody.

"Sho' we hear dat all Negroes am free in 1863, but dat rumor not affect
us. We work on, 'til Sherman come and burn and slash his way through de
state in de spring of 1865. I j