ing for babies."

"It like I tell you de colored peoples never get no learnin but what
little dey catch from de plantation men in dem night schools. Oh, dey
give everyone of us a slate en slate pencil en we study dere in de
quarter in de night time by de light of de fire. Studied dem Blue Back
Websters. Dat was de text we know bout den."

"I tell you de truth I live so much in darkness den dat I think dat time
was bout good as dis time. Didn' know no better sense den. I tell you
just like I been know it, de peoples was coward like in dem days.
Couldn' never pluck up no ambition to do a heap of things de people do
dis day en time. Dat how-come I rather live in dis go round."

_Source_: Hector Smith, ex-slave, age 79, Wahee section of
Marion Co., S.C.
Personal interview, July 1937.

=Code No. 390144=
=Project, 1885-(1)=
=Prepared by Annie Ruth Davis=
=Place, Marion, S.C.=
=Date, July 14, 1937=

=No. Words________=
=Reduced from_____words=
=Rewritten by=
______________________

=HECTOR SMITH=

=Ex-Slave, 79 years=

"I studied en studied what songs would suit, but dem old familiar hymns
bout all I know dese days. You see dem old familiar hymns what de spirit
sings. It just like I tell you, I put all dem other kind of songs away
when I is change to a better way of livin. I does remember first one en
den de other of dem frolicksome song dat my grandparents learnt me."

NOBODY BUSINESS BUT MINE

I. Rabbit in de hollow,
I ain' got no dog,
How can I catch em?
I do know! I do know!
O Me! O Mine!
Sorry dat if I leave my home,
I gwine to my shack
Wid de chicken on my back,
Nobody business but mine.

(_Continued on next page._)

II. Rabbit in de hollow,
Ain' got no dog,
How can he catch em?
I do know! I do know!
O Me! O Mine!
Let every nigger have his way,
Gwine to his shack
Wid he chicken on his back,
Nobody business but his.

_Source_: Hector Smith, ex-slave, 79 years.,
Wahee section of Marion Co., S.C.
Personal interview, July 1937.

=Code No.=
=Project, 1885-(1)=
=Prepared by Annie Ruth Davis=
=Place, Marion, S.C.=
=Date, July 14, 1937=

=No. Words______7____=
=Reduced from_____words=
=Rewritten by=
________________________

=_WAY DOWN IN DE LONESOME VALLEY_=

I. De mockin birds a singin so sweetly,
So sweetly,