There was plenty of fruit in those days, so brandy was made and put into
barrels in the smoke-house; and the same way they had plenty of corn,
and would put up a still and put the whiskey they made into barrels.

People in those days, he said, had "manners". The white and colored
folks would have their separate sections in the church where they sat.
"I've seen a white man make another white man get up in church and give
his place to a colored man when the church was crowded." He said his
father was baptized by Rev. Dixon, father of Tom Dixon, who was a
Baptist preacher. His mother was sprinkled by a Methodist white
preacher, but he was baptized by a colored preacher.

Asked about marriages among the slaves, he said the ceremony was
performed by some "jack-legged" colored preacher who pronounced a few
words and said they were man and wife.

He said the colored people did not know much about Jeff Davis or Abraham
Lincoln except what they heard about them. All that he remembered was a
song that his Missus used to sing:

"Jeff Davis rides a big gray horse,
Lincoln rides a mule;
Jeff Davis is a fine old man,
And Lincoln is a fool."

Another song was:

"I'll lay $10 down and number them one by one,
As sure as we do fight 'em,
The Yankees will run."

One day his "Missus" came to their house and told his mother they were
free and could go anywhere they wanted to, but she hoped they would
stay on that year and help them make a crop. He said his mother just
folded her hands and put her head down and "studied". She decided to
stay on that year. The next year, they moved to another plantation,
where they stayed for twenty years.

"Before they were free, every colored man took the name of his master,
but afterwards, I took my father's name."

He said that the Yankee soldiers did not come to their place, but they
were ready for them if they had come. The silver was buried out in the
lot, and stable manure was piled and thrown all about the spot. The two
good horses were taken off and hidden, but the old horse his master
owned was left. He said that sometimes a Confederate soldier would come
by riding an old horse, and would want to trade horses with his master.
Sometimes his master would trade, for he thought his horse would be
taken anyway. His master would never get anything "to boot", as the
soldier didn't have the "to boot" when the trade was made. So the
soldier would ride off the hor