esday and tell de white folks
must get out de way, de Yankees right behind 'em! De summer place been
at Bluffton. De plantation wuz ten miles away. After we refugee from
Bluffton, we spent de fust night at Jonesville. From dere we went to
Hardeeville. We got here on Saturday evening. You know we had to ride by
horses--in wagons an' buggies. Dere weren't no railroads or cars den.
Dat why it take so long.

"Mr. Lawrence McKenzie wuz my Missus' child. We stayed wid him awhile,
'til he find us a place. Got us a little house. We stayed four years
dere, 'til de war wuz over. Dey sent de young ladies on--on farther up
de country, to a safer place. Dey went to Society Hill. My old Missus
stay. Sae wuz a old lady. When de Yankees come she died. I wuz right
dere wid her when she died. She had been sickly. After de war dey all
went back to de old place. I had married up here, so when dey went back
I stay on here.

"I been right here when de Yankees come through. I been in my house
asittin' before de fire, jes' like I is now.

"One of 'em come up an' say, 'You know who I is?'

"I say, 'No.'

"He say, 'Well, I is come to set you free. You kin stay wid your old
owners if you wants to, but dey'll pay you wages.'

"But dey sure did plenty of mischief while dey wuz here. Didn't burn all
de houses. Pick out de big handsome house to burn. Burn down Mr. Bill
Lawton' house. Mr. Asbury Lawton had a fine house. Dey burn dat. (He
Marse Tom Lawton' brother.) Burn Mr. Maner' house. Some had put a poor
white woman in de house to keep de place; but it didn't make no
difference.

"De soldiers say, 'Dis rich house don't belong to you. We goin' to burn
dis house!'

"Dey'd go through de house an' take everything'. Take anythin' they
could find. Take from de white, an' take from de colored, too. Take
everything out de house! Dey take from my house. Take somethin' to eat.
But I didn't have anythin' much in my house. Had a little pork an' a
week's supply of rations.

"De white folks would bury de silver. But dey couldn't always find it
again. One give her silver to de colored butler to bury but he wuz kill,
an' nobody else know where he bury it. It wuz after de war, an' he wuz
walkin' down de road, an' Wheeler's Brigade kill him.

"Been years an' years 'fore everythin' could come together again. You
know after de war de Confederate money been confiscate. You could be
walkin' 'long de road anytime an' pick up a ten dollar bill or a five
doll