d voice: "Well, boys we going to cut de
Yankee throat. We on our way to meet him and he better tremble. Our gun
greeze up, and our bayonet sharp. Boys we going to eat our dinner in
hell today."

I turn to my pappy and ax him how can man act like dat when they going
down to die. He answer me: "Dat ain't nutting. They n'use to dat. Ain't
you know soldier different?"

But I say: "Pappy, you hear dem talk 'bout eat dinner in hell?"

He answer me back: "They been in de army 'long time. They don't study
hell anymore."

De train still rumble by. One gang of soldier on de top been playing
card. I see um hold up de card as plain as day, when de luck fall right.
They going to face bullet, but yet they play card, and sing and laugh
like they in their own house ... All going down to die.

De train pull 'cross de trestle. I stand up and watch um till he go out
of sight 'round de bend. De last thing I hear is de soldier laugh and
sing ... All going down to die.

SOURCE: Interview with William Rose, 80, ex-slave of Edisto Island,
S.C., in 1936.

=Project #1655=
=W.W. Dixon=
=Winnsboro, S.C.=

=BENJAMIN RUSSELL=

=_EX-SLAVE 88 YEARS._=

"I was born fourteen miles north of Chester, S.C. the property of Mrs.
Rebecca Nance. After eighty-eight years, I have a vivid recollection of
her sympathy and the ideal relations she maintained with her slaves.

"My father was just Baker, my mother just Mary. My father was bought out
of a drove of slaves from Virginia. I have been told my mother was born
on the Youngblood place. (Youngblood name of my mistress' people in York
County.) My father was a slave of a Mr. Russell and lived two or three
miles from the Nance place, where mother lived. He could only visit her
on a written pass. As he was religiously inclined, dutiful and faithful
as a slave, my mother encouraged the relation that included a slave
marriage between my father and mother. My mother in time, had a log
house for herself and children. We had beds made by the plantation's
carpenter. As a boy I remember plowing from sun to sun, with an hour's
intermission for dinner, and feeding the horses.

"Money? Yes, sometimes white folks and visitors would give me coppers,
3-cent pieces, and once or twice dimes. Used them to buy extra clothing
for Sundays and fire crackers and candy, at Christmas. We had good food.
In the busy seasons on the farm the mistress saw to it that the slaves
were properly fed, the food coo