SLAVE NARRATIVES - Library of Congress

"My master put good clothes on me* I ! d say, f Master,
I wants a dress like so and so, and I wants a pair of shoes, f
Yes ma , am, and he got em for me* I was forty-three and married
to a nigger fore I knowed what twas to cry for underwear*
n I member they was a white man called Dunk Hill and he
said, f Virginia, who freed the niggers? 1 I said, f God freed
the niggers** He said, T Now, Virginia, you goin 1 be just as
free as I am some day I 1
"General Shelby's troops was comin 1 on this side the
ribber. That's one time I was scared* Never seed so many men
in my life* They wanted something to eat* Mama cooked all
night. They was nine hundred and something I toted canteens
all night long*
"I member when they had that Marks Mill battle* My hus-
band was there and he sent word for me to come cause he had the
measles and they had went in on him. I had to put on boots and
wade mud. Young folks now ain f t got no sense* I see so many
folks now with such dull understanding* Marks Mill was the on-
liest part of the war I was in*
"General Shelby and Captain Blank, they whetted their
swords together when peace was declared. Captain said, 'General,
I'm not crazy and neither am I a coward. I looked up and seem
like a man was comin' out the clouds, and so I'm goin' to surren-
der,'
"Them cavalry men - they'd say, 'RideJ' and how they'd go.
"I seen em when they was enlistin'. Said they was goin'
to whip the Yankees and be back for breakfast in the morning.
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