SLAVE NARRATIVES - Library of Congress

Church
"The slaves had church* Sometimes they had church at one another 1 s
house« I don't think they ever built them a church house« But they could
go to the white folks 9 church if they wanted to*
How Freedom Came
"My daddy 9 s master told my father he was free* He told him that in
1865* He told him that he waa free to do as he pleased, that he could come
when he pleased and go when he pleased* 9 Course, he told him he wanted
him to stay around him—not to go off*
Soldiers
"I have heard my father speak of soldiers, but they were too busy
f round Atlanta and up that way to git down where my father was* They don 9 t
seem to hays bothered his town* They never made my father do any labor in
the aimy neither* My father was mixed Indian, white, and Negro*
Marriage
"Slaves had to get the consent of their masters to marry* Sometimes
masters would want them to go and would even buy the woman they wanted to
keep them contented on the plantation* Sometimes the masters wouldn 9 t do
anything but let them visit* They would marry--what they called marriage
in those days—and the husband would have to git permission from his master
to go visit his wife and git permission from her master to come there* He
would go on Saturday night and get back in time for his work on Monday
morning* It was just like raising stock and mating it*
"I have been married fifty-one years* I have been married twice
thought My first wife died in 1900* I have been married to my second wife
thirty-four years last April* Those were real marriages*
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