SLAVE NARRATIVES - Library of Congress

Batrollers
n Me and old lady Eford would be out in the yard and I would hear her
cuss the pateroles because they didn*t want folks to *buse their niggers*
They had to git a pass from their masters when they would be out* If they
didn*t have a pass* the pateroles would whip them*
Jayhawkers
"The jayhawkers would catch folks and carry them out in the woods and
hang them up* They 1 d catch you and beat you to death*
Runaways
"Colored folks what would run away, old lady Eford would call them
*rottenheads* and * bloody bones* * We would hear the hounds baying after
them and old lady Eford would stand out in the yard and cuss thesa—cuss the
hounds I mean* Like that would do any good* Some slaves would kill their-
selves before they would be oaugiit* They would hear them dogs* I have seen
old Tom Eford* He would have them dogs* He was sheriff and he had to do it*
He carried them dogs* He would be gone two weeks before he would be back
sometimes* Alden or Alton was the place they said they carried the runaways*
Slave Breeding
"They never kept no slaves for breeding on any plantation I heard of*
They would work them to death and breed them too* There was places where old
massa kept one for hisself*
Amusements
"Folks had heap more pleasure than they do now in slave time* Thqy had
parties and dances and they would bow * round* They had fiddles and danced
by them* Folks danced them days* They don f t dance now, just mess around*
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