SLAVE NARRATIVES - Library of Congress

yy brother could sorape the fiddle and danoe on* all at the same time* Folks
would give big suppers and ask people out* They would feed nice tines with
one another* Folks ain*t got no love in their hearts like they used to have*
"Folks would give quiltings* They don't think about quilting now* They
would quilt out a quilt and danoe the rest of the night* They would have a
big supper at the quilting* Nice time too* They would kill a hog and
barbecue it* They would cook chicken* Have plenty of whiskey too* Some
folks would get drunk* That was whiskey them days* They ain't got no
whiskey n0ts*~*old poison stuff that will kill people*
"Igr daddy was jus' drwnk all the time* He had plenty of whiskey* That
was what killed old Tom Eford* He kept it settin' on the dresser all the
time* You eouldn't walk in his house but what you would see it time you got
in* Folks hide it now* I have drunk a many a glass of it* I would go and
take a glass whenever I wanted to*
How Freedom Came
"The old white folks told me I was free* They had me hired out* I
wasn't staying with iny owner* There wasn't nobody there with me but the
white folks where I was staying* That morning I got up to get breakfast and
there wasn't no fire and there wasn't no matches* I went to some neighborly
to get a chunk of fire and they told me to go back to u$r folks because I was
free* "When I got baok to the house they was mad and wanted to whip me* So
I just put the fire down and never cooked no breakfast but jus' went on to
ray brother's* The reason they wanted to whip me was because I had gone out-
side of the house without their knowing it*
1h When I went to ay brother's* I had to walk twelve miles* Tfy brother
6 * 32?
carried me to ny mother and father* And then he took me back to old lady Eford*