SLAVE NARRATIVES - Library of Congress

•The Yankees had their headquarters at the big house near the river*
111 this was in woods till I growed up. We used to have our pienie here*
•I was standin 1 right at the post when they rung the bell in the bell
house when peace declared* I heered the old folks sayin, f We is free, we
is freer
*I know before freedom they wouldn't let us burn a speek of light at
night. Had these little iron lamps* They'd twist wicks and put em In
tallow. I don't know whether it was beef or sheep tallow but they had
plenty of sheeps on the place*
•Colonel Cockrill would have us corns up to the big house every
Sunday mornin' and he'd give us a apple or a stick of candy* But them
that was big enough to work wouldn't get any. They worked on Sunday too—
did the washin' every Sunday evenin'.
•Oh lord, they had a big plantation*
•After the War I went to school some* We had white teachers from the
North* I didn't get to go much except on rainy days* Other times I had
to work. I got so I could read print but I can't read writ in'* I used to
could but since I been sick seems like my mind just hops off*
•After freedom my parents rented land and farmed* I stayed with the
old doctor woman till I was fourteen then I went to my parents*
•I married when I was eighteen and had five chillun* When I worked
for my father he'd let us quit when we got tired and sit under the shade
bushes* But when I married I had to work harder than ever* tfy husband
was just a run-around. He'd put in a crop and then go and leave it*
Sometimes he was a constable* Finally he went off and took up with
another woman*
2- 358