SLAVE NARRATIVES - Library of Congress

"How I owns this place, I f U tell you# A man here had all dis
land 'round here (Negro town) laid off* He couldn't sell none of his
lots* They wouldn't buy his lots* So he got after me* We had made a
good crop, so I got up the money and bought this place* One hundred
dollars is what I give him* . Others then started to settlin* in and about
close to my place*
"I guess it was Spot sells in Virginia what raised her* She say her
name was Lizzie Spotsell Johnson* Then when Sphram Hester bought her they
learned her to do about in their house* She cooked and swept and knocked
flies and tended to the children* She stayed with f em a pretty long time
till she run off and went to Fryers Point*
*She may have told us about the Nat Turner rebellion but I don f t
remember it. They sung a lot in my mother's time* Seemed lack they
was happier than we are somehow* She sung religious songs and one or
two field songs* I don f t recollect f em now.
"I never did vote. I never cared nuthin 1 about it* Some of f em
f round here wouldn't miss votin 1 for nothing
"Lawd me, chile, the times is done run ahead of me now* I f m so fur
behind I never expect to catch up. I don't pay no more attention to the
young folks, the way they act now, f an I do my little dog there. They
don't want no advice and I would be afraid I would 'vise f em wrong* When
Eiy children come I tell f em you are grown and you knows right from wrong.
Do right. That f s all I know to say.
"The way I am supported is my husband gets all the jobs he able to
do and can and the governmint give me an 1 him #10 a month* We has a
little garden**
r"Nfr
*• 75