a heap of trouble here.

"Atter de War, Ma and Pa moved on Mr. Bill Marshall's place to farm for
him and dar's whar I was born. Dey didn't stay dar long 'fore dey moved
to Mr. Jim Mayne's place away out in de country, in de forks of de big
road down below Watkinsville. I sho' was a country gal. Yessum, I sho'
was. Mr. Mayne's wife was Mrs. Emma Mayne and she took a lakin' to me
'cause I was named Emma. I stayed wid her chilluns all de time, slep' in
de big house, and et dar too, jus' lak one of dem, and when dey bought
for dey chillun dey bought for me too.

"Us wore homespun dresses and brass toed shoes. Sometimes us would git
mighty mad and fuss over our games and den Miss Emma would make us come
in de big house and set down. No Ma'am, she never did whup us. She was
good and she jus' talked to us, and told us us never would git to Heb'en
lessen us was good chillun. Us played games wid blocks and jumped de
rope and, when it was warm, us waded in de crick. Atter I was big
'nough, I tuk de white chillun to Sunday School, but I didn't go inside
den--jus' waited on de outside for 'em. I never got a chanct to go to
school none, but de white chilluns larnt me some.

"Marse Jim was mighty good to de Niggers what wukked for him, and us all
loved him. He didn't 'low no patterollers or none of dem Ku Kluxers
neither to bother de Niggers on his place. He said he could look atter
'em his own self. He let 'em have dances, and evvy Fourth of July he had
big barbecues. Yessum, he kilt hogs, goats, sheep and sometimes a cow
for dem barbecues. He believed in havin' plenty to eat.

"I 'members dem big corn shuckin's. He had de mostes' corn, what was in
great big piles put in a circle. All de neighbors was axed to come and
bring deir Niggers. De fus' thing to do was to 'lect a gen'ral to stand
in de middle of all dem piles of corn and lead de singin' of de reels.
No Ma'am, I don't 'member if he had no shuck stuck up on his hat or not,
and I can't ricollec' what de words of de reels was, 'cause us chillun
was little den, but de gen'ral he pulled off de fus' shuck. Den he
started singin' and den dey all sung in answer to him, and deir two
hands a-shuckin' corn kep' time wid de song. As he sung faster, dey jus'
made dem shucks more dan fly. Evvy time de gen'ral would speed up de
song, de Niggers would speed up deir corn shuckin's. If it got dark
'fore dey finished, us chillun would hold torch lights for 'em to see
how to wuk. De lights