I went to courtin' and never give her nuthin' till I marry her."

As to punishments, Willis said that slaves were whipped as they needed
it, and as a general rule the overseer did the whipping.

"When derky wouldn't take whippin' from de overseer," he said, "he had
to ca'y dem to de boss; and if we needed any brushin' de marster brush
'em. Why, de darkies would whip de overseer!"

Willis was asked to describe how slaves earned money for personal use,
and replied:

"Dey made dey own money. In slavery time, if you wanted four-five acre
of land to plant you anything on, marster give it to you and whatever
dat land make, it belong to you. You could take dat money and spend it
any way you wanted. Still he give you somethin' to eat and clothe you,
but dat patch you mek cotton on, sometimes a whole bale, dat money
yours."

Willis thought the plantation house was still there, "but it badly
wounded," he said. "Dey tell me dere ain't nobuddy living in it now. It
south of Waynesboro."

"When de soldiers come thoo'," continued Willis, "dey didn't burn dat
place, but dey went in dere and took out ev'yting dey want and give it
to de cullud people. Dey kep' it till dey got free. De soldiers tuk de
doctor's horses and ca'y 'em off. Got in de crib and tek de corn. Got in
de smoke 'ouse and tek de meat out. Old Marssa bury his money and silver
in an iron chist. Dey tuk it 300 yards away to a clump o' trees and bury
it. It tuk fo' men to ca'y it. Dere was money widout mention in dat
chist! After de soldiers pass thoo' dey went down and got it back."

"What did you do after freedom was declared?"

Willis straightened up.

"I went down to Augusta to de Freedman's Bureau to see if twas true we
wuz free. I reckon dere was over a hundred people dere. De man got up
and stated to de people: 'You all is jus' as free as I am. You ain't got
no mistis and no marster. Work when you want.' On Sunday morning Old
Marster sont de house gal and tell us to all come to de house. He said:

'What I want to send for you all is to tell you dat you are free. You
hab de privilege to go anywheh you want, but I don't want none o' you to
leave me now. I wants you-all to stay right wid me. If you stay, you
mus' sign to it.'

I asked him:

'What you want me to sign for? I is free.'

'Dat will hold me to my word and hold you to yo' word,' he say.

"All my folks sign it, but I wouldn't sign. Marster call me up and say:
'Willis, why wouldn't you sign?' I