he was a very happy man. Freedom
to him did not mean that he could quit work but that he could work for
himself as he saw fit to. After he was freed he continued working for
his master who was considerably poorer than he had ever been before.
After the war things were in such a state that even common table salt
was not available. He remembers going to the smokehouse and taking the
dirt from the floor which he later boiled. After the boiling process of
this water which was now salty was used as a result of the dripping from
the meats which had been hung there to be smoked in the "good old days."

After seven years of share-cropping with his former master Mr. Wright
decided to come to Atlanta where he has been since. He attributes his
ripe old age to sane and careful living. In any case he says that he
would rather be free than be a slave but--and as he paused he shook his
head sadly--"In those days a man did not have to worry about anything to
eat as there was always a plenty. It's a lot different now."

[HW: Dist. 6
Ex-Slave #119 v.3]

"MAMMY DINK"
[HW: DINK WALTON YOUNG], Age 96

Place of birth:
On the Walton plantation, near old Baughville,
Talbot County, Georgia

Date of Birth: About 1840

Present residence:
Fifth Avenue, between 14th and 15th Streets,
Columbus, Georgia

Interviewed: August 1, 1936

Dink Walton Young, better known as "Mammy Dink", is one of the oldest
ex-slaves living in Muscogee County. She was born the chattel of Major
Jack Walton, the largest ante-bellum planter and slave-holder of Talbot
County, a man who owned several hundred Negroes and ten thousand or more
acres of land. As a child, "Mammy Dink" was "brung up" with the Walton
white children, often joining and playing with them in such games as
"Mollie Bright", "William Trembletoe", and "Picking up Sticks".

The boys, white and black, and slightly older than she, played "Fox" and
"Paddle-the-Cat" together. In fact, until the white boys and girls were
ten or twelve years of age, their little Negro playmates, satellites,
bodyguards, "gangs", and servants, usually addressed them rather
familiarly by their first names, or replied to their nicknames that
amounted to titles of endearment. Thus, Miss Susie Walton--the later
Mrs. Robert Carter--was "Susie Sweet" to a host of little Negro girls of
her age. Later on, of course, this form of familiarity between slave
child and white child definitely ceased; but for all time there ex