nd kills it.

"Right after de baby killin', sojers with blue coats comes dere and
camps front of Massa Buford's place and pertects de cullud folks. I goes
over to dey camp every day and dey gives me lots of good eats.

"De cullud folks has lots of trouble after de war, 'cause dey am ir'rant
niggers and gits foolishment in de head. They gits de idea de white
folks should give dem land and mules and sich. Over in de valley, Massa
Moses owns lots of land and fifty nigger families, and he gives each
family a deed to 'bout fifty acres. Some dem cullud folks grandchillen
still on dat land, too, de Parkers and Farrows and Nelsons and some
others. Den all de other niggers thinks dey should git land, too, but
dey don't, and it make dem git foolishment and git in trouble.

"In 1897 I marries Effie Coleman and has no chillens, so I is alone in
de world now. I can't do much and lives on de $10.00 de month pension.
De white folks lets me live in dis shack for mowin' de lawn, but I
worries 'bout when I can't do no more work. It am de awful way to spend
you last days.

420163

PIERCE HARPER, 86, was born on the Subbs plantation near Snow Hill,
North Carolina. When eight years old he was sold for $1,150
[Handwritten Note: '?'] to the Harper family, who lived in Snow
Hill. After the Civil War, Pierce farmed a small place near Snow
Hill and saw many raids of the Klu Klux Klan. He came to Galveston,
Texas, in 1877. Pierce attended a Negro school after he was grown,
learned to read and write, and is interested in the betterment of
his race.

"When you ask me is I Pierce Harper, you kind of 'sprised me. I reckoned
everybody know old Pierce Harper. Sister Johnson say to me outside of
services last Sunday night, 'Brother Harper, you is de beatines' man I
ever seen. You know everybody and everybody know you.' And I said,
'Sister Johnson, dat's 'cause I keep faith with de Lawd. I love de Lawd
and my neighbors and de Lawd and my neighbors love me.' Dat's what my
old mother told me 'way back in slavery, before I was ever sold. But
here I is talking 'bout myself when you want to hear me talk 'bout
slavery. Let's see, now.

"I was born way back in 1851 in North Carolina, on Mr. Subbs'
plantation, clost to Snow Hill, which was the county seat. My daddy was
a field hand and my mother worked in the fields, too, right 'longside my
daddy, so she could keep him lined up. The master said that Calis