overnment run a big tan yard there on Major Gaud's place
and one my uncles was shoemaker. Jus' 'bout time of war, I was piddlin'
'round the tannery and a government man say to me, 'Boy, I'll give you
$1,000 for a drink of water,' and he did, but it was 'federate money
that got kilt, so it done me no good.

"Mammy was a weaver and made all the clothes and massa give us plenty to
eat; fact, he treated us kind-a like he own boys. Course he whipped us
when we had to have it, but not like I seed darkies whipped on other
place. The other niggers called us Major Gaud's free niggers and we
could hear 'em moanin' and cryin' round 'bout, when they was puttin' it
on 'em.

"I worked in the field from one year end to t'other and when we come in
at dusk we had to eat and be in bed by nine. Massa give us mos' anything
he had to eat, 'cept biscuits. That ash cake wasn't sich bad eatin' and
it was cooked by puttin' cornmeal batter in shucks and bakin' in the
ashes.

"We didn't work in the field Sunday but they have so much stock to tend
it kep' us busy. Missy was 'ligious and allus took us to church when she
could. When we prayed by ourse'ves we daren't let the white folks know
it and we turned a wash pot down to the ground to cotch the voice. We
prayed a lot to be free and the Lord done heered us. We didn't have no
song books and the Lord done give us our songs and when we sing them at
night it jus' whispering to nobody hear us. One went like this:

"'my knee bones am aching,
my body's rackin' with pain,
i 'lieve i'm a chile of god,
and this ain't my home,
'cause heaven's my aim.'

"Massa Gaud give big corn shuckin's and cotton pickin's and the women
cook up big dinners and massa give us some whiskey, and lots of times we
shucked all night. On Saturday nights we'd sing and dance and we made
our own instruments, which was gourd fiddles and quill flutes. Gen'rally
Christmas was like any other day, but I got Santa Claus twict in
slavery, 'cause massa give me a sack of molasses candy once and some
biscuits once and that was a whole lot to me then.

"The Vinsons and Frys what lived next to massa sold slaves and I seed
'em sold and chained together and druv off in herds by a white man on a
hoss. They'd sell babies 'way from the mammy and the Lord never did
'tend sich as that.

"I 'lieve in that hant business yet. I seed one when I was a boy, right
after mammy die. I woke up and seed it come in the door, and it had a
body a