such carryin's on as dey do now, de white folks
would have whipped 'em good.

"I 'member dat war and I sees dem cannons and hears 'em. I toted water
for de soldiers what fought at de Battle of Mansfield. Master Ingram had
350 slaves when de war was over but he didn' turn us loose till a year
after surrender. He telled us dat de gov'ment goin' to give us 40 acres
of land and a pair of mules, but we didn' git nothin'. After Master
Ingram turn us loose, pappy bought a place at De Berry, Texas, and I
live with him till after I was grown. Den I marry and move to Louisiana.
I come back to Texas two years ago and lived with my friends here ever
since. My wife died 18 years ago and I had a hard time 'cause I don'
have no folks, but I's managed to git someone to let me work for
somethin' to eat, a few clothes and a place to sleep.

420047

[Illustration: Carter J. Jackson]

CARTER J. JACKSON, 85, was born in Montgomery, Alabama, a slave of
Parson Dick Rogers. In 1863 the Rogers family brought Carter to
Texas and he worked for them as a slave until four years after
emancipation. Carter was with his master's son, Dick, when he was
killed at Pittsburg, Pa. Carter married and moved to Tatum in 1871.

"If you's wants to know 'bout slavery time, it was Hell. I's born in
Montgomery, over yonder in Alabama. My pappy named Charles and come from
Florida and mammy named Charlotte and her from Tennessee. They was sold
to Parson Rogers and brung to Alabama by him. I had seven brothers call
Frank and Benjamin and Richardson and Anderson and Miles, Emanuel and
Gill, and three sisters call Milanda, Evaline and Sallie, but I don't
know if any of 'em are livin' now.

"Parson Rogers come to Texas in '63 and brung 'bout 42 slaves and my
first work was to tote water in the field. Parson lived in a good, big
frame house, and the niggers lived in log houses what had dirt floors
and chimneys, and our bunks had rope slats and grass mattress. I sho'
wish I could have cotch myself sleepin' on a feather bed them days. I
wouldn't woke up till Kingdom Come.

"We et vegetables and meat and ash cake. You could knock you mammy in
the head, eatin' that ash cake bread. I ain't been fit since. We had
hominy cooked in the fireplace in big pots that ain't bad to talk 'bout.
Deer was thick them days and we sot up sharp stobs inside the pea field
and them young bucks jumps over the fence and stabs themselves. That the
only