torn it down
now. Missy give me pretty dress to get christen in. My godmother, she
Mileen Nesaseau, but I call her 'Miran'. My godfather called 'Paran.'

"On Sunday mornin' us fix our dress and hair and go up to the missy's
looking-glass to see if us pretty enough go to church. Us goes to Mass
every Sunday mornin' and church holiday, and when the cullud folks sick
massa send for the priest same's for the white folks.

"We wears them things on the strings round the neck for the good of the
heart. They's nutmeg.

"The plantation was a big, grand place and they have lots of orange
trees. The slaves pick them oranges and pack then down on the barrel
with la mosse (Spanish moss) to keep them. They was plenty pecans and
figs, too.

"In slavery time most everybody round Opelousas talk Creole. That make
the words hard to come sometime. Us both talk that better way than
English.

"Durin' the war, it were a sight. Every mornin' Capt. Jenerette Bank and
he men go a hoss-back drillin' in the pasture and then have drill on
foot. A white lady take all us chillen to the drill ground every
mornin'. Us take the lunch food in the basket and stay till they done
drill out.

"I can sing for you the song they used to sing:

"O, de Yankee come to put de nigger free,
Says I, says I, pas bonne;
In eighteen-sixty-three,
De Yankee get out they gun and say,
Hurrah! Let's put on the ball.

"When war over none the slaves wants leave the plantation. My mama and
us chillen stays on till old massa and missy dies, and then goes live on
the old Repridim place for a time.

"Both us get marry in that Catholic church in Opelousas. As for me, it
most too long ago to talk about. His name Alfred Johnson and he dead 12
years. Our youngest boy, John, go to the World War. Two my nephews die
in that war and one nephew can't walk now from that war.

"Felice marry Joseph Boudreaux and when he die she come here to stay
with me. There's more hard time now than in the old day for us, but I
hope things get better.

420103

[Illustration: Spence Johnson]

SPENCE JOHNSON was born free, a member of the Choctaw Nation, in
the Indian Territory, in the 1850's. He does not know his exact
age. He and his mother were stolen and sold at auction in
Shreveport to Riley Surratt, who lived near Shreveport, on the
Texas-Louisiana line. He has lived in Waco since 1874.

"De nigger stealers done stole me and my ma