on a strip of nice cloth from de carriage to de church. We sho' have de
cakes and all dem good eats at dem weddin' suppers.

"I nev'r hear tell of many colored weddin's. We jes' jumps over de broom
an' de bride she has to jump over it backwards and iffen she couldn'
jump it backwards she couldn't git married. Dat was sho' funny, seein'
dem colored gi'ls a tryin' to jump dat broom.

"Our boss, he tells us 'bout bein' free and he say he hire us by de
month and we stays dere a year and he dies, den ole miss she go back to
Mississippi and we jes' scatter 'round, some a workin' here and some a
workin' yonder, mos' times for our victuals and clothes. I couldn' tell
much difference myself 'cause I had good people to live wid and when it
was dat way de whites and de colored was better off de way I sees it
den dey is now, some of dem.

"I seem jes' punyin' away, de doctors don' know jes' what's wrong wid me
but I never was use to doctors anyway, jes' some red root tea or sage
weed and sheep waste tea for de measles am all de doctoring we gits when
we was slaves and dat done jes' as well.

"My wife she been dead all dese years an' I jes' lives here alone.

"Chillun? No mam, I never had no chillun 'fore I was married an' I only
had twelve after I was married; yes mam, jes' nine boys and three girls,
but I prefers to live here by myself, 'cause I gits along alright."

420945

[Illustration: Lorenza Ezell]

LORENZA EZELL, Beaumont, Texas, Negro, was born in 1850 on the
plantation of Ned Lipscomb, in Spartanburg County, South Carolina.
Lorenza is above the average in intelligence and remembers many
incidents of slavery and Reconstruction days. He came to Brenham,
Texas, in 1882, and several years later moved to Beaumont, where he
lives in a little shack almost hidden by vines and trees.

"Us plantation was jes' east from Pacolet Station on Thicketty Creek, in
Spartanburg County, in South Carolina. Dat near Little and Big Pacolet
Rivers on de route to Limestone Springs, and it jes' a ordinary
plantation with de main crops cotton and wheat.

"I 'long to de Lipscombs and my mama, Maria Ezell, she 'long to 'em,
too. Old Ned Lipscomb was 'mongst de oldest citizens of dat county. I's
born dere on July 29th, in 1850 and I be 87 year old dis year. Levi
Ezell, he my daddy, and he 'long to Landrum Ezell, a Baptist preacher.
Dat young massa and de old massa, John Ezell, was de first Baptist