he claim dat farm and take it 'way from us and leave me with
li'l baby boy what I names Joe Millie McRay. But never 'gain. I never
marries.

"Us done work in de cotton field and wash many a long day to pay for dat
farm. But dat boy growed to be a good man and I live with him and he
wife now. And he boy, Bob, am better still. He jes' work so hard and he
buy fine li'l home in Jasper and marry de bes' gal, mos' white. Dey have
nice fur'ture and gas and lights and everything.

"Dey treat us purty good in slavery days but I'd rather be free, but it
purty hard to be blind so long and most deaf, too, but I thank de Lawd
I's not sufferin'. I gits de pension of 'leven dollars a month. I's so
old I can't 'member much, only sometime, things comes to me I thought I
forgot long time ago. I's had it purty hard to pay for de farm and den
have it stoled from me when I's old and blind, but de good Lawd, he know
all 'bout it and we all got to stand 'fore de jedgment some day soon.

420051

[Illustration: Louis Fowler]

LOUIS FOWLER, 84, was born a slave to Robert Beaver, in Macon Co.,
Georgia. Fowler did not take his father's name, but that of his
stepfather, J. Fowler. After he was freed, Louis farmed for several
years, then worked in packing plants in Fort Worth, Tex. He lives
at 2706 Holland St., Fort Worth.

"Dis cullud person am 84 years old and I's born on de plantation of
Massa Robert Beaver, in old Georgia. He owned my mammy and 'bout 50
slaves. Now, 'bout my pappy, I lets you judge. Look at my hair. De color
am red, ain't it? My beard am red and my eyes is brown and my skin am
light yellow. Now, who does you think my pappy was? You don't know, of
course, but I knows, 'cause on dat plantation am a man dat am over six
feet tall and his hair as red as a brick.

"My mammy am married to a man named Fowler and he am owned by Massa Jack
Fowler, on de place next to ours. Our place am middlin' big and fixed
first class. He has first-class quarter for us cullud folks. De cabins
am two and some three rooms and dey all built of logs and chinked with a
piece of wood and daubed with dirt to fill de cracks. De way we'uns fix
dat dirt am take de clay or gumbo which am sticky when it am wet. Dat
dirt am soaked with water till it stick together and den hay or straw am
mixed with it. When sich mud am daubed in de cracks it stay and dem
cabins am sho' windproof and warm.

"De treatment am good and Mass