down. (Describing how the
meat hung) I nebber accustom to dese little piece of meat, so--what dey
got here. Missis, if you know smoke house, didn't you find it hard? My
master had 'til he didn't know what to do with. My white people were
Gentile." (Her tone implied that she considered them the acme of gentle
folks). "I don't know what the other people were name that didn't have
as much as we had--but I know my people were Gentile!"

Just here her daughter and son appeared, very unlike their mother in
type. The daughter is quite as old looking as her mother; the son, a
rough stevedore. When the writer suggested that the son must be a
comfort, she looked down sadly and said in a low tone, as if
soliloquizing, "He way is he way." Going back to her former thought, she
said, "All our people were good. Mas Luke was the worse one." (This she
said with an indulgent smile) "Cause he was all the time at the race
ground or the fair ground.

"Religion rules Heaven and Earth, an there is no religion
now--harricanes an washin-aways is all about. Ebberything is change. Dis
new name what they call grip is pleurisy-cold--putrid sore-throat is
called somethin'--yes, diptheria. Cuttin (surgery) come out in 1911!
They kill an they cure, an they save an they loss.

"My Gran'ma trained with Indians--she bin a Indian, an Daniel C. McCall
bought her. She nebber loss a baby." (the first Indian relationship that
the writer can prove). "You know Dr. Jennings? Ebberybody mus' know him.
After he examine de chile an de mother, an 'ee alright, he hold de nurse
responsible for any affection (infection) that took place.

"Oh! I know de spiritual--but Missis, my voice too weak to sing--dey
aint in books; if I hear de name I can sing--'The Promise Land', Oh, how
Mas Joel Easterling (born 1796) use to love to sing dat!"

"I am bound for de Promise Land!
Oh! who will arise an go with me?
I am bound for the Promise Land!
I've got a mother in the Promise Land,
My mother calls me an I mus go,
To meet her in the Promise Land!"

Source: Mary Frances Brown, Age 88-90, East Bay Street, Charleston,
S. C.

Project #-1655
Cassels R. Tiedeman
Charleston, S. C.

FOLKLORE

INTERVIEW WITH AN EX-SLAVE

Mary Frances Brown, about ninety years of age, born in slavery, on the
plantation of Luke Turnage, in Marlboro County, was raised as a
house-servant and shows today evidence of most careful training. Her
bearing i