t.
My mammy tell me don' never tell nothin but de truth en I won' get no
whippin. I been raise up wid de white folks en I tell de truth, I can'
hardly stand no colored people."

"Oh, honey, dere won' no such thing as cotton mill, train, sawmill or
nothin like dat in my day. People had to set dere at night en pick de
seed out de cotton wid dey own hands. Didn' hear tell bout no telephone
nowhe' in dem days en people never live no closer den three en four
miles apart neither. Got old Massa horn right in dat room dere now dat
he could talk on to people dat be 16 miles from whe' he was. Come in
here, child, en I'll let you see it. See, dis old horn been made out of
silver money. You talks in dat little end en what you say runs out dat
big end. Man ax me didn' I want to sell it en I tell him I ain' got no
mind to get rid of it cause it been belong to old Massa. Den if I get
sick, I call on it en somebody come. Wouldn' take nothin for it, honey."

"Times was sho better long time ago den dey be now. I know it. Yes, mam,
I here frettin myself to death after dem dat gone. Colored people never
had no debt to pay in slavery time. Never hear tell bout no colored
people been put in jail fore freedom. Had more to eat en more to wear
den en had good clothes all de time cause white folks furnish
everything, everything. Dat is, had plenty to eat such as we had. Had
plenty peas en rice en hog meat en rabbit en' fish en such as dat.
Colored people sho fare better in slavery time be dat de white folks had
to look out for dem. Had dey extra crop what dey had time off to work
every Saturday. White folks tell dem what dey made, dey could have.
Peoples would have found we colored people rich wid de money we made on
de extra crop, if de slaves hadn' never been set free. Us had big rolls
of money en den when de Yankees come en change de money, dat what made
us poor. It let de white people down en let us down too. Left us all to
bout starve to death. Been force to go to de fish pond en de huckleberry
patch. Land went down to $1.00 a acre. White people let us clear up new
land en make us own money dat way. We bury it in de ground en dat
how-come I had money. I dig mine up one day en had over $1500.00 dat I
been save. Heap of peoples money down dere yet en dey don' know whe' to
find it."

Source: Sylvia Cannon, age 85, ex-slave, Marion St., Florence,
S. C.
Personal interview by Annie Ruth Davis, October, 1937.