dy
b'long to de Graddicks in de northern part of Richland County. Dese two
plantations was just across de road from each other. Mammy said dat de
patrollers was as thick as flies 'round dese plantations all de time,
and my daddy sho' had to slip 'round to see mammy. Sometime they would
ketch him and whip him good, pass or no pass.

"De patrollers was nothin' but poor white trash, mammy say, and if they
didn't whip some slaves, every now and then, they would lose deir jobs.
My mammy and daddy got married after freedom, 'cause they didn't git de
time for a weddin' befo'. They called deirselves man and wife a long
time befo' they was really married, and dat is de reason dat I's as old
as I is now. I reckon they was right, in de fust place, 'cause they
never did want nobody else 'cept each other, nohow. Here I is, I has
been married one time and at no time has I ever seen another woman I
wanted. My wife has been dead a long time and I is still livin' alone.
All our chillun is scattered 'bout over de world somewhere, and dat
somewhere is where I don't know. They ain't no help to me now, in my old
age. But, I reckon they ain't to be blamed much, 'cause they is young,
full of warm blood and thinks in a different way from de older ones.
Then, too, I 'spects they thinks deir old daddy would kinda be in deir
way, and de best thing for them to do is to stay away from me. I don't
know, it just seems lak de way of de world.

"I come from de Guinea family of niggers, and dat is de reason I is so
small and black. De Guinea nigger don't know nothin', 'cept hard work,
and, for him to be so he can keep up wid bigger folks, he has to turn
'round fas'. You knows dat if you puts a little hog in a pen wid big
hogs, de little one has got to move 'bout in a hurry amongst de big
ones, to git 'nough to eat, and de same way wid a little person, they
sho' has to hustle for what they gits. I has no head for learnin' what's
in books, and if I had, dere wasn't no schools for to learn dat head,
when I come 'long. I has made some money, 'long through de years, but
never knowed how to save it. Now I is so old dat I can't make much, and
so, I just live somehow, dat's all.

"President Roosevelt has done his best to help de old, poor, and
forgotten ones of us all, every color and race, while dis 'pression has
been gwine on in dis country. Is us gwine to git dis new pension what is
gwine 'bout, or is dat other somebody gwine to think he needs it worser
t