han us does? Dat's de question what 'sorbs my mind most, dese days. I
don't need much, and maybe I don't deserve nothin', but I sho' would lak
to git hold of dat little dat's 'tended for me by dat man up yonder in
Washington. (Roosevelt)

"Does I b'lieve in spirits and hants? My answer to dat question is dis:
'Must my tremblin' spirit fly into a world unknown?' When a person goes
'way from dis world, dere they is, and dere they is gwine to stay, 'til
judgment."

Code No.
Project, 1885-(1)
Prepared by Annie Ruth Davis
Place, Marion, S. C.
Date, January 21, 1938
No. Words ----
Reduced from ---- words
Rewritten by ----

HEDDIE DAVIS
Ex-Slave, 72 Years

Lizzie Davis sends word for Heddie Davis to come over to her little
shack to join in the conversation about old times and Heddie enters the
room with these words: "Sis, I gwine hug your neck. Sis, I did somethin
last night dat I oughtn't done en I can' hardly walk dis mornin. Pulled
off my long drawers last night en never had none to change wid. I can'
bear to get down en pray or nothin like dat, my knee does ache me so
bad. I gwine up town yonder en get some oil of wintergreen en put on it.
Yes'um, dat sho a good thing to strike de pain cause I heard bout dat
long years ago. Sis, ain' you got no coffee nowhe' dis mornin? God
knows, de Lord sho gwine bless you, Sis."

"What honey? No'um, I won' here in slavery time. I was just tereckly
after it. Well, I come here a Lewis, but I inherited de Davis name when
I married. Old man Peter Lewis was my daddy, en my mother--she was a
North Carolina woman. Oh, I heard dat man talk bout de old time war so
much dat I been know what was gwine fly out his mouth time he been have
a mind to spit it out. My daddy, he belonged to de old man Evans Lewis
en he been de one his boss pick to carry to de war wid him. Yes'um, he
stayed up dere to Fort Sumter four years a fightin en hoped shoot dem
old Yankee robbers. My old man, he had one of dem old guns en I give it
to his brother Jimmie. He lives way up yonder to de north en he carried
dat gun wid him just cause I give it to him, he say. He marry my younger
sister en she grayer den I is. Think dey say dey lives to Rockingham,
North Carolina. Yes, honey, my daddy was sho in dat wash out dere to
Fort Sumter. Lord, have mercy, I never hear tell of crabs en shrimps in
all my life till my daddy come back en tell bout a old woman would be
gwine down de street, dere