Never had no 'buse in my life. Marse
didn't 'low nobody to look at his niggers when dey was being whipped,
kaise he hated to have to let any of dem be 'bused. Marse Starke sho
never whipped no one dat was good. He never let his overseers 'buse
nobody neither. I does not 'member much 'bout his overseers. One named a
Briggs, one a Bishop, one a Coleman and Alley Cook was de last one; I
'members his name best.

"Marse Starke was a rich man. He had in de Quarter what was know'd as a
chilluns' house. A nurse stayed in it all de time to care fer all de
plantation chilluns. My granny 'Kissy' acted as nurse dar some. Aunt
Peggy and aunt Ciller was two mo'. Ciller was de daughter of a King in
Africa, but dat story been traveling ever since she got to dese shores,
and it still a-gwine. All dese helped to nurse me. Dey fed us on milk,
plenty of it. We had honey, lasses and lots of good things. When I was a
little bit-a boy I had a big bowl to eat out of. And us chilluns et like
hogs and got fat. We allus had fine food. My marster give me a biscuit
sometime from his plate and I wouldn't have tuck 25c fer it. He allus
put butter in it or ham and gravy. He would say, 'Dat's de doctrine, Be
kind!' Nobody never got no 'borious beating from our master's hands.

"I been toiling here on dis earth fer a long time. De Lawd spared me to
bring up a big race of chilluns myself. We is awful po' and ain't none
of my chilluns got things as well as I had when my marster give it to
me. My daughter and grand-daughter lives wid Mr. Nathan Littlejohn. He
is rich. I stay in de house wid dem. Dey 'vides wid me dat what dey has.
But dat ain't much. I has great-great-grand chilluns dat I ain't never
seed. I have five chilluns living to my knowings. Last time I counted, I
had 137 grand and great-grand chilluns. So you see I looks into de
fourth generation of my own family.

"Me and Old man Zack went to a hanging one time. Both of us clamed up
into a tree so dat we could look down on de transaction from a better
angle. De man, I means de sheriff, let us go up dar. He let some mo'
niggers clamb up in de same tree wid us. De man dat was being hung was
called Alf Walker. He was a mulatto and he had done kil't a preacher, so
you see dey was hanging him fer his wickedness, sho as you born dey was.

"While me and Zack up in dat tree a-witnessing dat transaction, peers
like we become mo' acquainted wid one another dan we had ever been since
us know'd one anothe