n for a pension and didn't want to tell a story about
my age. In reading the Gazette, I found out that William Blue got shot
by an insurance man in Dallas, Texas over a stenographer. I found out
where my young master was and after allowing him time to get over his
grief, I wrote to him about my age. He wrote me that Andrew was the
oldest and he didn't know, so he sent my letter to Tacoma, Tennessee, to
Henry Blue. Henry wrote to him and told him to look in the bottom of the
wardrobe in the old family Bible. He looked there and found the Bible
and sent my age to me. They wrote to me and sent me some money and were
awful nice to me. They said that I was the only one of the slaves
living."

Good Masters

"Our masters were awful good to us. They didn't treat us like we were
slaves. My mother carried the keys to everything on the place. They
lived in the city. They didn't live in the country. I came here in 1869."

Family

"My mother married a Thompson. Her married name was Margaret Thompson
and her name before she married was Margaret Berth. Her master before
she married was Berth. Her last master was Blue. Her mother's name was
Cordelia Lowe. Her maiden name was Berth. When the old man Berth died,
he made his will and Bullard Berth didn't want any slaves because he
wanted to train his children to work. Willard, my mother's master,
should have been a Berth because he was old man Berth's son, but he
called himself Blue. It might have been that old man Berth was his
stepfather. Anyway he went by the name of Willard Blue. He was an
undertaker.

"My father's name was Oliver Thompson. I don't remember any of my
father's people. His people were in Nashville, Tennessee, and my
mother's people were in Gallatin, Tennessee. We were separated in
slavery."

Separation of Parents

"I don't know how my mother and father happened to get together. They
didn't belong to the same master. My father belonged to Thompson and
lived in Nashville and my mother belonged to Blue in Gallatin. They were
not together when freedom came and never did get together after freedom.
They only had one child to my knowledge. I don't know how they happened
to be separated. It was when I was too small. Nashville is twenty-six
miles from Gallatin. Perhaps one family or the other moved away."

Patrollers

"I have heard my mother speak about the pateroles. I don't know whether
they were pateroles or not. They had guards out to see if the slaves h