o know much
about what dey done. Old folkses said dey give de Athens people smallpox
and dat dey died out right and left, jus' lots of 'em. 'Fore dey got rid
of it, dey had to burn up beds and clothes and a few houses. Dey said
dey put Lake Brown and Clarence Bush out in de swamp to die, but dey got
well, come out of dat swamp, and lived here for years and years.

"Granddaddy told us 'bout how some slaves used to rum off from deir
marsters and live in caves and dugouts. He said a man and a 'oman run
away and lived for years in one of dem places not no great ways from de
slave quarters on his marster's place. Atter a long, long time, some
little white chillun was playin' in de woods one day and clumb up in
some trees. Lookin' out from high up in a tree one of 'em seed two
little pickaninnies but he couldn't find whar dey went. When he went
back home and told 'bout it, evvybody went to huntin' 'em, s'posin' dey
was lost chillun. Dey traced 'em to a dugout, and dere dey found dem two
grown slaves what had done run away years ago, and dey had done had two
little chillun born in dat dugout. Deir marster come and got 'em and tuk
'em home, but de chillun went plumb blind when dey tried to live out in
de sunlight. Dey had done lived under ground too long, and it warn't
long 'fore bofe of dem chillun was daid.

"Dem old slavery-time weddin's warn't lak de way folkses does when dey
gits married up now; dey never had to buy no license den. When a slave
man wanted to git married up wid a gal he axed his marster, and if it
was all right wid de marster den him and de gal come up to de big house
to jump de broomstick 'fore deir white folkses. De gal jumped one way
and de man de other. Most times dere was a big dance de night dey got
married.

"If a slave wanted to git married up wid a gal what didn't live on dat
same plantation he told his marster, den his marster went and talked to
de gal's marster. If bofe deir marsters 'greed den dey jumped de
broomstick; if neither one of de marsters wouldn't sell to de other one,
de wife jus' stayed on her marster's place and de husband was 'lowed a
pass what let him visit her twict a week on Wednesday and Sadday nights.
If he didn't keep dat pass to show when de patterollers cotch him, dey
was more'n apt to beat de skin right off his back. Dem patterollers was
allus watchin' and dey was awful rough. No Mam, dey never did git to
beat me up. I out run 'em one time, but I evermore did have to mak