guns to boombar the city. Mr. John Dawson an' Mr. Silas Martin, they
went on the corner of Second an' Nun Streets on the top of Ben Berry's
house an' run up a white sheet for a flag, an' the Yankees did'n'
boombar us. An' Mr. Martin gave his house up to the Progro Marshells,
and my mother cleaned up the house an' washed for them. Her name was
Caroline West.

"I remember when that Provo Marshell told the colored people that any
house in Wilmin'ton they liked, that was empty, they could go take it,
an' the first one they took was the fine Bellamy Mansion on Market an'
Fifth Street."

"Uncle Jackson", asked the interviewer, "don't you remember that house
was headquarters of the Federal Army? How could colored people occupy
it?"

Uncle Jackson: "I don't remember nothin' about Federal soldiers bein'
in that house, but I'm tellin' you I _knows_ a lot of common colored
folks was in it because I seen 'em sittin' on the piazza an' all up an'
down those big front steps. I _seen_ 'em. Nice colored people wouldn't
'a gone there. They had respec' for theirselves an' their white folks.
But Dr. Bellamy came home soon with his fam'ly an' those colored people
got out. They wan't there long.

"Endurin' of slavery I toted water for the fam'ly to drink. I remember
when there was springs under where the new Court House is now, and all
the white folks livin' 'round there drank water from those springs.
They called it Jacob Spring. There was also a spring on Market Street
between Second and Third Streets, that was called McCrayer (McCrary)
spring. They didn't 'low nobody but rich folks to get water from that
spring. Of co'se I got _mine_ there whenever I chose to tote it that
far. We did'n' work so hard in those days. I don't know nothin' about
field han's an' workmen on the river, but so far as I knows the
carpenters an' people like that started work at 8 o'clock A.M. and
stopped at 5 o'clock P.M. Of course 'round the house it was different.
Our folks done pretty much what the white folks did because we was all
pretty much one an' other.

"Did I ever know of any slaves bein' whipped? I seen plenty of 'em
whipped over at the jail, but them was _bad_ niggers, (this with a
grimace of disgust, and shaking of the head), they needed whippin'. But
(with a chuckle) I sho' would have hated to see anybody put they han's
on one of my owner's people. We was all 'spectable an' did'n know
nothin' about whippen. Our mammy's spanked us aplenty, _yes