the baby in our home. My mother an' father
an' all o' us belonged to Felix Rogers. He lived in the edge o' Wake
County next to Greenville County. My mother came from Canada. My master
came here from Canada an' married here. He married old man Billy
Shipp's daughter. Her name wuz Matilda Shipp.

"I cannot read an' write. Dey did not 'low no niggers to handle no
papers in dem days. Master had three plantations an' about one hundred
slaves. We had good houses an' plenty to eat. My master wuz a good man.
We had no church on the plantation, but we had prayermeeting in our
houses. He 'lowed dat an' when dey had big meeting, he made us all go.
We had dances or anything else we wanted to at night. We had corn
shuckings, candy pullings, an' all the whiskey an' brandy we wanted. My
daddy didn't do nuthin' but 'still for him. Whiskey wuz only ten cents
a quart den.

"I have never seen him really whup a slave any more dan he whupped his
own chilluns. He whupped us all together when we stole watermelons and
apples. He made us chillun, white and black, eat together at a big
table to ourselves. We had ordinary clothes, but we all went alike. In
the summer and winter we all went barefooted and in our shirt tails
mos' er de time. His chilluns wuz just as bad fer goin' barefooted as
we niggers wuz.

"We had our patches, and he allowed us to have the money we made on
'em. Our houses were called slave quarters. Our marster's house wuz a
big fine two story-house. We slaves called it 'de great house'. None er
de slaves from Marster Roger's plantation never run away.

"We chillun played de games uv marbles, cat ball, an' we played base,
prison base. At night we all played peep squirrel in the house. We
played blindfold and tag.

"We fished a lot in Briar Creek. We caught a lot o' fish. Sometimes we
used pin hooks we made ourselves. We would trade our fish to missus for
molasses to make candy out uv.

"When we got sick we had a doctor. His name wuz Dr. Hicks. I never wuz
sick, but some uv de res' wuz. We had an old colored man who doctored
on all us chillun. He give us roots an' herbs.

"Yes sir, I have seen slaves sold. My marster died the year the war
started; den dey had a big sale at our house. Dey had a sale, an' old
man Askew bought a whole lot o' our niggers. I don't know his name only
dey called him 'old man Askew'. He lived on Salisbury Street Raleigh,
down near de Rex Hospital, Corner Salisbury and Lenoir Streets. Old man
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