"I draws 'bout a half a cupful an' he sez, 'Nigger dat ain't no
'lasses,' an' he cracks his whup ag'in.

"I den draws de cup full as it could be an' he tells me ter drunk it.

"I drinks dat whole cupful uf 'lasses 'fore he'll lemmie 'lone. Den I
runs back ter my mammy.

"Atter awhile de Yankee comes back an' sticks his haid in de do' an' he
'lows, 'ole doman, yo' 'lasses am leakin'.'

"Sho' nuff it wuz leakin' an' had run all down de hall an' out in de
yard, but he done pull de stopper out fer meanness so he could laff at
mammy when she waded through dat 'lasses. Dey laffs an' laffs while she
go steppin' down through de 'lasses lak a turkey walkin' on cockleburs.

"Dem Yankees done a lot of mischief, I knows case I wuz dar. Dey robbed
de folkses an' a whole lot of darkies what ain't never been whupped by
de master got a whuppin' from de Yankee soldiers.

"De Ku Klux Klan warn't half as bad as dem Yankee robbers what stayed
in Raleigh atter de war, robbin', plunderin', an' burnin' up
ever'thing. De south had ter have de Ku Klux Klan but dey ain't had no
need fer de Yankees.

"De first winter atter de war wuz de worse winter I ever knowed, an'
I'se tellin' yo' dat wuz bad. Maybe yo' doan think so but nigh 'bout
ever' nigger in de world cussed ole Abraham Lincoln dat winter."

B.N.

N.C. District: No. 2
Worker: T. Pat Matthews
No. Words: 1648
Subject: JOHN SMITH
Story teller: John Smith
Editor: Office force

[HW: 300 slaves raised [TR: illegible], 2 women, some reconstruction
material]

[Illustration: John Smith]

JOHN SMITH
John Smith, a Negro in the Wake County Home, Raleigh, N.C.
Interviewed by T. Pat Matthews, May 10, 1937.

"John Smith is my name, an I wuz borned at Knightdale, right at my
marster's house. Yes sir, right in his home. I wuz born right near whar
de depot now is. My marster owned de lan', all de lan' dere. I wuz bred
an' bawn dere on my marster's plantation. I is, countin' day an' night,
216 years old, not countin' day an' night I is 108 years old.

"My marster's name wuz Haywood Smith an' he wuz one ob de bes' men I
ebber seed. He wuz good to all us niggers, he would come round an' talk
to us, he lubbed us, and we lubbed him. My marster, Haywood Smith,
nebber married but he had a nigger 'oman. She also had a nigger
husband. She had two chillun by Marster Haywood Smith, a gal and a boy.
Peter Knight owned my marster's lan' at K