e till next day.

"We had prayer meetin' anytime an' we went to the white folks church.
Dere wus no whiskey on de place, no, no, honey, no whiskey. Now at corn
shuckin's dey had a big supper an' all et all dey wanted. I'll tell you
Jake Sorrell wus all right. We didn't have any dances no time. Some
nights marster would come to our cabins, call us all into one of 'em an
pray wid us. He stood up in de floor an' tole us all to be good an
pray. I saw him die. I saw him when de breath went out of him. De last
word he said wus, 'Lord do your will, not mine.' Den he breathed twice
an' wus no mo'.

"Missus died since de surrender, when she got sick she sent for me to
go an' wait on her. I went an' cleaned her lak a baby, waited on her
till de evenin' she died dat night. I went off dat evenin' late to
spend de night an' next mornin' when I got dere she wus dead. I jist
couldn't refuse missus when she sent for me even if she had treated me
bad.

"My grandmother wus as white as you is. She wus Lottie Sorrell. Marster
bought my grandmother. I do not know my grandfather's name. Grandmother
wus a cook an' she tole me the reason she was so white wus 'cause she
stood over de fire so much. Ha, ha, dats what she tole me. She had long
straight hair. I 'members her well.

"Yes I 'members de Yankees. De Southern, our folks, wus in front. Dey
come along a road right by our house. Our folks wus goin' on an' de
Yankees right behind. You could hear 'em shootin'. Dey called it
skirmishin'. It wus rainin' an our folks wus goin' through de mud an'
slush. Dey had wagins an' some would say, 'Drive up, drive up, Goddamn
it, drive up, de damn Yankees right behind us.' Dey had turkeys an'
chickens' on de wagins an' on dere hosses. Dey got things out of de
houses an' took de stock. Dey searched de houses an' took de quilts an'
sheets an' things.

"De Yankees wus soon dere an' dey done de same thing. Dat wus a time.
Dey took all dey could find an' dere want much left when all got
through. De Yankees poured out lasses an' stomped down things dey could
not carry off. I wus afraid of de Yankees. Dey come up an' said, 'Haint
you got some money round here?' I tole 'em I knowed nothin' about
money. Dey called me auntie an' said 'Auntie tell us whar de money is,
you knows.' I says, 'Dey don't let me see everything around here, no
dat dey don't.'

"When dey tole us we wus free we stayed right on wid marster. We got
crackers an' meat from de Yankees an' w