. The women were carried across on the men's backs. They
did all of this to hear the minister tell them "don't steal from your
Master".

They didn't have an overseer to whip the slaves on the Scott
plantation, Scott did the whipping himself. Mrs. Richardson said he
knocked her down once just before she gave birth to a daughter, all
because she didn't pick cotton as fast as he thought she should have.

Her husband went to the war to be "what you call a valet for Master
Jim's son, Sam". After the war, he "came to me and my daughter". "Then
in July, we could tell by the crops and other things grown, old Master
Jim told us everyone we was free, and that was almost a year after the
other slaves on the other plantations around were freed". She said
Scott, in freeing (?) then said that "he didn't have to give us any
thing to eat and that he didn't have to give us a place to stay, but we
could stay and work for him and he would pay us. But we left that night
and walked for miles through the rain to my husban's brother and then
told them that they all were free. Then we all came up to Kentucky in a
wagon and lived there. Then I came up North when my husband died".

Mrs. Richardson says that she is "so happy to know that I have lived to
see the day when you young people can serve God without slipping around
to serve him like we old folks had to do". "You see that pencil that
you have In your hand there, why, that would cost me my life 'if old
Mas' Jim would see me with a pencil in my hand. But I lived to see both
him and Miss Elizabeth die a hard death. They both hated to die,
although they belonged to church. Thank God for his mercy! Thank God!"
"My mother prayed for me and I am praying for you young folks".

Mrs. Richardson, despite her 90 years of age, can walk a distance of a
mile and a half to her church.

Submitted August 31, 1937
Indianapolis, Indiana

Federal Writers' Project
of the W.P.A.
District #6
Marion County
Anna Pritchett
1200 Kentucky Avenue

FOLKLORE
JOE ROBINSON--EX-SLAVE
1132 Cornell Avenue

Joe Robinson was born in Mason County, Kentucky in 1854.

His master, Gus Hargill, was very kind to him and all his slaves. He
owned a large farm and raised every kind of vegetation. He always gave
his slaves plenty to eat. They never had to steal food. He said his
slaves had worked hard to permit him to have plenty, therefore they
should have their share.

Joe, his mother, a brother, and a sister