amilton County seat. Mr. Stone is near
nintey-one years old, is in sound physical condition and still has a
remarkable memory. He was a slave in the state of Kentucky for more than
sixteen years and a soldier in the Union army for nearly two years. He
educated himself and taught school to colored children four years
following the Civil War. He studied in 1868, and has been a preacher in
the Colored Baptist Faith for sixty nine years, having been instrumental
in the building of seven churches in that time. Mr. Stone joined the K.
of P. Lodge, the I.O.O.F. and Masonic Lodge and is still a member of the
latter.

This fine old colored man has always worked hard for the uplift and
advancement of the colored race and has accomplished much in this effort
in the States of Tennessee, Kentucky and Indiana. He, together with his
preaching of the gospel, and his lecturing, has followed farming. He now
has a field of sweet corn and a fine, large garden, which he plowed,
planted and tended himself and not a weed can be found in either. He is
the only ex-slave now living in Hamilton County, the others all
deceased, and is one of three living members of Hamilton county G.A.R.
the other two members being white.

Mr. Stone has given to the writer "My Life's Story", which he desires to
call it, and in this story he pictures to the reader, "sixteen years of
hell as a slave on a plantation," a story which will convince the reader
that, even though much blood was shed in our Civil War, the war was a
Godsend to the American Nation. This story is told just as given by Mr.
Stone.

MY LIFE'S STORY

"My name is Barney Stone, I was born in slavery, May 17, 1847, in
Spencer County, Kentucky. I was a slave on the plantation of Lemuel
Stone (all slaves bore the last name of their master) for nearly
seventeen years and was considered a leader among the young slaves on
our plantation. My Mammy was mother to ten children, all slaves, and my
Pappy, Buck Grant, was a buck slave on the plantation of John Grant, his
Mastah; my pappy was used much as a male cow is used on the stock farm
and was hired out to other plantation owners for that purpose and was
regarded as a valuable slave. His Mastah permitted him to visit my
mother each week-end on our plantation.

My Mastah was a hard man when he was angry, drinking or not feeling
well, then at times he was kind to us. I was compelled to pick cotton
and do other work when I was a very small boy. Mastah