f Raleigh not long ago an'
he made snakes an' made 'em crawl too. All shows is de Devil's wurk.

I never done anything fer myself in all my life. I always wurked fer de
Rebels. I stuck right to 'em. Didn't have no sense fer doin' dat I
guess.

One time a Rebel saw a Yankee wid one eye, one leg an' one arm. De
Yankee wus beggin'. De Rebel went up to him an' give him a quarter. Den
he backed off an' jes' stood a-lookin' at de Yankee, presently he went
back an' give him anudder quarter, den anudder, den he said, 'You take
dis whole dollar, you is de first Yankee I eber seed trimmed up jes' to
my notion, so take all dis, jes' take de whole dollar, you is trimmed up
to my notion'.

I belonged to Billy Boone in Slavery time. He wus a preacher. He lived
on an' owned a plantation in Northampton County. The plantation wus near
woodland. The nearest river to the place wus the Roanoke. My ole missus'
name wus Nancy. When ole marster died I stayed around wid fust one then
another of the chilluns, cause marster tole me jes' fore he died fer me
to stay wid any of 'em I wanted to stay with. All dem ole people done
dead an' gone on.

Niggers had to go through thick an' thin in slavery time, with rough
rations most of de time, wid jes' enough clothin' to make out wid. Our
houses were built of logs an' covered wid slabs. Dey wus rived out of
blocks of trees about 3-6 and 8ft in length. De chimleys wus built of
sticks and mud, den a coat of clay mud daubed over 'em. De cracks in de
slave houses wus daubed wid mud too.

We wurked from sun to sun. If we had a fire in cold weather where we
wus wurkin' marster or de overseer would come an' put it out. We et
frozen meat an' bread many times in cold weather. After de day's wurk in
de fields wus over we had a task of pickin' de seed from cotton till we
had two ounces of lint or spin two ounces of cotton on a spinnin' wheel.
I spun cotton on a spinnin' wheel. Dats de way people got clothes in
slavery time.

I can't read an' write but dey learned us to count. Dey learned us to
count dis way. 'Ought is an' ought, an' a figger is a figger, all for de
white man an' nothin' fer de nigger'. Hain't you heard people count dat
way?

Dey sold slaves jes' like people sell hosses now. I saw a lot of slaves
sold on de auction block. Dey would strip 'em stark naked. A nigger
scarred up or whaled an' welted up wus considered a bad nigger an' did
not bring much. If his body wus not scarred, he brought a