Dey took Burrus to de whippin' post. Dey strip off his shirt, den dey
put his head an' hands through de holes in de top, an' tied his feets to
de bottom, den, Ole Marse took de whip. Dat lash hiss like col' water on
er red hot iron when it come through de air, an' every time it hit
Burrus it lef' er streak of blood. Time Ole Marse finish, Burrus' back
look like er piece of raw beef.

Dey laid Burrus face down on er plank den dey poured turpentine in all
dem cut places. It burned like fire but dat niggah didn' know nothin'
'bout it kaze he done passed out from pain. But, all his life dat black
man toted dem scares on his back.

When de war ended Mis' Sally come to Mammy an' say: 'Fanny, I's sho glad
yo's free. Yo' can go now an' yo' won' ever have to be er slave no
more.'

But Mammy, she ain't had no notion of leavin' Mis' Sally. She put her
arms' roun' her an' call her Baby, an' tell her she goin' to stay wid
her long as she live. An' she did stay wid her. Me an' Mammy bof stayed
Mis' Sally 'twell she died.

N. C. District: No. 3 [320193]
Field Worker: Esther S. Pinnix
Word Total: 3,199
Editor: P. G. Cross
Subject: "Negro Folklore of the Piedmont".
Consultants: Mrs. P. G. Cross,
Miss Kate Jones,
Descendants of Dr. Beverly Jones.

Sources of Information: Aunt Betty Cofer--ex-slave of Dr. Beverly Jones

[HW: Cofer]

NEGRO FOLK LORE OF THE PIEDMONT.

* * * * *

The ranks of negro ex-slaves are rapidly thinning out, but, scattered
here and there among the ante-bellum families of the South, may be found
a few of these picturesque old characters. Three miles north of
Bethania, the second oldest settlement of the "Unitas Fratrum" in
Wachovia, lies the 1500 acre Jones plantation. It has been owned for
several generations by the one family, descendants of Abraham Conrad.
Conrad's daughter, Julia, married a physician of note, Dr. Beverly
Jones, whose family occupied the old homestead at the time of the Civil
War.

Here, in 1856, was born a negro girl, Betty, to a slave mother. Here,
today, under the friendly protection of this same Jones family,
surrounded by her sons and her sons' sons, lives this same Betty in her
own little weather-stained cottage. Encircling her house are lilacs,
althea, and flowering trees that soften the bleak outlines of unpainted
out-buildings. A varied collection of old-fashio