er pay him
out, but dat ain't no good.

De officers sez dat he am yaller an' dat day am gwine ter shoot his
head off an' use hit fer a soap gourd. De Yankees did shoot him down
here at Bentonville an' Mis' Long went atter de body. De Confederates
has got de body but dey won't let her have it fer love ner money. Dey
laughs an' tells her how yaller he am an' dey buries him in a ditch like
a dog.

Mis' Long has been bad enough fore den but atter her son is dead she
sez dat she am gwine ter fight till she draps dead. De nex' day she
sticks de shot gun in mammy's back an' sez dat she am gwine ter shoot
her dead. Mammy smiles an' tells her dat she am ready ter go. Mis' Long
turns on me an' tells me ter go ter de peach tree an' cut her ten limbs
'bout a yard long, dis I does an' atter she ties dem in a bundle she
wears dem out on me at a hundret licks. Lemmie tell yo', dar wus pieces
of de peach tree switches stickin' all in my bloody back when she got
through.

Atter dat Mis' Long ain't done nothin' but whup us an' fight till she
shore nuff wore out.

De Yankee captain come ter our place an tol' us dat de lan' was goin'
ter be cut up an' divided among de slaves, dey would also have a mule
an' a house apiece.

I doan know how come hit but jist 'fore de end of de war we come ter
Moses Mordicia's place, right up de hill from here. He wus mean too,
he'd get drunk an' whup niggers all day off' an' on. He'd keep dem tied
down dat long too, sometimes from sunrise till dark.

Mr. Mordicia had his yaller gals in one quarter ter dereselves an' dese
gals belongs ter de Mordicia men, dere friends an' de overseers. When a
baby wus born in dat quarter dey'd sen' hit over ter de black quarter
at birth. Dey do say dat some of dese gal babies got grown an' atter
goin' back ter de yaller quarter had more chilluns fer her own daddy or
brother. De Thompson's sprung from dat set an' dey say dat a heap of dem
is halfwits fer de reason dat I has jist tol' yo'. Dem yaller wimen wus
highfalutin' too, dey though [HW correction: thought] dey wus better dan
de black ones.

Has yo' ever wondered why de yaller wimen dese days am meaner dan black
ones 'bout de men? Well dat's de reason fer hit, dere mammies raised dem
to think 'bout de white men.

When de Yankees come dey come an' freed us. De woods wus full of Rebs
what had deserted, but de Yankees killed some of dem.

Some sort of corporation cut de land up, but de slaves ain't got none
of i