l you 'bout de Joe Moe do'.

You mebbe doan know hit, but de prisoners hyar doan git de blues so bad
if de company comes on visitin' days, an' de mail comes reg'lar. We's
always gittin' up somepin' ter have a little fun, so somebody gits up de
Joe Moe.

Yo' sees dat when a new nigger comes in he am skeerd an' has got de
blues. Somebody goes ter cheer him up an' dey axes him hadn't he ruther
be hyar dan daid. Yo' see he am moughty blue den, so mebbe he says dat
he'd ruther be daid; den dis feller what am tryin' ter cheer him tells
him dat all right he sho' will die dat [HW correction: 'cause] he's got
de Joe Moe put on him.

Seberal days atter dis de new nigger fin's a little rag full of somepin
twix de bed an' mattress an' he axes what hit am. Somebody tells him dat
hit am de Joe Moe, an' dey tells him dat de only way he can git de spell
off am ter git de bag off on somebody else. Ever'body but him knows'
bout hit so de Joe Moe keeps comin' back till a new one comes in an' he
l'arns de joke.

Talkin' 'bout ghostes I wants ter tell you dat de air am full of 'em.
Dar's a strip from de groun' 'bout four feet high which am light on de
darkes' night, case hit can't git dark down dar. Git down an' crawl an'
yo'll see a million laigs of eber' kin' an' if'en you lis'ens you'll
hyar a little groanin' an' den you has gone through a warm spot.

B. N.

N. C. District: No. 2 [320186]
Worker: T. Pat Matthews
No. Words: 725
Subject: HARRIET ANN DAVES
Story Teller: Harriet Ann Daves
Editor: Daisy Bailey Waitt

[TR: No Date Stamp]

HARRIET ANN DAVES
601 E. Cabarrus Street

My full name is Harriet Ann Daves, I like to be called Harriet Ann. If
my mother called me when she was living, I didn't want to answer her
unless she called me Harriet Ann. I was born June 6, 1856. Milton
Waddell, my mother's marster was my father, and he never denied me to
anybody.

My mother was a slave but she was white. I do not know who my mother's
father was. My mother was Mary Collins. She said that her father was an
Indian. My mother's mother was Mary Jane Collins, and she was
white--maybe part Indian. My grandfather was old man William D. Waddell,
a white man. I was born in Virginia near Orange Courthouse. The Waddells
moved to Lexington, Missouri, after I was born. I guess some of the
family would not like it if they knew I was telling this. We had good
food and a nice place to live. I