nt to the white folk's church. We sat in a barred-off place,
in the back of the church or in a gallery.

We had a big time at cornshuckings. We had plenty of good things to
eat, and plenty of whiskey and brandy to drink. These shuckings were
held at night. We had a good time, and I never saw a fight at a
cornshucking in life. If we could catch the master after the shucking
was over, we put him in a chair, we darkies, and toted him around and
hollered, carried him into the parlor, set him down, and combed his
hair. We only called the old master "master". We called his wife
"missus." When the white children grew up we called them Mars. John,
Miss Mary, etc.

We had some money. We made baskets. On moonlight nights and holidays we
cleared land; the master gave us what we made on the land. We had
money.

The darkies also stole for deserters during the war. They paid us for
it. I ate what I stole, such as sugar. I was not big enough to steal for
the deserters. I was a house boy. I stole honey. I did not know I was
free until five years after the war. I could not realize I was free.
Many of us stayed right on. If we had not been ruined right after the
war by carpetbaggers our race would have been, well,--better up by this
time, because they turned us against our masters, when our masters had
everything and we had nothing. The Freedmen's Bureau helped us some, but
we finally had to go back to the plantation in order to live.

We got election days, Christmas, New Year, etc., as holidays. When we
were slaves we had a week or more Christmas. The holidays lasted from
Christmas Eve to after New Years. Sometimes we got passes. If our
master would not give them to us, the white boys we played with would
give us one. We played cat, jumping, wrestling and marbles. We played
for fun; we did not play for money. There were 500 acres on the
plantation. We hunted a lot, and the fur of the animals we caught we
sold and had the money. We were allowed to raise a few chickens and
pigs, which we sold if we wanted to.

The white folks rode to church and the darkies walked, as many of the
poor white folks did. We looked upon the poor white folks as our equals.
They mixed with us and helped us to envy our masters. They looked upon
our masters as we did.

Negro women having children by the masters was common. My relatives on
my mother's side, who were Kellys are mixed blooded. They are partly
white. We, the darkies and many of the whites hate