went to the white folks church at Red Oak an' Rocky Mount Missionary
Baptist Churches. We were allowed to have prayer meetings at de slave
houses, two an' three times a week. I 'members goin' to church 'bout
last year of de war wid mother. I had a apple wid me an' I got hungry
an' wanted to eat it in meetin' but mother jest looked at me an' touched
my arm, dat wus enough. I didn't eat de apple. I can 'member how bad I
wanted to eat it. Don't 'member much 'bout dat sermon, guess I put my
mind on de apple too much.

Marster had about twenty slaves an' mother said dey had always been
allowed to go to church an' have prayer meetings 'fore I wus born.
Marster had both white an' colored overseers but he would not allow any
of his overseers to bulldoze over his slaves too much. He would call a
overseer down for bein' rough at de wrong time. Charles Sessoms wus one
of marster's colored overseers. He 'longed to marster, an' mother said
marster always listened to what Charles said. Dey said marster had
always favored him even 'fore he made him overseer. Charles Sessoms fell
dead one day an' mother found him. She called Marster Sessoms an' he
come an' jest cried. Mother said when Marster come he wus dead shore
enough, dat marster jest boohooed an' went to de house, an' wouldn't
look at him no more till dey started to take him to de grave. Everybody
on de plantation went to his buryin' an' funeral an' some from de udder
plantation dat joined ourn.

I 'members but little 'bout my missus, but 'members one time she run me
when I wus goin' home from de great house, an' she said, 'I am goin' to
catch you, now I catch you'. She pickin' at me made me love her. When
she died mother tole me 'bout her bein' dead an' took me to her buryin'.
Next day I wanted to go an' get her up. I tole mother I wanted her to
come home an' eat. Mother cried an' took me up in her arms, an' said,
'Honey missus will never eat here again.' I wus so young I didn't
understand.

Dr. Sessoms an' also Dr. Drake, who married his daughter, doctored us
when we wus sick. Dr. Joe Drake married marster's only daughter Harriet
an' his only son David died in Mississippi. He had a plantation dere.

I been married only once. I wus married forty years ago to Sidney Dunn.
I had one chile, she's dead.

From what I knows of slavery an' what my mother tole me I can't say it
wus a bad thing. Mister, I wants to tell de truth an' I can't say its
bad 'cause my mother said she had a