at preached at
de plantation church. After Uncle Edmond said de las' words over me an'
Exter, Marse George got to have his little fun: He say, 'Come on, Exter,
you an' Tempie got to jump over de broom stick backwards; you got to do
dat to see which one gwine be boss of your househol'.' Everybody come
stan' 'roun to watch. Marse George hold de broom 'bout a foot high off
de floor. De one dat jump over it backwards an' never touch de handle,
gwine boss de house, an' if bof of dem jump over widout touchin' it, dey
won't gwine be no bossin', dey jus' gwine be 'genial. I jumped fus',
an' you ought to seed me. I sailed right over dat broom stick same as a
cricket, but when Exter jump he done had a big dram an' his feets was so
big an' clumsy dat dey got all tangled up in dat broom an' he fell head
long. Marse George he laugh an' laugh, an' tole Exter he gwine be bossed
'twell he skeered to speak less'n I tole him to speak. After de weddin'
we went down to de cabin Mis' Betsy done all dressed up, but Exter
couldn' stay no longer den dat night kaze he belonged to Marse Snipes
Durham an' he had to back home. He lef' de nex day for his plantation,
but he come back every Saturday night an' stay 'twell Sunday night. We
had eleven chillun. Nine was bawn befo' surrender an' two after we was
set free. So I had two chillun dat wuzn' bawn in bondage. I was worth a
heap to Marse George kaze I had so manny chillun. De more chillun a
slave had de more dey was worth. Lucy Carter was de only nigger on de
plantation dat had more chillun den I had. She had twelve, but her
chillun was sickly an' mine was muley strong an' healthy. Dey never was
sick.

When de war come Marse George was too ole to go, but young Marse Bill
went. He went an' took my brother Sim wid him. Marse Bill took Sim along
to look after his hoss an' everything. Dey didn' neither one get shot,
but Mis' Betsy was skeered near 'bout to death all de time, skeered dey
was gwine be brung home shot all to pieces like some of de sojers was.

De Yankees wuzn' so bad. De mos' dey wanted was sumpin' to eat. Dey was
all de time hungry, de fus' thing dey ax for when dey came was sumpin'
to put in dey stomach. An' chicken! I ain' never seed even a preacher
eat chicken like dem Yankees. I believes to my soul dey ain' never seed
no chicken 'twell dey come down here. An' hot biscuit too. I seed a
passel of dem eat up a whole sack of flour one night for supper.
Georgianna sif' flour 'twell she