learned in slavery days when, as a "run-away",
he "knocked a shoat in the head" one summer and tried it--proving it.

EX-SLAVE INTERVIEW

JAMES BOLTON
Athens, Georgia

Written by:
Mrs. Sarah H. Hall
Federal Writers' Project
Residency 4
Athens, Georgia

Edited by:
Miss Maude Barragan
Residency 13
Augusta, Georgia

"It never was the same on our plantation atter we done laid Mistess
away," said James Bolton, 85 year old mulatto ex-slave. "I ain't never
forget when Mistess died--she had been so good to every nigger on our
plantation. When we got sick, Mistess allus had us tended to. The
niggers on our plantation all walked to church to hear her funeral
sermon and then walked to the graveyard to the buryin'."

James, shrivelled and wrinkled, with his bright eyes taking in
everything on one of his rare visits to town, seemed glad of the chance
to talk about slavery days. He spoke of his owner as "my employer" and
hastily corrected himself by saying, "I means, my marster."

"My employer, I means my marster, and my mistess, they was sho' all
right white folkses," he continued. "They lived in the big 'ouse. Hit
was all painted brown. I heard tell they was more'n 900 acres in our
plantation and lots of folkses lived on it. The biggest portion was
woods. My paw, he was name Whitfield Bolton and Liza Bolton was my maw.
Charlie, Edmund, Thomas and John Bolton was my brothers and I had one
sister, she was Rosa. We belonged to Marse Whitfield Bolton and we lived
on his plantation in Oglethorpe County near Lexington, not far from the
Wilkes County line.

"We stayed in a one room log cabin with a dirt floor. A frame made
outen pine poles was fastened to the wall to hold up the mattresses. Our
mattresses was made outen cotton bagging stuffed with wheat straw. Our
kivers was quilts made outen old clothes. Slave 'omens too old to work
in the fields made the quilts.

"Maw, she went up to the big house onc't a week to git the 'lowance or
vittles. They 'lowanced us a week's rations at a time. Hit were
generally hog meat, corn meal and sometimes a little flour. Maw, she
done our cookin' on the coals in the fireplace at our cabin. We had
plenty of 'possums and rabbits and fishes and sometimes we had wild
tukkeys and partidges. Slaves warn't spozen to go huntin' at night and
everybody know you can't ketch no 'possums 'ceppin' at night! Jus' the
same, we had plenty 'possums and nobody ax how we cotch 'em!" James
laughed