ne. We would
have prayer meetings on Saturday nights, and one might in de week us had
a chairback preacher, and sometimes a regular preacher would come in."

Nancy did not remember ever having seen the Patterollers.

"I hearn talk of 'em you know, heap o' times dey come out and make out
like dey gwine shoot you at night, dey mus' been Patterollers, dey was
gettin' hold of a heap of 'em."

"What did you do about funerals, Nancy?"

"Dey let us knock off for funerals, I tell de truth. Us stay up all
night, singin' and prayin'. Dey make de coffin outter pine boards."

"Did you suffer during the war?"

"We done de bes' we could, we et what we could get, sometimes didn' have
nothin' to eat but piece of cornbread, but de white folks allus had
chicken."

"But you had clothes to wear?"

"Us had clothes 'cause we spun de thread and weaved 'em. Dey bought dem
dere great big ole brogans where you couldn' hardly walk in 'em. Not
like dese shoes I got on." Nancy thrust out her foot, easy in "Old
Ladies' Comforts."

"When they told you were free, Nancy, did the master appear to be
angry?"

"No'm, white folks didn' 'pear to be mad. My master dus' tole us we was
free. Us moved right off, but not so far I couldn' go backwards and
forwards to see 'um." (So it was evident that even if Nancy's life had
been hard, there was a bond between her and her former owners.) "I didn'
do no mo' work for 'um, I work for somebody else. Us rented land and
made what we could, so we could have little somethin' to eat. I scoured
and waited on white people in town, got little piece of money, and was
dus' as proud!"

Nancy savored the recollection of her first earned money a moment,
thinking back to the old days.

"I had a preacher for my second marriage," she continued, "Fo' chillun
died on me--one girl, de yuthers was babies. White doctor tended me."

Asked about midwifery, Nancy smiled.

"I was a midwife myself, to black and white, after freedom. De Thomson
doctors all liked me and tole people to 'git Nancy.' I used 'tansy
tea'--heap o' little root--made black pepper tea, fotch de pains on 'em.
When I would git to de place where I had a hard case, I would send for
de doctor, and he would help me out, yes, doctor help me out of all of
'em."

Asked about signs and superstitions, Nancy nodded.

"I have seed things. Day look dus' like a person, walkin' in de woods. I
would look off and look back to see it again and it be gone." Nancy
lowe