last husband's name.

When the family had again settled down to the ordinary routine, a new
plague, body lice, said to have been left by the invaders, made life
almost unbearable for both races.

Della now lives with her granddaughter, for she has been unable to work
for twenty-eight years. Macon's Department of Public Welfare assists in
contributing to her livelihood, as the granddaughter can only pay the
room rent.

She does not know her age but believes that she is above ninety. Her
keen old eyes seemed to look back into those bygone days as she said, "I
got along better den dan I eber hab since. We didn't know nuthin 'bout
jail houses, paying for our burial grounds, and de rent. We had plenty
o' food."

[HW: Dist. 6
Ex. Slv. #11]

GEORGE BROOKS, EX-SLAVE
Date of birth: Year unknown (See below)
Place of birth: In Muscogee County, near Columbus, Georgia
Present Residence: 502 East 8th Street, Columbus, Georgia
Interviewed: August 4, 1936
[MAY 8 1937]

This old darky, probably the oldest ex-slave in West Georgia, claims to
be 112 years of age. His colored friends are also of the opinion that he
is fully that old or older--but, since none of his former (two) owners'
people can be located, and no records concerning his birth can be found,
his definite age cannot be positively established.

"Uncle" George claims to have worked in the fields, "some", the year the
"stars fell"--1833.

His original owner was Mr. Henry Williams--to whom he was greatly
attached. As a young man, he was--for a number of years--Mr. Williams'
personal body-servant. After Mr. Williams' death--during the 1850's,
"Uncle" George was sold to a white man--whose name he doesn't
remember--of Dadeville, Alabama, with whom he subsequently spent five
months in the Confederate service.

One of "Uncle" George's stories is to the effect that he once left a
chore he was doing for his second "Marster's" wife, "stepped" to a
nearby well to get a drink of water and, impelled by some strange,
irresistible "power", "jes kep on walkin 'til he run slap-dab inter de
Yankees", who corraled him and kept him for three months.

Still another story he tells is that of his being sold after freedom!
According to his version of this incident, he was sold along with two
bales of cotton in the fall of 1865--either the cotton being sold and he
"thrown in" with it, or vice versa--he doesn't know which, but he _does
know_ that he and the cotton were "sold" t