t dey pleased--dey could stay wid him if dey wanted to. Some
stayed wid Old Marster and some went away. I never seed no yankee
sojers. I heared tell of 'em comin' but I never seed none of 'em.

"No'm I don't know nothin' 'bout Abraham Lincoln, Booker T. Washington
or Jefferson Davis. I didn't try to ketch on to any of 'em. As for
slavery days; some of de Niggers ought to be free and some oughtn't to
be. I don't know nuttin much 'bout it. I had a good time den, and I gits
on pretty good now.

"How come I jined de church? Well I felt lak it wuz time for me to live
better and git ready for a home in de next world. Chile you sho has axed
me a pile of questions, and I has sho 'joyed tellin' you what I knowed."

JULIA BROWN (Aunt Sally)
710 Griffin Place, N.W.
Atlanta, Ga.
July 25, 1936[TR:?]

by
Geneva Tonsill

[TR: One page of this interview was repeated in typescript; where there
was a discrepancy, the clearer version was used.]

AH ALWAYS HAD A HARD TIME

Aunt Sally rocked back and forth incessantly. She mopped her wrinkled
face with a dirty rag as she talked. "Ah wuz born fo' miles frum
Commerce, Georgia, and wuz thirteen year ole at surrender. Ah belonged
to the Nash fambly--three ole maid sisters. My mama belonged to the
Nashes and my papa belonged to General Burns; he wuz a officer in the
war. There wuz six of us chilluns, Lucy, Malvina, Johnnie, Callie, Joe
and me. We didn't stay together long, as we wuz give out to different
people. The Nashes didn't believe in selling slaves but we wuz known as
their niggers. They sold one once 'cause the other slaves said they
would kill him 'cause he had a baby by his own daughter. So to keep him
frum bein' kilt, they sold him.

"My mama died the year of surrender. Ah didn't fare well after her
death, Ah had sicha hard time. Ah wuz give to the Mitchell fambly and
they done every cruel thing they could to me. Ah slept on the flo' nine
years, winter and summer, sick or well. Ah never wore anything but a
cotton dress, a shimmy and draw's. That 'oman didn't care what happened
to the niggers. Sometimes she would take us to church. We'd walk to the
church house. Ah never went nowhere else. That 'oman took delight in
sellin' slaves. She'd lash us with a cowhide whip. Ah had to shift fur
mahself.

"They didn't mind the slaves matin', but they wanted their niggers to
marry only amongst them on their place. They didn't 'low 'em to mate
with other slaves frum other pla