ces. When the wimmen had babies they wuz
treated kind and they let 'em stay in. We called it 'lay-in', just about
lak they do now. We didn't go to no horspitals as they do now, we jest
had our babies and had a granny to catch 'em. We didn't have all the
pain-easin' medicines then. The granny would put a rusty piece of tin or
a ax under the mattress and this would ease the pains. The granny put a
ax under my mattress once. This wuz to cut off the after-pains and it
sho did too, honey. We'd set up the fifth day and after the 'layin-in'
time wuz up we wuz 'lowed to walk out doors and they tole us to walk
around the house jest once and come in the house. This wuz to keep us
frum takin' a 'lapse.

"We wuzn't 'lowed to go around and have pleasure as the folks does
today. We had to have passes to go wherever we wanted. When we'd git out
there wuz a bunch of white men called the 'patty rollers'. They'd come
in and see if all us had passes and if they found any who didn't have a
pass he wuz whipped; give fifty or more lashes--and they'd count them
lashes. If they said a hundred you got a hundred. They wuz somethin' lak
the Klu Klux. We wuz 'fraid to tell our masters about the patty rollers
because we wuz skeered they'd whip us again, fur we wuz tole not to
tell. They'd sing a little ditty. Ah wish Ah could remember the words,
but it went somethin' lak this:

'Run, Niggah, run, de Patty Rollers'll git you,
Run Niggah, ran, you'd bettah git away.'

"We wuz 'fraid to go any place.

"Slaves ware treated in most cases lak cattle. A man went about the
country buyin' up slaves lak buyin' up cattle and the like, and he wuz
called a 'speculator', then he'd sell 'em to the highest bidder. Oh! it
wuz pitiful to see chil'en taken frum their mothers' breast, mothers
sold, husbands sold frum wives. One 'oman he wuz to buy had a baby, and
of course the baby come befo' he bought her and he wouldn't buy the
baby; said he hadn't bargained to buy the baby too, and he jest
wouldn't. My uncle wuz married but he wuz owned by one master and his
wife wuz owned by another. He wuz 'lowed to visit his wife on Wednesday
and Saturday, that's the onliest time he could git off. He went on
Wednesday and when he went back on Saturday his wife had been bought by
the speculator and he never did know where she wuz.

"Ah worked hard always. Honey, you can't 'magine what a hard time Ah
had. Ah split rails lak a man. How did Ah do it? Ah used a huge glut,