hon'able his old marster give him and
granma they freedom when he died. He give him a little piece of land and
a mule, and some money, and tole him he didn't b'long to nobody, and
couldn't work for nobody 'cept for pay. He couldn't free granpa's
chilrun, 'cause they already b'longed to their young marsters and
mistises. He worked for Mr. Hezie Boyd one year as overseer, but he say
he didn't wanter lose his religion trying to make slaves work, so he
took to preaching. He rode 'bout on his mule and preach at all the
plantations. I never 'member seein' granma, but granpa came to see us
of'en. He wore a long tail coat and a _big_ beaver hat. In that hat
granma had always pack a pile of ginger cakes for us chilrun. They was
big an' thick, an' longish, an' we all stood 'round to watch him take
off his hat. Every time he came to see us, granma sent us clothes and
granpa carried 'em in his saddle bags. You ever see any saddle bags,
ma'am? Well they could sho' hold a heap of stuff!

"My pa uster come two or three times a week to our plantashun, an' just
so he was back by sun-up for work, nobody didn't say nothin' to him. He
just lived 'bout three or four miles way from us.

"Yes ma'am we went to church, and the white preachers preached for us.
We sat in the back of the church just like we sits in the back of the
street cars now-days. Some of the house servants would go one time and
some another. All the hands could go but ev'rybody had to has a pass, to
sho' who they b'long to.

"Yes ma'am, the slaves was whipped if they didn't do they taskwork, or
if they steal off without a pass, but if our marster found a overseer
whipped the slaves overmuch he would git rid of him. We was always
treated good and kind and well cared for, and we was happy.

"No ma'am, no overseer ever went to marster's table, or in the house
'cept to speak to marster. Marster had his overseers' house and give 'em
slaves to cook for 'em and wait on 'em, but they never go anywhere with
the fam'ly.

"The house servants' houses was better than the fiel'-hands'--and
Marster uster buy us cloth from the 'Gusta Fact'ry in checks and plaids
for our dresses, but all the fiel'-hands clothes was made out of cloth
what was wove on mistis' own loom. Sometime the po' white folks in the
neighborhood would come an' ask to make they cloth on mistis' loom, and
she always let 'em.

"Yes, ma'am, we had seamsters to make all the clothes for everybody, and
mistis had a press