Lincoln, Jefferson Davis and dat
dar Booker T. Washin'ton man, but I heared folks say dey was all right.

"What is you talkin' 'bout Miss? I didn't need to have no big weddin'
when I married Lige Elder. It was a big 'nough thing to git a man lak
what I got. What did I want to have a big weddin' for when all I was
atter was my man? Us had done been married 25 years 'fore us had no
chillun. Dis here Cornelia what I lives wid was our first chile. She
ain't got no chillun. Isaac, my boy, has got four chillun. My old man
died 'bout two years ago.

"I j'ined de church 'cause I was happy and wanted de world to know I had
done got 'ligion. I think evvybody ought to git 'ligion. God says if us
do right he will give us all a home in His Heaven.

"I'd rather have de days as dey is now in some ways. But one thing I
does lak to do is eat and us had a plenty of good eatin' den and never
had to worry none 'bout whar it was a-comin' f'um. Miss, ain't you
through axin' me questions yet? I'm tired of talkin'. I done let de fire
go out under my washpot twice. Dem white folks ain't gwine to lak it if
dey has to wait for deir clothes, and dis misery in my laigs, it sho'
does hurt me bad dis mornin'."

MARTHA EVERETTE, EX-SLAVE
Hawkinsville, Georgia

(Interviewed By Elizabeth Watson--1936)
[JUL 20 1937]

Born in Pulaski County about 1848, the daughter of Isaac and Amanda
Lathrop, Martha Everette has lived all her life near where she was born.

Prior to freedom, her first job was "toting in wood", from which she was
soon "promoted" to waiting on the table, house cleaning, etc. She make
no claims to have ever "graduated" as a cook, as so many old
before-the-war Negresses do.

"Aunt" Martha's owner was a kind man: he never whipped the slaves, but
the overseer "burnt 'em up sometimes." And her mother was a "whipper,
too"--a woman that "fanned" her children religiously, so to speak, not
overlooking Martha. All the Watson slaves attended the (White) Baptist
church at Blue Springs.

Rations were distributed on Sunday morning of each week, and the slaves
had plenty to eat. The slaves were also allowed to fish, thus often
adding variety to their regular fare.

Negro women were taught to sew by the overseers' wives, and most of the
slaves' clothes were made from cloth woven on the plantation. The
Yankees visited the Lathrop plantation in '65, asked for food, received
it, and marched on without molesting anything or any body. Truly