I drive carts under dat house lots of times
in slavery time." (The house is built high off the ground.)

"Dr. Johnson was a mighty able man, a stiff one, able one. He kill one
hundred head of hogs to feed his niggers wid. Oh, I don' know how many
acres of land in his plantation, but I reckon dere be bout 1,000 or more
acres of land. He have slave house all de way from de side of his house
to Tyner. De overseer stay on de lower end of street dat bout 3/4 mile
long en all de niggers house up from de overseer to Dr. Johnson house.
Over hundreds of dem dere."

"Dr. Johnson en his wife was good to dey niggers as dey could want
anybody to be. Had plenty to eat en plenty clothes to wear all de time.
He give all de slaves out something on Saturday or he give dem more any
time dey needed it. Just go en say, 'Boss, I ain' got no rations en I
need some.' Dey give us meat en bread en molasses to eat mostly, but
didn' have no wheat flour den. Dey plant 10 or 20 acres of sprangle top
cane en make de molasses en sugar out dat. Bill Thomas mash it together
en cook it for de molasses. Den he take cane en cook it down right low
en make sugar, but it wasn' like de sugar you buy at de store now days.
Oh, yes, de slaves had dey own garden dat dey work at night en
especially moonlight nights cause dey had to work in de field all day
till sundown. Mamma had a big garden en plant collards en everything
like dat you want to eat."

"All de niggers dat live in de quarters had bunk beds to sleep on what
was thing dat have four legs en mattress put on it. Have mixed bed dat
dey make out of cotton en shucks. De boy chillun have shuck bed en de
girl chillun have cotton bed."

"De peoples bout dere have good clothes to wear in dat day en time. Dey
was homemade clothes. My mamma spin en send dem to de loom house en den
dey dye dem wid persimmon juice en different things like dat to make all
kind of colors. Dey give us cotton suit to wear on Sunday en de nicest
leather shoes dat dey make right dere at home. Clean de hair off de
leather just as clean as anything en den de shoemaker cut en sew de
shoes. Vidge Frank father de shoemaker. Vidge Frank live down dere at
Claussen dis side de planing mill."

"I hear dem tell dat my grandparents come from Africa. Dey fooled dem to
come or I calls it foolin dem. De peoples go to Africa en when dey go to
dock, dey blow whistle en de peoples come from all over de country to
see what it was. Dey fool dem on de