You might as well had kill your master or missus.

One song I know I use to sing to the slaves w'en master went 'way, but I
wouldn't be so fool as to let him hear me. What I kin 'member of it is:

Master gone away
But darkies stay at home,
The year of jubilee is come
An' freedom will begun.

A group of white men was in Doctor Wilson' drug store one day w'en I
went to buy something. They commence' to ax me questions concernin' some
historical happenin's an' I answer them all. So Dr. Wilson bet 'me that
I couldn't tell who fired the firs' shot on Fort Sumter. I tell him I
did know an' he offer's dollar if I was right. I tell him I wasn't goin'
tell 'less the dollar was given to one of the men. He did so an' I told
them it was Edward Ruffin who fired the firs' shot an' the dollar was
mine. Anderson was determine' not to leave the fort but w'en 'bout four
shells had hit the fort he was glad to be able to come out. W'en Sherman
was comin' through Columbia, he fired an' a shell lodged in the
South-East en' ef the State House which was forbidden to be fix'. He was
comin' down Main Street w'en that happens'.

The firs' two people that was hung in Charleston was Harry an' Janie;
husban' an' wife who was slaves of Mr. Christopher Black. Mr. Black had
them whip' an' they planned to kill the whole fambly. They poison the
breakast one morning an' if two of the fambly han' been sleep, they too
would a been dead. The others die almos' instantly. An investigation was
made an' the poison discovered an the two slaves hung on the big oak in
the middle of Ashley Avenue.

If'en any in your owner' fambly was goin' to be married the slaves was
dress' in linen clothes to witness the ceremony. Only special slaves was
chosen to be at the weddin'. Slaves was alway ax how they like' the one
who was comin' in the [TN: two illegible words.] myself by sayin' nice things
'bout the person en hate' the person at the same time.

Slaves was always bury in the night as no one could stop to do it in the
day. Ole boards was use' to make the coffin that was blackened with shoe
polish.

After the war I did garden work.

Mr. Stiles Bee on James Islan' give track of lan' to the Negroes for a
school jus' after the war; he put up a shed-like buildin' with a few
chairs in it. It was at the place call Cut Bridge.

Henry McKinley, a Negro who ran as congressman from Charleston jus'
after the war, lived on Calhoun Street. He was a mail carrier. He