re I married. How many sisters do
you have? That's another question they ask all the time; I suppose you
want to know, too. Two. Where are they? That's another one of them
questions they always askin' me. You want to know it, too? I got one
in Clarksdale, Mississippi. And the other one is in Philadelphia; no,
I mean in Philipp city, Tallahatchie (county). Her name is Bertha
Owens and she lives in Philipp city. What state is Philipp city in?
That'll be the next question. It is in Mississippi, sir. Now is thar
anything else you'd like to know?

"My mother's name was Bertha Williams and my father's name was Fred
Williams. I don't know nothing 'bout mama's mother. Yes, her name was
Crecie. My father's mother was named Sarah. She got killed by
lightning. Crecie's husband was named John Oliver. Sarah's husband was
named William Daniel. Early Hurt was mama's master. He had an awful
name and he was an awful man. He whipped you till he'd bloodied you
and blistered you. Then he would cut open the blisters and drop
sealing-wax in them and in the open wounds made by the whips.

"When the Yankees come in, his wife run in and got in the bed between
the mattresses. I don't see why it didn't kill her. I don't know how
she stood it. Early died when the Yankees come in. He was already
sick. The Yankees come in and said, 'Did you know you are on the
Yankee line?'

"He said, 'No, by God, when did that happen?'

"They said, 'It happened tonight, G----D---- you.'

"And he turned right on over and done everything on hisself and died.
He had a eatin' cancer on his shoulder.

Schooling, Etc.

"My mother had so many children that I didn't get to go to school
much. She had nineteen children, and I had to stay home and work to
help take care of them. I can't write at all.

"I went to school in Alabama, 'round on a colored man's place--Mr.
Winters. That was near a little town called Fort Mitchell and Silver
Rim where they put the men in jail. I was a child. Mrs. Smith, a white
woman from the North, was the second teacher that I had. The first was
Mr. Croler. My third teacher was a man named Mr. Nelson. All of these
was white. They wasn't colored teachers. After the War, that was. I
have the book I used when I went to school. Here is the little
Arithmetic I used. Here is the Blue Back Speller. I have a McGuffy's
Primer too. I didn't use that. I got that out of the trash basket at
the white people's house where I work. One day they throwe