e horse back
nearly to the camps and turned him loose. 'Fo'e my own papa got back
she had a white chile. Master Bracknell was proud of her. Papa didn't
make no difference in her and his children. After the War he bought a
whole bolt of cloth when he went to town. Mama would make us all a
dress alike. The Yankees whooped mama at their camp. She said she was
afraid to try to get away and that come in her mind. Old mistress
thought that widow woman was keeping her to wait on her and take care
of her small children. She wasn't uneasy and they took care of me.

"I don't recollect freedom. I heard mama say a drove come by and ask
her to come go to Atlanta; they said Yankees give 'em Atlanta. She
said she knowed if she went off papa wouldn't know where she was. She
told 'em she had two young children she couldn't leave. They went on.
She told old mistress and she said she done right not to go.

"The Yankees stole mama's feather bed. Old mistress had great big high
feather beds and big pillows. Mama had a bed in a shed room open out
on the back piazza. They put them big beds across their horses and
some took pillows and down the road they went. It was cold and the
ground froze. They made cotton beds then and the Yankees done got all
the geese and chickens. They nearly starved. The Yankees took all the
cows and stock.

"Master Bracknell was cripple. He had a store at Cross Roads. It was
twenty-five miles from Marietta, Georgia. They never troubled him like
they did old mistress. She was scared of them. She knowed if they come
and caught her gone they would set fire to the house. No, they never
burned nothing on our place but they did some in sight. I can remember
seeing big fires about at night and day time too.

"We lived on Master Bracknell's place till I was eight years old and
my sister five. We come to South, Alabama, then to Mississippi and
then up the river to Helena. I married in Jackson, Mississippi. A
white boy married us. We lived on his place and he was going to
preach. He wasn't a preacher then. Richard Moore was his name. It took
him several weeks to learn what to say. He practiced on us. He thought
a heap of me and he ask Jesse if he could marry us. He brought us a
big fine cake his mother cooked for us when he come. My husband named
Jesse Lawsom. He was raised in Louisiana. We lived together till he
died. My mother went blind before she died. His mother lived there,
then we took care of them and after he died