e thirteen years.

"I never knew anything about rent 'til I got here. I always had a house
to live in, raised my own feed and got my wood off the place. So when I
got to Spartanburg I learned what rent was. I just quit work two years
ago when I had high blood pressure; and now I ain't able to work. Do you
see that Nigger across the street, going to work somebody's garden?
Well, if I didn't have high blood pressure, I'd be just as good to work
as him."

"Yes sir, with my peck of meal, my three pounds of meat each week and my
$6.00 a month wages, I had more to eat than I gets now."

SOURCE: "Uncle" Bill Young. 202 Young Street, Spartanburg, S.C.
Interviewer: F.S. DuPre, Spartanburg Office, Dist. 4.

=Project 1885-1=
=Folklore=
=Spartanburg, Dist. 4=
=Feb. 4, 1938=

=Edited by:=
=Elmer Turnage=

=STORIES FROM EX-SLAVES=

"March 15, 1862 is de date I allus takes when folks axes how old is you.
Dat's de best, to follow one date, den no argument don't follow.

"Some see'd it powerful hard in slavery, others never see'd it so bad.
Dat 'pends on you a lot, den it 'pends on dem dat you stays wid. It
still like dat everywhar dat I is been, but I ain't been no further dan
Spartanburg gwine north, and to Lyles's Ford gwine south.

"From a wee bitty baby dey teach me to serve. Befo' you serves God you
is got to know how to serve man. De Bible speaks of us as servants of de
Lawd. Niggers can serve him better dan white folks, kaise dat is all dey
does if dey stays whar dey belongs. Young folks and chillun being raised
up real biggity like dey is now, dey can't serve nothing, kaise if you
can't serve your earthly father, how is you gwine to serve your Heavenly
Father?

"De big plantation and house whar Mr. Jimmie Jeter's sons stay is whar I
first see'd earthly light. Dat place still look fine, and it look fine
den, too. When I was 8 years old I started out in de field, afo' dat I
did jes' what all little nigger boys did, nothing but eat and sleep and
play and have a big time wid de little white boys. Lots of my playmates,
both white and black, done gone on now. Some done gone to de bad place
and some done gone to Heaven, jes' ain't no use talking, dat's sho nuff
de truth.

"War was raging all 'round Charleston and Columbia when I come in dis
world so dey says, Yankees camped in half mile of Santuc. I is heard
dat everybody was scared. Has even heard dat I cried when dem Yankees
come, but all I knows