*George Selman was born in 1852, five miles east of Alto, Texas. His
father was born in Virginia and his mother in South Carolina, and were
brought to Texas by Mr. Dan Lewis. Green has been a Baptist minister
since his youth. He lives in Jacksonville, Texas.*
"We was a big fam'ly, nine children. I was born a slave of the Selmans,
Marster Tom and Missus Polly, and they lived in Mississippi. Mother's
name was Martha and my father's name was John Green Selman.
"Marster's folks come from Mississippi a long ways back and they had a
big house made from hewed logs with a big hallway down the middle. The
kitchen was out in the yard, 'bout forty steps from the house. The yard
had five acres in it and a big garden was in it. Marster had five slave
families and our cabins was built in a half circle in the back yard. I
seemed to be the pet and always went with Marster Tom to town or
wherever he was goin'. Then I learned to plow by my mother letting me
hold the handles and walk along with her. Finally she let me go 'round
by myself.
"Marster Tom was always good to us and he taught me religion. He was the
best man I ever knew. Then Saturday noon come, they blew the horn and we
quit workin'. We went to church one Sunday a month and we sat on one
side and the white folks on the other.
[Illustration: _George Selman_]
"I never learnt to read and write, but I learned to work in the house
and the fields. Late in the day Aunt Dicey, who was the cook, called all
us children out under the big trees and give us supper. This was in
summer, but nobody ever fed us but Aunt Dicey. We all ate from one bowl,
or maybe I'd call it a tray 'cause it was made of wood, like a bread
tray but bigger, big enough to hold three, four gallons. She put the
food in the tray and give each chil' a spoon. Mostly we had pot likker
and corn-bread. In winter we ate from the same tray, but in the kitchen.
"I never seen runaway slaves, but Marster Tom had a neighbor mean to
slaves and sometimes when they was whipped we could hear 'em holler. The
neighbor had one slave called Sallie, and she was a weaver and was so
mean she had to wear a chain. After she died, I heered her ghost one
night. I was stayin' with a white man who had the
malaria-typhoid-pneumonia fever, and one night I heered Sallie scream
and seen her chain drag back and forth. I tol' the man I knowed it was
Sallie, 'cause I'd heered that scream for years. But the man said she
was dead, so it mus' have been her ghost. I heered her night after
night, screamin' and draggin' her chain up and down.
"When Marster Tom says we's free, I goes to his sister, Miss Ca'line and
works for her. After sev'ral years I larned to preach and I's the author
of most the Baptist churches in this county."