prays. Dey gits in de ring dance. It am jes' a kind of shuffle, den it
git faster and faster and dey gits warmed up and moans and shouts and
claps and dances. Some gits 'xhausted and drops out and de ring gits
closer. Sometimes dey sings and shouts all night, but come break of day,
de nigger got to git to he cabin. Old Marse got to tell dem de tasks of
de day.
"Old black Tom have a li'l bottle and have spell roots and water in it
and sulphur. He sho' could find out if a nigger gwine git whipped. He
have a string tie round it and say, 'By sum Peter, by sum Paul, by de
Gawd dat make us all, Jack don't you tell me no lie, if marse gwine whip
Mary, tell me.' Sho's you born, if dat jack turn to de laft, de nigger
git de whippin', but if marse ain't makeup he mind to whip, dat jack
stand and quiver.
"You white folks jes' go through de woods and don't know nothin'. Iffen
you digs out splinters from de north side a old pine tree what been
struck by lightnin', and gits dem hot in a iron skillet and burns dem to
ashes, den you puts dem in a brown paper sack. Iffen de officers gits
you and you gwine have it 'fore de jedge, you gits de sack and goes
outdoors at midnight and hold de bag of ashes in you hand and look up
at de moon--but don't you open you mouth. Nex' mornin' git up early and
go to de courthouse and sprinkle dem ashes in de doorway and dat law
trouble, it gwine git tore up jes' like de lightnin' done tore up dat
tree.
"De shoestring root am powerful strong. Iffen you chews on it and spits
a ring round de person what you wants somethin' from, you gwine git it.
You can git more money or a job or most anythin' dat way. I had a black
cat bone, too, but it got away from me.
"I's got a big frame and used to weigh a hunerd pounds, but day tells me
I only weighs a hunerd now. Dis Louis Southern I lives with, he's de
youngest son of my grandson, who was de son of my youngest daughter. My
marse, he knowed Gen. Houston and I seed him many a time. I lost what
teeth I had a long time ago and in 1920 two more new teeth come through.
Dem teeth sho' did worry me and I's glad when dey went, too.
List of Transcriber's Corrections:
List of Illustrations: 285 (#290#)
Page 2: come (wooden dishes. Some de knives and forks was make out of
bone. Dey had beef and pork and turkey and #some# antelope.)
Page 4: bit (all through dat house. I takes de lantern and out in de
hall I goes. Right by de foot de stairs I seed a woman, #big# as life,
but she was thin and I seed right through her. She jes' walk on down dat
hall and pay me no mind. She make de sound)
Page 7: was that a (slavery, 'cause massa give me a sack of molasses
candy once and some biscuits once and that #was a# whole lot to me
then.)
Page 9: kepps (daren't tell them 'cept on the sly. That I done lots. I
tells 'em iffen they #keeps# prayin' the Lord will set 'em free. But
since them days I's done studied some and I preached all over Panola and
Harrison County and)
Page 18: bit (piles, one for de big house and de bigges' pile for de
slaves. When dey git it all hauled it look like a #big# woodyard. While
dey is haulin', de women make quilts and dey is wool quilts. Course, dey
ain't made out of shearin' wool,)
Page 19: sich (Course, I hears some talk 'bout bluebellies, what dey
call de Yanks, fightin' our folks, but dey wasn't fightin' round us. Den
one dey mamma took #sick# and she had hear talk and call me to de bed
and say, 'Lucinda, we all gwine be free soon and not)
Page 24: neber ("I seem jes' punyin' away, de doctors don' know jes'
what's wrong wid me but I #never# was use to doctors anyway, jes' some
red root tea or sage weed and sheep)
Page 29: was ("After #war# was over, old massa call us up and told us we
free but he 'vise not leave de place till de crop was through. Us all
stay. Den)
Page 30: suddent (for justice. One man, he look jus' like ordinary man,
but he spring up 'bout eighteen feet high all of a #sudden#. Another say
he so thirsty he ain't have no water since he been kilt at Manassas
Junction. He ask)
Page 42: (what lives at West Columbia. Massa Kit on one side Varney's
Creek and Massa Charles on de other side. Massa Kit have a #African#
woman from Kentucky for he wife, and dat's de truth. I ain't sayin'
iffen she a)
Page 43: goiin' (Where you gwine to go? I's #goin'# down to new ground,
For to hunt Jim Crow.')
Page 71: hus' ("We lived in a log house with dirt floors, warm in winter
but sho' hot in summer, no screens or nothin', #jus'# homemade doors. We
had homemade beds out of planks they picked up around. Mattresses
nothin', we had shuck beds.)
Page 72: bit (whole sack of pure gold and silver, and say bury it in de
orchard. I sho' was scart, but I done what she said. Dey was more gold
in a #big# desk, and de Yanks pulled de top of dat desk and got de gold.
Miss Jane had a purty gold ring on)
Page 79: of (the place, they still go up to the big house for a pass.
They jus' can't understand 'bout the freedom. Old Marse #or#Missus say,
'You don't need no pass. All you got to do is jus' take you foot in you
hand and go.')
Page 84: ahd ("They had a church this side of New Fountain #and# the
boss man 'lowed us to go on Sunday. If any of the slaves did join, they
didn')
Page 99: of (cornmeal mush and corn hominy and corn grits and parched
corn for drink, 'stead of tea #or# coffee. Us have milk and 'lasses and
brown sugar, and some meat. Dat all raise on de place. Stuff for to eat
and wear, dat)
Page 114: Pennslyvania (my sister and got in the soldier business. The
gov'ment give me $30.00 a month for drivin' a four-mule wagon for the
army. I druv all through #Pennsylvania# and Virginia and South Carolina
for the gov'ment. I was a——what)
Page 116: Sue ("My mother sold into slavery in Georgia, or round dere.
#She# tell me funny things 'bout how dey use to do up dere. A old white
man think so much of)
Page 123: turpentime (doctor. When us chillun git sick dey git yarbs or
dey give us castor oil and #turpentine#. Iffen it git to be a ser'ous
ailment dey sen' for de reg'lar doctor. Dey uster)
Page 130: Missisippi (Hedwig, Bexar Co., Texas, the son of slave parents
bought in #Mississippi# by his master, William Gudlow.)
Page 133: Hallejujah! (crossin' and walkin' and ridin'. Everyone was
a-singin'. We was all walkin' on golden clouds. #Hallelujah!#)
Page 140: tey ("I's too old to make any more visits, but I would like to
go back to Old Georgia once more. If Missy Mary was 'live, I'd #try#,
but she am dead, so I tries to wait for old Gabriel blow he horn. When
he blow he)
Page 141: 1959 ("When I's a gal, I's Rosina Slaughter, but folks call me
Zina. Yes, sar. It am Zina dat and Zina dis. I says I's born April 9,
#1859#, but I 'lieve I's older. It was somewhere in Williamson County,
but I don't)
Page 145: mercy me (when we got a chance to see young folks on some
other place. The patterrollers cotched me one night and, Lawd have
#mercy on me#, they stretches me over a log and hits thirty-nine licks
with a rawhide loaded with rock, and every time they hit)
Page 147: ot ("I's farmed and makin' a livin' is 'bout all. I come over
here in Madison County and rents from B.F. Young, clost #to# Midway and
gits me a few cows. I been right round here ever since. I lives round
with my chillen now,)
Page 158: Whnen ("#When# surrender come massa calls all us in de yard
and makes de talk. He tells us we's free and am awful sorry and show
great worryment. He say)
Page 166: live (is cared for by a married daughter, who #lives# on
Lizzie's farm.)
Page 171: nand (to tell the people to be prepared, 'cause the tides of
war is rollin' this way, #and# all the thousands of millions of dollars
they spend agin it ain't goin' to stop it. I live to tell people the
word Gawd speaks through me.)
Page 195: wuarters ('bout fightin' and the overseer allus tended to her.
One day he come to the #quarters# to whip her and she up and throwed a
shovel full of live coals from the fireplace in his bosom and run out
the door. He run her all over)
Page 199: tann ("After breakfast I'd see a crew go here and a crew go
dere. Some of 'em spin and weave and make clothes, and some #tan# de
leather or do de blacksmith work, and mos' of 'em go out in de field to
work. Dey works till dark and den)
Page 200: botin' ("No, I's never voted, 'cause I done heared 'bout de
trouble dey has over in Baton Rouge 'bout niggers #votin'#. I jus' don't
like trouble, and for de few years what am left, I's gwine keep de
record of stayin' 'way from it.)
Page 221: be ("Old massa he never clean hisself up or dress up. He look
like a vagrant thing and #he# and missy mean, too. My pore daddy he back
allus done cut up from the whip and bit by the dogs. Sometime when a
woman big)
Page 235: stockn's (and I come in with two li'l pickininnies for flower
gals and holdin' my train. I has on one Miss Ellen's dresses and red
#stockin's# and a pair brand new shoes and a wide brim hat. De preacher
say, 'Bill, does you take dis woman to be you lawful)
Page 236: dey (jes' kep' right on livin' in de old home after freedom,
like old Marse done 'fore freedom. He pay de families by de #day# for
work and let dem work land on de halves and furnish dem teams and grub
and dey does de work.)
Page 242: iplot ("My daddy am de gold #pilot# on de old place. Dat mean
anything he done was right and proper. Way after freedom, when my daddy
die in Beaumont,)
Page 254: wat ("I never heered much 'bout no #war# and Marse Greenville
never told us we was free. First I knows was one day we gwine to de
fields and a man)
Page 258: Bermingham ("My company am moved to #Birmingham# and builds
breastworks. Dey say Gen. Lee am comin' for a battle but he didn't ever
come and when I been back)
Page 258: to (a three hundred pound hawg in de pen, what die from de
heat. We done run to Massa Rodger's house. De riders gits #so# bad dey
come most any time and run de cullud folks off for no cause, jus' to be
orn'ry and plunder de home. But one)
Page 273: coudn't (through a crack and pull the calf's head down nearly
to the ground where he #couldn't# suck. Of course, the old cow would
hang around right close)
Page 278: McNeely ("I was in the Ranger service for about a year with
Captain #McNelly#, or until he died. I was his guide. I was living
thirty-five miles)
Page 287: whay (have the big mole on the inside her mouth and when she
shake her finger at you it gwine happen to you jes' like she say. That
#what# they call puttin' bad mouth on them and she sho' could do it.)