*Interview with Albert Oxner (75)*
*Newberry, S.C. RFD*
--_G.L. Summer, Newberry, S.C._
"I was raised in Newberry County, S.C. on de place of Mr. Chesley Davis,
near Indian Creek. I now live in a rented house in 'Helena'. My
grandmother come from Virginia. Old man Tom Davis who lived near Indian
Creek was a grandson of Chesley Davis. My daddy was Oxner, his first
name was Wash. My mother was named Sidney Davis. My first wife was Polly
Miller and de second was Mary Mangum.
"Marse would whip his niggers, but he wasn't a hard man. I peeped around
de house once when I was a little boy and saw him whipping a slave.
"We got our vegetables from de white folks garden. We never had any of
our own. We had plenty home-raised meats and flour. We made our own
clothes at home by carding, spinning and weaving. We dyed dem by making
dyes from de barks of trees or red clay.
"Marse had a big plantation, and 75 to 100 slaves. My mother was de
house-maid. She never learned to read and write, and none of us did,
either.
"We use to hunt rabbits, 'possums, wild turkeys and squirrels, and we
went fishing, too. We never had to work on Saturday afternoons or
Sundays unless we had to take fodder or straw to de barn to keep it from
getting wet.
"Corn-shuckings and log-rollings was common in dem days. De workers had
supper when dey got through. Niggers went to white folks' churches and
set in de back or in de gallery. A few years atter de war, de niggers
made brush arbors to use for preaching.
"Old man Chesley Davis and two of his boys sho liked to drink liquor.
His baby boy was bad to drink. We had barbecues in dem days and nearly
every man would get drunk.
"Later on, old man Davis tried to preach. He preached some at de Baptist
church at Bush River, and at Fairview Baptist church, about four miles
above where he lived.
"I don't remember much about de Ku Klux. I never saw any of dem. I
remember a little about de Red Shirts. I don't remember anything about
slaves getting forty acres of land and a mule when freedom come. Since
de war, de niggers have worked on farms and done odd jobs in town."