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	‚	~ ~ L~ ~	~Y MAßTER WAS A ~L~AAN MAL


. . ~ ~1 “Sho, I remember de ?~V~! days. Bow could I ±~orgits7“
	~ .\çÇ~\	/	4-
~	~ Slowly Uncle Will spoke these woMs as he macle his way up a few rickety et
~

~ith the aid of an old broomstick to his cabin door. UWe can jest set in de swine

~	effen you wants to hear a little tbout dem oie days, kaze I can sho tell it.~‘

;.	nell, first, Uncle Will, what‘s your full name and where are you from?“

~	“My nanie am William Colbert and I‘se fum Jawja. I was bawn in ~ on my

~	~asSa1S plantation in Port Valley. My massats naine wuz Jim Hodison. At one time he

~	had. 165 of us niggers.“

~	Uncle Will, a gaunt, black figui‘e with two weeks growth of gray hair upon

~	~ face, spoke in a soft, qLiaking voice scarcely audible ten feet away. His eyes

j ~ a faroff, sad expression of one who had. 1~own suffering. They were set deep

:~ 0aC:~ in bony caverns.


!~	“Well, Uncle Will, tell me somethIng about the slave days. Was your master ~ good to you?“

~	°1~awsuh, he warn ~ t good. to none of us niggers . All d-e niggers ‚ roun~ hated

~	t,~) be bought by him kaze he wuz so mean. ~hen he ~uz too tired to whup us he had de

.~ ~Derseer do it; and de overseer wuz meaner dan de massa. But, ~Mister, de peoples

~.	~uz de sane as dey is now. Dere wu.z good. irns and bad. uns. I jus‘ happened to belong

~	t~ a bad Un. One day I remembers my brother, January waz cotched ober s~eeint a gal

~	~:: de next plantation. He had a pass but de time on it done gib out. Well si.th, when

~	~e:assa found out dat he wuz a hour late, he got as mad. as a hive of bees. So when

:~ ~)thor January he caine home, de massa took downhis long nmleskinner and tied him .~ ~ a rope to a pine tree. He strip‘ his shirt off and said

~	I “Now, i~ I ‚ in goin‘ to teach you some sense • „~

~	~Wjd. dat he started layin‘ on de lashes . January was

~	~efinest I ever seed. He vm.z jus‘ four years older dan nie,

:e~t~n$ him, January neber said a word. De massa got madder

:a::e ~ hoUa.
-	‚~1abama
‘1
81
*T~~h.n Morgan ~ñiith, Editorial Department.


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a big, fine lookin‘ nigger

~	when de mas~ia begin a

and. madder kaze he couldn‘t