2.	79
I remember hearing thm tsil about • tbe big pricé ehe brought boauas cotton was so high. Old mistress got is ~ai•8 ot cotton tor ai.tsr~ and it was only a few days till fr.Odo~ case anti th~ ~ ~o had

traded all them bales of‘ cotton bet my aiatsr, iut old mistress kept the. cotton. She was ~art, wasn‘t ehe? She knew freedom ~as right there. Sister came right back to niy parents. .:
i~?Just give me time, miss, ~and I‘ll tell you the whole story.

This woman what had me hired tried to run away and take all her slaves along. I don‘t remember just how mai~y, but a dozen or more. Lots of white folks tried to rtin away and hide their slaves until after the Yankee soldiers had been through the town searching for them vhat had not been set tree. She was trying to get to the woods country. ~it she got nervous and scared and done the worst thing she could. She nul right into a Yankee camp. Cour8e they asked where we all belonged and sent us where we belonged. They had always taught us to be scared ot the Yankee8. I remember just as well when I got back to where my mother was she asked me : ~Boy, why you come here? Do‘ t you know old mistress got you rented out? You‘re goin‘ be whipped for sure.“ I told her ‚ no ‚ now we got freedom. That was the first they had heard.

So then she had to tell my father and mother. She tole them how they have no place to go, no money, ~othi~g to start life on; they bet— ter stay on with her. So my father and mother kept on with her; she let them have a part of what they made ; ehe took some for board, as was right . The white ladies what had me between them fixed it up that I would serve out the time I was rented out ~ for. It was abou~t six months more. My parents saved money and we all went to a farm.
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