JÖ0150		~ 12


LEAH GARRETT


	.	Leab. Garrett, an old Negress with snow-~wh1te hair leaned back in her rocker and recalled customs and manners or slavery days. Mistreatment at the hands of her master is out—
standing in her memory.	~ .

	“i: know so many thin~s ‘bout slavery tixu.e ‘fil I never will be able to tell ‘erii all,tt she declared. “In dein days, preachers wuz just as bad and mean as anybody else. Dere wuz a man who rolks called a good preacher, but he wuz one or de meanest mens I ever seed. When I wuz in slavery under him he done so many bad things ‘tu God soon kilt hirn. His wire or chillun could ~it mad wid you, and 1L‘ dey told hirii anything he always beat you. Most times he beat his slaves when dey hadn‘t done nothin‘ a t‘all. One Sunday mornin‘ his wite told him deir cook wouldn‘t never Ii.x nothin‘ she told her to rix. Tixae she said it he jumped up from de table, went in de kitchen, and made de cook ~o under de porch whar he always whupped his slaves. ~3he begged and prayed but he didn‘t pay no ‘tention to dat. He put her up in what us called de swing, and beat her ‘tu she couldn‘t holler. De pore thing already had heart trouble; dat‘s why ne put her in de kitchen, but he left her swingin‘ dar and went to church, preached, and called hisseir servin‘ God. When he ~ot back home she wuz dead. Whenever your marster had you swingin‘ up, nobody