2
35?
In both North Carolina and ILtsaissippi, it ~es a custoia o~t

liv. ;rones to give each deserving ‚ adult Negro slave an. acre or two of land to w~k for h1na~elt and reap any protLts de~ rived therefrom. .


lMh.tle living in Mississippi ‚ I~stus ran. oft with a crowd “o‘ Nigger s“ and j~oined the l‘e deral t o~~ces at Memphis . During the siege of Vickaburg ‚ he ~s ezxiployed as e ock in General ant‘ s Army, an~d later r~rched east w~Lth the Yankees • .~ubseq~uen~tly ‚ he seems to have becon~e attached ta Sher~n‘s toroes. Near Marietta, Georgia, in. ruly or Au~uat, 1864, he was captured by the Confederates under General Hood, who confined him in prison at or near — Macon until the close of the war. After his release ‚ in May ‚ 1865 ‚ he had “a pretty 1~rd time or it ~ for several years. sti li later ‚ he carne to ~paldir~ ~ount~y and hired ~it to Mr • Tone s Bridges. He relned with Mr . Bridges for seven years, then went to work for, and farming with, the I~.rker f ani:Ly, with whom he has sinc e re~ined .

lie is the Pather oit foerteen children and Ia~s a large number at granil and great-€randoIL1ldr~k.

7ś~ a x~n of his years, “Uncle“ Rastas is well preserved

merxtaUy and physically. Re is a widower and now lives with

a daughter, the only oxe of his o~hi1dren~ that he knows the

whereabau~ts of.