.	8.	42


	“Long ‘fore I was old enough to raalce dat trip on foot, dey built a Baptist church nearby. lt was de white folkses church, but ~1ey let deir own Niggers join dar too, and. how us chiliun did love to play ‘round it. No‘m, us never broke out no windows or hurt nothin‘ playin‘ ear. Us warn‘t never ‘lowed to throw no rocks when us was on de church grounds. De church was up on top of a high hill and at de bottom of dat hill was de creek whar de white folks had a fine pool for baptizin‘. Dey had wooden steps to go down into it and a long wooden trough leadin‘ from de creek to fill up de pool whenever dere was baptizin‘ to be done. Dey had real sermons in dat church and folks come from miles around to see dem baptizin‘s. White folks was baptized fust ana den de Niggers. When de time come for to baptize dem Niggers you could hear ‘em singin‘ and shoutin‘ a long ways off.

	“It jus‘ don‘t seem lak folks has de same sort of ‘ligion now dey had dein days, ‘specially when somebody dies. Den de neighbors all went to de house whar d~e corpse was and sung and prayed wid de fambly. D~cof~ns had to be iaad.s at~er~oikw~s~dor‘e dead. Dey measured de corpse and made de coffin ‘cordin‘ly. Most of ‘em was made out of plain pine wood, lined wid black calico, and sometimes dey painted ‘em black on de outside. Dey didn‘t have no ‘balmers onde plantations so dey couldn‘t keep dead folks out long; dey had to