Mississippi Federal Writers

Slave Autobiog~aphies





“I W~8 born an‘ raised i~ Abex‘desza an‘ I‘se been s

railroad nigger to‘ moe‘ of ~ days. I‘8e retired now ‘oau8e dey

say I too o]4 to work any longer, but shw~Ica, I ain‘t liait dead yet. I was bora in 1853 right here Close to whar I live now. My folks b‘longed to de Hollidays -~ you know de grand folks of Mies Maria Evans? An‘ we stayed right der. in de lot whar de white folks lived.

	“My pa an‘ ay ~a was named Jrank an‘ Sarah Holliday an‘ de Cunel brwig dea wid hia trum North Car‘li*a. Dey was lot niggers afl~ never worked in de fiel‘ t~ lived in de Qparters. My pa was on~e of de best oarpsntere in de country. I was too young to work auok but soenetias I h.‘ped hi~& ‘roun‘ de house but aoe‘ of de tiuie, I joe played wid ay bruddsra an‘ sisters an‘ de white chullun what lived aroun‘. We played marbles, ridin‘ de stick hoes, an‘ play house jee lek de ohullun do now days, but I think we had zo‘ fun. Dey was fo‘teen of us in our family an‘ we ailus had somebody to play ild. An‘ den li‘l M~rse Ben, he wa‘nt *uoh older daaus‘.

	.	“Our ~arster~s neas was Cwi~l J~o1ù& Holiday. He got dat title in a war before de elav‘ry war. H. was too old to fight in dat one, or I ~peøt he‘d got saother title, lak Gen‘ral or scn~ethin‘. He an‘ Mis8 Julia ~ dat washia wife was mighty





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