.	2.

penny. They ;ould have spared it, too; they bad enough.	~ . tt~e ate corn bread and fat nieat. Meat and bread, we kids called it. We all

had a pint tin cup of ~ butterniilk. No s laves had théir own gardens.

	“The men just wor‘e jeans . The slaves all made their owii e lothes . They just wove all the time ; the ‘old women wove al 1 t he time • I t t o 11 enough to go in the field like the oldest children. The oldest children ~ they worked. After

~ slavery ended, my sister 1~1ary and nie worked as ex-slaves, and we worked. Most of the slaves bad shoes, but us kids used to run around barefoot most of the time.

.	UMY folks ‚ niy master and mistres ~ ‚ lived in a ‚ white ‚ frame hous e ‚ just

the same as a hotel. I gre4~p witii t he youngest child ‚ Mayo The other white children grew up and worked ~.s overseers. ~Iayo always w~uted me to call him ‘~Master Mayo~. I fouL;ht him all the time. I never would call hirn ‘Master Mayot. ky mistress wuldn‘t let anyone harm me and she made Iviayo behave.

	“My master wouldntt let the poor white neighbors no one~te1l tis we was free.

~	The plantati on was xnany ‚ xriax~y acres ‚ hundreds and hundreds of a o:‘es ‚ honey. There were abo ut twenty‘4ive or thirty familie s of s laves . They got up and. stood until daylight, waiting to plow. Yes ‚ child ‚ they was up ear~. Our folks don‘t know how we had to ~ rk. I don‘t like to tell you how we were treated - how . we had to work. It‘ s best to brush thos e things out o f our memory.

	“If you wanted to go to another plantation, you had to bave a pass If my folks was~ going to somebody‘s house, they‘d bave to have a pass. Otherwise they‘d be whipped. They‘d take a big man and tie his hands behind a tree, just like that big tree outside, and whip him with a rawhide and draw Ucod every whip. I know I w~s scared every time ‘ d hear the s lave say ‚ ‚ Pray, Master.‘

	~0noe, when I was milking a cow, I asked Master Ousley, ‘Master Ousley, will you do me a favor?‘

	“He said in his drawl, ‘Of course I will.‘

	‚t ‘Take me to MeC racken Coun~‘ I ~ sai4. I . didn‘ t even ~w where McCracken county ~ but ~y~ sIster wastbere.~ I ~wi~nte4.to find ~ sister. When I reaehed the house