.	~T4OO1~3
Reporter			Paulding Co.
~etty Llugabell		.	District 10	•	33
		~	240 — Folklore
~dîtor		~	Ex-.Slaves.
Harold Pugh
SupE~rvisor		/	~
R.	S. Drum

Mary Belle Dempsey
	Ex—Slave	87 years.


	III	was oniy two years old when my f~ai1y moved here, from ~i1ford county, Kentucky. tCourse I dontt remember anything of our slave d~rs, hut my mother told me all about it.~‘

	t‘I~y mother and father were named Sidney Jane and William 3ooker. I had

one brother named Ge or ge William 13 ooker • „

	ttThe man who owned my father and mother w~s a ~ood man.“ He was good to

them and never tbused them. He had quite a large plantation and owned 26 slaves. Each slave fen~1y had a house of their ow~t and the women of each f~nily pre~ pared the meals, in their‘cabins. These cabins were warm and in good shape. The master farmed his land ~nd the men folks helped in the fields but the women took car f their homes.“

	~‘We had our chui‘ches, too, Sometimes the white folks would try to cause troubi e when the ~egroe s were hoi ding the ir me etings ‚ then a night ~ the me~ of the church would place chunks and rn~.tches on the white folks gate post. In the morning the white folks would find th~ and ~ow that it was a warnIng if they din‘t quit causing trouble their buildings would be burned.“

	~‘There was a farm that j àined my parents‘ master ‚ s place and the owner was about ready to soll the mother ~:i~,vø with her five small children • T ~e children oa±‘ried oit so much because they were to be separated that the mis— tress bought them back although she had very little money to spare.“

	iII	don‘t know any more slave stories, but now I am getting old, and I