59
-3—
if he found thexa out after hours without a pass.

	“Uncle Simon used to tell me slaves were not allowed. to read aiid write. If you ever got caught reading or writing, the white folks would punish you. Uiicle Simon said they ~were beaten with a leather strap out into strips at the end.

	UI think the colored folks had a church, because Mannna was always a Bap— tiat. Only colored people went to the ohuroh.

“Mamma used to sing a song,

ttDon? t you remember the pr xaise that you niade,

To niy old dying raother?s request?
That I never should be sold,
Not fox‘ silver or for gold,
While the sun rose froen the East to the ~West?

“Lud it hadn‘ t been a year,
The gras s had not gr~rn over her grave •	‚:•
I ~as advertised for sale,
Aridlwouldhavebeeninjail,
If I heed not crossed thedeep, dancing waves.

“I‘m upœi the Northern banks	f
And beneath the Lion‘ ~ pa~	/
~nd he‘ll growl if you come near the shTe.~-‘

	-	‘~The slaves left the plantation because they were sold and their chi]ilren were sold. Sonietimes their masters were mean. and cranky.

	“The slaves used to get together in their cabins and tell one another the news in the evenix~.g. They visited, the same as anybody else. Evenings, Maani~. did the washing and ii‘ oning and cooked for my father .

	»When the slaves got sick, the other slaves generally looked after then~. They had white doctors, who took care of the families, and they looked after the slaves, too, but the slaTes looked after each other when they got sick.

	‚ ~ ~i remember in the Civil War, how the soldiers went away. I seen thea all go to war • Lots of colored • folks went. That was the time we were living in Detroit • The ~egro people ~ were tickled to death because it was to free the slaves.