340032
	Stark County
	District 5	jj4
	240 - Ex-Slaves
	.	August 13th, 193‘?


W1~111ain Williams, Ex-Slave

	Interview with William Williams, 122‘? Rex Ave. S.E. Canton, O.

	“I was born a slave in Caswell County, North Carolina, April 14, 185‘? . My xnot ber‘ s nsme was Sarah Hunt and. her ni‘ s name was Paz Hunt . I did not know who my father w~as unt il after the . levlhen I was about il years old I went to work on a farm for Thomas Williams and he told me he was my father. ~(hen I was born he was a slave on the plantation next to Hunt‘s place and was owned by ~ohn 3~efferson. refferson sold my father after I was born but I do not know his last master‘s name,

	~y father and mother were never married. They just had the permission of the two slave owners to live tog~ether and I became the property of my tather‘s n~aster, ;rohn îefferson until I was sold. After the war my mother joined my father on his little. farm and i.t was then I first learned he was my father.

	I~was sold when I was 3 years old but I don‘t remember the name of

the man that bought me.
.	After the war my ‚&ather ~ot 100 acres and a team of mules to farn


on shares, the master furnishing the food for the first year and at the end. of the second year he had the privilege of buying ~he land at ~1.OO per acre.

	When I was a boy I played with other slave children and sometimes with thé master‘s children and what little education I have I got from them. No, I can‘t read or write but I can figure ‘like the devil‘.

	The plantation of Tobn~efrerson was one of the biggest in the south, it had 2200 acres and. he owned about 2000 slaves.

	I was too youhg to remember anything about the slave days although