r~ 350051 Oklahoma Ylriters‘ Project • Ex..Slaves .‚ g ~.• ~ . ‚ LEV~IS BOi~T~R Age 87 7l~S. 507 iT. Durland. Oklaho:ia City, ‘Oklahoma I was born 7 miles north of Palestine, Texas. on i.~tt Swanson‘s ~iace in 1850, but I ldn not remember the date. i~y i~îi~ tress was name Celia Svïanson. My mis tress vïas so good. to ~e till I jest loved. her. My family and all slaves on our place v~as treated good. Mighty few flog~~ings vient on ?round and about. laster wap the overseer over his darldes and. diclnt t use no other‘n. I waited table and. churned in the Big House. I ate at the table with my mistresc an~ her fanily an~ nothing was evah said. ~7e kite bacon, greens, Irish potatoes and such as we git now. Aunt Ohathly was the cook ~nd nurse for all the chillun on the :olace. ~e used to hear slaves on de other places hollering from whi~~ings, but master never whiDDed his niggers tless they lied.. Sometimes slaves from other places would ran off and co~ie to our ~lace. liaster vrould. take them back and tell tiie s1ave-~holcIers how to treat then so ~ey wouldn‘t nm off again. ~ Mistress had. a little stool for me in the big house, and if I got sleeDy, she put me on the foot of her bed ~ I stayed. there tu mo~ning, got up washed r~~y face and hands and. got ready to wait on the table. . There was four or five hundred slaves on our place. One ~o~ning during slavery, ~y father killed 18 white men and. ran away. They said. he was lazy and whipped him, and he just killed all of 1e~m he could, which was 18 of t em . • 1k s tayed away 3 years vii thout being found . He corne back and. killed 17 before,they could kill him. When he was on the place he jest made b1ui~g. ~•~: •~ . ‚