. 350089 ~
	Oklahoma Vïriterst Project	~x-S1ave~	20




~ ~ \~ ~	~ FRANCIS BRIDGES ~.
	~ -	    Age 73 yrs. .
		Oklahoma City, Okia.


	I was born in Red. River County, Texas in 1864, and. that makes me 73 years old. I had. myself 7o, and. I went to my white folks and. they counted. it up and. told. me I was 73, but I always felt like I was old.er then that,

	My husbandts name is Henry Bridges. ~Ve was raised. up children to. gether and. married.. I had. five sisters, My brother died here in Oklahoma about two years ago. He was a Fisher. Mary Russell, my sister, she lives in Parish, Texas; Willie Ann Poke, she lives in G‘reenvllle, Texas; ~Tinnie ~3Iackson, lives in Aclonia, Texas, and. Mattie Thite, my other sister, lives in Long Oak, Texas ‚ White Hunt County.

	Our Master was named. Master Travis ¶right, and. we all ate nearly the saine thing. Such things as barbecued. rabbits, coon, possi~ms baked. with sweet potatoes and all such as that. I used. to hang round. the kitchen. The cook, Mania Winnie Long, used to feed. all us little niggers on the flot, jest like little pigs, in tin cups and. wooden spoons. ~e ate fish too, and. I like to go fishing r.ight this very day.

	Vie lived right in old. Mast er ‘7~ ~ yard.. His hous e sat way up on a high hill. It was jest a little old log hut we lived. in a little old. shack around the yard.. They was a lot of little shacks in the yard., I cant t tell jest how many, but it was quite a number of ‘em. We slept in ol&-fashion beds that we called. “corded. beds“, tcause they Iad ro~es crossed. to hold. the mattresses for slats. Some of ~em had. beds nailed to the ~rall.