350102.
	Oklahoma Writers‘ Project	~xSlaves	24
~	~O1~BRç~!

~Age (about) 87 yrs.
West Tulsa, Okia.



	Most of the folks have themselves a regular birthday but this old colored ~n just ~oick out any of the days th~ing the year — one day just about as good as another.

	I been around a long time but I don‘t know when I got hère. That‘s the truth. Nearest I figures it the year was 1850 the month dontt make no

difference nohow.	~

	~ut I know the borni~ was d.owa in Taloga County, Alabama, near the county seat town. uliss Abby was with t~ ~r~rry that day. She was the wife of Master John ~rown. She was with all the slave women every time a baby was born, or when a plague of misery hit the folks she knew what to do and. what kind. of ~e&icine to chase off the aches and. ~a1ns. God bless her! She sure loved us ~Iegroes.

	~kst 0±‘ the t~i~e there was ~nore~n three hundred slaves on the plantation. The oldest ones coae right from Africa. My Grandmother was one of the~i. A savage in Africa ~ a slave in A~ner1ca. Mam~iy told it to me. Over there all the natives dressed. naked and lived on. fruits and nuts. Never see ~ny~ white zens.

	One day a big ship stopped off the shore and the natives hid. in the brush alo~ the beach. Grandmother was there. The ship men sent a little b~t to the shore aM scattered bright thir~gs and trinkets on the beach. The

natives vers curious. Grandrnother said everybody niade a rttsh for them things soon as the boat left. The trinkets was fewer than the peoples. Nett day the ~hite folks scatter some more. There was another scramble. The natives was