Oklahoma Writers‘ Project
—5«.
Rev. Baker, Bey. Hogue, and. old. Father Murrow preathed. for de white folke ai]. d~e time and. us colored folks went to clxarch wid. dem. Dey had. church

under br~ish arbors and. we set off to ourselves bt.t we could take part in de singing and sometimes a eolored person would ~et happy and. pray and shout but nobody didn‘ t think nothing ‚ bout dat.

	De Pat~ro11ers was de law, kind. of like de policeman now. Dey sure never did whip one of Master Holmes1 diggers for he didn~t allow it. ~. didnt t ihip ~ em hisS31f and he sure didn1 t allow anybody else to either.

I was afraid of de Ku Kiuxers too ‚ and. I ~ spec te dat Master Holmčs was one of d.c leaders iffen de tru.th was known. Dey sure was scary looking.

	I was scared of de Yankee soldiers. Dey come by and killed some of oui. cattle for beef and. took our meat and. lard. outtn de smokehouse and. dey

took some coi~ too. Us niggers was awful mad. We didn~t know anything 1~ut dem fighting to free us. We didn1t specially want to be free dat I

knows of,

	Bight after de War I went over to Bloomfield. Academy to take care of a little girl, but I went back to Master Holmes and. Miss Betsy at de end of two years to take care of de little girl dat was born to &em and. I stayed. with her mttil I was about fifteen. Master Holmes went to Washington as a delegate, for something for Le Indians, and. he took sick and died. and. dey buried. him dere. Poor Miss Betsy nearly grieved herself to death. She stayed on at de farm till her little girl was gi~wn and. married. Her nigger men stayed on with her and. rented land froiii her and dey sure raised a sight of tr~ick. Didn‘t none of her old slaves ever m~ very far from her and. most of them worked for her till dey was too old to work.

	I left Miss Betsy purty soon after Master Holmes died. and. went back to