Oklahoma Writers1 Project	-.3.~	41



you with a long black cow whip, and. then sometime theď‘d. roast elm switches in the fire. This was called “cat—o-‘nine~-tai1s“, and. they‘d whip you with dat. ~Ve never had. no jails; only punishment was just to whip you.

	No*, the way the slaves travel. If a slave ha~ been good some— times old Master would let him ride his hoss; then, sometime they‘d. steal a hoss out and ride ~ em and. slip him back before old. Master ever found it out. There was a man in them days by the name of John Brown. We called him an underground railroad man, tcause he‘d. steal the slaves and carry tem across the river in a boat. ~hen you got onthe other side you was free, tcause you was in a free State, Ohio, ~ ~ ~

	Vie used to sing, and. I gaess young folks today does too:

“John Brown‘s Body Lies A~moulding In the Clay.~‘

	and.

Il They Hung John Brown On a Sour Apple Tree.“

	Our slaves all got very good. attention when they got sick, They‘d send and get a doctor for ‚ em. You see old Mistress Mary bought my mother,
~	~	I,
father and two ~ throwed. in for $1,100 and she told Master Joe to always keep her slaves, not to sell tem and always take good care of gem.

	.	When my father went to the army old Master told us he was cone to fight for us niggers freedom. My daddy was the only one that come back out of the 13 men that enlisted, and when my daddy come back old Master give him a bug~r and hose.

	Then the Yank~s come, I never will forget one of tem was named John Morgan. ~e carried old. ilaster down to the barn and. hid him in the hay. I felt so sorry for old Master they took all his harns, some of his whiskey, and all dey could find, hogs, chickens, and jest treated him something terrible.

.	The whitefoiks learned my father how to read and write, but I didn‘t learn how to read and write ‚ ti]. I en]J. sted in the U. S. Army in 1883.