Oklahoma V!riters‘ Project
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for his chance to git away, and den give him t structi ons dat would lead him right into de hands of de patrollers and git him caught or shot!

	Yês, dat‘s de way it was. Devils and good people walking in de road at de same tine, and. nobody could tell one from t~ther.

	I remember about de trickery so good. ‚ cause I was „ grown and out“ at that t liÉe . Then I was a little boy I was a house boy, ‚ cause my mammy was the house woman, but when the war broke I already been sent to the fields and mammy was still at de house. ~

	I was born on July 25 ‚ 1832 • I lmow ‚ ~ cause old. Master keep de book on his slaves jest like on his own family. He was a good man, and old Mistress was de best woman in de world!

	De plantation had. more tlmn 500 acres and. most was in cotton and. tobacco. But we raised corn and. oats, and. lots of cattle and. horses, and plenty of sheep for wool.

	I was born on the plantation, soon after my pappy and mammy was brought to it • I . ~ t remember whether they was boi~ght or come from my Mistressts father. He was mighty rich and. had. severalhundred. niggers. When she was married he giir~ her 40 niggers. One of them was my pappyts brother. His naine was John, and he was my masterts overlooker. . .

	We called a white man boss the “overseer“ ‚ but a nigger was a over~ looker. John could. read. and. write and. figger, and. old. Master didn‘t have no white overseer.

	Master1s name was Levi Dawson, and his plantation was 18 miles east of G~reenville, North Oarolina. It was a beaixtiful place, with all the fences around . the Big ~ House and. along the front made out of barked poles ‚ rider style,

and. all whitewashe&.	.