Oklahoma Vlriterst Project
	We jest wore shirts and. nothing else both winter and. summer. They was a little heavier in winter and. that1s all. No shoes ever, I had none till after I ~vas set free. I ~iess I was almost 12 years old. then.

	The overseer on our place was a large tall, black man. ~e had plenty poor white neighbors. They was one of our biggest troubles. They‘c3. allus look in our wind.ow and. door all the time.

	I saw slaves so1d~. I can see that olc1. block now. ~ cousin Eliza was a pretty girl, really good. looldng. Her mast~ was her father. When the girls in the big house had. beaux coming to see tem, theyd~ ask, ~Tho is that pretty gal?“ So they &ecid.ed. to git rid. of hör right away. The day they sold. here will allus be remembered. They stripped. her to be bid. off and. looked at. I wasn‘t allowed to stand in the crowd.. I was laying down und.er a fig brush. The man that bought Eliza was from New York. The Negroes had. made up fluff money to buy her off thef‘~e1f, but they wouldntt let that happen. There was a man bidding for her who was a Swed.eland. He allus bid. for the good. looking cullud. gals and. botight ‚ em for his own use • He ask the man from New York, ~Thut you gonna do with her when you git ‚ t~ The man from New York said., ~‘None of your damn business, but you ain‘t got money fluff to buy ter.U Then the n~~n from New York bad dome bought her ‚ he said. ‚ “Eliza ‚ you are free from flow on.~ She left and went to New York with him. Mama and Eliza both cried. when she was being sho~d. off, and. master told. em to shet up before he knocked they brains out,

	Iffen you &id.&t do nothing wrong, they whipped. ~ now and. then anyhow. I called. a boy Johnny once and. he took me thind the garden and. poured. it on me.and. n~d.e me call him mast~. It was from then on, I started. to fear the white man. I come to think of him as a bear. Sometimes fellows would. be a little late making it in and. they got whipped. with a cow—hide. The same man