5.

G9
a pass. I haL found dat if you gives to some poor folks, white or blaok, something a little better than they ils used to, they is sho‘ gwine to think too high of theirselves soon, dats right. I sho‘ believes dat, as much as I believes I‘s setting in dis chair talkin‘ to you.

	111 ‘members lak yesterday,de Yankees commt ‘1on~. Marster tried to hide the best stuff on de plantation but some of de slaves dat helped him hide it, showed de Yankee soldiers just where it was1 when they come dore • They say : ‘Here is de stuff, hid here ‚ ‚ cause us put it ‘ Then de soldiers went straight to de place where de valuables was hid. and dug them out and took them, it sho‘ set old raarster down. Us slaves was sorry dat day for marster and mistress. They was gittin‘ old, and now they had lost all they had, and more that dat, they knowed their slaves was set free. De soldiers took all de good hosses, fat cattle, chickens, de meat in de smoke house, and then burnt a1~ empty houses. They left de ones dat folks lived in. De Yankees ‘pear to ins, to be lookin‘ for things to eat, more than anything else.

	“Does I believe in ‘ligion? Dat is all us has in dis world to live by and it‘s gviine to be de onliest thing to die wid. l3elief in God and a ‘umble spirit is how I‘s tryin‘ to live these days. I was chrIstened Lust a ~iethodist, but when I crowed up, I jine de Presbyterian Church and has ‘mained a member of dat church every since.

	“Thank God ~ s had ~ nough sonøe not to believe in haunts and sich things • I has ~ p~ sum hunt at night by myself in graveyards and I ain‘t seen one yet. My maum~r say she see haunts pass her wid no heads but these old eyes has never seen anything lak dat. If you has lone somebody a terrible wrong, then I believes dat person whe~i they die, will t pear to you on ‚ c~unt of dat .~‚