..	5tories Prom Ex.Slaves (Geo. Briggs)
82

Charlotte, ?olly, F~nnie, Iiattie,Hor~ce, Cassi~.e. I‘m de oldest, and Çassie and me lives IIi Union County. Fannie and Mattie lives in Ashe~ ville, arid de rest is done journeyed to de Promise Land. Yes Lavd, to de Promise Land.

	“Liarse arid. iviissus was good to us all. 1~!iSSUS name was Nancy. She die early and her grave is in Cross Keys at de Briggs graveyard. e stilL! Lern~~ie git my mind together so dat I don‘t git :1ixed up and c~r:i gît you de Briggses together. Here ‘tis: Oheney and Lucindy, Lucindy married a Floyd from SQartanburg,and de ~1oy~ds lived at de Burn‘t Factory. Cheney Brig~s had a son, lienry Briggs.

	“No t s o La s t ‚ fe r I ‚ s e guiy i ne t o s t art w ay ba ck ‚ da t t ime when us was lii‘ d~rky boys way back in slavery. ~ie started to vvork wid de marster‘s mules and hosses. Then us was real little, we played hoss. Be±~o‘ Cheney Briggs went to arkansas he was out‘ play hoss. His brother, Henry, was de wagoner and I vvas de mule. Henry was little and he rid our backs sometimes. Henry rid old man Sam, sometimes, and old man Sam jes‘ holler and haw haw at us chilluns. Dis wa~ in sech early childhood dat it is not so I can ‘zactly map out de exact age us was den; anyway, from dis we rid de gentle hosses arid mules and iarn‘t hovv to Leed dein. Every word dat I tells you is de truth, and I is got to meet dat word somewhars else; and fer dat reason, de truth is all dat dis old man ever tells.

	“In dat day v~e lived in a log cabin or house. Sometimes us never had nothing to do. Our house had only one room, but some o~ de houses.had twO rooms. Our‘n had a winder, a do‘, and a common fireplace. Now dey makes a fireplace to scare de wood away. In old days dey made firelaces to take care of de chilluns in de cold weather. It warm de whole hou8e, ‘c~se it was so big and dar was plenty wood.
Pace 3