Project #1655	0
Stiles M. Scruggs
columbia, S. e.	3g0414	.	3()



PAUL JENKINS, SON OF A SLAVE,

TELLS OF HIS FATHER‘S POLITICAL EXPERIENCES.


	Paul nkin, age seventy, living at 18 13‘ s Alley, Columbia, S • •‚ is a son of Paul Jenkins, a former slave, who deoided to endure the burdens he had in Colleton County, South Carolina, after he was set free in 1865, rather than to fly to other places he ~ew nothing of. There he w~ôn the respect of the white folks and Negroes alike, was repeatedly elected to office, and lived there happily to the end of his life.

	Here the present Paul Jenkins takes up the story, with:

	“I was born in Colleton County in 1867. My daddy was in office when I begin to recall things, and hekeep inoffice, by the Wi].]. of the people, u±~til I was nearly grown. My xnainrny, too, was a slave, when sheand daddy niarry. • She die when I was ‘bout twel~e years old, and n~r only brother, Edgar, was soin‘ on
ten. My daddy never n~.rry again .	~	- -

	“One day some ~white men come to see daddy long after inaim~r was gone, and they say to daddy: ‘Paul, when you gwine to jump the broomstick again?‘ My daddy was the only one who not laugh when the~r say that. He reply: ‘I has no women in view and no weddin‘ dream in the back of n~ head. I has decided a wicked woman am a bi~ bother - and a good wo~ ~ a bore. To ~ way of thinkin‘, that is the only difference between them.‘ The white folks not smile, but say:

‘You‘ll sees Just wait ‘tu the right girl come along.‘

	“Daddy just seem to make friends of all the people ‘bout him, and our house, close to Smoak, was a big meetin‘ place most of the time. Sometb~es the visitors are all white men. But at other days the niggers come and talk, tell funny tales, and laugh. ~St of the mein‘ s at the house was late at night, ‚ cause n~