‚ Project #~l655
w.	w. Dixon
Winnsboro, S. C.	39Q355 .



MOSES LYLES

EX‘-SL&VE 81 YEARS OLD.




	Moses Lyles lives in the section of Fairfield County that borders on Broad River. He lives in a two-room house, of the “saddlebag“ type, with his wife, Carrie, and his daughter, Carita. The home is the ordinary tenant house of a Negro in the South. Pictures, out out of the illustrated Sunday editions of newspapers, are used to decorate the inside walls of the rooms. There are two windaw~ to each r oom, which are closed with plank shutters. The floors are clean end yellowed from much scouring and sweeping. On the outside is a tiny walk to the house, bordered on either side by rows of jonquils. And about the yard are “butter and egg“ flowers, that were so much in vogue in slavery times.

	“Yes sir, I was a slave. I b‘long to Dr. Jo~m J. MoMahon, dat is, n~r maiw was his cook. My father b‘long to liarse Thon~a Ly].es. Deir plantations j med and folks could see ‚ cross de fields from one house to another • I never hear ‘bout any trouble dat was caused by pappy comin‘ every so often to see and be wid xr~r martniy.

	I, My nilatres s name Sar~ • Her and i~arster John was de father and mother of young Marstor John J • MoMahon, a lawyer. My old ~mrster and mistres s have two girls, Misa Annie end hiss Lillie, dat was livin‘ ~ Marater die. Just a few weeks after he die, here come young Marse John into a troubled land, in de last year of de war, ‘65. What you think of dat? Nig~ers ‘law dat‘ s what give him de power dat him have • You never hear ~ bout d&t? Well ‚ they do say, when a zi~le child come after de ‘ ~ death, dat n~.le child gwine to be a big n~n in all sorts of ways. How was him great? What did him do? Why everything. Widout a daddy and widout nx»iey, him ~ot to be a ‘fessor in de college and a