2~ 3G
‘Nitials ‘1 Dat sumpin‘ not i~ ~ lingo ‚ B08 s . You want to know what n~ pappy ‚ s old inarster imn~? Seem to ~: they oa].l him ~rse Gene, though it been so long i: done forgot * When n~r inarster went to de war him got a ball through his leg. Bad treatment of dat leg give him a limp for de balance of his ~days. White fo1k~ call him ‘Hoppin‘ Joe Beard‘ and sometime ‘Lopin‘ Joe‘.

“Marster and mistress have two ohillun. I play marbles wid them and make

m~id pies. Deir names was Marse Wjllia and Miss Rhoda.

“My brudders and sistere was Jeff, Roland, Jane and. Fannie. All dead

t cept Fannie • Her marry a big ‚ long nigger name Sa~il Griffin. Last I heard of them, they was livin‘ in Columbia, S. C.

	‚t I start workin‘ in de field de s econd year of de war, 1862 • It sho ‚ ~de me hungry. I ‘members now, how I ‚ à git a big tin oupful of pot liquor froia de greens, crumble oor~i bread in it at dinner time and ‘joy it as de beetest part of de dinner. Us no suffer for swapin‘ to eat. I go all s~ner in u~r shirt~tail and in de winter I have to do de best I can, widout any shoes • Ever s moe then, I just lak to go barefooted as you sees ~ now.

	„~ pappy ~it a pass and come to see manii~j every Saturday night. My mars~

~	ter had jtzst four slave houses on de place. ‘Spect him have ‘bout eig1~t women,

~	dat n~n come from other places to see and ~rry them and have ohillun. I doesn‘t

‘member nary one of de women havin‘ a hu3band livin‘ wid her every night. ItWhO do de plowin‘ ‘I Women end boys~ do de plowin‘ • Had good ‘nough houses,

though they was made of logs, ‚ cup and saddle~i‘ at both ‚ and covered wid white oak board shingle8 • Had stick and mud ohinnaeya.

U1~e Yankees made a clean sweep of everything, hoeses, ‘~~le8, cows, hogs,

meat and ‘lasses. GUt SO ]D~.d WhOfl thy couldn‘t find any seltz they lxtrn up everything. Ikzll Maree Joe‘ B beard, just ‘oauae hint fl&tfl~ Be.H. De one dat do