Project 1885	-‘1—			€
District #~		nil	~i ~		Edited by:
Spartanburg,	S.C	QV	J.		Martha Ritter
May 31, 1937



FOLX~-LORE : EX‘-S LAVES


-	ttI was born in Ed.gefield county, S.C., about


1854. I was the son of Larkin and Cheny Ryan who was the slaves of Judge Piokens Butler who lived at Edgefield Courthouse. I has some brothers and sisters, but don‘t reraernber them all. We lived in a log house with but one room. We had good ~beds to sleep in, and always had plenty to e at • Old Judge But 1er was a good man. I was 10 years old when he died. Before then I worked in and around the house, end freedom come I s tayed with the Butler family two years, then went to Dr. Maxwell‘ s .

~	ttIfl slavery time we had e±tra patches of


ground to work for ourselves which we sometimes worked on Saturday afternoons as we had dat time off. Judge Butler used to give us a little money,too, before freedom corne, for our work. We bought~ clothes and things we had to have. We had a big plantation garden dat the overseers planted for all on de place to eat out of.

	“We used to hunt ‘possums, rabbits, squirrels, wild turkeys, doves, partridges, end set traps for partridges and sét ‘box gums forrabbits. We had good food then, plenty peas, cornbread, and wild garne. When winter time come we put on wool clothes and hea-vy shoes.

	Old Marco Butler and his mistress was good, de best folks in de country. They lived in a big house, had a girl and a boy, and over 1000 or maybe 2,000 acres of land, on several farms. One was on Saluda River. His overseers some was no good, but ntaster wouldn‘t let them treat slaves oruel, just light ~hipp~ng.