~O4‘~3	‚	~ ~. 91

S-‘260—264—N
Project # 935
Hattie Mobley
Rlchland9ounty
South Carolina

Uncle Ransom Simmons
	‚	Richiand County, South Carolina.

	Uncle Ransom is one of the few remaining slaves who still lives and whose mind is still clear and active. He has ju~t passed his one~ hundred ~ and fourth birthday, was born in Mis sis sippi ‚ and brought to

South Carolina by his~master Wade Hampton, the father of the illustri‘ous General Wade Hampton, before the Civil War.

	~iVhen the war broke out and General Wa~e~Hampton went to war Uncle Ransom cried to be allowed to follow his young master. He went and served as a body guard. Uncle Ransom learned to read. the Bible while attending a night school held for slaves before freedom, and it was only in recent years that he was taught to write his name.

	This old man livès alone in a shack at Taylor, a little village on the outskirts of Columbia. He is furnished with all the milk and ice cream he can eat by the Columbia Daix~y. He purchases a little
8tate
	food with the pension of twenty-five dollars a year ~ to~NegrOeß~ ~ wI~o ~served the Confe~deracy in some military capacity. S

	Uncle Ransom says his master was the kindest man in the world, and that as far as he is concerned, he has never had a. worry in his life, and ashe said this, his face radiated with a broad and sat— isfiedsmile. S
	S	Reference:
	Personal interview with Ransom ~immons age 104.