Ex..slaYs Stories	Page Pire	29
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~: BIaV8 times down here and t o put the papers lit my bosom but t o do what ever the

~	whitS folks tells me, eyen jf they wants to sell ~ But he ~y, ‘i‘ors you gets I off the block, jee‘ pull out the papers, but jes‘ hold. ‘im up to let folks see and
~	don‘t let ‘Sm out o±~ your hands, and when they sees them they h~s to let you alone.‘

j	“Miss Olivia oily and carry on and say be careful of myself ‘c~zse lt sho‘

I rough in Texas. She give me a big basket what had so much to sat in lt I couldn‘t

I hardly heft it and ‘~other with clothes in it . They pits me lr~ the back end a

~	the boat where the big, old wheel what run the boat was and I goes to New Orleans,

~	and the captain puts me on ‘nother boat and I comes to Gal~eston, and that captain

~	puts me on ‘ftother boat and I comes up this here a~ffalo Bayou to Houston.

~ .	aj looks ‘round Houston, but not long. It sho‘ was a dumpy little place : then and I gets the stagecoach to Austin. It takes us two days to get there and I

thinks my back bust ed. 1 1 nough, lt was sich rough ridin ~ • Then I has troubi e

aho‘ • A man asks me whers I goin ‚ and says to come ‚ long and he takes me to a Mi‘. Charisy Crosby. They takes nil to the block what thsy sells slaves on. t gets right. up like they tells me, 1ca~ise I ‘lecte what Mr. Will done told me to do, and they starts bid.din‘ on me. And. when they cried off and this Mr. Crosby cane up to get me, I je.‘ pulled out my papers and helt ‘em up high and when he sles ~sm, he say, ‘Let me see them.‘ ~it I says, ‘IOU jes‘ look at it up here,‘ and he squints up and say, ‘This gal am free and has papers,‘ ~nd tsll~ me he a legislaturs man and takes me and lets me stay. with his slates. He is a good Ian,

	‚I Es telle me there ‚ s a slave refugee camp in Wharton County but I cUdn‘ t hare no money left ‚ b~t he pays me SOffle fO1~ workin ‚ and when the war ‚ s OYer ~ starts to hunt mamua gain, and finds her in Wharton County near where Ik~arto~ ii.. ‚ Law me, talk ~ Ø~~rjfl~ and singin‘ and cry~.n‘ soins mors, we mirs d~on, lt. I stays with mamma till I gets married in 1871 o John Armstrong,