Ex‘~.s1~e Stories	Page Two	52
(Texas)






	“Wetuns goes to de big baptism‘ one time and lt‘s at de big sawmill tank and 50 Is baptise ‚ and I ‚ s in dat bu~nch myself. But dey dld*‘t have no ±‘u~era1s for dé slaves, but jes‘ bury dem like a cow or a hosa, jes‘ dig de hole and roll tem in i~t and cover •em up.

	“War come and durli1 dem times jes‘ lii~e t~de~r iearly everybody kiows what gwine oi, news travels purty fast, and. iffen de slaves couldn‘t git it with de pass dey slips out after dark and go in an~other p].axitation by de back w~r. Course, iffen d~n patterrollers cotch dem it iBs‘ too bad. and dey gits whip.

	“When de news comes In dat Us free, Uassa Harry never c~‘J~l us up like everybody else d1~ the slaves, us h~.s to go up and ask him ‘bout it. He corne out on de front gallery aiad says we is free and turns around and goes In de house without ‘nother word. We ~J.l sho‘ feels sorry for him the way he acts and hates to leave him, hut we wants to go. $cnowed he wasn‘t able to give us itothin‘ 80 begins to scatter and ‘bout ten or fifteen day8 Massa Harry dies. I think he jes‘ grieve himself to death, all he trouble commt on him to once. ~

“Us worked on dIPf* rent famis t Il]. I m~rrlee and my fust wife

am Emma Williams and a cullud preecher marr1~s us at her house. Us picked cotton after dat and den I reRts a place on de halvers for five year and after t rai years I buys eighty acres of land. Fin ‚ ly us done paid dat out aid: done some repairs and dei~ us se~p‘rate after livin‘ twenty.three

year together. So I gives dat place to her and de six chilien ~id I walks oL2~t ready to start all over ‘gain.