4~2()3O6
	EX-SLAVE STORLES	Page On~	.	54,
	  (Texas)		~
		H4.RRISON BECKETT, born a ‚~
		slave of I. D. Thomas of
	/~	San ~igustine, Texas, now
	~‚ . ~	lives in Beaumont. A ~great
	A•~ ~	grandson climbed Into Hax‘-~
~ .~ ~ ~	rison‘s lap during the inter..
‚:.~‚:.:~~	view, and his genial face
lit up with a smile, He
c112~ckled as he told öf his
own boyhood days ‚ and. appeared to enjoy rerninis— cing. At times he uses bi~ words, some of his own coining.



	~I~s ~rnon~ ~e culls now, like a hoss what ~ too old. l‘s purt7 small ylt when ‘rnanctpation comes ~nd didn‘t have no hard. work. Old Massa have inc and de other I I ‚ J. ~i~gers keep de stock out de fields . Us li ‚ I boogers have to run and keep de cows~u.t de corn and de cotton patch. Dat ought t o been ‚ nough t o keep us out of 1.

	u ~ corne to pass my mammy work in de field. Her n~ne Cynthia Thomas

and daddy‘s name Isaac Tho~nas. Bu.t after freedom he goes back to Florida end. find, osit he people end git he real name, and. dat am Beckett. Dat ‘bout ten years after ‘maxicipation he go back to he old. home in Florida. Mamny‘s people was de Polkses, in Georgt~ M~‘mmy come in frœi de field at nine or ten o1clock at night and. she be all wore out and too tired to cook lots of times. But she have to git some food for us. We all had a tin pan and git round de table and dat like a feast. But lots of times she‘s so tired she go to bed without eatin‘ nothin‘ herself,

	“My a ist ers was ~l Ion and • Sani and Œeorgy—Ann and C indy and SIdI -Ann. Dey‘ s all big ‘.nough to work in de field. My br~idders name Matthew and Ed and Eenr~ and Harry, what am me, and de ~ one am General Thomas.

.	“tDey aore‘n a hundred head. of black folks ot. Massa Thonias‘ two farms,

~	and. ~ ‚ bout a hundred fifty acres in each farm ~ One de farmS in iron ore ‚ what