~9 7
	ExQslave Stories	Page Two
(Texas)





UlMy kiee bones am aching,
My body‘s rackin‘ with pain,
I ‘lieve I‘m a chile of God,
Aid this aia‘t my home,
~	Heaven‘s my aim.‘


	~~nssa G~ud give big corn shuckim~‘s and cotton pickin‘s and the women cook up big dinners and massa give us some whiskey, and lots of times we shucked all night. On Saturday eights wet& sing and dance and we made our owi instri~inents, which was gourd fiddles and quill flutes. Gen‘rally Christmas was like any other day, but I got Santa Cl~as twict in slavery, ‘cause massa gIve me a s~ck of molasses candy once ~nd some bis~ cuits OI(~ e and that a whole I ot t o me then.

	“The Vinsons ~nd Prys what lived next to massa sold slaves and I seed. ~em sold and chained together and druv off in herds by a white man on a hoes. •They‘d. sell babies ‘way ~‘rom the mammy and. the Lord. never did ~teid sich as that.

	~ ‘1157e ii that haut business yet. I seed one when I was a boy, right after m~nmy die. I woke up ~rnd. se‘~d it come in the door, and it ha~1 a body aiid lege and t2il and a face like a mai ~nci it wa]k~d to the fire~ place and lifted the lid. off a skillet of ‘taters what sot there and c~e to my bed and raised up the cover and crawled in and I hollers so loud it wakes everybody. I tell ‘~n I seed a ghost and they say I crazy, but I guess I kiows a hast when I sees one. Minerva there can tell you ‘bout that haunted 1i~iise we lived in near Marshall ‘ after we~ s married. „ (Minerva siay~s,

; ‘Dee&, I c an ‚ ~ Qnd here is her it ory: )	.

~ ~ : ~	~ ~ *The nex‘ ye~ afte~ •~4~s~* a*d me marries we moves to a ~ ~laře what had. ‘lozge~ t. white f•lks and the inaa was real mean and choked
k~	(~ Y!