~x-‘s1ave Stories	Pa~ge Three
( Texae)






is fifteen years old. Den dey works three hours a day and dat all. Dey don‘ t

work full time t Il dey‘s eighteen. We was jes‘ ~aziie as free niggers on our place.

11e giVes each slave a pteee of ground to make de crop on and buys de stuff hisseif.

~e crowed sn~ip beans and corn and plant on a light moon, or turnips and onione

we pla~it on de dark moon.

“When I gits old ‘nough Marse J0hn lt~ts me take he daughter, Nancy Lee, to school. It ~n twelve miles and de yard man hitchee up old Be~s to de buggy and we gîte in and no one in dat county no prouder dan what I was.

	“Maree John lete us go visit other plantations and. no pass, neither. 1ff en de patterroller stop us, we ice‘ say we ‘long to Marse John and dey don‘t bother u~s none. Iffen dey comes to o~r cabin from other plantations, dey has to show de pat~ terroller de pasi, and iffen dey slipped off and ain‘t got none, de patterroller sho‘ give a whippin‘ den. But dey waits till dey off our place, ‘cauee Marse John won‘ t ‚ low n o whipp in ‚ on our plac e by no one.

	‘t~eli, things was jes‘ ‘bout de same all de time till Jes‘ ‘fore freedom. Course, I hears garne talk ‘bout bluebellies, what dey call de Yanks, fightin‘ ou~

. folks ‚ but dey waent t it round us. Den one dey mamnia t ~ok sich and she hail hear talk and call me to de bed and say, ‘Lucinda, we all gwine be free soon and. not work ‚ less we git paid for it • ‚ She t was right ‚ ‚ cause Mars. John calls all us to de cookhouse and. reads de freedom papers to us and tells us we le all free, but iffen we wants to st.y he‘ll give us land to make a crop and. he‘ll feed. us. Now I tells ~rou de tx‘~th, dey wasn ‚ t no one leaves ‚ ~ cause we all loves Marse John,

	~	~ jus‘ three weeks after freedom mama dies and dat how come me to leave : ~ Marss John, You see, Marse ~ what Owns papa ‘fore freedom, was a good. mare.
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