Ex—slave Stories	Page Three
	(Texae)		(L)






all the bOyB and. gals gits converte~d when they‘s ‘bout twelve or fifteen year old. Then on Sunday afternoon, Marge Bob larn~~d us to reed. end write. He told us we oughta git all the laarnin‘ we could.

	t, Once a week the slave a could have any n ight they want for a daxice or frolics Mance MCQ,ueen was a slave ‘longin~~ on the Dewberry place, what could play a fiddle, and. hie mRster give him a pass to cOrne play for us. Uarse Bob give us chickens or kilt a fresh beef or let us m~ke ‘lasses candy. We could choose any night, ‘cept in the f~1l of the yeAr. Then we worked awful hard ~nd d idn‘ t have t he t im. ~Ve~ had a gin rtin by hors epower end after sundown, when we left the fields, we used to gin a bale of cotton every night. Marse allus give us from Christmas Eve through New Year‘ s Day off, to make up for the hard work in the fall.

	~Qhrjstmae time everybody ~ot~ a present and Marse Bob give a big hawg to every four families. ~Te had. r~ioney to buy whiskey with. In spare time wetd make cornshuck horse collars and cil kinds of baski~ts, arid Itarse bought them off us • ~Vhat he e dn1 t use ‚ he sold for us • W‘ d. t ~ke p os t oak and split it thin with drawin‘ knives and let it git tough in the sun, and then weave it into cotton baskets rnd fish baskets and little fancy baskets. The men spent they money on whiskey, ‘cause ever~rthing else W83 furnished. ~ raleed our own tobacco thid hung it in the barn to season, and a‘body could go git it when they wanted it.

	.	~ “~e allus got Saturday afternoons off to fish and ~nt. We used. to have fish fries and plenty. garae in them deys.

	“Course, we used to hear tbout other places where they had nigger ‚.~ ~ . d~z~ivert an~ beat the slaves, But I never did see or hear tell of one of


-3*