Ex—slave Stories (Texas) Page Four 77 naa8ter‘s slaves gittin‘ a beatin‘. ~Ye had a overseer, but didn‘t know wh~t a nigger di~ iver was ~ Marse Bob had s orne nigger dogs 1 ike other plac es ‚ ~nd used to train them for fun. He‘d git sane the boysto ~un for a hour or so and then put the dogs on the trail. ‘ d. say, ~ If you he~,r them gittin‘ near, t~Jce to a tree~~ But Marss Bob never h~d no niggers to i‘~in off. “Old man Briscoll, who had ~. p1~e next to ours, was vicious cruel. He was mean to his own blood, beatin‘ his chilien. His slaves was 1i±eared ai]. the time and hated him. Old Charlie, a good, old maxi who ‘longed to hirn, run away and st2yed six months in the woods ~ Br~scoii cotched him. The niggers used to help feed him, bat one day a nigger ‘trayed. him, end Briscoc put t he dogs on • him and o otched him. He m~d.e to Chari te I ike he wasn ~ t go in‘ to hurt hits none, and got him to caine peaceful. When h~ took him home, he tied. hirn and beat him for a turribl~ long time. Then he took a big, pine torch and let bu~rnin‘ pitch drop in spots all over him. Old Charlie was sick ‘bout four months and then he died. ~Ma2‘Se Bob 1~owed me ~ most the slaves, tcause I was round the house more. One day he called all the slaves to the yard. He only he~ sixtcr-‘ six then, ‘omise he had tyided with his son and daughter ~vhen they married. He made a little speech. He said, ‘12m going to a war, but I don‘t think 1111 be gone long, and I~m turnin‘ the overseer off and leavin‘ Andrew in charge,~f the place, and I wants everything to go on, ju~st like I was here. Now, you all mind what &nclrew says, ‘cause if you dontt, I~li make it rough ~ . on you when I come back home07 He was i, ‚ ~ cauSe he wouldn‘ t k~a~e d~one nothing to theme L