Ex~slave Stories	Page ~‘hree
	(Texas)




~	~‘lf ~ro~ don‘t ‘lieve I‘s a chile of G‘awd,
~	31e‘ meet rae on dat other shore,
~	Heaven is my home.
~	I calls myself a chile of G~iwd,
~	I‘ s a I ong t line on my way,
~	But Heai~en ~rn my home.~

~t	“Old massa have c~e house make out hand-sawed planks in slavery time.

~: It put together with homemade nails, dem spike, square nails~dey make cleyseifs.

~	It have de long gallery on it. De slaves have li‘l lo~ cabin house with ~ad~cat

~	chimney on de side and de furn‘ture mostly ~orgia hosses for beds and mattress make out t ow sacks . Dey no floor in dem house ‚ ‚ cept what Gawd put in dem.

	1! When I six or seven year old dey ‚ cides I ‚ s bi~ ‚ nou~h to start ridin‘ hosses. Dey have de big cattle ranch and I ride all over dis territoxy. l‘s too ll‘l to git on de hoss and. dey lift me up, and dey have de real saddle for me, too. I couldn‘t ~it up, b~it I silo‘ could sta~y up when I git dere. l‘s ji~t like a hoss-.fly.

	~‘Beaumont was ji~1 a briarpatch in dem time. Jist one 1I‘I store and

~	one blacksmith shop, and M~ssa John Herring he own dat. Dat de way I first see

~	my wife, ridin‘ de razige. Dc CRde brand was a lazy BC ( ) dat done register

~	‘fore I~s born. Us brand from dc first of March to de 15th of December.

“Old massa have de big fičld‘vided in trac‘s and each slave could

~	have a part and raise what he want ‚ and old massa buy de crop from de slave.

~	He‘s purty good to he slaves, and us have good clothes, too, wool for winter

~	.~ and. Cotton for summer. Us have six suit de year, unnerwear and. all, Dey a

~	trhk like in de cabin for Sunday clothes and. de res‘ hang on a peg,

~	titi5 have plenty good food. to eat, too. Beef and hawgs and bacon and.

~	syz,1~p ~nd sugar and flcnxr was plenty. All de possums and. rabbits ~nd fish and. ~ si ah was j s ‚ dat imich more . He give us de barrel whiskey every year ‚ too.


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