30 ~x~.Slave Stories Page Two ( Texas) $~3.OO a acre to raise ‘tatars in. Us live in shacks ‘bout like dese ‘rou.n here. Dese times am better‘n slavery times, tcause aen ~ou co~n‘~ go nowheres ‘thout de pass or e patterroller‘3 ~it you. D~t mean 25 lashes and more when :Tou sits iiom~. ~My inissus took ~s chilien to de Baptis‘ church snd de white preacher he pre~‘ch. De cullud folks cold nave church demselves iffen dey have de manager of ‘li~ion to kinder preach. Course he coL~l&n‘t read, he jus‘ talk what sie done heareci de white preachers say. “I git Shin one time. ~)~t time de overseer cive me de breahin‘, Dey have sioc~s ~ey put a i~an in. Dey put de in~n leg throi~h de holes and shut it aown. De man jus‘ lay dere and bawl. ~l)t clothes us wore was shirts and us didn‘t git no britc~aes till us hj~. ~ wearin‘ britches a good many year ‘fore fredcioln, thou~~ Dey ~ive us two suit de year and us have ueefkiide shoes what ~s call moc‘ sins. “Dey wasn‘t no oette ~ people dan my wnite folks. Dey didn‘t ‘low us to be brutalize ‚ ‚ bu.t dey didn‘ t ‚ low us to be sassy ‚ neither. I hoip my grandma milk de cows. ‘~ien de Yankees come to New Orleans dey go on ~o Port Hudson and have de big fight dere. Massa orier everybody be ready to travel nex‘ mornin‘. Dey ‘bout 300 peoples in dat travel wagon and dey camps dat night at Camp Fusilier, where de ‘federates have de camp. Deyinake only five mile dat day. Dey stops on~ niait at Pin Hook, in Vez~ilionville. My brtxdder die d.ere. Dey kep‘ on at wa~r till ~Ie~rci~e to Trinity River. I stay aare five year. “De overseer on de new plantation naine Smoot. I wait on de table sud grandma she co ok for Smoot . Dey rai Se Sugar cane and corn and peas and sich like. Dey have lots of pork meat. Dey have stock and. one time