~x~‘elave Stories	Page POur
(Texas)







	“All kind of war talk floatin‘ round ‘fore de Yankees come. Some say de Yankees fight for freedom and some say~ doy‘ll IctIl all de slaves. Seems like it mast have been in de middle of de war dat de Yankees come. by. \Ye hears somebody holler for us to comeout one night and seed de place on fire. Time we git out dore, de Yankees gone. We fit de ~ire but we had to tote *tter in buckets, and de fire burn up de gin house full o~ cotton and de cotton house, too, and de corn crib.

	“De Yankees allus come through at night and done what dey gwine to do, end den wait for more night ~ fore dey go ‚ bout dere irns Ines s . Only one t tine dey come in daylight, end sosie de slaves une dem and go to war.

	“All de talk ‘bout freedom git so bad on de plantation de massa make me upt de men in a big w~on and thive ‚ em to Winfield. He say in Thzaa dare never be no freedom. I driv ‚ em fast till night and it take ‚ bout two days. But dey come back hoa~e ‚ but mas sa say if he cotch any of ‚ em he gwi ne shoot ‚ em. Dey hang round. de woods end dodge round and round till de freedom man come by.

	“we wsnt right on workin‘ after freedom. Old 3.~ck Adams wouldn‘ t let us go • It was way after freedom dat de freedom man come and read de paper, and tell us not to work no more ‘less us git pay for lt. When he gone, old Mary Adams, she come out. I ~ what ehe say as if I jee‘ hear her ~w lt. She Sal, ‘Ten years from today liii have ~rou all back ‘gain. ‚ Dat ten years been over a mighty long time and she ain‘t ~it us back yit and she dead and gone.

	“Dsy makes its git right off de place, je.‘ like you take a old hose and turn it loose. Dat how us was. No money, no nothin‘. I git a job workin‘ ~ for a white man on he fare, but he couldn‘t pay mucf~. He didn‘t have nothin‘.