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	~x~s1ave Stories	Page i‘eur
	(Texas)		‚~	/8






hack where she cowhide me ~i~d I‘s sick with fever for ~ week. 1f I have a dollar for ev‘ry cowhld.la‘ I git, I‘d. iever have to work no more.

	“YotLflg missy Betty like ~ie and try lam me read.ti‘ a~d writ1~‘

and she slip to my room ~nd have me d•in‘ right good. I 1~rn the aIph~bet. But one d~y Missy J~ie cotch her ~ me and she say, ‘2~i~gers doa‘t need to know a*ythin~,‘ ~nd the laine me over the head with the bi~tt of a C owhid.e whip. That white ~ so rough, one day us makii‘ s oap and some little chickens gits in the fire around the pot a~d she s~y I let tem do it and make inc walk barefoot through that bed of co~l~ sev‘r~1 times. ~

	“1 bears ‘bout freed.om ii September wid they‘s pickin‘ cotton and a white man rides up to massage house on a big, white hose ~nd the housebey tell massa a man waat see him and he hollers, ~Light~ stranger.‘ It a gov‘men.t man arid he have the big book and a b~i*ch papers and say why ain‘t massa turn the niggers loose. ~asea say he tryin‘ git the crop ciut and he tell massa have th~ slaves in. Uncle Steven blows the cow horn what they tise to call to eat and all the aiggers come runnin‘, ‚ cause that horn inea;i, ‚ Corne to the big house, quick. ‚ That m~ reads the paper tellin‘ us wege free, but massa make us work sev‘ra]. months after that. He say we git 20 acres land and. a mule but we didi‘ t git it.

	.	‘tLots of niggere was kilt after t cause the slaves in Harrison County turn loose right at freedom and them in Thisk County wasn‘t.

But they hears about it and runs away to freedom in Harrison County and they •wiaers have ~ ein bushwhacked ‚ that s~•t down . You c ~uld se e lote ef

	.	*i~gere ha*gja~ to trees in Sabine bottes right after freedom,‘cause they cotch ‘em ~ tcr,ss Sabine River and shoot ‘em. They ~ ~ goin‘
~	. . be 1.t. if soul cry ‚ g.~tist ‚ em in Judgment „
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