Ex—slave Stories	.	Pace Two
( Texas)







	li Dc sojers come back aft er dat and use one mas sa‘ s buildin‘ s for headquarters, for long time. ~ ~at beTh‘ de battle at Vicksburg. At first us yo~ng‘uns ecart of dem, but after while us play with them. After de Vicksburg battle dey goes off and us sorry, ‘c~se dey treat us with candy and things. But massa glad git shet of dem.

	“Us you.ng‘uns have de fun with de old. niggers. Massa know and sho‘ have de good. laugh. I‘ll tell you ‘bout it:

	li I Twas disaway. De old ni~ggers scart o±~ liants . Us young‘uns takes de long rawhide string and makes dc tick-tack on de cabin roof where Tom and. Mandy ‚ livin‘ . I climbs de tree ‚ bout 50 foot high back de cabin and holds de string. It go thwzrp on de roof, ‘bout darktirne. Tom and Mandy settin‘ in dere, talkin‘ with some folks. Us keep thuinpint de tick~tack. Tom say ‚ ‚ That dat on de roo ~ Dey et ops talkin ‚ . I thump s it ‚ gain. Mandy say, ‘Gosh for mighty! What am It?‘ One nigger~say, ‘De hante, it de hante, ~ and dem cullud folks come ‘way from dere right now. I hears de massa laugh for to split de sides. Arid Tom and. Mandy, dey wouldn‘t stay in de cabin dat night, no, sax‘, dey sleeps in de yard.

	‚t De bell ring ‚ fore dayl ight and. de work start . When de c~il lud. ~fo]J~s starts out in dc mornin‘ it like de army, Some goes to de fields, some


*	to de spinAin‘ ‚ some t o dc shoeshop ‚ and so on. De hours am long, but massa am good. No overseer, but de leader for each crew.

	n ~ ‘member when Massa call us and Say, ‚ TOIL‘ S free. ‚ Us d.Idn‘ t ‘].ieve him at first. He say he put each fam‘ly on de pičce of land. and us work it on shares. Rim have lots of married co~les on he place. I knows

most plantatIons de cul].ud. folks treated like cattle, but massa different,


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