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~:		EL.sLAVi~ ~	~ One	4
~		   (Texa5)
	ç~	G~OPOE~ SEL~AN was born in 1852,
~	~	five miles east of Alto, Texas.
	c:~	His father was born in V~rginia
~/	and his mother ~‚ri South Cax‘Ølind,
~	and were brought to Texas by Mr.
	Dan Lc ~1s Green ht~3 been a
~	Baptist minister since his youth.
~ ..	He lives In Jacksonyille, Texas.



	W~Ve was a bi~ farn‘ly, ~iine children. I w~is born a slave of the Se1:uaXL~, Mar~ter Torn and Missus Pb].ly, ~nd they lived In ~iseiesippi. Mother‘B name was Martha and r~y father1s naine was John Green Seirnan.

	~‘Marster‘s folks come fron Mississippi a long ways back and. they had. a bi~ house m~1e from hewed lo~s with a big ha11wz~y down the middle. The kitchen was oi~t in the yard, ‘bout forty steps from the house, The yaH had. five acres in it and a big garden was in it. Marster irnd five slave families awl our cabine was built in a h~f circle in the back yarfl. I seemed to be the ~et and a1way~ went with M?r5ter Tom to town or wherever h~ was goin‘. Then I 1ea~‘ned to plow ~y my mother 1ettin~ me hold the hancileb and. walk along with her. Finally she let nie go ‘round by my~e1f.

“Marster Torn wae always good to us and he taught me re1i~ion.

He wae the best man I ever knew. ~Vhen Saturday noon cone, they blew the horn and we qi~itt workin‘. We went to church one Sunday a ~ionth and we sat on one side and the white folks on the other.

	~‘I never learnt to read. a~id write, b~t I learned to work in the house and the fields. Late in the day Aunt Dicey, who
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