Ex..!lave Stories	Pa€~ ~
(Texas)





Some of dere 8 lave s would r~xn away and hict~ in de wo ode aM mo s ‚ of ‚ was kotcîied with dogs. F‘ln‘iy de~ took to puttin‘ bells on d~ slave. so ifr•en dey run away, dey could hear 1em in de woods. Dey put ‘em ou with a chains so ctey coulctnt get ~em otf.

	t1We could have thurch on Sunday and. our own cullud ch~rch.

Sa in watson, ne was de n1g~er preacher and k‘ s a slave, to o~

	tu didn‘ know much ‘bout de war, ‘caase we couldn‘ read and de

white ~oiks didn‘ talk war much tfore us. But we heez‘ed things and I ‘member de soj ers ort dere way back after it ‚ s eli over~ Dey wasu‘ dressed iii a unifox~ and dey clot nes was ni‘ ~y ~ ~ dey was dat t ore up. We seed tem wa:uciri‘ on de road and sometmnies dey had oie wagons, but rnos~ t lines dey walk. I ~ member s orne Yankee soj ers ‚ t oo . Dey h~we cant ~ens ov‘~r de shoulder, and mos‘ o±~ ~em has blue uniforms on.

	“Massa, he tell us when freedom corne, and. some of‘ us ~t~ys traund awhile, ‘cause wh~ is we~ns soin‘? ~ ~ know wkiat to do c~nd we did,n‘ biow hrw to keei~ ourselves, t~~d what was we to do to get food and a place to live? i-~O~~ was ha‘d times, ‘cause de country tore up and

de business bad,

	“And de fluxes dey range ‚ round some . Dey soon plays out but dey took rnos‘ de time to scare de niggers. One time dey comes to my daddy‘s house and. d.c leader, him in de 1on~ robe, he say, ‘Nigger, quick you and. ~it me a drink o! water.‘ My d~addy, he brung de wtiite folks drinkin‘ gourd and dat Klux, he say, ‘Nigger, I s~y git me a bl.g drink ~— bring me dat buc~cet. Ps thirsty.‘ 11e drinkS three
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