Ex*~*slave Stories	Pace Two	• ‚	71
(Texas)		~)‘







I‘s raise on greens and pork and potlic~er and ‘tate:rs ~nd ~sh~.c~ke. Oat am good food, too. I ain‘t nev€~r hope to s~e no bett.~r food clan dat.

	“!~4a~sa cive he slaves two sets clothes a year and one pair ‘b~che1or‘ brogan shoes with brass toes. The white ~‘rlks IarntUS Negroes to read and write, at night and on Sunday, and. we c ould ~o to church. We had our own preacher, and z~assa let us have furi‘rals when ~ si~we died. Tiiey wasn‘t no undertaker5 then. They jus‘ made the coffin end planed the boards and 11n.~d. it with black cloth. The white folks and t~e culiud folks, toe, was put ‘way nice on our place.

	“They was a overseer a while, but massa fires him for ~ ~nd

slashin1 he ni~gers. He made my uncle Freeman overlooker. V~e is hear~d slaves on ferns close by hollerin‘ when they ~it beat, Sorn~ thi~ neighbors works they hands till ten at night ~nd. we~~hed the last weighin‘ by candles. If the day‘s pickin‘ wasn‘t good ‘nou~h, they beat them till it a pity.

	“Christi:aas was the bi~~ time. Massa kilt the hawg or bee±~ and sometimes a mutton, ~id give the ~~ves the big dinner. Us all hang the stockin‘ up on massa‘ S ~al lery and it was a run to see what we‘ d git . He give the chilien tO~rS ~nd ~ppi~s and. the big folks ~ to wear. He‘d ‘low the chilien to have c~mdy puflin‘ 2atur~ey nights and the growed folks parties. L&y coasin, Tofl, W~?S scngster and call the plays at all th~ dancee, and they turned ‘cordin‘ tc whet he‘d sing.

	“Then young massa went to war they calls all the slavee to tell him

good-.bye. They blowed. the horn. He come home two times on a furlough ~rid. 5875, ‘l‘s smellin‘ and seem‘ the Devil,1 Then the nex‘ time he cane home