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	Ex~sLAv:~ STORIES	Page One	~.	8()
(Texas)

J.	w. TBRRILL was born in
DeSoto Parish, Louisiana,
and is about 100 years old.
Hi s mante r was hi e father.
He now lives In Madisonville,
Texas,





“My father took me away froa my mother when at a~e of six weeks

old and gave me to my grandmother, who was real old at Ui. time, Jus‘ bifo‘ she dted she gave me back to my father, who was my aammy‘s master.

He was a old. batchelor and run saloon and he was white ‚ but ~y mary was a Negro . H. was mean t o me.

“Pi~t~J.1y my father let his sister take me and raise me with her

chlll~. She was good to me, but befo‘ h. let her haye me he willed I m~.tst wear a b.]). till I was 21 year old, strapped ‘r~tnd ~y shoulders with. the bel]. ‘bout three feet froa *y head in steil frame. That was for‘ punishment for hein‘ born into the world a son of a white san aid my i&awmy, a N.gro slave. I wears this frame With the bell where I couldatt reach the clapper, day and iight. I iever knowed. what lt was to lay down in bed and get a good nightte sleep till I was ‘bout 1? year old, when isy father died and my missy took the bell offen me.

“Befog my father gave me to his sister, I was tied s~ strapped

to a tree and whipped 11k. a beast by my fath.r, till I was unconscious, end then lift strapped to a tree all might in told and raimy weather.

My father was very mean. He and he sister hn~ag me to Texas, to North Zuich, when I ‘bou.t 12 year old. He bra~g *y n~my, too, and sad. her come and be bis ~istresa one night every week. H. would bave kilt svery on, c~‘ his slaves rather than see us go free ‚ ‚ specially me and ay aa~ay.