Ex—slave Stories	Page Two	~	86
(Texas,



brine no blood. But it tnken 7 men to whip ray father.

	ItIlil t~11 ~rOu how I ~ot away f‘or~i there. I•~assa bought cctton ~tnd

carried it to Mexico. }i~ t2ken his 2 bo~rs with hirn and we h~.d 3 w~ons and i: drove one~, I hr-id 4 o~cen ~nd. I h~d 3 baIes of cotton on my wagOn he had 6 oxen r~nc~ 6 bales of cotton, ~x~d th~ 1~st wagon, it h~d 10 kIes on it and

6 oxen. He h~d to shi.p it acrost the Rio Gran~~. If a Mčiicari bought it, he corne across arid t‘~ok it over hiss~If~ Reckin how zouch he ~ot for that cotton? He got 6O~ a pound. Yes‘m, he sho‘ cUd~. Cotton was brirt~in‘ th&t then.

	HI w~ freed over there in Mexico. I was about 14 y~xs old. Massa Ch~11n, he stayed over there till the country was ~ He Ucin‘t believe In that fightin‘.

III	cooked tri a hot~1. over there in ~x1co. I cooked two yea~‘s at $1.00

ad~y.

	“Whefl Massa owned m~, h~ always give us good c1~thes, Our pants was ii~ac1e out of duckiri‘ like w~on sheets, but my ~oth~r took some kind of‘ b~rk arid dyed ~ I think it was b1~ckj~ck ~hgrk, H~ give us shoes, too. They WaS h~1±‘~‘tafl 1~&ther brogans.It

	“I u~ed to pů?y the fi~1~ for ~nc~s when I was young, ~ut not after I joined the cb~rch~ I p1~yed for the whit4eopie. Oh, yes‘m, the cu11w~i folks h&1 d.axices, they sho‘ die. dance.

UYes ~m, I ~nw a ghost onct . One n ight ~ft~r I was livin‘ d.own here,

I was goin‘ to Sabinal, r~ ~nd another in~n, and. &~ great long thins p~~ss~d. right in front of us. It w~ the b1~ckest thing ~rOu ~v~r saw. It w~s about six feet long. Yes~i, it shot wa$ a ghost or sumpin; it disappeared, and me lookth‘ at it. Th~ other fellow that was with me, he seen it, too.