Interview of Mr. O~iar1ee .Ora~i,y, ~x~eiave
By — Susie Byrd •~		 j~sb~trg, Virgi.rii~
L~te — ~bru~try 20, 1937



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	~\	THE STORY OF CHARLF.S CRA~Ifl, FX-SLAVE
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~	God bows, ~ow old I ~ ~ I I know i~ ~ ~ ~z born ‘fore de

war. •

	Tee, X wuz a slave an‘ belonged to a failly of Allen‘s In Luenburg County, caine here to diB Peteraburg de arcond weök of‘ Lee‘e Burrender.

	My M~r5tfr and ~ktetess wuz good to me ae well as all us s1aves~ Dey owned ‘bout fifty head of (~olor.d ~eople. All de work I did wuz to play an‘ drive cows, being only a boy worked around as chilluri; do~n‘ dis, an‘ dat, 1ii~le things de white folks would call me to do.

	Marstir i~llen, owned my Mother, an‘ sister too; we emigrant (emigrated) here, came to dis town of Petersburg after Lee‘s sur~ render, I mean you “~GW de ending of de Civil War. My mother, sister, and I cerne on down de road In a box car, which stopped out~ side de outskirts; hit didn‘t go through de city. Yes, I know when de first railroads wers built, de Norfolk and ~!estern an‘ de Atlantic Coast Line~dey were-run through Petersburg an‘ in dem da~
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it wus called de Southern.

	Mie and }Aat~ ‚ ~Ulen didn ‘t want us t o leave dat ~ part of de Lountry to come to die here place do,fn de road, but we corned our— selves to make a homi fo‘ ourselvea. ~.ll rtow, we worked here an‘

dar, wid die here man an‘ ~at man; ~/wel1wid dirferent people ‘tu we bought us selves i~ horn, an‘ paid for it. Moth•r died right here in dis here house; twelve years ago, die comin‘ March ‘levenih. I