to write, an‘ had a little 1earn~ng i could put off a book on die here situation. Yo‘ kno what I mean ‘bout dese way back questions yoP~ is a asking ~e to tell yo‘ ‘bout; as fer as I can r~ca11ect in my mind.

	VThen Graves bought us, he sold three of us an ‚ three slaves. My brother an‘ ~jster went down south. Muma sed to de cotton country an‘ too, she say, “they were niade to wrok in th‘ cotton fields by their new marster, out in dem white fields in th‘ brawlin‘ sun from th‘ time it breeked day ‘till yo‘ couldn‘t see at night an‘, yes ‘ if God len ‘t my right ‘ous judge they were given not half to eat, rio riot ‘nough, to oat. Dey witz beaten of dey aek‘d for any mo“.

	Ae to marriage, when a slave wanted to marry, why ho would Joe ask his mareter to go over and ask de tother mareter could he take un‘~t~ himself dis certain gal fer a wife. Ittnd you now, all de slaves dat mareter called out of quarters an‘ he‘d make ‘em line up see, stand in a row lake soldiers, and de slave man is ‘arid his inareter when die aekin‘ is gwine on, and he pulls de gal to hi~ he wante;an‘ de rnareter den make both jump over broom stick an‘ after dey does, dey is pronounced man an‘ wife, both stayin ‚ wid same marstere (I mean ei John .%arris Sal1ie~ John 8tay wid hie ol‘ mareter an‘ Sal‘ wid hers~but had privileges, you know~Iike married folks; an‘ of chillun were $~n all of ‘em, no matter how many, belonged to de narster whar de woman stayed.

	If I amt made a mistake, I think it wuz in April when de war surrendered an‘ muma an‘ all us wuz turned aloose in May. Yee dat ol‘ wench, a o~‘ heifer, oh child, it makes my blood bile when I think ‘bout it. Yea ehe kept muna i~runt. Didn‘t t*ll her nuthing ‘bout being free til den in J~~ay.

	Den her mi.teøe, )Ltes Betsy Godsey, toi‘ her she wus free, an‘ she (muma) C cook fer her j e s ‘ same dat she wo uld give her something to eat ‘ help

clothe us chillun, dat wus of muma continuai‘ to eta wid her an‘ work.

	. You see ‚ we didn ‘t have	‘ an‘ no whar to go ‚ um ‚ uzn,um so we all ‚ you know, ~os took en stayed ‘iii we wus able wid God‘s help to pull us solves ta-.~. gether. ßut my Cod it vuz ginst our will, but, baby, couldn‘t help ourselves.