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		Autobiography of Elizabeth Sparks	~ .
( Intervi,ve~i at Matthews Court House, Virginia January 13 ‚ 1931T~ ~ ~y Olaude~k~
	Ander son. )	~ .	‚ ~.


	come in boys. Sure am glad ter see ya. You‘re lookin‘ so well. That‘s whut I say. Fight boys.‘ Hold .m You‘re dom‘ airight. !~e, I ‘in so mear~ nothin‘ can hurt me. ~~‘hat‘e thatJ You want as to tell yer ‘bout slavery d~~ye. ~ell I kin till yer,

but I ain‘t. S‘al]. pat:t nowç so I say let ‘er rest ‘s too awful to tell anyway. yer‘ro too young to know all that talk anyway. Ill I‘ll tell yer ~onie to put in yer book, but I ain‘ta goin‘ tell yer the worse.

	~1y mistress‘s name was Miss J~nrie Brown. No, I guess I‘d better not tell yer. Done forgot about dat. Oh well, I‘ll tel]. yer. Soee, I guess. She died ‘bout four

	years ago. Bless her. She ‘us a good woman. Course I mean ehe ‘d slap an ‚ beat yer ? ~ j~ a while but shs warn‘t no woman fur fighting fussin‘ an‘ beatin‘ yer all day

aak some I inow. Shi was too young when da war anded fur that. Course no while folks perfect. Her parents a little rough, Thut dat? Kin I tell yer about her parents? Lord

yr.a~ I wasn‘t born then but my parent. told me. But I ain‘t a goin‘ tell yer nuffin. 1\Ø X ain‘t. Tain‘t no sense fur. yer ta know ‘bout all those mean white folk2. Dey all daid now. They aeany good I reckon. Leastway. most of ‘im got salvation on their death beds.

	~ll I‘ll tell yer some, but I ain‘ta goin‘ tell yer much more. No sir. Ship ~iller was my master. His ei‘ father ‚ he was a tough one. Lord I‘ve sein ‘im kill ‘em. He‘d git the meanest overseers to put over ‘en. ~Yhy I member time after he was dead when I‘d peep in the closet en‘ j..‘ seà his old clothes hangin‘ there an‘ Je.‘ fly. Yessir, I‘t run from them clothes an‘ X was 3es‘ a little .g~rl then. He wuz that way with them black folks. Is he in heavin No, he ain‘t in heavens Went past heaven.

H.	was clerk an‘ was he tougW Sometimes he beat •1!i until they couldn‘t work. Give ‘em more work than they could do. They ‘d ~git beatin ‚ if they didn ‘t get work done.

Bought myaother, a little girl, wben h• was married. She wus a real ~hristian an‘ he ~eepected her a little. Didn‘t beat her so much.. Coutse he beat her once in s
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