took the slave children and was their guardian. Years later it come up
in court and they took all his land. Bill Mitchell was her first master.
He died during slave time. McCallister was made administrator of the
estate. He was made guardian of all the children too. He was made
guardian of the white children and of the colored children. He raised
them all. There was Ma and her auntie and three or four children of her
auntie's. Later on, way after the war, there was a lawsuit. I was grown
then. The courts made him pay the white children their share as far as
he was able. Of course, the colored children got nothing because they
were slaves when he took them.

"I don't know nothing about the Ku Klux Klan bothering my family. I
don't remember anything except that I hear them talking about the Ku
Klux and the Pateroles. I wasn't here.

"Don't put me down as an ex-slave. I am not an ex-slave. I was born
after the war. I don't know nothing about slavery except what I heard
others say. I expect I have talked too much anyway."


Extra Comment

The constant reiteration of the phrase, "I'm not an ex-slave" roused my
curiosity and drove me to a superficial investigation. Persons who are
acquainted with her and her family estimate that Mary Watson is nearer
eighty than seventy. She started her story pleasantly enough. But when
she got the obsession that she would be put down as an ex-slave, she
refused to tell more.

There is one thing not to be overlooked. Mary Watson has a mind that is