"My father's name was Caleb Harris James, and my mother's name was Mary
Moriah. Both of them were owned by Silas Thornton Randorph, a distant
relative of Patrick Henry. I have seen the picture of Patrick Henry many
a time in the home place on the library wall. I had three sisters and
two brothers. Two of my sisters were sold to a slave dealer from
Georgia, one died in 1870. One brother ran away and the other joined the
Union Army; he died in the Soldiers' Home in Washington in 1932 at the
age of 84.

"How let me ask you, who told you about me? I knew that a stranger was
coming, my nose has been itching for several days. How about my home
life in Virginia, we lived on the James River in Virginia, on a farm
containing more than 8,000 acres, fronting 3-1/2 miles on the river,
with a landing where boats used to come to load tobacco and unload goods
for the farm.

"The quarters where we lived on the plantation called Randolph Manor
were built like horse stables that you see on race tracks; they were
1-1/2 story high, about 25 feet wide, and about 75 feet long, with
windows in the sides of the roofs. A long shelter on the front and at
the rear. In front, people would have benches to sit on, and on the back
were nails to hang pots and pans. Each family would have rooms according
to the size of the family. There were 8 such houses, 6 for families and
one for the girls and the other for the boys. In the quarters we had
furniture made by the overseer and colored carpenters; they would make
the tables, benches and beds for everybody. Our beds were ticking filled
with straw and covers made of anything we could get.