"I'll be ninety years old next December. I dunno the day. My Missis had
the colored folks ages written in a book but it was destroyed when the
Confederate soldiers came through. But she had a son born two or three
months younger than me and she remember that I was born in December,
1847, but she had forgot the day of the month.

"I was born down on the river bottom about four miles below Edwards'
Ferry, on the Eight Mile Level, between Edwards' Ferry and Seneca. I
belonged to ole Doctah White. He owned a lot o' lan down on de bottom. I
dunno his first name. Everybody called him Doctah White. Yes, he was
related to Doctah Elijah White. All the Whites in Montgomery County is
related. Yes sah, Doctah White was good to his slaves. Yes sah, he had
many slaves. I dunno how many. My Missis took me away from de bottom
when I was a little boy, 'cause de overseer he was so cruel to me. Yes
sah he was _mean_. I promised him a killin if ever I got big enough.

"We all liked the Missis. Everybody in dem days used to ride horseback.
She would come ridin her horse down to de bottom with a great big basket
of biscuits. We thought they were fine. We all glad to see de Missis a
comin. We always had plenty to eat, such as it was. We had coarse food
but there was plenty of it.

"The white folks made our clothes for us. They made linsey for the woman
and woolen cloth for de men. They gave clothes sufficient to keep em
warm. The men had wool clothes with brass buttons that had shanks on em.
They looked good when they were new. They had better clothes then than
most of us have now.

"They raised mostly corn an oats an wheat down on de river bottom in
those days. They didn't raise tobacco. But I've heard say that they used