"I wuz here in time of Mexican War and seed 'em get up volunteers to go.
They wuz dressed in brown and band played 'Our Hunting Shirts are
Fringed with Doe and away We march to Mexico'.

"My grandmother came straight from Africa and wuz auctioned off and
bought by William Reide Father. When he died William Reides inherited my
mother. Mother married a Bates and had ten of us children.

"Our Master didn't auction off his slaves as the other masters would for
he was a better master than most of them. When he started to sale one of
us he would go out and talk to the old slave trader like he wuz g'wine
to sale a cow or sometin and then he would come back to git the slave he
wanted. This wuz the way my mothers' brother and sister wuz sold. When
the other masters at other places sold a slave they put the slave on the
auction block and the slave trader had a long whop that he hit them with
to see if they could jump around and wuz strong. The largest and brought
the money.

"I wuz a slave nineteen yeahs and nine months but somehow or nuther I
didn't belong to a real mean pet of people. The white folks said I was
the meanest nigger that ever wuz. One day my Mistress Lyndia called fer
me to come in the house, but no, I wouldn't go. She walks out and says
she is Gwine make me go. So she takes and drags me in the house. Then I
grabs that white woman, when she turned her back, and shook her until
she begged for mercy. When the master comes in, I wuz given a terrible
beating with a whip but I did'nt care fer I give the mistress a good'un
too.

"We lived off to the back of the masters house in a little log cabin,