"We had our separate cabins an' at sunset all of us would go in an' shut
the door an' pray the Lord Marster Jim didn' call us out.

"We never had much clothes 'ceptin' what was give us by the marster or
the mistis. Winter time we never had 'nough to wear nor 'nough to eat.
We wore homespun all the time. The marster didn' think we needed
anything, but jus' a little.

"We didn' go to church, but Sundays we'd gather 'roun' an' listen to the
mistis read a little out o' the Bible. The marster said we didn' need no
religion an' he finally stopped her from readin' to us.

"When the war come Marster was a captain of a regiment. He went away an'
stayed a year. When he come back he was even meaner than before.

"When he come home from the war he stayed for two weeks. The night
'fore he was a-fixin' to leave to go back he come out on his front porch
to smoke his pipe. He was a-standin' leanin' up ag'in' a railin' when
somebody sneaked up in the darkness an' shot him three times. Oh my
Lord! He died the nex' mornin'. He never knowed who done it. I was glad
they shot him down.

"Sometimes the cavalry would come an' stay at the house an' the mistis
would have to 'tend to 'em an' see that they got plenty to eat an' fresh
horses.

"I never seen no fightin'. I stayed on the plantation 'til the war was
over. I didn' see none o' the fightin'.

"I don't 'member nothin' 'bout Jefferson Davis. Lincoln was the man that