'compastibility.' I had good 'membrance an' I could have learned what
white folks taught me, an' dey sees dey manners in me.

"I mar'ied when I was turnin' 19, an' my wife, 15. I mar'ied at big
Methodist Chu'ch in Needmore. Same old chu'ch is dere now. I hope build
it in 1865. Aunt Emaline Robertson an' Vincent Petty an' Van McCanley
started a school in de northeast part of town two years afte' de War.

"Emaline was Mr. Ben Robertson's cook, an' her darter, Callie, was his
housekeeper, an' George an' Walter was mechanics. George became a school
teacher.

"Abraham Lincoln worked by 'pinions of de Bible. He got his meanin's
from de Bible. 'Every man should live under his own vine and fig tree.'
Dis was Abraham's commandments. Dis is where Lincoln started, 'no one
should work for another.'

"Jefferson Davis wanted po' man to work for rich man. He was wrong in
one 'pinion, an' right in t'other. He tried to take care of his Nation.
In one instance, Lincoln was destroying us.

"I j'ined the church to do better an' to be with Christians an' serve
Christ. Dis I learned by 'sociation an' harmonious livin' with black an'
white, old an' young, an' to give justice to all.

"Be fust work I did after de War was for Mr. Bob McDaniel who lived near
Waverly on de Tombigbee River. Yes ma'am, I knowed de Lees, an' de
Joiners, but on de river den an' long afte', an' worked for 'em lots in
Clay County."