"All de Niggers on de Tatum place had dey own patches where dey could
plant what ever day wanted to. Dey'd work 'em on Satu'd'ys. When dey
sol' anything from dey patch Mistis 'ud let 'em keep de money. When de
boats went down to Mobile us could sen' down for anything us want to
buy. One time I had $10.00 saved up an' I bought lots o' pretties wid
it. Us always had plenty t'eat, too. All de greens, eggs, wheat, corn,
meat, an' chitlins dat anybody'd want. When hog killin' time come us
always have some meat lef' over from de year befo'. Us made soap out of
dat.

"When da war broke out I went right wid de Marster up to Corinth. I
stayed up dere in de camp for de longes' time a-waitin' on de sojers an'
nussing de sick ones. I never seen much o' de real fightin'. But I heard
de cannons roar an' I waited on de sojers what got wounded.

"After dey moved camp de Marster sont me back home to he'p look after de
Mistis an' chillun. De 'Federates had some cattle hid 'way in us pasture
an' I looked after 'em. One night when I was comin' home I met 'bout a
hund'ed Yankees comin' over a hill. Dey saw de cattle an' took 'bout
ha'f of 'em. I skidooed. Dey aint kotched me yet.

"After de war de Yankees called deyse'ves 'Publicans. Dey come down here
an' wanted all de Niggers to vote de 'Publican ticket. Den, lemme tell
you, I went to work for my white folks. Dey was a-holdin' big meetin's
an' speakin's, but I was workin', too. On 'lection day I brung in 1500
Niggers to vote de Democrat ticket. De folks what saw us comin' over de
hill say us look like a big black cloud. I reckon us sounded lak one wid
all dat hollerin' an' shoutin'.

"All my folks was dead soon, an' I went 'bout lak I was in a trance for