an' Miss Maria an' all. When de Cunel fust come to Mississippi he bought
a plantation in de prairies an' lived dere for a while. But later he
'cided to build him a house in town so he got my pa to he'p him build it
an' it was one of de purtiest houses in Aberdeen. It look jes lak it
allus did to me now. Co'se dey is worked on it several times since den,
but dey ain't changed it at all.

"My mammy did de cookin' for de white folks dere. Dey all thought a lot
of her. I never knowed much what slav'ry was 'bout, to tell de truf. De
folks never treated us wrong an' chullun in dem days didn' get to run
aroun' lak dey do today an' we didn' get to hear no gossip 'bout de
other niggers. Since we didn' live in no quarters we didn' hear nothin.
Our folks never said nothin' 'cause dey was very well satisfied lak dey
was. We never hear of no whuppin's, or runaways either, 'til afte' de
War an' when we got older.

"I 'member de War tho'. Marse Tom, he went fust, wid de Van Dorns. He
was made a capt'in or somethin' 'cause he was so brave. He fought long
wid de fust an' was one of de fust to get hit. Dey brung his body all de
way from Richmond, or Virginny, I fergit which, and lawzy, if de Cunel
an' de Miss didn' take on somethin' awful. Dey sho' loved dat boy an'
so did all of de niggers. Afte' dey buried him dey took his sword an'
hung it on de wall of de parlor. I reckin it still dar.

"Marse Ben went afte' dat. He was jes old 'nough to go but he went an'
fought jes de same. He come back when de war was over an' dey was sho'
some rejoicin'.

"Time wa'nt much diffrunt den dan it was 'fo de War. We stayed on wid
our folks for a long time. Den my pa started gettin' a li'l work here