said "You raise cotton and corn but not grass on this farm." They they
moan, "m-m-m-m." I herd em say his whole family and him too was out by
day light wid their hoes cuttin' the grass out their crop. I was sho
glad to git back to our cabin. They didn't come back to Nells no more
that I herd bout. The man Nells worked for muster been one in that
crowd. He lived way over yonder. No I think the Ku Klux was a good thing
at that time. The darkies got sassy (saucy), trifling, lazy. They was
notorious. They got mean. The men wouldn't work. Their families have to
work an' let them roam round over the country. Some of em mean to their
families. They woulder starved the white out and their selves too. I
seed the Ku Klux heap a times but they didn't bother me no more. I herd
a heap they done along after that. They say some places the Ku Klux go
they make em git down an' eat at the grass wid their mouths then they
whoop em. Sometimes they make em pull off their clothes and whoop em. I
sho did feel for em but they knowd they had no business strollin' round,
vistin'. The Ku Klux call that whoopin' helpin' em git rid of the grass.
Nells moster lived at what they called Caneville over cross the field.

"The way that Patty Rollers was. The mosters paid somebody. Always
somebody round wantin' a job like that. Mars White was his own overseer.
All round there was good livers. They worked long wid the slaves. Some
of the slaves would race. Papa would race. He wanted to race all time.
Grandma cooked for all of us. They had a stone chimney in the kitchen.
Big old hearth way out in front. Made outer stone too. We all et the
same victuals long as Mars White lived. Then I left."




Interviewer: Miss Irene Robertson