"My mother had eighteen children and I had sixteen but all mine dead now
but three. Mama's ma and grandpapa Haley had twenty-two children. Yes
ma'am, they sho did have plenty to eat. Mars Daniel say to his wife,
'Cornelia, feed my niggers.' That bout last he said when he went off to
war. Mars Green, Daniel, and Jimmie three brothers. Three Johnson
brothers buried their gold money in stone jars and iron cookin' pots
fore they left and went to war.

"When the fightin' stopped, people was so glad they rung and rung the
farm bells and blowed horns--big old cow horns. When Mars Daniel come
home he went to my papa's house and says, 'John, you free.' He says, 'I
been free as I wanter be whah I is.' He went on to my grandpa's house
and says, 'Toby, you are free!' He raised up and says, 'You brought me
here frum Africa and North Carolina and I goiner stay wid you long as
ever I get sompin to eat. You gotter look after me!' Mars Daniel say,
'Well, I ain't runnin' nobody off my place long as they behave.'
Purtnigh every nigger sot tight till he died of the old sets. Mars
Daniel say to grandpa, 'Toby, you ain't my nigger.' Grandpa raise up an'
say, 'I is, too.'

"They had to work but they had plenty that made em content. We had good
times. On moonlight nights somebody ask Mars Daniel if they could have a
cotton pile, then they go tell Mars Moore and Judge Reid (or Reed). They
come, when the moon peep up they start pickin'. Pick out four or five
bales. Then Mars Daniel say you come to the house. Ring the bell. Then
we have a big supper--pot of chicken, stew and sweet potatoes roasted.
Have a wash pot full of molasses candy to pull and all the goobers we
could eat.

"Then we had three banjos. The musicians was William Word, Uncle Dan