Emancipation Proclamation had been signed by President Lincoln.
Mistress suggested that the slaves should not be told of their
freedom; but master said he would tell them, because they would soon
find it out, even if he did not tell them. Mistress, however, said she
could keep my mother's three children, for my mother had now been gone
so long.

All the slaves left the plantation upon the news of their freedom,
except those who were feeble or sickly. With the help of these, the
crops were gathered. My mistress and her daughters had to go to the
kitchen and to the washtub. My little half-brother, Henry, and myself
had to gather chips, and help all we could. My sister, Caroline, who
was twelve years old, could help in the kitchen.

After the war, the Yankees took all the good mules and horses from
the plantation, and left their old army stock. We children chanced to
come across one of the Yankees' old horses, that had "U. S." branded
on him. We called him "Old Yank" and got him fattened up. One day in
August, six of us children took "Old Yank" and went away back on the
plantation for watermelons. Coming home, we thought we would make the
old horse trot. When "Old Yank" commenced to trot, our big melons
dropped off, but we couldn't stop the horse for some time. Finally,
one of the big boys went back and got some more melons, and left us
eating what we could find of the ones that had been dropped. Then all
we six, with our melons, got on "Old Yank" and went home. We also used
to hitch "Old Yank" into a wagon and get wood. But one sad day in the
fall, the Yankees came back again, and gathered up their old stock,
and took "Old Yank" away.

One day mistress sent me out to do some churning under a tree. I went