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(Lee County, Alabama)
Sara Benton lives in Opelika, AL, now and used to own lots of property in west end of town and is a very careless lazy kind, now has lost all she had and is living in the very worse kind of place, the porches are all holes, top and bottom, don't see how she has kept from falling.
She was born at Fredonia, AL, and was twelve years old when the war broke out, her Mother, Martha and Father, Wesley Cox, had four children to live, John, Cornelia, Monroe and Sara; their home was up close to the big house and not down at the quarters for her Mother was the cook and their house was a log cabin, plank floors and had four-poster beds with roped slats.
She relates, "My grand-paw lived in La Fayette and was owned by the Rays. All our fireplaces wus big and yer know us cooked on de fireplaces cause wusn't no stoves in dem times and us et mostly pot-licker, milk en bread, sometimes us had er little meat, hit sho made big strong niggers do.
"My daddy wus er shoemaker and my Mother done the weaving, our dresses wus home-spun and wool-mixed and gingham, I married in er gingham dress, sumtimes us had er white dress.
"Us had sum good white folks ef you done your wurk good and didn' giv em no truble but ef you didn' course dey whipped yu. Mr. Ben and Miss Sara had six chillun; Charlie, Margaret, Sara, Maria, Jeff en Ben, and dem wus mischifus little ole boys too. Dey lived in er big plank house but our overseer lived in er log house lak us, only bigger, Mr. Pat Moore and my daddy driv ole Mistess, de carriage house wus up close to de big house.
"Our overseer got us up by light and blowed er horn en I seed him whup er slave one day, wid er Bull-Whip. When us ud go off er ter church, us walked or rid in our steer-wagon an us slaves went ter de white church en set in de gallery, your white preacher read de Bible and sung dat good ole song 'Jesus, Lover of My Soul,' en den us had baptizing by de white preacher at Hill's Pond and my, didn' dem niggers shout and holler and sing nother good ole song, 'Dark Was de Night, Cold Was de Groun', Which de Lord Laid His Haid.'
"Dem ole patrollers wus sho mean, walked 'bout at night en whup you ef yer didn' have er pass frum de Marster and ef could ketch yer dey sho cut yer up. All us had good dances en frolics on Sadday nights, Mr. Pat Moore used ter watch too, us had ter wurk on Saddays jest de same as eny other day, nother good frolic us had wus on Xmas and hav parties en dances and my, de times uf dem cornshuckings, nother sech hollering and drinking, as yer ever seed.
"I never will fergit dat hansom cake whut my mother cooked when Mr. Sam married.
"When dem Yankees cum thru hollering and shouting You'se freed and shooting cannons, hit sceered us nearly ter death and dey didn' do no harm but us hid heap er Master's things in de slave houses. Us staid on tho er while and atter that I married Abb Benton and had seven chillun and all er dem is dead now, I lives wid my niece en hit is sho er hard go, she ain't good to me neither.
"I had er pitcher er Abraham Lincoln once and he sho wus er fine looking man, I recon he think he wus helpin us niggers but us wus doin' mighty well fore freedom, I'se always tried ter live right and dat's why I jined de church."
