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R. F. D., Hawkinsville, Georgia (Interviewed May, 1937)
This old ex-slave lives in the country with a 68 year old daughter, about 8 miles from Hawkinsville.
Her father's people, says she, were brought to Georgia from Africa --- presumably during the early eighteenth century, and she distinctly remembers her father's mother --- an African woman, whose language no one could understand.
"Aunt" Sarah "reckons" that she is about 94 years old, which is probably correct, or nearly so. She was born in Pulaski County, her owner being Mr. Nat Snell, whom she avers was a very rich man. Indeed, her "white folks were big dogs", too rich to "whip a nigger."
She remembers that her mother worked in the fields and also cooked for her Master, while her father had a comparatively easy job --- that of carriage driver.
And, o yes, the slaves had big frolics every Saturday night, and the plantation of Mr. Snell's was a little Eden, where fun, work, and religion were enjoyed by all. The colored people attended the White Baptist church at Evergreen, but Sarah didn't go unless she had a new dress!
Two hundred little Negro children (!), and the Lord only knew how many grown and half-grown slaves, lived on the great Snell plantation when "Aunt" Sarah was a girl.
One of "Aunt" Sarah's brothers went to the war as a Confederate "waiter", and, after going through numerous bloody battles without receiving a wound or suffering a mishap, accidentally fell on an axe at home and killed himself.
Speaking of the Yankees, who came to Hawkinsville after the close of the war, the old woman "allowed": "I surely did hate them things."
Since freedom, Sarah Virgil's life has been that of an average ex-slave, void of color or thrills. Her main regret today is her inability to work. She is deeply religious and feels that she has been peculiarly blessed in being spared so long.
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