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Hannah Murphy, who is 80 years old, "aint bin able to go to church much" on account of rheumatic feet. With an active mind, good humor and independence, she rocks back and forth in her daughter's room, her hair rolled up on match sticks, her gingham dress clean and whole.
"My mother was belongs to Adam McNatt," said Hannah, in a firm voice, "and my father was belongs to Ponder. He had git a pass to come see us, and he come Sundays and twic't a week. All we chillun was belongs to my mother's owner."
The McNatt plantation was at a place then called Jefferson, near what is now Vidette, Hannah continued, and the plantation on which the master lived, or Buckhead Place, was some distance from the upper plantation or Jenkin's Place, where Hannah lived with her mother in quarters near the overseer's house.
"Dey was a big pon' dere," Hannah said, "and I heared de ole folks tell a story 'bout dat pon': how one time dere was a white mistis what would go out ev'y evenin' in her ca'iage and mek de driver tek her to de pon'. She would stay out a long time, and de driver kep' a-wondrin' what she do dere. One night he saw her go thoo' bushes, and he crep' up behin' her." Hannah paused mysteriously and nodded her head. "He saw her step out o' her skin! De skin jus' roll up and lay down on de groun'
and den de Mistis disappear. De driver was too skeared to move. Me knelt dere tremblin' wonderin' what become ob de Mistis. In a little while he yeared her voice sayin': "Skinny, Skinny, don't you know me?" He looked all around but he couldn't see her nowhere. Den she call again from out de air: "Skinny, Skinny, don't you know me? Her skin jump up fum de groun' and dere she was again, ez big ez life! He watch her like dat for a lot o' nights, and it worry him. Pretty soon he went and tole de marster, and de marster was so skeared ob her, he run her away fum de plantation and nobody ever see her no more."
Hannah was asked about clothing and replied that children wore dresses made of plain white cloth. "I kin 'member de weaving and looming cloth and spinning de thread. De older womans did dat."
A blood-curdling recollection of her children was the bloodhound hunt.
"I seen many mens runnin' away fum de bloodhoun's. Sometimes we chilluns be in de quarter playin', and a man would come runnin' along fast, breathin' hard, so skeared! De houn's be behind him. Den I kin 'member how they'd whip 'em when dey ketch him. Dey would make de men drop down dey pants and lay down across big logs and dey'd whip 'um. De womans dey'd drop dey bodies and dey'd whip 'em across de back and 'round de waists till de blood come."
"Did you ever hear about Spanish Buck punishment or something called the gameron or gamlin stick, Mannah?" she was asked.
"Yessum, I yeared de ole folks talk about 'Buck Spanish' but I ain't never seen it," she answered.
As to provisions and housing, Hannah's memory was quite clear.
"Us got food fum de smoke-' ouse," she said. "De ole folks go dere to git food onc't ev'y week on what was call 'lowance night. Dey got bacon and meal. Sometimes dey would have lil' gardens where dey mek truck. All I kin 'member eatin' is just straight somethin'-to-eat, no fancy eatin' - bread and meat and ole black syrup. My mother and father was jus' straight fiel' han's. Us had a log cabin; a dirt chimney put up out of clay; jus' one room to a fambly; mother and her sister live in de same house. Chillun pretty much slep' on de flo' and ole folks had beds, made out o' boards nailed together with a rope cord strung across 'em instead o' springs and a cotton mattress over dat."
"What kind of work did they make you do, Aunt Mannah?"
"Dey had not put me in de fiel' to work. I was in de overseer's house, nursing his baby. I was nine years old when freedom come, nursing Miss Ella Skinner's baby. Her husban' was de overseer, named Jesse Skinner. Dey never whip me 'cause I was too skeared to do nothin' wrong."
"But you did have some good times, didn't you?" she was asked. "Games and frolics?"
"Yessum, de ole folks went to frolics and dey would give 'um a pass. Dey had fiddle and all would dance. Sometimes de womans hold quilting. Us chillun played a lot o' games but I kin 'member only one, call 'Mary Jane'. You ring up and put yo'self in a long line. Den you turn 'round and say: Turn Jane! Den ev'ybody would sing:
'Steal all down And don't slight none Mary Jane Turn roun! Run down he'ah Turn all aroun" Don't slight none Mary Jane!"
"Did you ever see the patterolers?" Hannah was asked.
"Oh yessum. I seed de Patterolers, but I never heard no song about 'em. Dey was all white mans. Jus' like now you want to go off your master's place to another man's place, you had to get a pass from your boss man. If you didn't have dat pass, de Patterolers would whip you."
Hannah said the Yankees came through the plantation on a Sunday.
"I'll never forget dat!" she exclaimed. "Dey was singing Dixie. 'I wish't I was in Dixie, look away!' Dey was all dress in blue. Dey sot de gin house afire, and den dey went in de lot and got all de mules and de horses and ca'y 'em wid 'em. Dey didn't bother de smokehouse wheh de food was, and dey didn't tek no hogs. But dey did go to de long dairy and thow'd out all de milk and cream and butter and stuff. We chillun got in a bunch and look at 'em. Dey didn't bother us none. De white folks had yeared dey was a-comin' and dey had lef'. After de Yankees all gone away, de white folks come back. De cullud folks stayed dere awhile, but de owners ob de place declaired dey was free and sont de people off. I know dat my mother and father and a lot ob de people come up he'ah to Augusta. Dere was a long ole shed, a kind of big house, wheh dey stayed awhile. My father wanted to farm again. He went back down de country and work for wages. He rented and worked farm till he died."
Hannah looked around the clean room, its wall thick with enlarged photographs.
"Dey's all my folkses," she said. "I jus' come he'ah one or two years. My younges' chile tuk me wit' her, but I kain't do much 'count ob de mis'ry in my feet.""
