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"I wusn't very old during slave time but I worked, yes sir, I did, and my por' mammy chile', it wus from daylight ta' dark, and on good light nights it wus way up in the night. Mah mammy's name was 'Katie'; Katie - Cherry, an ma father wus William Walturf, or somethin' like 'at, never did know good 'cause he never stayed wif us in our cabin no how and we never knowed him much.
"Shap Phillips wus our marster and he brought my parents 'fore I wus bawn, frum Frank Parker, (we jus said '01 Parker',) and brought us from Woofalton to New Madrid County. '01 Man Shap', (that what we call him,) had two sons, one name; 'Amos' and one name 'Little Murry'. I tock care 'Little Murry' for ma; 'Tack' and I warn't much bigger him but did I let him git hurt? Not me chile!
"'Ole Man Shap' owned 'bout two, three hundred us slaves and he had cabins built all over and around his plantation. This house is per ??uf' but then we jes had one little room and' irt floos and no windas, sometime jus holes out.
"Some them slaves cooks in their cabin, not what they wanted but what 'Marse' gibed 'em, most times wus beans an' 'tators and corn bred and milk, and some times 'round hog killin' time he pass out the 'jowl meat'.
"I jest don' member hut it seems we did eat three times a day. I wus allays so glad to hear dat bell ring 'else a hern blow. Youse seed that kind of shell like calded 'Konk horn'--and could that 'nigger' blew Lowd!
"Mammy cooked in the big house for 'Marse', and then som' time when her work was done in there she was took to the fields and lef' me, and my brother and sister by our selvs' 'till she come and som' time when she did com' she would run in seared-like and lock de door and motion us quite and say, 'Dey will think 'se sleep'. I Didn't understand all that stuff den but fore long I did, understan' what I'se tellin yu.
"'Nother thing our bade wus poor stuff, but mammy said she wus allays 'dog tired' and could 'a slep on the ground. They was straw ticks and hard. law no, chile, we didn't known what springs wue.
"One day I member bad, '01 Man Shap' sol' gransa, she was mammy's - many and all we ever hear, she was sol' down couf. We knowed not to de no takin' on for if'n we did the hide would got tooken off us.
"Mammy used to Card wool and cotton and spin, then she would weave goods. I 'member one time, I wus little, I played 'rat under de lees'. I would crawl up and grab mammy and say 'c-o-o-k', and pinch her. She say, 'I'll puts a stop to that 'rat' bothering me when I got work to det That didn' stop me but she who' make me nish it had the nex' time I de it.
"I never knowed Sunday from Monday, 'capt on Sunday the white man come and we are called out under the bruch arbor, didn' have no work in the fiel' at day, and he stand up' fore us and preach out a little green-back book; I didn't know what it de then, but I known now it was a Bible. I 'member every' proach day' he say, 'Hind you not to steal from Missie or Marster', Me was plenty strong on that part.
"Well do I 'member dat 'nigger' overseer, big, 'smart aleck'; he was called de 'nigger driver'. He say 'hurry up there, you get the hide split on you lany back'. I wusn't hardly big enouf but the bigger ones when they was hib a task to do, they better do it in a hurry else they would get the 'hide split' and some time salt put on.
"I never had no book larnin' 'cept two, three times when Miss Fanny La Forge, she wue the white school teacher, and she tried to larn me, she didn' have much time and couldn' do much with it. But I allays says, 'Give me good ol' common horse sonse', and not braggin, Miss, but I have got that; always did have. Mos' those educated ones are smarty, big head, smarty, and I never did want to be that way 'tall.
"If they wus jails then fo us slaves I never need one, jes whippin' fo' punishin', some one wus gittin' it all the time.
"'Ole Parker' like mammy and all her people and he tol' '01 Man Shad' if'n he lashed my mammy and her family he would com' and take us back, 'cause we wus good and didn't need no punishment but that was the only reason that we wusn't lashed like the rest of them.
"I was tollin' you about Sunday meetin', none of us had a Bible 'cept the white man, and I don't know where he got it from. I never did have one 'cept once and it burned up in my house in Advance. I liked to look through it but I didn't know a word it said.
"Times it seems I can hear them sing, I didn't sing much at the meetin' cause I was to little, but the others sang, 'Hark From the Tomb', and 'I am a Soldier of the Cross'. When the preacher man chook he hald and stomp his feet and yell, I say to mammy. 'What that men mammy? What he doing? And she say; 'Hush', and put her hand over my mouf. I knowed plenty well to stay hushed too. Any babtising went on I never seed any of it, never knowed nothin' 'bout anything lak that then.
"The older ones had some fun too about that time, maybe ones week or more some one get 'mission' from his Marster and hib a'hos down! calls dance now.) Any one that went from all the close plantations got 'mission' from the Marster or overseer to go but they had to be home at a certain time or they would wish they hadn It went and some time they would slip off and go out mission', if ever they wus saught they got' it', and plenty of it. I heard sister say, 'Mammy I would like to go to the hoedown tonight'.
Mammy say; 'Think you can come back in time?' Sister say, 'Den' know mammy,' then mammy say; 'Better save your sef chile'. Then sister say Well, I botter go to bed then'. But you could hear the fiddle and the hollerin' all over, and 'twas hard to stay 'way.
"At Christmas time we knowd 'bout that and both of mammy's owners gib her a good time. '01 Man Shap' alluys gib us a pair of stockings and some candy and apples. For the men folks they sometimes get whiskey. New Year's was 'bout the same and I don' 'member no other holidays.
"When we gets sick they was a white doctor way off somewhere that would come, if he wus sent fo', but mos' de time 'Old Uncle Nee John" and 'Uncle Jake' would conjure us; they was called 'Voo-Doo's'. One time sister stepped up in the meat house do'r and hurt her foot, don' know how, Mammy tell Marster and he say; tell Jake he come, an' I wus allus' 'fraid of him and he say to sister, 'Gal, get up and walk'. She say: 'I cain't. He set back d own and go 'M-m-m-m-m; for a longtime and then say: 'Gal, I say get up and walk'. She say: 'I can't'. I was so scared and mammy say to me. 'Set still there Gal, he aint gwine to hurt you no how', but he look so wild and mean and the next time he memble words over her foot she get up and walk. He have us wear a dime around our nocks fo' somethin'; don' know what tho'. I was allus such a fool 'bout money. I just liked to wear it and didn' care.
"When some one died we didn't know what wus don' with 'em but sometime they wus took out in the night and I heard some wus hauled off in a little push-thing and throwed in the river and some wus put in a hole with their clothes on.
"'Bout that time we begin to hear stories of bein' set free. The slaves sang at their work all day.
"'Thank God Almity, I'l be free some day', (there are bout all the words I can 'member). They sang this ever and over and made a pretty song too. Hearer time for us to be freed, the owners get meaner all the time. Some took their slaves down in the cane brakes and hid them; others wus kept working. '01 Hen Shap' tell some, 'When you get free I five you home and pay you for your work'. I guess he would too if'n he had stayed there.
"Then 'Blue Coats'; (Northern Soldiers), wus lots moaner than the 'Brown Coats; (Gracy), in the South. Them 'Blue Coats' come in and steal your chickens and cook them over your firs-place and cat them right 'fore your eyes. I 'member one time the 'Epown Coats' come and wanted sister. I squalled like a panther. During and after the war, them 'Guerillas' was a sight, dey steal, kill, and tear up, everywhere. The 'K.K.K.' was a powerful, noan, bunch and day would com' atter night and take people out and whip them; ah didn't know what for.
"I well 'member the day we wus freed, every one sang, 'Thank God Almity, I'm free at last, free at last, free at last, thank god Almithty. I'm free at last, I'm free at last."
"'01 Man Shap' was mad and he whipped some of his slaves and de took him to do tom jail, last I seed of him he wus sittin' in the town jail winder, maybe died there, I don' know. After we wus free there wus planty of work, they couldn't whip nobody and had to pay us for the work. Mammy cooked for Mr. Bunter and 'Riley' and 'Dalton! She kept me with her 'till I got 'old 'nouf to cook and then I lef' and got a job away from der somewhere.
"I got married 'bout 40-50 years ago to 'Baltimore 'here. He is 105 years old now. He tells me his old Mis' thought he was an 'Angle' and he wus almost 35 years old when the war broke out. He wus from Letterville - County, Tennessee. He tell me people just thought bountiful of him and they seemed to be a welcome all ever the world for him.
"He says he was called one of the finest barbers in the world, all was a natural gift and 'man out of sight! he barbered thousands and thousands. His mother wus from Georgia and her name was 'Lisa' and she married Jim -Taylor. Me and 'Baltimore' had eleven children since we been married. They was Charlie; he ded, Martha; liming, and not got any kids, and Tony; dead, and Louisa and Gussie; dead. How many that--five?. Rosie dead, and left six children; part of them are here, 'Little Baltimore' and Henry are dead, Roosevelt is living and here at home and Robert is in a C.C.Camp, but David works in a fins hotel in St. Louis; don' know what one the name is.
"'01 Man Abe Lincoln' was a fine ol' man, and I liked him, he never freed us; but tol' us how. But 'Eooker', and Jefferson Davis wusn't no friend to the colored man that I knowed anything 'bout.
"It is best to be free if you carry your self right you'll be free all you days. I belongs to the Saints Church, t' aint the 'Holy Roller' and I allys wus 'ligious but I don' know much 'bout stuff, never put no study on it.
"Ise just a poor old 'nigger' slave that is waitin' for the Good Lord to come and take me home and it won the long chile; no, 'Granny' ain't got long".
