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An interview with Viney Baker 78 of S. Harrington Street, Raleigh.
R
"My mammy was Hannah Murry an' so fur as I know I ain't got no father, do' I reckon dat he was de plantation stock nigger. I was borned in Virginia as yo' mought say ter my marster Mr. S. L. Allen.
"We moved when I was little ter Durham County whar we fared bad. We ain't had nothin' much ter eat an' ter w'ar. He had a hundert slaves an' I reckon five hundert acres o' lan'. He made us wuck hard, de little ones included.
"One night I lay down on de straw mattress wid my mammy, an' de nex' mo'nin' I woked up an' she was gone. When I axed 'bout her I fin's dat a speculator comed dar de night before an' wanted ter buy a 'oman. Dey had come an' got my mammy widout wakin' me up. I has always been glad somehow dat I was asleep.
"Dey uster tie me ter a tree an' beat me till de blood run down my back, I doan 'member nothin' dat I done, I jist 'members de whuppin's. Some of de rest was beat wuser dan I was too, an' I uster scream dat I was sho' dyin'.
"Yess'um I seed de Yankees go by, but dey ain't bodder us none, case dey knows dat 'hind eber' bush jist about a Confederate soldier pints a gun.
"I warn't glad at de surrender, case I doan understand hit, an' de Allen's keeps me right on, an' whups me wuser den dan eber.
"I reckon I was twelve years old when my mammy come ter de house an' axes Mis' Allen ter let me go spen' de week en' wid her. Mis' Allen can't say no, case Mammy mought go ter de carpet baggers so she lets me go fer de week-en'. Mammy laughs Sunday when I says somethin' 'bout goin' back. Naw, I stayed on wid my mammy, an' I ain't seed Mis' Allen no mo'."
AC
District # 2 Subject:EX-SLAVE STORY No Words:733 Story teller:Charlie Barbour Worker: Mary A. Hicks Editor:Daisy Bailey Waitt"
