|
|
No. Words 377 Editor Daisy Bailey Waitt
An interview with Lucy Brown of liecktown, Durham, Durham County, May 20, 1937. She does not know her age.
"I was jist a little thing when de war was over an' I doan 'member much ter tell yo'. Mostly what I does know I hyard my mammy tell it.
"We belonged to John Neal of Person County. I doan know who my pappy was, but my mammy was named Rosseta an' her mammy's name 'fore her was Rosseta. I had one sist r named Jenny an' one brother named Ben.
"De marster was good ter us, in a way, but he ain't 'lowin' no kinds of frolickin' so when we had a meetin' we had ter do it secret. We'd turn down a wash pot outside de do', an' dat would ketch de fuse so marster neber knowed nothin' 'bout hit.
"On Sundays we went ter church at de same place de white folkses did. De white folkses rid an' de niggers walked, but eben do' we wored wooden bottomed shoes we was proud an' mostly happy. We had good clothes an' food an' not much abuse. I doan know de number of slaves, I was so little.
"My mammy said dat slavery was a whole lot wusser 'fore I could 'member. She tol' me how some of de slaves had dere babies in de fiel's lak de cows done, an' she said dat 'fore de babies was borned dey tied de mammy down on her face if'en dey had ter whup her ter keep from ruinin' de baby.
"She said dat dar was whostes an' some witches back den, but I doan know nothin' 'bout dem things.
"Naw, I can't tell yo' my are but I will tell yo' dat eber'body what lives in dis Block am either my chile or ran'chile. I can't tell yo' prexackly how many dar is o' 'em, but I will tell you dat my youges' chile's baby am fourteen years old, an' dat she's got fourteen youngan's, one a year jist lak I had till I had sixteen.
"I'se belonged ter de church since I was a baby an' I tells dem eber'day dat dey shore will miss me when I'se gone."
N.C. District N o. 2 Subject: PLANTATION LIFE IN GECRGIA.
No. Words: 462 Reference:Midge BurnettMary Micks: Worker Editor: George L. Andrews"
