"Our oberseer was Harvey Williamson an' he went 'roun' at nine o'clock to see iffen us niggers was in baid. Sometimes atter he done been 'roun', us'd git up an' have some fun. At de break of day all de slaves would git up an' go to work. Dose goin' way down in de fiel's would have to git up even befo' it was light so's to be dar when de dawn broke to commence de day's work. Den dey would come back at twelve o'clock for dinner an' res' awhile, den go back an' work till sun down.
"We useta have a man on de place dat played a banjo, an' we would dance an' play while he sang.
"Dis was one of his songs:
White folks says a nigger won't steal
But I cotched six in my cawnfiel'
If you want to see a nigger run
Shoot at dat nigger wid a gattlin' gun.
"My last Marsters was two brothers an' dey had one sister, Miss Sarah Smarr.
"We didn't have no jail on de place, an' most of us never went offen de plantation, jus' stayed 'roun' an' had a good time playin' amongst ourselves. Us niggers had a church dar on de place an' a white man preached to us, but in Virginny we went to de same church as de Marster did. I didn't jine no church dough till I come to Alabamy.
"None of us slaves ever tried to run away to de nawth 'ca'se dey was good to us.
"We useta have a doctor dat'd come roun' eve'y two weeks to see how de slaves was doin' an' iffen we was sick he would give us some medicine. Some of de women would tie asafetida 'roun' de chilluns necks to keep de sickness away.
"Some Saddays we had to work after dinner, but most of the time Marster would let us have a good time. On Christmas day us had a big celebration an' didn't do no work at all.
"Didn't nobody have no time to learn us how to read an' write.