"Atter dat, Ol' Marsa tell us, us is free from him but needn't leave iffen us didn' want to go, but could stay on wid him an' he'd treat us right an' give us half of what us made.
"In after years I ma'ed Josephine Bedell an' us had George, Phillip, Renza, Eldridge (de baby), May Willie an' Leila. I's got some gran-chillun, too, but kain't think of dey names.
"Hit was de plans of God to free us niggers an' not Abraham Lincoln's.
"I's allus tried to live under de correction of de Lord. Hit's my duty to try to do so."
[Cull Taylor]
Personal interview with Cull Taylor
364 N. Scott Street, Mobile, Alabama
—Ila B. Prine, Mobile, Alabama
A SLAVE IS GIVEN HIS YOUNG MISSY'S NAME
A tall, stoop-shouldered, black Negro man came trudging down the road with a hoe in his hand. Asked where Cull Taylor lived, the old man said, "Lady I'se Cull Taylor. Dis is mah house here. Does you want to see me?"
When told that his visitor was looking for old people who lived during slavery days Cull said:
"I were born a slave, but warn't very old when de niggers was freed. I were born March 5, 1859, in Augusta County, Alabama. Mah maw come from Richmond, Virginia and her name were Jane Hare. Mah paw's name were Willingham Hare, and he were brought to Alabama from North Carolina. I guess you'se wonderin' why mah name is Taylor when mah maws and paws name was Hare?