“The soldiers didn’t take anything that night but food. They left all the horses. What they took was what they could eat. But they couldn’t catch the turkeys. The lieutenant stayed around all the time to make the soldiers behave themselves. The meals he made my ole mis’ and her daughter cook was for the officers.
“Yes Lawd! I have been here so long I ain’t forgot nothin’. I can remember things way back. I can remember things happening when I was four years old. Things that happen now I can’t remember so well. But I can remember things that happened way back yonder.”
Schooling
“I learnt to read a little after peace was declared. A ole lady, Aunt Sarah Nunly, learnt us how to spell and then after that we went to school. I went to school three weeks. I never went to school much.
“Didn’t git no chance to learn nothin’ in slavery. Sometimes the children would teach the darkies ’round the house their ABC’s. I’ve heard of folks teachin’ their slaves to read the Bible. They didn’t teach us to read nothin’. I’ve heard of it, but I’ve never seen it, that some folks would cut off the first finger of a nigger that could write.”
Father’s Children Freed Before Emancipation
“My father had some children that were set free. They lived down on the river bottom. Their ole master was named ole Crow. He died and sot his niggers free. He had four slaves. He had five. If any of you know Philo Pointer, his father was one of ’em. They sot him free. His daughter—Crow’s daughter—wanted the niggers and they would break the ole man’s will. They furnished them a wagon and sot them free. They came by my father’s place and he killed his hog and fed them and they put the rest of it in the wagon and went on to the free state. I’ve got an old piece of a dish them boys give my mama. It’s done broke up to a piece now, but I saves that.
“Patsy Crow was the name of the girl that was freed, and one of the boys was named Joe Crow, and the others I don’t know what it was. I guess it was Jim. Their old master had left a will givin’ them the wagon and team because he knew it wouldn’t be possible for them to stay there after he died. He said he didn’t want his niggers to be under anybody after he died. Wills was wills in them days. His daughter wanted them niggers, but they didn’t give them to her. They sot them free and sont them off.”
Wants to See Her People
“I nursed three children for Thad Haney and Louisa, his wife. Them girls’ names was: the oldest was Julia; the next one was named Emma; and the youngest one was named Virginia. If I can find them and see them again, I’ll be so happy. I jus’ want to meet them one more time—some of them—all of them if they’re livin’; but I know they can’t all be living.