"I was born in 1859 down here at Walnut Lake. The man what owned us was Crum Holmes.
"All I can remember was the patrollers and the Ku Klux. I reckon I ought to, I seed 'em. I got skeered and run. I heered 'em talk 'bout how they'd do the folks and we chillun thought they'd do us the same way.
"I 'member hearin' 'em talk 'bout the Yankees—how they'd come through there and how they used to do.
"I guess we had plenty to eat. All I know was when I got ready to eat, I could eat.
"My parents was brought from Tennessee but all the place I know anything about is Walnut Lake.
"I know my mother said I was the cause of her gettin' a lot of whippin's. I'd run off and the boss man whipped her cause she wasn't keepin' me at home. If he didn't whip her, he'd pull her ears.
"When we was comin' up they didn't 'low the chillun to sit around where the old folks was talkin'. And at night when company come in, we chillun had to go to bed out the way. Sometimes I'm glad of it. See so many chillun now gettin' into trouble.
"I never been arrested in my life. Been a witness once or twice—that's the only way I ever been in court. If I'd a been like a lot of 'em, I might a been dead or in the pen.
"In them days, if we did something wrong, anybody could whip us and if we'd go tell our folks we get another whippin'.
"After freedom my parents stayed there and worked by the day. They didn't have no privilege of sellin' the cotton though.