"Abe Lincoln wuz de honestest President we evuh had. Ef it warn't fo' him we'd still be in bondage.
"If you puts two hoss-shoes above youh door—one up an' one down—it'll shore catch de wiches if dey tries tuh come through.
"One time it wuz in de evenin' I wuz puttin hay in de pen fo de hosses at night, an I see a big white light a-cummin' up de lane jes a little above de top o' de fence. It wuz big an' shiny white. I wuzn' rightly skeered but I stood dere watchin' it. It cum up an followed de' fence to de road. I watched to see did it go to de graveyard, an' shure nuf it did. It meant sumpin' but I don' know whut. An den one day, 'bout noon I seed sumpin. I wuz out side dar an a little dog cum towards me. It wo' a bright collar, shinin' like, an' pretty. I ain't nevuh seed nuthin' like it. I goes to it an calls, 'Heah puppy, heah puppy.' It stan dere n' look at me fir a minit den turn an' jump ovuh dat ten rail fence an' is lost in de tall weeds. Now you know no natchel puppy could jump ovuh a ten-rail fence. I goes in an tells Hanna de cook 'bout it an' she say, 'Lawd ha' mercy! dat's a token fo' sumpin. I don' know whut—mebby somebody gonna die, but it sho' is a token.'"
[Betty Abernathy]
Interview with Betty Abernathy,
Cape Girardeau, Missouri.
"My muthuh brought me to Cape Girardeau in 1862, an' I was 'bout ten yeah ol' at dat time. Huh name was Malissa Abernathy an' she tole' me that 'Ole Massa' John Abernathy was mah daddy. 'Ole Massa' was mean to his cullud folks and so was 'Ole Missis Willie'.
"We lived up in Perry County. The white folk had a nice big house an' they was a number of poor little cabins fo' us folks. Ours was one room, built of logs, an' had a puncheon floor. 'Ole 'Massa' had a number of slaves but we didden' have no school, 'ner church an' mighty little merry-makin'. Mos'ly, we went barefooted the yeah 'round.
"My muthuh an' some of the othuh women done the weavin' an' sewin'. I learned to spin, I could fill broaches and spin as good as any of 'em. One time 'Ole' Tom Johnson, the 'nigger-buyer' come up frum Little Rock. He was go'in to buy muthuh an' her family, and take us to Arkansas, but 'bout that time they was so much talk 'bout freein' the slaves, he was 'fraid to.
"Mostly we had right fair eatin's. We didn't go into the big house much, jes' on cleanin' days an' such like.
"Ole Massa' often hired his cullud folks out to neighbuh farmuh an' he didden' care how they was treated. One time my two brothers was hired out an' in the evenin' they came an' tole muthuh they was goin' to run away 'cause they's treated so mean. She begged 'em not to come there to hide 'cause they'd find 'em 'shore, an' most likely kill 'em right before her eyes. They got away an' 'Ole Massa' come to the cabin to search fo' 'em. When muthuh tole him she didn't know where they was, he tied a rope 'round huh neck, an' tied the other end to the raftuhs. Then he beat her to make her tell.