"De[8] Yankees jes' shot hogs and cows and took everything on de plantation dey wanted. I can see 'em now runnin' chickens. Dere was an old rooster, he said, 'Cluck, cluck, cluck cluck,' as he run. Dey shot his head off and he turned somersets awhile, and rolled over dead. Jes' seemed lak if dem Yankees pointed a gun at a chicken or hog dey would roll over dead. Dey had live geese tied on their hosses. One ole gander would say, 'Quack, quack, quack,' as the hoss stepped along and jarred him. Some o' de Yankee soldiers were carrying hams of hogs on deir bayonets. Dat wus a time, Lawsy, Lawsy, a time. One ole hen, she had sense. When de Yankees were killin' de res' o' de chickens she ran for de piney woods and hid dere and stayed till de Yankees left Raleigh; den she come home. Mammy caught her and raised about forty chickens off her in Raleigh."
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FOOTNOTES:
[5] [HW: Ramsgate Road—nicknamed Ramcat or Rhamkatte in derision of Governor Tryon.]
[6] Yates Mill was a flour mill.
[7] [HW: St. Paul's A.M.E. Methodist Church moved to Edenton St. site in 1853, formerly old Christ Church building.]
[8] The Negroes interviewed frequently speak fairly correctly at first but when they begin to talk of old times lapse into dialect.
| N.C. District: | No. 2 |
| Worker: | T. Pat Matthews |
| No. Words: | 1177 |
| Subject: | ELIAS THOMAS |
| Person Interviewed: | Elias Thomas |
| Editor: | G.L. Andrews |