N.B. This man is well educated, speaks no dialect. He received his education from Northern teachers in Freedman aid, equal to the modern high school curriculum. He afterward studied in Boston. He reads, writes, and speaks excellent English.
Address: 1022 Divine Street, Columbia, S.C.
Project #-1655
Mrs. Genevieve W. Chandler
Murrells Inlet, S.C.
Georgetown County
FOLKLORE
AUNT ELLEN GODFREY
(Ex-Slave)
(Verbatim Conversation)
(Aunt Ellen is a misfit in her present environment. Born at Longwood Plantation on Waccamaw in 1837, all she knows is the easy, quiet life of the country. And the busy, bustling 'RACE PATH' near which her Grandson lives with whom she makes her home doesn't make a fitting frame for the old lady. All day she sits in a porch swing and when hungry, visits a neighbor. The neighbors (colored—all) vie with each other in trying to make her last days happy days. She says they do her washing and provide necessary food. When you start her off she flows on like the brook but usually her story varies little. She tells of the old days and of the experiences that made the greatest impression—the exciting times during the 'Confedrick' war—the 'Reb time day.')
Visitor: "Aunt Ellen home?"
Aunt Ellen's neighbor (from the washtub):
"No'um. She right cross there on the 'Race Path'" (So called because in Conway's early days races were run—horse races—on this street.)
Visitor: "Are you one of the neighbors who take such good care of Aunt Ellen?"
Neighbor: "No'um. I'm off all day. I work for Miss Bernice."