"After de trouble my mammy have gettin' me 'way from there when freedom come, she gits me after all. Old missy have seven li'l nigger chillen what belong to her slaves, but dey mammies and daddys come git 'em. I didn't own my own mammy. I own my old missy and call her 'mama'. Us cry and cry when us have to go with us mammy. I 'members how old missy rock me in her arms and sing to me. She sing dat 'O, Susanna' and telt me a story:
"'Dere a big, old brown bear what live in de woods and she have lots of li'l cub bears and dey still nussin' at de breast. Old mama bear she out huntin' one day and she come by de field where lots of darkies workin' and dere on a pallet she see fat, li'l pickaninny baby. Mama bear she up and stole dat li'l pickaninny baby and takes it home. It hongry but after she git all de cub bears fed, dere ain't no milk left for de nigger baby. Mama bear git so 'sasperated she say to her babies, 'Go long, you go way and play.' Dan she feed de li'l pickaninny baby and dat how she raise dat nigger baby.'
"Now, every time old missy come to dat place in de story, she start laughin', 'cause I allus used to ask her.
"'How come dey didn't no hair grow on dat baby.'"
[Irella Battle Walker]
Irella Battle Walker, 86, was born a slave at Craft's Prairie, Texas. Her parents, Mesheck and Becky Battle, belonged to Mr. Battle, but were sold while Irella was a baby to Tom Washington, of Travis County. Irella learned her A B C's from an o1d slave, Jack James, although it was against the rules. This was the only schooling she ever had. Irella receives a monthly old age pension of eight dollars. She lives at 2902 Cole St., Austin, Texas.
"My name was Irella Battle and I was borned on August 15th, in 1851, down at Craft's Prairie, in Bastrop County. I was 86 years old last August, and I'm blind in one eye.
"Mammy's name was Becky Battle and she was a field worker, and dat about de most work she have to do, 'cept on rainy days. She had five girls and one boy and I'm de youngest and de only livin' one now. Daddy was Mesheck Battle and when I'm a baby in mammy's arms, us sold to Massa Washington.
"Daddy had to do field work. I never knowed him do nothin' but farm. He sho' make us behave and whop us if we didn't. Massa was purty good. De massas dem times, some was good and some was bad, and about de most of dem was bad. I had to he'p round de big house and dey purty good to me. But when I still little I went to de fields. Dey give me a sack what de slaves make to pick cotton in. Dey spin de thread and make cloth on de loom and stitch it and make cotton sacks. Dey short for us chillen and de older folks had a short one to pick in and a big sack to empty in. I could pick about a hundred fifty pounds a day when I's twelve. Israel Roberts could pick five hundred a day. Us never got no money for pickin', only food and clothes and a place to stay at night. Old man Jonas watched us chillen and kept us divin' for dat cotton all de day long. Us wish him dead many a time.
"De plantation had a hoss-power gin and some days our rows of cotton tooked us right to de gin house and we'd look up and watch de slave boys settin' on de lever and drivin' dem hosses round and round.