"When they tol' us freedom come us thought they was foolin'. My uncle say we's free and to go and look out for number one. They let us stay awhile, but they 'lowanced us. Iffen us spen' the 'lowance us jus' had to go rustle up something to eat or do without. My daddy was a widow man by then and he stay, 'cause he say he want to see further into the subjec'.
"One time I gwineter see my father and had my baby in my arms, 'cause I done married. I was gwine through the wilderness and I heared something squall like a woman cry. I 'gin walk faster. The squall come again. Something say to me, 'You better run.' The hair commence stand on my head and I walk pretty peart. That squall come again and I run fastes' I knows how. I have that poor little baby carried any way.
When I get to the fence I jump over and sot down. The chillen come running and say, 'Yonder Daphne.' They help me into the house but I's so scart I couldn' tell 'em till near bedtime and then I say I hear squall like woman cryin'. Mister Goolsbee say, 'Daphne, make soun' like you hear,' and I makes a squall, and he say, 'That a panther and iffen he kotched you that would have been the end of you and that baby of yourn what you was totin'.' So 'bout four o' clock in that mornin' he gits 'bout fourteen neighbors and the dawgs and they hunts that rascal and runs him in 'bout 8 or 10 o'clock. A span of mules couldn' pull that rascal, I don' 'lieve. He have the biggest tushes I ever seed with these two eyes. They put him in a pot and bile him and make soap out of the grease. That panther didn' git me or my baby but they got him and made soap out of him."
[Horatio W. Williams]
Horatio W. Williams, known as "Rash" to his friends, is 83 years old. He was a slave of Woodruff Norseworthy, in Pine Bluff, Arkansas. Horatio has lived in Jasper, Texas, for many years.
"I was born in slavery in Pine Bluff in de state of Arkansas, on July 2, 1854, and dey tells me dat make me 'bout 84 years old. Woodruff Norseworthy was my owner and boss all de time I a slave. I marry in 1875 and I lost my wife two year ago, and when a man looses a good woman he loses somethin'. Us had 13 chillen, but only two of dem alive now.
"My boss man was mean to he niggers and I 'member crawlin' down through de woods and listenin' one time when he beat a nigger. Every time he hit him he pray. Boss have 15 slaves and I recollect one time he gwine beat my mother. She run to de kitchen and jump behin' de door and cover herself up in de big pile of dirty clothes. Dey never think to look for her there and she stay there all day. But de next day dey cotch her and whip her.
"Dem what runs away, dey gits bloodhounds after 'em. Dey clumb de tree when dey heered dem hounds comin' but de massa make dem git down and dey shoot dem, iffen dey didn't. When dey gits down de dogs jumps all over dem and would tear dem to pieces, but de massa beats dem off.
"Once de boss has company and one our niggers sleeps on de porch outside de company's room, and in de night he slip in dat room and thiefed de fine, white shirt out de suitcase and wears it round de next mornin'.
"Course he couldn't read and he ain't know de [HW: white] man have he name on dat shirt. When de boss find it out he takes dat nigger down in de bottom and I crawls through de bresh and watches. Dey tie he foots together over de limb and let he head hang down and beat him till de blood run down on de roots of dat tree. When dey takes him down he back look like raw meat and he nearly die.