"Sometime when de nigger won't mind dey puts de chain to one foot and a ball on it 'bout big as a nigger's head, and he have to drag it down with him whe ever he go.
"My white folks moved to Bastrop in Louisiana and den to Texas and brung me with them. When us work in de field us have de cook what put us food on big trays and carry it to de field, den we stop and eat it under shade of a tree, if dey any. Dey give us bread and meat and syrup for dinner and us has bacon long as it lasts.
"When I's free I rents land and crops 'round, after I gits marry. Befo' dat, I was here, dere and yonder, for my board and clothes and four bits de day. I give all my chillen de eddication, leastwise dey all kin read and write and dat's what I cain't do.
"I 'longs to de Meth'dist church and I don't unndestan' some dese other churches very well. Seems strange to me dat at dis late time dey's tryin' find new ways of gittin' to Heaven."
[Lou Williams]
Lou Williams, said to be the oldest citizen of San Angelo, Texas, was born in southern Maryland in 1829. She and her family were slaves of Abram and Kitty Williams, of that section, and Lou served as nursemaid to her master's children from the age of eight until after the Civil War. She then went to Louisiana where she worked as a cook for several years before coming to San Angelo. She is very active for her 108 years and is a familiar figure about town, with her crutch.
"I's have de bes' white folks in Maryland. I's born in a three-room frame house and I had one of them statements (birth certificates). When I five years old my old missy she say, 'Dat gal, she sho' am gwine be dependable and I makes nursemaid out of her.' When I eight years old she trusts me with dem white chillen. I loves to fish so well I'd take de li'l chillen to de creek and take off my underskirt and spread it out on de bank and put de chillen on it while I sho' cotch de fish. Massa, he start lookin' for me and when he gits to de creek, he say, 'Dar's de li'l devil.' He know dem chillen safe, so he jus' laugh.
"In de fall massa puts us nigger chillen on de bale of cotton and takes us to town and gives us money to buy candy and dolls with. We allus had good food and lots of fish and rabbits and possums, but when my missy see dem possums carryin' de baby possums round she fall out with possum and she say, 'No more possum bein' cooked 'round here.'
"When I jes' a li'l gal I seed de stars fall and when everything got dark like and dem bright stars begin to fall we all start runnin' and hollerin' to our missy and she say, 'Chillen, don't git under my coat, git on your knees and start prayin', and when we begins to pray de Lawd he sends a shower of rain and puts out dem stars or de whole world would a been burned up.
"When massa take us to town he say he want us to see how de mean slave owners raffles off de fathers and de husban's and de mothers and de wives and de chillen. He takes us 'round to de big platform and a white man git up dere with de slave and start hollerin' for bids, and de slave stands dere jes' pitiful like, and when somebody buy de slave all de folks starts yellin' and a cryin'. Dem sho' was bad times. Our massa wouldn't do his niggers dat way and we loved him for it, too.