The
two of us made a hand. She is down in Texas somewheres now. They taken
her from old lady Sterling's place. She give them to her son and he
carried them down in Texas. He had a broken leg and never did go to the
war. If he did, I never knowed nothing about it.
"None of the masters never give me anything. None of them as I knows of
never give anything to any of the slaves when they freed 'em. Never give
a devilish thing. Told them that they was free as they was and that they
could stay there and help them make crops if they wanted to. The biggest
part of them stayed. The rest went away. Their husbands taken them away.
"Right after the war my mother married an old fellow who used to be old
Holbert's nigger driver. He stayed on Sterling's place one night. He
stayed there a year. Then he married my mother and went to old Holbert's
place and of course, we had to go too. I stayed there and worked for
him. And my mama too and the two youngest sisters and the youngest
brother stayed with me. I run away from him in '86. I went down the
railroad about five miles and an old colored fellow give me a job. He
used to belong to the railroad boss.
"I worked nearly two years on that railroad; then I left and come on
down to Arkansas. I have been right here on this spot about forty years.
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