I was a baby in my daddy's arms when he ran
away.
Patrollers
"I heard my papa talk about the patrollers. He said they used to run
them in many a time. That is the reason he had to cross the bridge that
night going over the Mississippi into Georgia. The slaves had been set
free in Georgia, and he wanted to get there from Alabama.
What the Slaves Got
"The slaves never got nothin' when they were freed. They just got out
and went to work for themselves.
Marriage
"My father tended to the white folks' mules. He wasn't no soldier. When
he married my mother, he was only fifteen years old. His master told him
to go pick himself out a wife from a drove of slaves that were passing
through, and he picked out my mother. They married by stepping over the
broom. The old master pronounced them master and wife.
Slave Droves
"The drove passed through Alabama, but my father didn't know where it
came from nor where it went. They were selling slaves. They would pick
up a big lot of them somewhere, and they would drive them across the
country selling some every place they stopped. My master bought my
mother out of the drove. Droves came through very often. I don't know
where they came from.
War Memories
"My father remembered coming through Alabama. He remembered the soldiers
coming through Alabama.
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