Old missis come down to the quarters in her
carriage--didn't have buggies in them days, just carriages--to see who
was hurt. The Yankees had done told her that one of her gals had fell
off the fence and got hurt. I said, 'I ain't hurt but I thought them
Yankees would hurt me.' She said, 'They won't hurt you, they is comin'
through to tell you you is free.' She said if they had hurt me she would
jus' about done them Yankees up. She said Jeff Davis had done give up
his seat and we was free.
"Our folks stayed with old missis as long as they lived. My mammy cooked
and I stayed in the house with missis and churned and cleaned up. Old
master was named Tom Brooks and her name was Elsa Brooks. Sometimes I
jus' called her 'missis.'
"Old missis told the patrollers they couldn't come on her place and
interfere with her hands. I don't know how many hands they had but I
know they had a heap of 'em.
"Sometimes missis would say it looked like I wanted to get away and
she'd say, 'Why, Hannah, you don't suffer for a thing. You stay right
here at the house with me and you have plenty to eat.'
"I was the oldest one in my mammy's family.
"I just went to school a week and mammy said they needed me at the
house.
"Then my daddy put me in the field to plow. Old missis come out one day
and say, 'Bill, how come you got Hannah plowin'? I don't like to see her
in the field.
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