Annie Day

I don't know when I was born or where I was born. I was raised by a white woman at Bryan, Texas. She said she got me when I was 'bout four years old. She never did tell me 'bout my parents. She had some other cullud girls, too. Some folks said she must've stole us from our mammies. We first lived at Boonville. The woman what had me had a hotel, and a string of little houses 'bout a hunderd feet long, and the hotel and the houses was all burned down. She went over to Bryan and got a bigger hotel. When Bryan was started old Boonville went down fast. Jus' 'bout all de folks moved to Bryan. De woman what had me didn't treat me very well. She didn't hardly let me off the place. I never got to go to school or even to church. She never did give me no money, but she give me clothes and 'nough to eat. I never was on a farm. I don't remember nothin' 'bout de Civil War. None of it was fought roun' where we was. Dey had jayhawkers dey called 'em and Ku Klux, and dey was sure mean to niggers. Dey would hang a man at his own door right before his family, or dey would shoot him down. Dey would whip de niggers, too. I was told by some older niggers dat after de war and de slaves had dere freedom, de niggers was told to go to Millican. A lot of 'em went down dere. Dey was awful hungry, and de storekeepers dere give 'em barrels of apples to eat and de apples had been poisoned, and dey killed a lot of de colored people. was told, too, 'bout a family of slaves which was put up on de block to be sold. De family had never been fed no meat by dere master, and when he went to sell 'em he made 'em take meat skins and chew on 'em and wipe 'em on dere mouths and faces so it would look like dey had had meat to eat. When de buyer seen 'em he said, "You can't fool me. Dem niggers ain't had no meat to eat. Dey's too light lookin'. Dey ain't never had no meat. You has jus' made wipe meat skins on dere faces and chew on de meat skins.  De slaves was glad to get even de meat skins 'cause dey was sure hungry for meat. Dey was made to work hard and wuzn't give 'nough to eat. When de slaves was give dere freedom I didn't know it, and I jus' stayed on with that woman. I was free and didn't have sense 'nough to know it. Dere was a man and his wife what run de stage from Bryan to Waco, and dey stayed at de hotel de woman run what had me. De man and his wife asked me if I didn't want to leave dis woman, and I said I did. Dey said,  You is free. You can leave her if you want to. You ain't a slave no longer Dey told me dey would take me on de stage to Waco. I told 'em I sure would go. Dey told me to get my things together, and slip down de street and stan' by a flag pole, and when dey come along in de stage dey would pick me up. So I slipped off down to de flag pole, and dey picked me up in de stage and brought me to Waco. I didn't tell de old woman what had me that I was goin' or anything 'bout it. When we got to Waco dey took me to some friends of dere's and lef' me with dem, and dey was all good to me. De folks I was lef' with went down on de coast and took me with 'em. Dey sent me to school some, and I'm mighty thankful to dem dat I got some edgycation. I don't know what de instincts is between de white folks and de colored folks, but some white folks is right good to de niggers, and I is mighty thankful for all de good dey has done me.