They'd have a big ball in a big barn there on the place and sixty and seventy on the floor at once, singin': Juba this and Juba that. Juba killed a yaller cat. Juba this and Juba that, Hold you partner where you at.' The whites preached to the niggers and the niggers preached to they-selves. Gen'man sho' could preach good them times; everybody cried, they preached so good. I's a mourner when I git free. I's big 'nough to work round the house when war starts, but not big 'nough to be studyin' 'bout marryin'. I's sho' sorry when we's sot free Old master didn't tell his niggers they free. He didn't want them to go. On a day he's gone, two white men come and showed us a piece of paper and say we's free now. One them men was a big mill man and told mama he'll give her $12.00 a month and feed her seven li'l niggers if she go cook for his millhands. Pappa done die in slavery, so mama goes with the man. I run off and hid under the house. I wouldn't leave till I seed master. When he come home he say, 'Lizzie , why didn't you go?' I say, 'I don't want to leave my preserves and light bread.' He let me stay. Then I gits me a li'l man. He works for master in the store and I works round the house. Master give me two dresses and a pair of shoes when I married. We lived with him a year or two and then come to Marshall. My husband worked on public work and I kept house for white folks and we saved our money and buyed this li'l farm. My man's dead fourteen years now and my gal and her husband keeps the farm goin'. He and my man didn't have nothin' when we left Nacogdoches, but we works hard and saves our money and buyed this farm. It 'pear like these young niggers don't try to 'cumulate nothin'.

Lizzie Hughes , a blind Negress of Harrison County, was born December 25, 1848, near Nacogdoches, as a slave of Dr. Newton Fall , formerly of Georgia. Her father died in slavery and her mother left the Falls immediately after Emancipation, but Lizzie remained with her Master two years after the war closed. Lizzie married the first year after Emancipation and she and her husband later moved to Harrison County where they purchased a farm near Marshall. She reared four children to be grown, all of whom are still living. Since the death of her husband in 1923, Lizzie has been supported by a married daughter and son-in-law, who reside on her farm eight miles northwest of Marshall, on the Macedonia Road. My name am Lizzie Fall Hughes . I was bo'n on Christmas Day at Chireno, between old Nacogdoches town and San Augistine. Dat was eighty-nine years ago in slavery time, and I 'members all 'bout my old Master's folks. My young Master give me my age on a piece of paper when I married, but the rats cut it up. If I had knowed you was coming 'round to ask me 'bout slavery time, I'd put it where the rats couldn't chawed it up. I belonged to Dr. Newton Fall and my old Mistress' name was Nancy . She was a Wilson , but Dr. Fall married her in Georgia and fetched her to Nacogdoches County. My father was Ed Wilson Fall , and my mother was June Fall . They called Niggers by the white folks name them days. My daddy belonged to my old Mistress' folks 'fore she married and her folks give him to Dr. Fall when him and Miss June married. I never seed my grandparents ca'se they stayed in Georgia. My old Master had a big place at Chireno and owned 'bout a hundred slaves.

The Niggers lived in little houses 'round the edge of the field, and all of them was full of "kinky heads", but we didn't care how "kinky" our heads was just so the grub come. The beds in the "quarters" was made to the walls. They sharpened poles and jabbed in the log-walls for rails. Lots of times snakes crawled up in the walls of the house and come out on the beds and papa yelled, "Get up kids so I can kill that snake. I can't 'member what all we had to eat, there was so much. We had anything on earth we wanted. Dr. Fall run a store and he was a big printer. He had a printing house at Chireno and one in California. He killed and dried twenty-five or more head of beef and killed fifty or more head of hogs at a time. We raised pumpkins as big 'round as my body and cabbage, turnips, beans and co'n and cotton. The land was red and they worked them big Missouri mules and sho' raised something them days. All the cooking was did on a big fire place. It had a long rack and hooks for pots and they 'biled (boiled) cabbage and hominy and other vitals. When the fire got into coals, it would bake anything. Master had four milkers and milked 'bout fifty head of cows. There was plenty of wild game. I'se seed lots of deer in my time and most every night the bears was after catching a hog from old Masters pig-pen. My mama went up to Mistress' house every Wednesday to bake light bread, and when she put butter on it the little Niggers would run and rip. I members lots of times my brother would come to the "quarters" with light bread, butter and 'zerves (preserves). I had me some light bread too, but it jest had butter on it. I ran up to mama crying and she say, "What's the matter, Lizzie ?" I say, "Ike got 'zerves on his bread and I ain't". Then she ask me what kind of 'zerves I wanted and I allus tell her peach 'zerves. My brother didn't like peach 'zerves, he liked fig 'zerves. Mama put peach 'zerves on my bread and I run back to the "quarters" and say to Ike , "Goody, mine's got 'zerves on it too. 

We had a overseer on the place some time. When Master left on business he put a overseer on the place, but he told him not to whip his Niggers, just to talk to them. If the overseer whipped any of them while he was gone, old Mistress tell him 'bout it when he come home and Master made him pack his clothes and get. Old Master didn't believe in rushing his Niggers. Most of the time he done the bossing his self. When they didn't done right after he talked to them  big Nigger or little Nigger  they cotched a good whipping. We lived in a good settlement at Chireno. All the white folks was good to their darkies. On Saturday night old Master give all the men a jug of syrup, a sack of flour and a ham, middlin' or any kind of meat they want; the smoke house was allus full of beef and pork. On Sunday the colored folks all visited on the place or go to neighbors. On Sunday your family would come to my house and the next Sunday my family would go to your house  that's the way that was. Didn't nobody work on Christmas, New Years or July 4th. Them days the white folks had a big dinner and all the relations come home. They allus give the Niggers a big sack of cake, fruit and nuts, them days. We had a good time on old Master's place in slavery. We had everything on earth and all the Niggers was gen'elly happy. I 'members the men would go to the barn in the mo'ning singing:  I went to the barn, the moon was shining bright as day From there to the wood I went hunting for a coon. The coon spied me; I spied the coon up a sugar-maple tree, I throwed down my gun, and up the tree I bounced, Nigger and coon come tumbling down, I skinned the coon; the hide for Master to make me a hat Off to town Master went, when he got back he made me a present of a fine beaver hat. Master say, 'Big Nigger, your breath stinks of brandy' 'Oh, no Master', I say, 'I'se been licking lasses candy'". When old Master come to the lot and hear the men singing that, he say, "The boys is lively this morning; I'se going to get a big days plowing done And they did too, ca'se them big Missouri mules sho' tore up that red land. Then all the hands went off to the field singing: This ain't Christmas morning, just a long summer day Hurry up, yellow boy and don't run away Grass in the cotton and weeds in the co'n Get in the field ca'se it'll soon be morn. At night when the hands come in from the field, they didn't have nothing to do but eat and cut up 'round the quarters. The boss give them Saturday after dinner off to clean up their clothes ca'se they is gwying to have that big ball Saturday night. They had the ball in a big barn there on the place and had sixty and seventy on the floor at once, singing: Juba this and Juba that Juba killed a yellow cat Juba this and Juba that Hold your partner where you at. They sho could knock them songs off with them fiddles and things. 

Another one was: Oh get down, old Riley told me so Riddle, riddlelum, riley ma da Oh get down, old Riley told me so. They made all the chil'ren set in the corner when they was dancing. I seed them knocking off them songs and wished I was big enuff to dance. If any of the chil'ren got up, mama come over and say, "You tots stay off that floor, they'll mash your feet. Most of the young men on our place was good readers when freedom come. They was allus gwying hunting and fishing with the white boys, and at night the whites teached the blacks to read and write. My white folks was sho well educated. Some of the young men and girls went off to big colleges and stayed ten years.The whites preached to the Niggers and the Niggers preached to themselves. Dick Menefee and Richard Menefee was the main white preachers. They had seats in the back of the church for the blacks. Them gentlemen sho could preach them times. Everyone cried, they preached so good. I was a mourner when I got free. After I come through they said I belonged to the church and Ned Fall , the colored preacher, baptized me.I played jumping the rope mostly when I was coming up, what time I wasn't nussing Mistress' chil'ren. I nussed two white chil'ren and my sister, Ann , nussed the others. My young Mistress was allus after telling us ghost stories and trying to scare the Niggers. She like to got killed at that business. She put a high chair on her shoulder and civered herself with a sheet and went out in the yard to scare my Uncle Allen . He was the blacksmith, and was going home from the shop carrying a big sledge hammer. When he seed  that tall white thing he throwed a hammer at it, but missed and hit a big iron pot in the yard and busted it all to pieces. If he had hit my little Mistress he would have killed her. My old Master was a good doctor and took good care of us when we was sick. When any of the folks got real sick, he had doctors from Nacogdoches and San Augustine. The Niggers sho' hated to see the white folks die, ca'se they was so good to them. They all boo-hooed just like the white folks.They had four doctors with my little Mistress, but God took her anyhow. It nearly kilt (killed) me when she died. She was allus so good to me and wouldn't let any of them whip me. Some time some of Master's folks would make like they was going to whip me and my little Mistress would take me in her arms and say, "This is the smartest little thing on this place and you ain't gwying to whip her I layed cross her bed and cried all day when she died.I was big enuff to do things round the house when the War started, but I warn't big enuff to be studying 'bout marrying. I didn't know then folks had to marry. Master had two boys to go to the War when it first started and stayed till it was over. Nary one of them got a scratch, but lots of their kinfolks was kilt in the War.I was sho' sorry when we was sot free. Old Master didn't say or done nothing. He didn't tell his Niggers they was free ca'se he didn't want them to leave. On a day when he was gone, two white men come to our place and showed the black men a piece of paper and they told all the Niggers that them gentlemen say we was free. One of the men was a big mill man and told my mama that he give her $12.00 a month and feed her seven little Niggers to go cook for his mill hands. My papa had died in slavery and Mama say she didn't have no where to go and no one to make her a living, so she was going with the man. I run off and hid under the house ca'se I warn't gwying to leave till I seed Master. I thought it would be wrong to leave him. My mama and my brothers and sister left with the man. Old Master come home the day they left and they told him the men had come and told the Niggers they was free and that my mama had left, but I run off and they couldn't find me. He come down in the quarters and called me and I come out. He say to me,  Lizzie , why wouldn't you go with your mama? I say to him, "Ca'se I don't want to leave my 'zerves and light bread; mama ain't got no 'zerves and light bread.  He let me stay right on in the house with them. Then I got me a little man. He worked for Master in the store and I milked and helped 'round the house. Master give me two new dresses and a pair of shoes when we married. We lived there on the place a year or two and then we come to Panola County. We farmed there a while and then come on to Marshall. My husband worked on public work and I cooked and kep' house for the white folks round town. We saved our money and bought us a farm, but Istill worked in town and help make a crap (crop) too, till my man died. He's been dead fourteen years and me and some of the chil'ren has kep' the farm going.I don't think most of the young set of Niggers now-a-days is as smart as I was. Me and my man didn't have nothing when we left Nacogdoches County, but we worked hard and saved our money and bought us a farm. It pears like these young Niggers don't try to 'cummulate nothing.