I don't know so fur back as befo' I was born. 'cept what my mammy told me, and she allus said little black chillen wasn't sposed to ask so many questions. Her name was Missouri Ellison , 'cause she belonged to Miss Micelder Ellison and then when she married with Mr. Murth , her daddy said my mammy was her 'heritance. My first mem'ries are us playin' in the backyard with Miss Fannie and Miss Martha and Mr. Sammie . They was the little Murth chillen. We used to make playhouses out there and sweep the ground clean down to the level with brush brooms and dec'rate it all up with little broken glassas and crockery. In them days we lived in a little, old log cabin in the backyard and there was just one room, but it was snug and we had a plenty of livin'. My mammy had a nice cotton bed and she weren't no field nigger, but my pappy were. Miss Micelder had a fine farm and raised most everything we ate and the food nowadays ain't like what it was then. Miss Micelder had a wood frame house with a big kitchen and they were cookin' goin' on all the time. They cooked on a wood stove with iron pots and skillets, and the roastin' ears and chicken fried right out of your own yard is tastier than what you git now. Grated 'tater puddin' was my dish. When I am seven years old I hear talk 'bout a war and the separation but I don't pay much 'tention. It seem far away and I don't bother my kinky head 'bout it. But then they tells eme the war is over and I'm goin' to be raised free and that I don't 'long to anybody but Gawd and my pappy and mammy, but it don't make me feel nothin', 'cause I ain't never know I ain't free.

After the war we removed to a house on a hill where they is five houses, little log houses all in a row. We had good times, but we had to work in the cotton and corn and wheat in the daylight time, but when the dusk come we used to sing and dance and play into the moonlight. But one man called Milton , he's past his yearling boy days and he didn't like to see us spend our time in sin, so he'd preach to us from the Gospel, but I had the hardest time to get 'ligion of anybody I knowed. Fin'ly I got sick when I were fifteen and was in my bed and somethin' happened. Lawd, it was the most 'lievable thing ever happened to me. I was layin' there when sin formed a heavy, white veil just like a blanket over my bed and it just eased down over me till it was mashing the breath out of me. I crys out to the Lawd to save me and, sho' 'nough. He hear the cry of a pore mis'able sinner. I ran to my mammy and pappy a-shoutin'. The next year I marries and went on 'nother farm right near by and starts havin' chillen. I has ten and think I done rightly my part, 'cause I lived right by the word and taught my chillen the same. I'm lookin' to the promise to live in Glory after my days here is done.

Mary Ellen Johnson , proprietress of a restaurant at 1301 Marilla St. Dallas, Texas where she does the cooking, is 77 years old. She was born in slavery to the Murth family, 10 miles from San Marcos, Hays County, Texas. She neither reads nor writes but her speech is clear and distinct, lacking the dialect sound so many of the older Negroes have. She claims that her memory is better today (1937) than it ever was.

I don' know so fur back as befo' I was born 'cep what my mammy told me and she always said that little black chilluns werent 'spose to ask so many questions. My mammy's name was Missouri Ellison , and that was her name 'cause she b'longed to Miss Micelder Ellison and then when Miss Micelder married with Mr. Murth her dada said Missouri was to stay with Miss Micelder as a 'heritance. So long as Miss Micelder live my mammy lived near by to her and like my mammy were to Miss Micelder so were my old pappy to Mr. Murth . My first ricollections are about us playing in the back yard with Miss Fannie and Miss Martha and Mr. Sammie . They were the little Murth chilluns. We used to make play houses out there and sweep the groun' clean down to the level with brush brooms and dicorate it all up with the little broken glasses and crockery. In them days we lived in a little old log cabin in the back yard. There were just one room but it was snug and we had a plenty of living. My mammy had a nice cotton bed and she werent no field Nigger but my pappy were. We had a straw mattress that we slep' on and there were four boys and four girls in my family. We had a fine farm and raised mos' every thing we ate right there on the old place. The food nowdays ain't like what it was then. Miss Micelder had a wood frame house with a big kitchen and they were cooking going on all the time. They cooked on a wood stove in iron pots and skillets. And ros'neers and chicken fried right out of your own yard is tastier than what you get now. Peach cobbler and grated tater puddin' were my dishes. 'Cose little chilluns always like the food with the sweetnin' in it.

When I were five years old I played with a little girl whose mammy died and she was four years old. Her only kin were her pappy and she used to cry for her mammy. So, to pacify her, her pappy would give her a little snuff to suck and then I started with it. That is the reason I got all my teeth today; 'cose, if you use snuff it keeps your teeth for you. When I am seven years old I hear talk about a war and the separation but I dont pay much 'tention to that 'cose that seems too far away and I dont bother my kinky haid with it. But they tell me that the war is over and that I am going to be raised free and that I dont b'long to nobuddy but God and my mammy and pappy. After that they used to tell me all the time that I am free but it dont make me see or feel nothing 'cause I aint never know I ain't free. But they say, Remember you is free. After the war we removed to a house on a hill where they is quarters and they is five houses. Little log houses all in a row. We had good times then but we had to work in the cotton and corn and wheat in the daylight time but when the dusk come we used to sing and dance and play from then on into the moonlight. But Milton was a growned man past his yearling boy days and he did'nt like to see us spend our time in wastefulness and sin. So he used to take us on the moonlight nights to a little grove and preach to us from the gospel. We chilluns sat on the grass and he used to exhort just like a preacher.

Then a friend of mine when she was a little nine year old girl got the religion right there while Milton were preachin'. She went up to the front just like there were a mourner's bench a shoutin' and a cryin' that the sperrit has got her. She wep' for joy and it stayed with her. I saw her again after I was a old woman and she said to me, Bless God, Ellen , it has stayed with me to this livin' day. We hugged each other and I knowed it were the truth. I had the hardest time to get religion and the right sperrit of anybuddy I know. Sin had a hold on me that was hard to break and it got so that I were a different one in my own house and my folks would'nt have anything to do with me because I was ageable and did'nt have the religion. So it grieved me and I did'nt know what to do. They told me to pray. Well, I got sick and there werent no peartness in me. That were when I were fifteen. After a while I was taken sick to my bed and then one day when they ain't nobuddy in the house but me something happened. Lord it was the most believable thing that ever happened to me. I was layin' there just lookin' at nothing when sin formed a heavy white veil just like a blanket over my bed and it just eased down slowly over me until it was mashing the breaf' out'n me. I did'nt know nothing else to do but cry out to the Lord to save me from sin. Sho' nuf' He hear the cry of a pore miserable sinner and that veil just lifted up off'n me and went away in the air. I jumped out'n the bed and I were'nt sick no more and I ran to the field where my mammy and pappy and the others were and I went a runnin' and shoutin' and the joy they had when I told them I was saved from sin. I did'nt live in sin no more after that and I kept the word and the sperrit from that day to this and I am going to die in it. The nex' year I married and went on 'nother farm right near by to live and I started having chilluns. I had ten and I think I done rightly my part 'cause I lived right by the word and taught my chilluns the same. I'm looking to the promise to live in Glory after my days here is done.