My name befo' I was married was Sallie Wattles and I was bawn near Austin. I will be eighty-three this comin' August, if I live to see it. I remembah how mothaw would be milkin' in the cowpen, and pans ob milk would be settin' in a row in the milk shed. Mistress Harriett would call us to the milk shed and we was allowed to drink all the clabber we wanted to. We drank that clabber lak little pigs. Mawster Wattles had made wooden spoons fo' each child. That's whut we would use to eat clabber with. Whut clabber we couldn't eat was give to the hogs. Durin' slavery time we wasn't allowed to read. Nobody showed me how to read or write and I kain't read and write a bit today. After freedom my fathaw lef' my mothaw and her six chullun and went to live with a younger woman up in Williamson County. There wasn't no free schools up there and I didn't git no chance to learn anything. I lived with fathaw fo' a while and then run away.

Mothaw's name was Phyllis Wattles , and she belonged to Mawster Wattles . My fathaw was Sam Wattles . He helped to haul the limestone fo' the ole capitol here in Austin. He was also a freighter, and helped to haul groceries fo' the sto'es. He was a hunnert years ole or mo'e when he died. Mawster Frank Wattles was a fahmer and stockman, and his plantation was near Austin. Mawster Wattles was a good carpenter, and he made looms, reels and spinnin' wheels all by hand. He made big wooden spoons fo' us little niggers to eat clabber with. Mawster Wattles liked to play the fiddle. When they had company at the big house, they would call me and my two sistahs, Jane and Susan into the parlor. Then Mistress Harriett would say:'Come in, Sal let Sal and her sistahs dance. Then I'd dance a jig on my toes and heels. My two sistahs would jig all over the place fo' the company. I had to help with work in the house. I had to spin 'a cut a day.' I had to spin that certain amount a day, or I'd get a good whoopin'. I got plenty ob whoopin's f'om Mistress Harriett . If we didn't do our paht, Mistress Harriett sho' would set us on fire. I remembah how at this place one day a drove of niggers was brought by. The older folks was in front, and the chillun was in the back. They was all chained to each other but the chains wasn't very big. The nigger-traders was takin' 'em f'om place to place and sellin' 'em jes' lak cattle. One ob my own sistahs was sold to Colonel Banks at Webberville, near Austin, fo' about fifteen hunnert dollahs. More'n once they could ob got about eight hunnert fo' me, but my mistress wouldn't sell me. I kin tell you somethin' about how slaves got married in the early days. If a woman belonged to a certain fambly, the man she was in love with went to ask the mawster and mistress if they could marry. If he wouldn't ask 'em, they wouldn' allow him on their plantation. He had to have a pass to leave his plantation fo' another plantation to see a woman. If the mawster said the man could marry his slave, he had to come to his sweetheart's cabin ... and there would be a broomstick across the woman's door entrance, and he had to jump over it ... and that act made 'em man and wife. After that, he was allowed to come and see his bride every Thursday and Saturday night and he was allowed to come all day on Sunday. A lot ob times he jes' sneaked away and saw his wife at any ole time, if the patrol didn't catch him. The niggers would sing: Run nigger, run, the patrol'll git yo', 'cause it's almost day. Than nigger run, that nigger flew, That nigger run his head in a hornet's nest.'

Mawster Wattles was a good cattleman and he had cattle by the hunnerts. In wintah time there was three tiers of hog meat hangin' in the smokehouse. And then the woods was full ob maverick cattle and hogs and they was real wild. A maverick was a cow that had no owner. Anybody could go out and kill 'em and nobody could do anything to yo'! A lot ob times papa would take the wheat to the mill and bring back the flour. The white folks et the white flour and the niggers et the shorts. The hogs was also fed the shorts. I remembah how one day we was herded into the kitchen by Mistress Harriett . She was readin' a newspaper. She tol' us then that we was as free as she was. She said, 'But I hate those g** d*** blue-bellies.' I walked up to mothaw, tugged at her apron, and asked: Mothaw, whut's a blue-belly?' She whispered, 'They is yankees and they is in Austin.' I was married to Jim Brooks in 1874. He was a young man that had lived up in Washington, D.C. One day his mothaw sent him to the sto'e and a man asked him if he wanted to take a trip. He ended up in Louisiana. He often tol' me that he didn't know nothin' about his folks. I have been married three times. The others was Tom James and Hector Johnson . They is both dead. I had only one child, George Brooks . He is said to have died durin' the big San Francisco sink in 1906. I'm the las' one ob the fambly livin'. I own my own home and git no pension. I still do washin' and ironin' fo' other folks. I'se done washin' and ironin' fo' the Charlie Grangers fo' fifty years.