We did all kinds of farm work, just whatever Maser put us to doing, such as clearing land, cut wood, farm work, chop cotton, plow corn with oxens. Well Maser used me some to drive him wherever he wanted to go and he would give me a nickel or dime in gold money once and awhile and I would go get me a great big sack of candy to eat on while I'se waiting for him. Sometime I would have to watch them teams all day at the time nothing to do to pass off the time while waiting but eat candy. Yes sir, Maser always had plenty to eat such as cornbread, beef, rabbits, possum and fish. Maser he was great hunter, and he had deer meat nearly all the time and this young buck sure did like that deer meat. Son, let me tell you what happened one time, General Houston come riding up to Maser's house to stay all night and Mistress she begins to make the negroes hop around and get to the field and get some corn to grate for supper and breakfast, because one of Texas great men had honored them that night. Our cornbread was made out of water and salt cooked on great big flat skillet and our meat, some was cooked that way and some cooked on a forked stick over the open blaze. Well no, the slaves did not have their own garden, but Maser had a large garden and he gave the slaves what he wanted them to have out of the garden. Well son, we wore royal shirts in hot weather open all the way down the front and we used buckskin string to fasten them together with. In cold weather wore royal shirts and had what you called leather coats over our royal shirts. Sundays we had white royal shirts and they had to be real clean, that is one thing Maser made us do was to keep good and clean all the time. Well no sir, we did not know what shoes were and they were not very many white people knew what shoes were, much less the slaves. Well, my wedding clothes they were just plain homespun work trousers made by hand, shirt the same way, and I had on a pair of heavy brogan shoes with great big rag tied around my neck and leather cap that we made out of animals' hide. Maser he was good sometimes and sometimes he was bad. He killed lots of men, but he was pretty good to his slaves, but Oh, he would sure be mean to the slaves if Mistress would let him. She was plum good white woman, bless her, she knew how to treat her black people and they all just loved her everyone on the plantation did. They never had but one son, he was all right cause he stayed with me lots when his daddy was away. The house they lived in was built out of logs and had two rooms and a great big hall between them, it was dobbed with clay and grass just like our quarters and covered with boards riveted out by the hands of his slaves. They had plenty shade trees all around the house. Maser never did have an overseer on the plantation, Mistress she did all that when Maser was gone. Maser he had about 30 acres of land and 5 grown slaves and 7 little ones. He woke us up every morning about 3:30 o'clock so we do all the work around the house and was in the field way before daylight. Sometime we would have to wait over an hour before it would get light enough for us to see how to work. Yes he worked us then until slap dark. Well, he let one slave go in the middle of the day to get us a bite to eat and after we come in at night we had all the work around the house to do, cut wood and get it in, feed hog, horses, milk the cows and then by the time we would get all that done it would be 9 or 10 o'clock at night. Well, he would whip a slave for the least little thing if he did not work like he thought they should or for being stubborn.

If he gave a slave a pass and he was'nt back right when he told him to be he got a whipping. I have seen him give a negro a pass and told him when to come in and if that negro was late when he get back, Maser would give that negro a whipping and while he was whipping him that slave grabs hold of the whip to sorta check the lick, Maser turned loose the whip and jerked out his gun and hit that slave with that gun 3 or 4 licks. That negro sure liked to have died, his head got as big as 3 or 4 heads ought to be. Then after doing all that he put chains around that negroes neck and chained him to a tree at night for a long time and would not let him go nowhere for a long time. Yes sir, I have had places across my back for the least little thing. It was almost impossible for us negroes to do like Maser wanted us to do. No, they did not have a jail there on the farm for the negroes, but when Maser wanted to he chained them to a tree in place of putting them in jail and would leave them out in the weather at night. That was worse on the negro because they would have to stand in the cold weather without fire or a bed. If he slept he would have to lay down on the icy ground and shiver all night long, and all them varments prowling around. Yes, I have seen a few slaves sold and auctioned off and Maser traded in slaves too, that is he bought and sold. The way Maser did was to make the slaves that he bought dirty and ragged, he put them first to washing, cleaning and greasing themselves with a greasy meat skin so their body would shine like they were real fat and when he would get a buyer he would trot them all out in a bunch and let the buyer pick out his choice, and he would sell them to the highest bidder. Most of the time he would have regular days for that, and boy! then the hollering would take place as most of the time he sold a negro by himself and that would seperate and scatter them all over the country. Then too, the slaves would not know what kind of Maser they would be getting as Masers then was like people today to their stock - some people take real good care of their stock and some won't. That was just the way the people were with their slaves, some would be good to them and take good care of them while others would be mean and half feed and clothe them. How did slaves travel? Well, they mostly went in a bunch, just like you would drive cattle from one pasture to another. Sometimes when they would move a large bunch of slaves a long distance they would move them in an ox wagon and the slave would take time about riding, half of them would walk awhile, then they would ride and the other half would walk. Sometimes when they moved just one or two slaves they would let them ride horseback, two to the horse. No sir, the white people did not take time to teach the slaves how to read and write. The white people said then they were not worth taking time to learn how to read or write - all were good for was to work. Well, no sir the slaves did not have a church or the white people either - when they went to church the preacher he would go to different peoples homes and preach except in the summer time when they had that old camp meeting and everybody get happy and shouted. Even the slaves did that very thing. No sir, the slaves did not read the Bible, there was not any slaves that could read. Our Maser and Mistress sometime would read the Bible to us when they were begged by the older slaves.

Us negroes, we liked for Bro. Cullan to come and preach to us as he never did bawl us out about nothing we done. After that camp meeting would close everybody would go to the creek and see that preacher baptize all them what joined the church. We always had a large bunch of people to baptize. While the negroes sange he would be baptizing the white ones that joined the church, and while he was baptizing the negroes the white people sang old time hymns. Well, it has been so long that I do not remembers any of them songs. I never seen any slaves that tried to run away until after the war started, but son, they never got very far at that. One negro that tried to run off from his Mistress come home in two or three days all heat up and the one that was with him come back shot up pretty bad. They was rough on the negro if he ever tried to run off from his Maser or Mistress, more so from his Mistress than his Maser. The only way the slaves could travel or go from one plantation to another was to get a pass from their Maser. If they were caught on another plantation they were given a good whipping and made go home. Of course us slaves we slipped off every time we got a chance to, but it was just too bad if the padderrollers caught us off our farm - for them awful padderrollers they give the slaves hell during slavery time. The first time the padderrollers got hold of a negro they give him 39 licks with what they all called cat-o-nine tails, it had so many strings on the end of it when they hit a negro it sure did hurt and when we finally went to our quarters at night we just fell in at the door and slept there unless someone bothered us, especially in the summertime when it would be hot weather. No sir, we did not work Saturday after dinner, Maser he always went to the store for supplies for the next week and the slaves they just fooled around and washed and pressed clothes for Saturday night and banjo picking tin pan beating and the negro dance out under some large tree on level ground. That was one time during slavery that the negro sure had a good time, not a worry in the world to bother them, these here dances lasted all night long. Sometime Maser would come out and watch us for awhile but he soon went home to bed and left us alone. He nearly always had to make us break up our dance on Sunday morning, then we mostly went and eat our breakfast and to bed long about middle of the day. The negro began to rouse up, eat their lunch and to the creek in swimming hole playing in the water until about hour by sun, then to do up their work and then to bed, for the next day would be work day. On Christmas week Maser most generally turned us loose and we went where we wanted to. Yes he would give us a small present and a good dinner on that day. He required us to be there to play the music for the white boys and girls to dance by on Christmas night. There would be 2 or 3 white boys and girls married that night. On New Years Day, was just about like any other day there on the farm. Maser he did not believe in all them funny things about New Years day and we did not know about any other holiday except Sunday. Of course all negro slaves they called Sunday a holiday because they did not have to work. All the days when it rained Maser he did not quit work like we do now and say it was too wet to work. If it rained too much to work in the fields us slaves we gathered our axes and went to the woods either cutting wood or clearing land to be farmed the next year. Yes we had corn shucking and cotton seed picking. Maser would give corn shucking to us negroes so he would have his corn shucked, and he would not have to be bothered with the shucks, except to feed the cows. But the best he had was cotton seed picking, we had to pick all the seed out of our cotton there for a long time so the cotton could be spun into cloth and he would then haul the seed off and throw that away, all except what he saved to plant, people then did not know the seed was good for anything.

Well the negroes they took part in the funeral when any of Maser's folks died, all negroes loved their white people. The slaves dug their graves and carried the body to the grave and buried it. They took part when the young people married too, in playing the music for them to dance. They would take on terrible when their white Maser or Misses married cause they knew they would leave home and go build them a home somewhere else - not like it is now, either stay with his or her father one. They left just as soon as the wedding supper and dance was over. Yes sir, when a slave died we negroes buried him. Lots of white people would be there as well as negroes to put that negro away. Course when Maser lost a slave them days, he lost valuable property, and that was hard for people to replace. Of course there was plenty here then for everybody, but was just a few people here. All the people had to watch was the Indians, as they would steal all the white people had even their children if they did not watch. They would kill their babies, but never would kill a girl, they would raise her for some Indian Chief, she would be his white Mistress. The Indians gloried in their white women. All the games we played was with the white children such as: see-saw, riding yearling, wolf-over-the-river and games like that, what little us slaves got to play. Well not sir, I do not remember any of the riddles or charms. No sir, I never heard of raw-heads or bloody-bones, neither did I ever hear or see a haunt or ghost of any kind. Say son, I do not believes in ghostes cause I never seen or heard tell of one of them. When the slave became sick we most time had the best of care take of us.

Maser let our old mammy doctor us and she used herbs from the woods, such as: cami weeds, peach tree leaves, red oak bark, for fever, chills and malaria and yes one more weed, privet weed for T.B. or things that way that the white doctor could not cure. Yes if we got a leg or arm broken Maser would have the white doctor with us, but that was about all for our old negro mammy was one of the best doctors in the world with her herb teas. When she gives you some tea made from herbs you could just bet it would sure do you good. I'se remembers some about the war. Maser he did not go to the war. Said he did'nt think it was right and so he would not have any more to do with it than he could help. When it was over Maser called me and said you black  you are just as free as I am. I jumped right straight up and hollered cause I could do what I pleased, but I had not much more than hit the ground until his gun went off 3 or 4 times right between my legs - and I fell to my knees and began to beg, he said to me "No more of that stuff, if I see any more of it I will shoot you right between the eyes." No sir son, he never did catch me doing that no more. There in old Washington the negroes they were running here and yonder hollering "I'se free, I'se free," just like a frog can jump and holler. But that did not last so long cause there was a man come down through there with a mask over his face and shot in the ground 3 or 4 times there among them negroes and they scattered in every direction, cause if they had'nt he would have killed negroes coming and going. Them negroes knew he would do it too for he come there for that purpose if they had not scattered from off the streets.

What work did I do after the war? Well, I did not know what I'se going to do, I did not think that Maser would let us stay there and work for him, but after the excitement died down from the south losing slavery, us negroes all begun to wonder what we was going to do. We went to Maser for him to tell us but he said he did not have any more say so about what we should do. We asked Maser for a job and he finally gave us a crop with him on the halves and that is the way we worked for several years. We could not tell much difference in that from slavery as Maser bossed everything, the only difference was us negroes could go and come when we wanted to except on work days as Maser would not let us go on work time. In the fall after we got our crops gathered he took care of all that, hauled off all our crop, paid our debts and if they were any left he gave us that, but most of the time we would go in debt in the fall or that is when our crop was gathered we would still be in debt. Son, we never would get out of debt and could not tell much difference in freedom from slavery time.

Well son, I'se married to Allene Goode , and we had large wedding, preacher married us. All them negroes they sure did have a big time dancing and eating and we had that fun and a large time for over a week. We had 11 children, 6 boys and 5 girls, they are most of them farming. I'se has one girl that works for big hotel in Houston, Texas, then I'se has 1 boy that works for the Oil Company at Humble, Texas, then I'se has 9 grandchildren, 3 great-grandchildren - all my children are in hard shape here, times are so hard. Well son, I don't know exactly what I did expect from freedom, different than what we got though I can tell you. Sure I thought they ought to give me some of Maser's land and mules as all he had the negro slaves made for him. What did we get son but hell if we did not do what the white people wanted us to do. Yes we were turned out like a bunch of stray dogs to starve if we did not do just like the white people told us to do. No sir son, they were not any land or plantation divided, nor did our owners give us any money. One way they forced us to stay if we got anything to eat and wear and as long as we stayed close to our white people they made us do just like they wanted us to do. Son, farm work was all we had to do. After the war sometimes we could get a job riding after stock, but that was not very often that we could get a job like that. Our wages were low when the white folks would pay us - then we would not get but 10 to 30 cents a day for our work, and that reconstruction times were hard on the old slave negro as he could not read or write and he had no training in business no way and he had all that to learn from the ground up and he did not have a thing to start on, no money, no teams and no land. But the poor old slave negro he has come through with flying colors considering the way he was turned loose without anything to begin on. We began to build schools and churches for our younger negroes. In that day it was hard but we have come through pretty good considering everything that we had to shoulder from slavery time. Yes, the KKK and the padderrollers they helped us in a way. I'se can see that now but then all us negroes was scared of them ghosted like things. In those days a negro that die not want to do right just say: KKK and that negro he would get right, right then.

If the KKK had not helped the negro back in those early days don't expect we could have done what we have, the government I'se expect would done sent us all back to Africa long time ago. The KKK they helped all us negroes that wanted to do right then and them that did'nt, they made do right or they would give that negro pretty stiff whipping. No sir son, I'se never did vote because I'se did not know how to vote and who to vote for. I'se could not read and did not want to vote. I'se let the white people do all the voting, but now son, I do believes that they ought to let these here young people have more priviledge in voting than they do because they got to shoulder the same load that the white people has. They got to send their sons off to fight in time of war, they got to pay taxes and help to support our government just like the white people has. Well son, I'se never done anything but farm work and farm labor. I'se wore out nearly all these here farms in Madisonville County, but don't guess I will wear out any more of them as my days are about done for here on this old earth. Well the government they gives me a small pension to help me get by on now, but of course I'se still does odd jobs around to help me along. Well, these here young people they do pretty good at times, some of them are pretty sorry, they will not tell the truth, no sir, they won't. Of course they have become brighter and brighter and pretty well educated but that do not excuse them for doing so sorry.

They have got to where they will not work since this here government has gone to feeding them on this WPA work. They thinks they don't have to work long as the government will feed them. Of course I'se knows these here times are hard but I'se seen them when they was harder than they is now and the government did not feed us, but of course these here woods were full of wild game and no one would starve then as he could go and kill all the wild meat he wanted. In them old days we did not have all these here fancy things to eat and wear like we do now, and when times then got hard it did not hurt us so bad to do without things like it do now. Son, if all these here people would quit complaining all the time like they do and work some we would soon get out of these hard times, they do not trust no one these days like they use to and we had good time then.