Well I wants to know fo' I begins  is there any tariff to this? My name is Will Parker . I'se called "Dad Parker ." I was born in Georgia in 1842. My father's name was Jake Parker . My mammy was Sara Parker . She was old Marse's daughter. My pa took the names of our white folks. Ma was born in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. Pa was borned in North Callina (North Carolina). Pas was mixed blood  Indian nigger. Ma was half white. She had flax hair. She could sit on it. Me and ma we had it easy. Ma was housemaid and I was house maid and I was sheep guard. I'se proud of my emigration (parentage). I had seven more brothers. I aint seed 'em for fifty or sixty years. I was nineteen when refugeed (enlisted) to the Yankee army. I was still wif' the army when I was transferred to Texas to fight Injuns in 1865. I been in Texas thirty-six flat years  sixty or seventy off and on. We had good times on de plantation when I was a slave. We lived in quarters. They was built of timber and logs. We ate at long tables. We sat on benches. We had collard greens an' mustard greens and turnip greens what was cooked with turnips, and cabbage and carrots, and poke sallet greens. They would parboil the greens and fry 'em in grease. They'd taste so good. I'se got all but three of my natural teeth, and I'll soon be ninety-six years old. My wife's been dead fifty-two years, I'se never found no other woman whats foot would fit my dead wife's shoe. Our bunks was nailed up side of the wall. They had shuck or hay mattresses. We wore dyed lowels  cotton dyed with red oak and slippery elm. We wore underwear of the same goods. In winter we wore "ball" woolen underwear and outer garments. We had meetings in the brush arbors when the preacher blew the bugle. In winter time we'd have prayer meetings around the fireplace. Sometimes we had prayer meetin' in the early mornin'. We'd sing 'De ole time religion is good enough for me,' and 'Aint I glad I'se goin' to a witness in the army of de Lord.' They had baptisms in rivers and creeks. Me and my wife was married in Loosiana. She wore grey muslin. I had a grey suit. We had a big supper and lots of wine but we didn't dance 'case I belonged to the Baptist Church. There was five hundred slaves on our plantation. We had no over-looker (overseer). Ole Marse woke us up with a conch shell. We worked from  kin to cant (kin see and can't see).

They teached ma to read, but I could't never learn. I never was whupped but once. My ole missus tied me to a mahogany bed and she whupped me with her old russet shoe. She whupped me on my bare meat. I'se glad she did 'case I never did lie no mo'. Ole Marse slapped me once for ducking a boy in the swimmin' pond. I can't 'member ever' thing  my mind twinkles like de sunshine. They don't have no big funerals any mo', not enough charity. My grandpa made shoes. He made a certain amount every month. He run off once and stayed a month. What he eat? He would go bear hunting. Once he got his arms full of roastin' ears an stood still by the fence in the small timber and a bear smelled the sweet corn and came up to eat it. When he raised up on his feet to reach the corn, grandpa stabbed him; killed him, too. Sometimes Marse would give me a silver picayune (5cents). I'd always spend it. I didn't like it when we was freed. We didn't know what to do. I always had plenty to eat and wear and a place to sleep during slavery. I got out of my Confederate pension 'case I was a convict. I was put in pen for ninety-nine years. Miz Ferguson pardoned me. You all think I'se dress up now. You'd ought to see me Juneteen. 'Macipation Day.' I'll come up hyah and show you. If I isn't too drunk. I drink right smart, makes me think I owns de world. I liked slavery better. Didn't have nothing to worry 'bout. Allers had nuff (enough) to eat, nuff to wear  go bed and sleep. Didn't have to study 'bout huntin' job. After we was freed we was turned out like so many beas' of de field - like so many varmints - didn't know nothin' what to do. I don't think de Lowd inten' for niggers to be on a banner with white folks. White folks takes care of niggers; de Lowd commands de white folks and He tells white folks to look after the black folks  and He rules 'em all. I sho' likes to trabble. I'se been from coast to coast. I started to Africa but I got seasick an' came back. I aint never seen no ghos's (ghosts) but I hear tell of lots. I been 'julted' by earthquakes. We use to go to dances Sattiday nights. We was tagged with old marse's name an' our number an' dey would let us pass. After de war, we was quartered out like sheeps and goats. No place to go and no money and no work. We had to work on the halves, thirds and fourths till we could gather enough to start farming. The wages was thirty to forty cents a day  but later it was seventy-five cents to one dollar. I was wounded in the leg by a cannon ball. I didn't lose my arm in the war. I losed it in the oil mill. I gets enough to eat but I never did have enough to drink. Sattiday 'bout one-thirty, we'd quit work and come in to eat  twelve-thirty we done et; we'd go fishing and drive slides. We'd make a platform and hitch it to mules. Sattiday nights, we'd pull taffy and dance, have meetings and get 'ligion. Christmas time we'd have a big dinner; a holiday the fourth of July; we'd have corn shuckin' and cane shuckin', tobacco twistin'. We shoot marbles and play cards and stud poker, seven-up, draw poker, but the mostest fun was coon chasin' and possum huntin'. I never seed no ghosts. Most all de niggers was scared of ghosts. Once we ketched (caught) a possum in ole grave yard. We twisted him out of a hole by the grave. He was a great big possum - biggest I ever see. My mammy she say she wouldn't eat it, and it smell so good and look so good an' taste so good, she nearly eat herself sick. Let's see, I believe I los' my dime what I had to get some coffee  Thank you all. I'll come back soon.