I can't say just exactly how old I am, but my white folks say I'se eighty four years old but I think I'se ninety four. I know I was born the property of the Walfords , Mr. Billy and Mr. Jimmy . Mr. Jimmie was Mr. Billy's son. They came from Kentucky before the war started, and settled seven miles east of Rusk, I don't remember just how many acres they tracted for, but it must have been round 200 acres. I was born atter the Walfords settled out here but I remember hearing my father and mother tell about them coming by boat down the Mississippi River and how they was nearly destroyed by a storm. Father say the only thing that saved them was the boat getting hung up, and that if Marster had listened to the boat-man they wouldn't have been in the storm. Marster Billy brung along a heap o'slaves cause there was my mother and father, Sam an Mandy , father say Marster wanted to leave him in Kentucky to look atter things there cause he could depent on him. But father say atter they all left he run on and over took them and beg marster not to leave him, told him he'd run away, so marster brung him on too, then there was Aunt Aggie and her man Wilson , Uncle John and Big Ann , Lucindy an Jake , Aunt Tilda with a great passel o'chillun, Charles and Dina , Lucindys brother and sister and old Aunt Lucy , she was so old Marster sot her free soon atter they come over.

Marster Billy's wife, Mis Suky died fore they come to Texas, then Marster Billy he died before the war started, so young Jimmy was my Marster. Young Jimmy's wife was Miss Mary and they had three chillun, all girls, Miss Sallie , Miss Alice , and Miss Annie , Alec Miller was Miss Mary's brother, he come along with them. When the Walfords settled her they built a log house and lived in it a few years then built a better house. It was a two story house and all fixed up nice. I remember there was a parlor for the girls, an a piano. Marster's folks wasn't just common folks, they had wait-men. Nancy and Quarrels were the wait-men, and I was part of the time. I remember how, when the girls went to Rusk, I'd have to put on a white apron and walk right down the street side of them but if one of them cought a beau, I must walk behind. My white folks say the people who didn't have slaves was poor white trash. They up held me to make light of them. My mother was house-maid, and my father made a field hand. After Marsters family moved into the big house, mother and father moved in one o' the cabins, with their chillun, Jessie , John , Lizzie and Dooia an me. Thar was six cabins the one we lived in, then Aunt Aggie and Wilson with their chillun, George and Tom , then Uncle John and Big Ann (we called her Big Ann cause she was so large). They had the biggest cabin cause they had so many chilluns, Clara , Delphia , Henry , Billy , Squire , Jack and Adaline . Next was Lucindy's cabin, her brother and sister Charle and Dina lived with her. Jake was Lucindys husband but he was owned by Mr. Sessions but his master let him come to see Cindy every Saturday night. Aunt Lucy an her boy Thornton had a cabin, Thornton made a preacher. Aunt Tilda and her chillun, Jim , Dick , Isaac , Harry , Nancy , Sue and Cyntha had the last cabin. Then there was Arana , she was the milker. Marster had a milk house an kept the milk in a big trough filled with water.

The cookin was done on a big fireplace in the kitchen. The slaves ate in the kitchen. Quarrels was the first cook, and then Nancy done the cookin. Marster fed us well. I remember he tole my father that he'd give him all the cotton he could make on a certain little patch, an father worked that patch on moon-light nights and made a bale of cotton. Marster took an sold it for father an give him the money. Marster like my father cause he was honest and a hard worker, an Marster let him make what ever he could, and when freedom come father had saved nine hundred dollars and then he bought some land of his own and built on it. This place is part of the land I inherited from my father. I think he paid a dollar an acre for the land he bought. I remember about some body stealin a hundred and ninety dollars from my father one time. Father kept his money hid behind the clock and he left me to stay at the cabin an watch atter things and I went off with some boys. When I got home father was there an he say, Sam my money is gone who's been here. I say, "No body but some boys". and he say, "did you see any one with any money". And I say "Yes I saw one of them change some silver for some gold up at town, he gave a man a pocket full of silver for a few pieces of gold". Father went up town an talked to the white man first, then came back an found the boy and say to him, "Ike you stole my money.  Father just kept lookin at Ike and finally Ike say, "Yassir, here tis".

We had good times when we was chillun growin up, played games, hollered and sang. Then when we got big enough to work in the field, Uncle Larry blew a horn just at day every morning to wake us. We had to get to work early. The cook blew the horn at 11:30 and we went back to work at one. We sang an hollered as we worked but mostly of a morning an late in the evening. We had good time at the dances on Saturday nights. Marster would give us passes to go so the patty roll wouldn't molest us. Charles Winn was the fiddler. Some times Marster Jimmy would let us lay-off Saturday at dinner. We worked around the yards an cabins, washed and done odd jobs. He most generally gave us two or three days for Christmas. My father all ways had some money and he'd give us chillun a few nickles to spend. We made our clothes and shoes. We all ways had plenty clothes to keep us warm, of course in the summer time we just wore long shirts split on the sides. When laying by time was over the hands went to clearing land some would be hauling the wood up to the house while others cut and split. Then there was rails to make fencin to do. There was plenty work for all the hands. I've seed a good many slave whipped the unruly ones. Most generally take off their shirts, sometimes Marster would make them stretch out with a man on each side of them with a piece of raw hide. I've seed the dogs running the slaves too, but Mr. Philco Guinn , a white man, had one nigger that the dogs wouldn't run. His name was Calvin Philco . Don't know why the dogs just naturally wouldn't run that nigger. Aunt Aggie was the mid-wife for the whites and colored. That is, she waited on the po' whites folks who had no slaves. When any of us got sick Marster Jimmey seed to it that we got medicine. He made us gather roots and herbs to keep on hand for making out the medicines. I don't just exactly remember all of it, 'cept I do know what we used for chest colds and sore throat. We gathered jimpson weeds, put them in a pot with some water, and boiled it down to an ooze, then mixed equal parts of lamp-oil, quinine, turpentine and camphor and made a salve of it and with this we would saturate our chest an throat. This is a good medicine till yet. We went to church every few weeks I don't remember many of the songs we sang but I know some of them was the old songs the white folks sang. I never had much faith in hants and ghost. Some niggers appeared like they saw hants but I guess hit was somebody just trying to scare them. I never learned to read and write. Marster never gave us any books nor Bible. We didn't think much about learning to read and write, but I wish now I had. We had heard it whispered around that we were free, but it seemed to be a secret. We didn't know just what to make of it, but finally Marster Jimmie tole us we were free. Some left then and some stayed with him a while. Father bought his land and settled right down to farming for his self. Had his own team plow-tools and everything. Marster had his own gin and grist mill and I've worked many times helping gin the cotton and grind corn. Before he got his grist mill he had a mill fastened up on a big post. It had two handles where we could grind with both hands. I married after I was grown, to Ann Reddin , she born me eight chillun, Rena , Anna , Frances , Lettie and Andy , are all still living. They all live on the farm cept Andy and he works at odd jobs. The second time I married Lucy Kirk , we separated and then I married Ellen Sessions , who I'm now living with. We both get a pension which helps us along since we'r not able to work.