“The white girls and boys learned us our A-B-C’s after the war.  They had a free school in Kemper County there.  My children I learnt them myself or had it done.  You couldn’t hardly ever find one in Kemper Country that could spell and go on.  They didn’t have no time for that.  Some few of them learned their A-B-C’s before the war.  But that is all.  They learned what they learned after the war in the free government schools mostly.  They would not do nothin’ to you if they caught you learnin’ in slave time.  Sometimes the white children would teach you your A-B-C’s.

Status of Colored Girls

“They had mighty mean ways in that country.  They would catch young colored girls and whip them and make them do what they wanted.  There wasn’t but one mean one on our place.  He was ordered to go to war and he didn’t; so they pressed him.  He was the one that promised my brother a whipping.  He left like this morning and come back a week from today dead.  The rest of them was pretty good.  The mean one was Elijah.

Master’s Sons

“Old man McCoy had four sons; Elijah, that was the mean one, Redder, Nelson, Clay.

Patrollers

“Sometimes the pateroles would do the devil with you if they caught you out without a pass.  You could go anywhere you pleased if you had a pass.  But if you didn’t have a pass, they’d give you the devil.

Marriage and Sex Relationships

“You could have one wife over here and another one over there if you wanted to.  My daddy had two women.  And he quit the one that didn’t have no children.  People weren’t no more ’n dogs them days,—­weren’t as much as dogs.

Mother and Father’s Work

“In slavery time, my father worked at the field.  Plowed and hoed and made cotton and corn—­what else was he goin’ to do.  My mother was a cook.

Sustenance

“My master fed us and clothed us and give us something to eat.  Some of them was hell a mile.  Some of them was all kinds of ways.  Our people was good.  One of them was mean.

Father’s Brother

“My father’s brother belonged to Elijah.  I had an auntie over in there too.  I don’t know what become of them all.  They were all in Kemper county, Mississippi.

Churches

“The white people had churches in slavery times just like they have now.  The white people would have service one a month.  But like these street cars.  White people would be at the front and colored would fill up back.  They’ll quit that after a while.  Sometimes they would have church in the morning for the white folks and church in the evening for the colored.  They would baptize you just like they would anybody else.