“The hog ran till he came to a big ditch.  He jumped the ditch, but the man fell in it, and that compelled the hog to stop.  The man’s hollering made somebody hear him and come and git him loose from the hog.  He was so glad to git loose, he didn’t mind losing the hog and gettin’ punished.  He didn’t get the hog.  He just got a lot of bruises.  I don’t remember just how they punished him.

Ku Klux Klan

“Once after the War there was a lot of colored people at a prayer meeting.  It was in the winter and they had a fire.  The Ku Klux come up.  They just stood outside the door, but the people thought they were coming in and they got scared.  They didn’t know hardly how to get out.  One man got a big shovelful of hot coals and ashes out of the fireplace and threw it out over them, and while they was dusting off the ashes and coals, the niggers all got away.

Patrollers

“I remember my father telling tales about the patrollers, but I can’t remember them just now.  There was an old song about them.  Part of it went like this: 

  ’Run, nigger, run
  The pateroles’ll get you.

  That nigger run
  That nigger flew
  That nigger bust
  His Sunday shoe.

  Run, nigger, run
  The pateroles’ll get you.’

That’s all I know of that.  There is more to it.  I used to hear the boys sing it, and I used to hear ’em pick it out on the banjo and the guitar.

Old Massa Goes ’Way

“Old massa went off one time and left the niggers.  He told ’em that he was goin’ to New York.  He jus’ wanted to see what they would do if they thought he was away.  The niggers couldn’t call the name New York, and they said, ‘Old massa’s gone to PhilameYawk.’

“They went in the pantry and got everything they wanted to eat.  And they had a big feast.  While they were feasting, the old man came in disguised as a tramp—­face smutty and clothes all dirty and raggedy.  They couldn’t tell who he was.  He walked up just as though he wanted to eat and begged the boys for something to eat.  The boys said to him, ‘Stan’ back, you shabby rascal, you; if’n they’s anything left, you get some; if’n they ain’t none left, you get none.  This is our time.  Old massa done gone to PhilameYawk and we’re having a big time.’

“After they were through, they did give him a little something but they still didn’t know him.  I never did learn the details about what happened after they found out who the tramp was.  My father told me about it.

Whipping a Slave

“I heard my father say his old master give him two licks with a whip once.  Him and another man had been off and they came in.  Master drove up in a double surrey.  He had been to town and had bought the boys a pair of boots apiece.  He told them as he got out of the surrey to take his horses out and feed them.  My father’s friend was there with him and he said:  ‘Le’s get our boots before we feed the horses.’  After that the master walked out on the porch and he had on crying boots.  The horses heard them squeaking and they nickered.