“My daddy carried me out once when they took him to Texas during the war to keep the Yanks from setting him free.

“Then I went out once long after slavery to get a load of sand.  On the way back, my boat nearly sank.  Those are the only two times I ever left the state.

Parents

“My father’s name was Thomas Smith, but the Pattillos bought him and he took the name of Pattillo.  I don’t know how much he sold for.  That was the only time he was ever sold.  I believe that my father was born in North Carolina.  It seems like to me I recollect that is where he said he was born.

“My mother was born in Virginia.  I don’t know how she got here unless she was sold like my father was.  I don’t know her name before she got married.  Yes, I do; her name was Fannie Smith, I believe.

Houses

“We lived in old log cabins.  We had bedsteads nailed to the wall.  Then we had them old fashioned cordboard springs.  They had ropes made into springs.  That was a high class bed.  People who had those cord springs felt themselves.  They made good sleeping.  My father had one.  Ropes were woven back and forth across the bed frame.

“We had those old spinning wheels.  Three cuts was a day’s work.  A cut was so many threads.  It was quite a day to make them.  They had hanks too.  The threads were all linked together.

“My mother was a spinner.  My father was a farmer.  Both of them worked for their master,—­old Massa, they called him, or Massa, Mass Tom, Mass John or Massta.

War Recollections

“I remember during the war when I was in Texas with a family of Moody’s how old Mistiss had me packing rocks out of the yard in a basket and cleaning the yard.  I didn’t know it then, but my daddy told me later that that was when I was in Texas,—­during the war.  I remember that I used to work in my shirt tail.

“The soldiers used to come in the house somewhere and take anything they could get or wanted to take.

Pateroles

“When I was a boy they had a song, ’Run, Nigger, run; The Pateroles will get you.’  They would run you in and I have been told they would whip you.  If you overstayed your time when your master had let you go out, he would notify the pateroles and they would hunt you up and turn you over to him.

Church Meetings

“Way long then, my father and mother used to say that man doesn’t serve the Lord—­the true and living God and let it be known.  A bunch of them got together and resolved to serve Him any way.  First they sang in a whisper, ‘Come ye that love the Lord.’  Finally they got bold and began to sing in tones that could be heard everywhere, ’Oh for a thousand tongues to sing my Great Redeemer’s praise.’