“Wen my Missis called us niggers gether and told us we was free I was as happy as a skinned frog but you seed I didn’t have any sense.  All niggers are fools.  Now she says, she did, you can all stay here en work en we will pay you foh your work, or you can work foh some body else, but I hev raised you hones, and don’t you steal, and work foh nuf money so you wont hev to steal it if youse gits hongry and haint got no money to buy vittals jus you ask de white folks foh hit and dey will giv hit to youse.  Oh how I miss my Missis and Massa so much.  Wish I hed dem now.

“Shucks on dese niggers and dar ways now.  I lef de plantation my old Missus and Massa home and got on a steam boat on de Ohio Ribber and nursed de chillun foh de Captain and he’s wife on dat boat foh about two year.  An den He, He, He, a nigger don got much sense, Miss Fannie an Mr. Harry Campbell whot paid me foh my work on de boat gives Five Dollars foh de work en I’se didn’t hev sense nuf ter know what ter do wid dis money.  So I goes ter de store en buys me a cedar tub and filled hit wid candy.  Miss Fannie gave me back de money foh de tub an den I ate nuf candy ter git sick and den Miss Fannie took de candy back to de store and she got my money back, she did.

“But shucks, I did not no whot ter do wid de money.  Wen I lef Miss Fannie I rode to Henderson on a log raft en wen I got dar dey was a big circus and sum one was sayin, “de perade be here directly, He, He, He, I didn’t no whot dey meant, big ignorant fool dat I was and still is, en wen I seed de elephants and de uther varmints I ran like a big pop-eyed fool nigger cause I never seed such things.  Dat day on de road in town I met my ole Missus McElroy en she had me ter help her wid de chilluns and tuk me ter de circus and wen I got in de tent and saw all de cages and things I was sho scairt of ebery thing till I seed dem babboons dem I felt all right and at home cause I jes knowed dey was my first cousins.  I stayed in Henderson foh sometime working foh furst one and tother en den Mr. Henry Shackleford hired me en brung me to Christian County.  Not long fore I was married ter Albert Wooldridge we sho had a big wedding.  Zack Major a nigger preacher of de Baptist faith did de ceremony right here in Hopkinsville.

“Yes, sho I has ben a mid-wife or granny.  All dese high falutin things dey is doin now in child birth is tommy-rot dey oughter hev jes grannies now.  I livered more babies den most doctors sometimes de white folks had doctors but I don’t take no stock in dese doctors.  De furst thing you does wen a new baby is born is ter let hit lay twenty minutes den cut de cord and dan grease a scortched rag wid lard jes hog lard en den put de belly band on den grease de baby all over.  Neber wash de baby till tis over a week ole.  Wen de babies had colic I’d take dirt dobber nest and make a tea, den giv did ter de baby.  Sometimes If I couldn’t fin no dirt dobber nes I would git a spider web and make a tea den giv dis or else jes shake de baby by de heels.  If folks would tend ter babies like dey uster why dese people now wouldn’t hev heart trouble.