“I b’lieves a bank sol’ us nex’ to Marse L.Q.  Chambers.  I ’members him well.  I was a house-servant an’ de overseer dassent hit me a lick.  Marster done lay de law down.  Mos’ planters lived on dey plantations jus’ a part o’ de year.  Dey would go off to Saratogy an’ places up nawth.  Sometimes Marse L.Q. would come down to de place wid a big wagon filled wid a thousan’ pair o’ shoes at one time.  He had a nice wife.  One day whilst I was a-waitin’ on de table I see old Marse lay his knife down jus’ lak he tired.  Den he lean back in his chair, kinda still lak.  Den I say, ‘What de matter wid Marse L.Q.?’ Den dey all jump an’ scream an’, bless de Lawd, if he warnt plumb dead.

“Slaves didn’ know what to ’spec from freedom, but a lot of ’em hoped dey would be fed an’ kep’ by de gov’ment.  Dey all had diffe’nt ways o’ thinkin’ ‘bout it.  Mos’ly though dey was jus’ lak me, dey didn’ know jus’ zackly what it meant.  It was jus’ somp’n dat de white folks an’ slaves all de time talk ‘bout.  Dat’s all.  Folks dat ain’ never been free don’ rightly know de feel of bein’ free.  Dey don’ know de meanin’ of it.  Slaves like us, what was owned by quality-folks, was sati’fied an’ didn’ sing none of dem freedom songs.  I recollec’ one song dat us could sing.  It went lak dis: 

  ‘Drinkin’ o’ de wine, drinkin’ o’ de wine,
  Ought-a been in heaven three-thousan’ yeahs
  A-drinkin’ o’ dat wine, a-drinkin’ o’ dat wine.’

Us could shout dat one.

“I was a grown-up man wid a wife an’ two chillun when de War broke out.  You see, I stayed wid de folks til ’long cum de Yanks.  Dey took me off an’ put me in de War.  Firs’, dey shipped me on a gunboat an’, nex’, dey made me he’p dig a canal at Vicksburg.  I was on de gunboat when it shelled de town.  It was turrible, seein’ folks a-tryin’ to blow each other up.  Whilst us was bull-doggin’ Vicksburg in front, a Yankee army slipped in behin’ de Rebels an’ penned ’em up.  I fit[FN:  fought] at Fort Pillow an’ Harrisburg an’ Pleasant Hill an’ ’fore I was ha’f through wid it I was in Ba’timore an’ Virginny.

“I was on han’ when Gin’l Lee handed his sword to Gin’l Grant.  You see, Miss, dey had him all hemmed in an’ he jus’ natchelly had to give up.  I seen him stick his sword up in de groun’.

“Law!  It sho’ was turrible times.  Dese old eyes o’ mine seen more people crippled an’ dead.  I’se even seen ’em saw off legs wid hacksaws.  I tell you it aint right, Miss, what I seen.  It aint right atall.

“Den I was put to buryin’ Yankee sojers.  When nobody was lookin’ I stript de dead of dey money.  Sometimes dey had it in a belt a-roun’ dey bodies.  Soon I got a big roll o’ foldin’ money.  Den I come a-trampin’ back home.  My folks didn’ have no money but dat wuthless kin’.  It was all dey knowed ‘bout.  When I grabbed some if it an’ throwed it in de blazin’ fiah, dey thought I was crazy, ’til I tol’ ’em, ’dat aint money; it’s no ‘count!’ Den I give my daddy a greenback an’ tol’ him what it was.