“Ever’ Nigger had a house o’ his own.  My ma never would have no board floor like de res’ of’ em, on’ count she was a African—­only dirt. (Dey say she was 108 year old when she died.)

“Us went to church wid de white folks if us wanted to.  Dey didn’ make us.  I didn’ go much, ‘cause I didn’ have ‘ligion, den.  Us didn’ have no schoolin’.  Us could go to school wid de white chillun if us wanted to, but didn’ nobody teach us.  I’s educated, but I aint educated in de books.  I’s educated by de licks an’ bumps I got.

“My white folks was good people an’ didn’ whup nobody, ’less dey needed it.  Some o’ de Niggers was sho’ ’nough bad.  Dey used to take de marster’s horses out at night an’ ride ’em down.  One Nigger, Sam, got dat mad at a mule for grabbin’ at cotton he cut his tongue out.  Course, Marster whupped him, but when he went to look for ’im ’bout a hour after, he foun’ ‘im soun’ asleep.  Said he ought to kill ’im, but he didn’.

“When we was sick dey had a doctor for us jus’ like dey done for deyse’ves.  Dey called ’im in to ’scribe for us.  I was snake-bit when I was eight year old.  Dey used to be a medicine named ‘lobelia.’  De doctor give me dat an’ whiskey.  My ma carried me up to de Big House ever’ mornin’ an’ lef’ me, an’ carried me home at night.  Old Mis’ ’ud watch over me in de day time.

“My young marster tol’ me dat when I got to be ten year old, I’d have a snake coiled up on my liver.  Dat scared me mos’ to death ’til I was past ten year old.

“Dey made all de Niggers’ clo’es[FN:  clothes] on de place.  Homespun, dey called it.  Dey had spinnin’ wheels an’ cards an’ looms at de Big House.  All de women spinned in de winter time.

“I never knowed what it was to wear more dan one garment, ’til I was mos’ grown.  I never had a pair o’ shoes o’ my own.  Old Mis’ let me wear her’n sometimes.  Dey had shoes for de old folks, but not for de chillun.

“I got more whuppin’s dan any other Nigger on de place, ’cause I was mean like my mammy.  Always a-fightin’ an’ scratchin’ wid white an’ black.  I was so bad Marster made me go look at de Niggers dey hung to see what dey done to a Nigger dat harm a white man.

“I’s gwine tell dis story on myse’f.  De white chillun was a-singin’ dis song: 

  ‘Jeff Davis, long an’ slim,
  Whupped old Abe wid a hick’ry limb.

  Jeff Davis is a wise man, Lincoln is a fool,
  Jeff Davis rides a gray, an’ Lincoln rides a mule.’

I was mad anyway, so I hopped up an’ sung dis one: 

  ’Old Gen’l Pope had a shot gun,
  Filled it full o’ gum,
  Killed ’em as dey come.

  Called a Union band,
  Make de Rebels un’erstan’
  To leave de lan’,
  Submit to Abraham.’

“Old Mis’ was a-standin’ right b’hin’ me.  She grabbed up de broom an’ laid it on me.  She made me submit.  I caught de feathers, don’t you forgit it.

“I didn’ know it was wrong.  I’d hear’d de Niggers sing it an’ I didn’ know dey was a-singin’ in dey sleeves.  I didn’ know nothin’ ’bout Abe Lincoln, but I hear’d he was a-tryin’ to free de Niggers an’ my mammy say she want to be free.