Many of the slaves remained with the owners.  There they worked for small monthly wages and took whatever was left of cast off clothing and food and whatever the “old missus” gave them.  A pair of old pants of the master was highly prized by them.

Charles Coates was glad to be free.  He had been well taken care of and looked younger than 37 years of age at the close of slavery.  He had not been married; had been put upon the block twice to be sold after belonging to Mr. Hall.  Each time he was offered for sale, his master wanted so much for him, and refusing to sell him on time payments, he was always left on his master’s hands.  His master said “being tall, healthy and robust, he was well worth much money.”

After slavery, Charles was rated as a good worker.  He at once began working and saving his money and in a short time he had accumulated “around $200.”

The first sight of a certain young woman caused him to fall in love.  He says the love was mutual and after a courtship of three weeks they were married.  The girl’s mother told Charles that she had always been very frail, but he did not know that she had consumption.  Within three days after they were married she died and her death caused much grief for Charles.

He was reluctant to bury her and wanted to continue to stand and look at her face.  A white doctor and a school teacher whose names he does not remember, told him to put his wife’s body in alcohol to preserve it and he could look at it all the time.  At that time white people who had plenty of money and wanted to see the faces of their deceased used this method.

A glass casket was used and the dressed body of the deceased was placed in alcohol inside the casket.  Another casket made of wood held the glass casket and the whole was placed in a vault made of stone or brick.  The walls of the vault were left about four feet above the ground and a window and ledge were placed in front, so when the casket was placed inside of the vault the bereaved could lean upon the ledge and look in at the face of the deceased.  The wooden casket was provided with a glass top part of the way so that the face could easily be seen.

Although the process of preserving the body in alcohol cost $160, Charles did not regret the expense saying, “I had plenty of money at that time.”

After the death of his wife, Charles left with his mother and father, Henrietta and Spencer Coates and went to Savannah, Georgia.  He said they were so glad to go, that they walked to within 30 miles of Savannah, when they saw a man driving a horse and wagon who picked them up and carried them into Savannah.  It was in that city that he met his present wife, Irene, and they were married about 1876.

There are nine grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren living and in March of 1936, when a party was given in honor of Father Coates’ 108th birthday, one of each of the four generations of his family were present.