De slaves worked on Saturday afternoons.  Dey stay in de cabins on Saturday nights and Sundays.  We worked on New Years day.  De massa would give us a little hard cider on Christmas day.  Dey would give a big supper at corn huskin’ or cotton pickin’ and give a little play or somethin’ lik dat.

I remember two weddings.  Dey hed chicken, and mutton to eat and corn bread.  Dey all ganged round de table.  Der wur milk and butter.  I remember one wedding of de white people.  I made de ice cream for dem.  I remember playin’ marbles and ball.

Sometimes a racer snake would run after us, wrap round us and whip us with its tail.  The first one I remember got after me in de orchard.  He wrapped right round me and whipped me with his tail.

My mother took care of de slaves when dey were sick.  You had to be awful sick if dey didn’t make you go out.  Dey made der own medicine in those days.  We used asafetida and put a piece in a bag and hung it round our necks.  It wuz supposed to keep us from ketchin’ diseases from anyone else.

When freedom cum dey were all shoutin’ and I run to my mother and asked her what it wuz all bout.  De white man said you are all free and can go.  I remember the Yankee soldier comin’ through the wheat field.

My parents lived very light de first year after de war.  We lived in a log cabin.  De white man helped dem a little.  My father went to work makin’ charcoal.  Der wuz no school for Negroes and no land that I remember.

I married Alice Thompson.  She wuz 16 and I wuz 26.  We hed a little weddin’ down in Bushannon, Virginny.  A Baptist preacher named Shirley married us.  Der were bout a dozen at de weddin’.  We hed a little dancin’ and banjo play in’.  I hed two chillun but dey died and my wife died a long, long time ago.

I just heard a little bout Abraham Lincoln.  I believe he wuz a good man.  I just hed a slight remembrance of Abraham Lincoln and Jefferson Davis.  I have heard of Booker T. Washington, felt just de same bout him.  A pretty good man.

I think it wuz a great thing that slavery anded, I would not lik to see it now.

I joined de Baptist church but I have been runnin’ round from place to place.  We always prosper and get along with our fellowmen if we are religious.

De overseer wuz poor white trash.  His rules were you hed to be out on de plantation before daylight.  Sometimes we hed to sit around on de fence to wait for daylight and we did not go in before dark.  We go in bout one for meals.

K. Osthimer, Author Aug 12, 1937

Folklore:  Stories from Ex-Slaves
Lucas County, District Nine
Toledo, Ohio

The Story of Mrs. Hannah Davidson.