“No, I never went to school, but I was taught a little by my master’s daughter, and can read and write a little.  As a slave boy I had to work in the military school in Goldsboro.  I waited on tables and washed dishes, but my wages went to my master the sane as my mother’s.

“I was about fourteen when the war broke out, and remember when the Yankees came through our town.  There was a Yankee soldier by the name of Kuhns who took charge of a Government Store.  He would sell tobacco and such like to the soldiers.  He was the man who told me I was free and then give me a job working in the store.

“I had some brothers and sisters but I do not remember them—­can’t tell you anything about them.

“Our beds were homemade out of poplar lumber and we slept on straw ticks.  We had good things to eat and a lot of corn cakes and sweet potatoes.  I had pretty good clothes, shoes, pants and a shirt, the same winter and summer.

“I don’t know anything about the plantation as I had to work in town and did not go out there very much.  No, I don’t know how big it was or how many slaves there was.  I never heard of any uprisings either.

“Our overseer was ‘poor white-trash’, hired by the master.  I remember the master lived in a big white house and he was always kind to his slaves, so was his wife and children, but we didn’t like the overseer.  I heard of some slaves being whipped, but I never was and I did not see any of the others get punished.  Yes, there was a jail on the plantation where slaves had to go if they wouldn’t behave.  I never saw a slave in chains but I have seen colored men in the chain gang since the war.

“We had a negro church in town and slaves that could be trusted could go to church.  It was a Methodist Church and we sang negro spirituals.

“We could go to the funeral of a relative and quit work until it was over and then went back to work.  There was a graveyard on the plantation.

“A lot of slaves ran away and if they were caught they were brought back and put in the stocks until they were sold.  The master would never keep a runaway slave.  We used to have fights with the ‘white trash’ sometimes and once I was hit by a rock throwed by a white boy and that’s what this lump on my head is.

“Yes, we had to work every day but Sunday.  The slaves did not have any holidays.  I did not have time to play games but used to watch the slaves sing and dance after dark.  I don’t remember any stories.

“When the slaves heard they had been set free, I remember a lot of them were sorry and did not want to leave the plantation.  No, I never heard of any in our section getting any mules or land.

“I do remember the ‘night riders’ that come through our country after the war.  They put the horse shoes on the horses backwards and wrapped the horses feet in burlap so we couldn’t hear them coming.  The colored folks were deathly afraid of these men and would all run and hide when they heard they were coming.  These ‘night riders’ used to steal everything the colored people had—­even their beds and straw ticks.