The old negro man so vividly described the noble blacksmith that he almost appeared in person, as the story advanced.  “I don’t know what he had done to rile up Mars Gardner, but all of us knew that the Blacksmith was going to be flogged.  When the whippers from Mississippi got to the plantation.  The blacksmith worked on day and night.  All day he was shoein horses and all the spare time he had he was makin a knife.  When the whippers got there all of us were brought out to watch the whippin but the blacksmith, Jim Gardner did not wait to feel the lash, he jumped right into the bunch of overseers and negro whippers and knifed two whippers and one overseer to death; then stuck the sharp knife into his arm and bled to death.”

Suicide seemed the only hope for this man of strength.  He could not humble himself to the brutal ordeal of being beaten by the slave whippers.

“When the war started, we kept hearing about the soldiers and finally they set up their camp in the forest near us.  The corn was ready to bring into the barn and the soldiers told Mr. Mooney to let the slaves gather it and put it into the barns.  Some of the soldiers helped gather and crib the corn.  I wanted to help but Miss Puss was afraid they would press me into service and made me hide in the cellar.  There was a big keg of apple cider in the cellar and every day Miss Puss handed down a big plate of fresh ginger snaps right out of the oven, so I was well fixed.”  The old man remembers that after the corn was in the crib the soldiers turned in their horses to eat what had fallen to the ground.

Before the soldiers became encamped at the Mooney plantation they had camped upon a hill and some skirmishing had occurred.  Uncle Joe remembers the skirmish and seeing cannon balls come over the fields.  The cannon balls were chained together and the slave children would run after the missils.  Sometimes the chains would cut down trees as the balls rolled through the forest.

“Do you believe in witchcraft?” was asked while interviewing the aged negro.  “No” was the answer.  “I had a cousin that was a full blooded Indian and a Voodoo doctor.  He got me to help him with his Voodoo work.  A lot of people both white and black sent for the Indian when they were sick.  I told him I would do the best I could, if it would help sick people to get well.  A woman was sick with rhumatism and he was going to see her.  He sent me into the woods to dig up poke roots to boil.  He then took the brew to the house where the sick woman lived.  Had her to put both feet in a tub filled with warm water, into which he had placed the poke root brew.  He told the woman she had lizards in her body and he was going to bring them out of her.  He covered the woman with a heavy blanket and made her sit for a long time, possibly an hour, with her feet in the tub of poke root brew and water.  He had me slip a good many lizards into the tub and when the woman removed her feet, there were the lizards.  She was soon well and believed the lizards had come out of her legs.  I was disgusted and would not practice with my cousin again.”