“Yes, Ma’am, I sho’ does b’lieve in ha’nts, ’cause I done heared one and I seed it too, leasewise I seed its light.  It wuz ’bout 30 years ago, and us had just moved in a house whar a white fambly had moved out.  The ma had died a few days atter a little baby wuz born, and de baby had died too.  One night I heared a strange sound like somebody movin’ ’round in de house, and pretty soon a dim light comes a-movin’ into my room real slow and atter goin’ ’round de room it went out of sight in de closet.

“Next day I went to see de white folkses what had lived dar ’fore us moved in, and de husband tole me not to worry, dat it wuz his wife’s ha’nt.  He said she wuz huntin’ for some money she had hid in de house, ‘cause she wanted her chillun what wuz still livin’ to have it.  I went back home and ‘most tore dat house down lookin’ for dat money.  Long as us lived dar I would see dat light now and den at night, and I always hoped it would lead me to de money but it never did.

“When folkses got sick, Marse Billie had ’em looked atter.  Mist’ess would come every day to see ’bout ’em, and if she thought dey wuz bad off, she sont atter Dr. Davenport.  Dr. Davenport come dar so much ’til he courted and married Marse Billie’s daughter, Miss Martha Glenn.  I wuz named for Miss Martha.  Dey sho’ did take special good keer of de mammies and de babies.  Dey had a separate house for ’em, and a granny ’oman who didn’t have nothin’ else to do but look atter colored babies and mammies.  De granny ’oman took de place of a doctor when de babies wuz born, but if she found a mammy in a bad fix she would ax Mist’ess to send for Dr. Davenport.

“Us didn’t have no separate church for colored folkses.  De white folkses had a big Baptist church dey called Mill Stone Church down at Goosepond, a good ways down de road from Marse Billie’s plantation.  It sho’ wuz a pretty sight to see, dat church, all painted white and set in a big oak grove.  Colored folkses had dey place in de gallery.  Dey won’t ’lowed to jine de church on Sunday, but dey had reg’lar Sadday afternoons for de slaves to come and ’fess dey faith, and jine de church.  Us didn’t know dey wuz no other church but de Baptist.  All de baptizin’ wuz done on Sunday by de white preacher.  First he would baptize de white folkses in de pool back of de church and den he would baptize de slaves in de same pool.

“My grandma wuz a powerful Christian ’oman, and she did love to sing and shout.  Dat’s how come Marse Billie had her locked up in de loom room when de Yankee mens come to our plantation.  Grandma would git to shoutin’ so loud she would make so much fuss nobody in de church could hear de preacher and she would wander off from de gallery and go downstairs and try to go down de white folkses aisles to git to de altar whar de preacher wuz, and dey wuz always lockin’ her up for ‘sturbin’ worship, but dey never could break her from dat shoutin’ and wanderin’ ‘round de meetin’ house, atter she got old.