“’Til dey could git a colored preacher, slaves had to go to church wid deir white folks.  Missy, I ’members yit, de fust preacher I ever heared.  He was a white man, Preacher Gibson dey called him, and his sermons made you mind what you was ’bout ’cause he preached straight from de Bible.  Dat day when I fust heared him his text was:  ’If you gits lost in sin, den you is lost from God’s word, and will have to be borned again.’  Dat’s de trufe, Missy, it sho’ is.  Young folks dese days is headed plumb straight for ’struction, ’cause dey won’t listen to de Gospel.  If dey don’t change from de way dey is goin’ now de old debbil is gwine to ketch ’em sho.  All of us had better mind what us is ’bout, for ’ligion most times now is by our own minds and thoughts, and somebody else is apt to follow de ’ligion he sees in us.  De Bible says to teach young folks de way dey should go, and dey won’t depart from deir raisin’.  You sho’ can’t raise ’em right by jus’ teachin’ ’em dese days; it evermore do take plenty of layin’ on of dat rod.  I would jus’ lak to see how dese young folks would lak it if dey had to ride for miles and miles in a oxcart, or else walk it, to git to ’tend church.  Dere wouldn’t be many of de ones I knows ’round here would git dar.  Us used to have four steers hitched to our old cart, and it was slow-goin’, but us got dar.

“Atter us got our own churches us still had to have white preachers for a long time and den us was ’lowed to have colored preachers.  When somebody wanted to jine our church us ’zamined ’em, and if us didn’t think dey was done ready to be tuk in de church, dey was told to wait and pray ’til dey had done seed de light.  Anybody can jine up wid de church now, Missy, and it ain’t right de way dey lets ’em come in widout ‘zaminin’ ’em.  De good Lord sho’ don’t lak dat way of handlin’ His church business.  One of dem cand-i-dates was a mean Nigger and our preacher and deacons wouldn’t let him in our church.  Den he went over to another church and told ’em dat he had talked wid de Lord ’bout how us wouldn’t let him jine up wid us, and he ’lowed dat de Lord said to him:  ‘Dat’s all right.  I done been tryin’ to jine up in dat church for 15 years myself, and can’t git in, so you go on and jine another church.’  Dat other church let dat bad Nigger in and it warn’t long ’fore dey had to turn him out, ‘cause he warn’t fittin’ to be in no church.

“Our preacher used to give us parables.  One of ’em was lak dis:  ’I’se seed good cotton growin’ in de grass.’  He ’splained it dat dere was some good in de wust sinners.  Another of his parables was:  ’If you can’t keep up wid de man at de foot, how is you gwine to keep up wid de higher-up folks?’ Dat meant if you can’t sarve God here below, how is you gwine to git along wid him if you gits to Heben?  Our preacher told us to sarve both our marsters.  De fust Marster was God, he said, and de other one was our white marster.

“I ain’t never been inside no courtroom and don’t never ’spect to be dar, ’cause, missy, I don’t mind nobody’s business but my own, and dat’s all I can do.