Leaving home without a pass,

  Talking back to—­’sassing’—­a white person,

  Hitting another Negro,

  Fussing, fighting, and rukkussing in the quarters,

  Lying,

  Loitering on their work,

  Taking things—­the Whites called it stealing.

  Plantation rules forbade a slave to: 

  Own a firearm,

  Leave home without a pass,

  Sell or buy anything without his master’s consent,

  Marry without his owner’s consent,

  Have a light in his cabin after a certain hour at night,

  Attend any secret meeting,

  Harbor or [HW:  in] any manner assist a runaway slave,

  Abuse a farm animal,

  Mistreat a member of his family, and do

  A great many other things.”

When asked if he had ever heard slaves plot an insurrection, the Parson answered in the negative.

When asked if he had personal knowledge of an instance of a slave offering resistance to corporal punishment, the Reverend shook his head, but said: 

“Sometimes a stripped Nigger would say some hard things to the white man with the strap in his hand, though he knew that he (the Negro) would pay for it dearly, for when a slave showed spirit that way the master or overseer laid the lash on all the harder.”

When asked how the women took their whippings, he said: 

“They usually screamed and prayed, though a few never made a sound.”

The Parson has had two wives and five children.  Both wives and three of his children are dead.  He is also now superannuated, but occasionally does a “little preaching”, having only recently been down to Montezuma, Georgia, on a special call to deliver a message to the Methodist flock there.

[HW:  Dist. 6
Ex-Slave #2]
Henrietta Carlisle

Jack Atkinson—­ex-slave
Rt.  D
Griffin, Georgia
Interviewed August 21, 1936
[may 8 1937]

“Onct a man, twice a child,” quoted Jack Atkinson, grey haired darkey, when being interviewed, “and I done started in my second childhood.  I useter be active as a cat, but I ain’t, no mo.”

Jack acquired his surname from his white master, a Mr. Atkinson, who owned this Negro family prior to the War Between the States.  He was a little boy during the war but remembers “refugeeing” to Griffin from Butts County, Georgia, with the Atkinsons when Sherman passed by their home on his march to the sea.

Jack’s father, Tom, the body-servant of Mr. Atkinson, “tuck care of him” [HW:  during] the four years they were away at war.  “Many’s the time I done heard my daddy tell ’bout biting his hands he wuz so hongry, and him and Marster drinking water outer the ruts of the road, they wuz so thirsty, during the war.”

“Boss Man (Mr. Atkinson), wuz as fine a man as ever broke bread”, according to Jack.