“You see, I was borned just three years before de darkies was sot free.  An’ course I can’t riccolect nothin’ ’bout de slavery days myself but my mammy, she used to tell us chillun ’bout dem times.

“Like I first said, us belonged to de Welborns an’ dey was powerful loyal to de Souf an’ er heap of de young ones fit in de army, an’ dey sont corn an’ cows an’ hogs an’ all sich like supplies to de army in Tennessee an’ Georgia.  Dat’s what my mammy tole me an’ I know dey done dem things, an’ dey crazy ‘bout Mr. Jefferson Davis, de fust an’ only President of de Confedracy, an’ dat’s how come me got dis name I got.  Yas suh, dat is how come me named ‘Jeff Davis.’  An’ I always has been proud of my name, ’cause dat was a sure great one what I is named after.

“My pappy was a white man, dat’s what my mammy allus told me.  I knows he bound to been ’cause I is too bright to not have no white blood in me.  My mammy, she named ‘Mary Welborn’.  She say dat my pappy was a white man name ‘Bill Ward’ what lived back in Alabama.  Dat’s all my mammy ever told me about my pappy.  She never say iffen he work for de Welborns er no, er iffen he was an overseer er what.  I don’t know nothin’ ’bout him scusin’ dat he er white man an’ he named ‘Bill Ward’.  My steppappy, he was name John Sanders, an’ he married my mammy when I ’bout four year old, an’ dat was atter de slaves taken outen dey bondage.

“My steppappy, he was a fine carpenter an’ could do most anything dat he want to do with an axe or any kind of a tool dat you work in wood with.  I riccolect dat he made a heap of de culberts for de railroad what was built through Marvell from Helena to Clarendon.  He made dem culberts outen logs what would be split half in two.  Then he would hew out de two halves what he done split open like dey used to make a dug-out boat.  Dey would put dem two halves together like a big pipe under de tracks for de water to run through.

“There was several white mens dat I knowed in dis part of de county what raised nigger famblys, but there wasn’t so many at dat.  I will say this for them mens though.  Whilst it wasn’t right for dem to do like dat, dem what did have ’em a nigger woman what dey had chillun by sure took care of de whole gang.  I riccolect one white man in particular, an’ I knows you is heered of him too.  How-some-ever, I won’t call no names.  He lived down on de ribber on de island.  Dis white man, he was a overseer for a widder woman what lived in Helena an’ what owned de big place dat dis man oberseer was on.  Dis white man, he hab him dis nigger woman for de longest.  She have five chillun by him, three boys an’ two gals.

“After a while dis man, he got him a place up close to Marvell where he moved to.  He brought his nigger fambly with him.  He built dem a good house on his farm where he kept them.  He give dat woman an’ dem chillun dey livin’ till de chillun done grown an’ de woman she dead.  Then he married him a nice white woman after he moved close to Marvell.  He built him a house in town where his white wife live an’ she de mammy of a heap of chillun too by dis same man.  So dis man, he had a white fambly an’ a half nigger fambly before.  De most of de chillun of dis man is livin’ in this county right now.