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"I'se bawned Charl'stun, West Virginia in February 1850." "My mammy's name? Hur name wuz Kath'run Paine an' she wuz bawned down Jackson County, Virginia. My pappy wuz John James, a coopah an' he wuz bawned at Rock Creek, West Virginia. He cum'd ovah heah with Lightburn's Retreat. Dey all crossed de ribah at Buffington Island. Yes, I had two bruthahs and three sistahs.
Deir wuz hous' full my own folks, mammy, pappy, sistahs, bruthas, an' sum white folks who cumed in to hep dress me up fo' de weddin'. We kep de weddin' a secrut an' my aunt butted hur horns right off tryin' to fin' out when it wuz. My husban' had to leave right away to go to his job on de boat. We had great big dinnah, two big cakes an' ice cream fo' desurt.
You sut'ny look lak you plumb tukahed out. Come in an' tell me all 'bout yo'se'f, you po' little t'ing. Dese yo' little brothas an' sistahs?" "Yes'm," said Patsy Ann. "W'y, chil', whaih you goin'?" "I don' know," was the truthful answer. "You don' know? Whaih you live?" "Oh, I live down on Douglas Street," said Patsy Ann, "an' I's runnin' away f'om home an' my step-mothah."
No one asked the minister home to dinner, an unusual thing, and so he went his way, puzzled and wondering. Before church that night, the congregation met together for conference. The exhorter of the morning himself opened proceedings by saying, "Brothahs an' sistahs, de Lawd has opened ouah eyes to wickedness in high places." "Oom oom oom, he have opened ouah eyes," moaned an old sister.
Wen we'd finish our day's wuk our missis would let us go out en play hide en seek, Puss in de corner, en diff'ent games. Mah mammy wuz sold in Virginia w'en she wuz a gurl. She sezs 'bou 60 ob em wuz put in de road en druv down 'yer by a slave trader, lak a bunch ob cattle. Mah mammy en two ob mah sistahs wuz put on a block, sold en carried ter Alabama.
The hymn she began was taken up first by two self-appointed exhorters, then by all. "Oh, Hannah!" cried Ella, when her voice could be heard, "do stop and come away. You are harming the sick and the injured." The old woman started, and on seeing the girl rushed forward, crying, "Down on you knees. Now you chance. Pray, bruders, pray, sistahs.
De church wuz quite aways frum de hous'. When der'd be baptizins de sistahs and brethruns would sing 'Freely, freely will you go with me, down to the riber'. 'Freely, freely quench your thirst Zion's sons and daughtahs'." "How wells I 'member when I wuz converted. I'd thought 'bout 'ligion a lot but neber wunce wuz I muved to repent.
"But sometimes it is a trump, my dear young lady," said the Colonel, with unabated gallantry; "and when yo' mothah uses yarn, it is worsteds. But I respect worsteds even under the name of yarn: our ladies my own mothah and sistahs had to knit the socks we wore all we could get in the woe." "Yes, and aftah the woe," his daughter put in. "The knitting has not stopped yet in some places.
"Der wuz Levi, Floyd, Henry, Noah, an' Nancy, jes' my haf brudders an' sistahs, but I neber knowed no diffrunce but whut dey wuz my sistahs an' brudders." "Where we liv? On Marsa John Alexander's farm, he wuz a good Marsa too. All Marsa John want wuz plenty wurk dun and we dun it too, so der wuz no trubble on ouah plantashun. I neber reclec' anyone gittin' whipped or bad treatment frum him.
Yes suh, I had five sistahs and bruthahs. Der names lets see Oh yes der wuz, John, Jim, George, Suzan and Ida. No, I don't member nothin' 'bout my gran'parents." "My mammy had her own cabin for hur and us chilluns. De wuz rails stuck through de cracks in de logs fo' beds with straw on top fo' to sleep on." "What'd I do, down dar on plantashun?
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