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Cullud folks jes' mek out de bes' dey could. Some of 'em lived in tents, till dey c'd cut logs an' build houses wid stick-an'-dirt chimbleys. Lotta folks ask me how I come to be called "Mama Duck." Dat be jes' a devil-ment o' mine. I named my own se'f dat. One day when I be 'bout twelve year old, I come home an' say, "Well, gran'mammy, here come yo' li'l ducky home again."
And who might you be, anyway?" "I cullud gen'lem'n, sar. Born Zanzibar. Used to be fireman on P. and O. I want arsk you " "Is this the Arabian Nights? How the mischief did you get here, anyway?" "Went on burst in Aden, sar. Th'ole Chief fired me out. Went Yemen. Caught for slave. Taken caravan. Brought here. But I'm very clever gen'lem'n, sar, an' soon bought myself free. Got slave of my own now.
We was put under dem beds 'bout eight o'clock, an' we'd jes better not say nothin' er make no noise afte' den. All de cullud folks slep' on croker sacks full of hay er straw. "Did I ever see any niggers punished? Yessum, I sho' has. Whupped an' chained too. Day was whupped 'til de blood come, 'til dey back split all to pieces.
Brayton; he buyed some lan' and sole it to some cullud folks, an' his ole frien's got so mad wid him dat dey wouldn't speak ter him, an' he war borned down yere. I tole ole Miss Anderson's daughter dat we wanted ter git some homes ob our ownselbs. She sez, 'Den you won't want ter work for us? Jis' de same as ef we could eat an' drink our houses.
"I live with the Wakefiel's till I was 'leven and then Marse Wakefiel' give me to my young mistress when she married and went to North Carolina to live. And 'twas in North Carolina that I seed Sherman, 'deed I did! I seed Sherman and his sojers, gathering up all the hogs and all the hosses, and all the cows and all the little cullud chillen. Them was drefful days! These is drefful days, too.
I once had a book, and tried to make out what war in it, but ebery time my mistus caught me wid a book in my hand, she used to whip my fingers. An' I couldn't see ef it war good for white folks, why it warn't good for cullud folks." "Well," said Tom Anderson, "I belieb in de good ole-time religion.
I seed you, you know, down dere where you live; but I did n' let on, fer you an' Mis' Rena wuz w'ite as anybody; an' eve'ybody said you wuz good ter cullud folks, an' he'ped 'em in deir lawsuits an' one way er 'nuther, an' I wuz jes' plum' glad ter see you gettin' 'long so fine, dat I wuz, certain sho', an' no mistake about it."
He owned 'bout thirty-five hund'ed acres an' at leas' a hund'ed an' fifty slaves. "Ever' mornin' 'bout fo' 'clock us could hear dat horn blow for us to git up an' go to de fiel'. Us always quit work 'fore de sun went down an' never worked at night. De overseer was a white man. His name was Josh Neighbors, but de driver was a cullud man, 'Old Man Henry. He wasn't 'lowed to mistreat noboby.
"Wal, I 'clar, now, jes de quarest ting ob 'bout all dis matter o' freedom is de way dat it sloshes roun' de names 'mong us cullud folks. H'yer I lib ober on de Hyco twenty year er mo' nobody but ole Marse Potem an' de Lor', an' p'raps de Debble beside, know 'zackly how long it mout hev been an' didn't hev but one name in all dat yer time.
"Every fatted calf in Washington should be killed for you," she cried "prodigal that you are, but only in brave deeds. Where's Iss? I want to see and feast him also." "I left him well provided for in the lower regions, and astounding the 'cullud bredren' with stories which only the African can swallow. He shall come up by and by, for I have my final orders to give.
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