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Updated: June 18, 2025
"Are you a runaway nigger?" "Yes, honey; I 'longs ter ole Tight-fis' Smith; an' he wanted ter whup me fur not gittin' out ter de fiel' in time, an' I tuck'n runned erway fum 'im, an' now I'm skyeert ter go back, an' ter go anywhar; an' I can't fin' nuf'n t' eat, an' I'se er starvin' ter def." "Well, you wait," said Dumps, "an' I'll go bring yer the picnic."
As her memory is becoming faded, her thoughts wander from one thing to another and her speech is not very plain, the following is what I heard and understood during the interview. "All de slaves work with neighbors; or like neighbors now-adays. I no work in de fiel, I slave in de house, maid to de mistress." "After Yankees come, one sister came to Ohio with me."
"Ten years, sar." "Have you a good appetite?" "Yes, sar." "Can you eat your allowance?" "Yes, sar, when I can get it." "Where were you employed in Virginia?" "I worked de tobacker fiel'." "In the tobacco field, eh?" "Yes, sar." "How old did you say you was?" "Twenty-five, sar, nex' sweet-'tater-diggin' time." "I am a cotton-planter, and if I buy you, you will have to work in the cotton-field.
Sam worked in de fiel', an' I wuz de cook. One day Ma'y Ann, ole miss's maid, came rushin' out ter de kitchen, an' says she, ''Liza Jane, ole marse gwine sell yo' Sam down de ribber. "'Go way f'm yere, says I; 'my husban' 's free! "'Don' make no diff'ence.
But nobody was in de house but Mina, a little gal 'bout eight year ole, massa bought out of a drove was passin' by de kitchen door, and run to the fiel' shoutin' all de way 'Phil's alive!
"I wuz ole den, Miss Doshy let lone w'at I is now; en you better b'leeve I bossed dem han's. I had dem niggers up en in de fiel' long 'fo' day, en de way dey did wuk wuz a caution. Ef dey didn't earn der vittles dat season den I ain't name Remus. But dey wuz tuk keer un. Dey had plenty er cloze en plenty er grub, en dey wuz de fattes' niggers in de settlement.
De little boy wuz name' Pete; he wuz 'bout eight er nine years ole, an' had already 'menced ter go out in de fiel' an' he'p his mammy pick cotton, fer Mars Marrabo wuz one er dese yer folks w'at wants ter make eve'y aidge cut.
"Dey would track de runways wid dogs an' sometimes a white scal'wag or slacker wud be kotched dodgin' duty. I seed as many deserters as I see corn stalks ober in dat fiel'. Dey would hide out in day time an' steal at night. "No'm I didn' learn to read an' write but my folks teached me to be honest an' min' Old Miss an' Granny. Dey didn' want us to learn how to go to de free country.
On entering the house of the Fiel of Tobacco, we were most hospitably received and warmly invited to take quarters there during our residence in Tanay; and as the offer was much too good to be refused, even had it been less warmly backed by the unequivocal demonstrations of welcome than those which they evinced, it was at once accepted, with not the less good-will because there was only the Casa Real to sleep in had we chosen to refuse it, which assuredly no one who had the fear of bugs, fleas, or musquitoes before his eyes would do, these animals being of the utmost size and activity in every one of the Casas Reales I have ever slept in.
I means by dat, Lee King tuk her an' my brudder George fer a whiskey debt. Yes, old Marster drinked dem up. Den dey was car'ied to Florida by Sam Oneal, an' George was jes a baby. You know, de white folks wouldn't often sep'rate de mammy an' baby. I ain't seen' em since. "Did I work? Yes ma'm, me an' a girl worked in de fiel', carryin' one row; you know, it tuk two chullun to mek one han'.
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