"Our log huts was comfortable and we had some kind of floors in all of dem. Some was plank and some was poles but dat was better den de dirt floors some cabins have. "De eats we have was jes' good eats, lots of meats and…

"My master was Dick Townes and my folks come with him from Alabama. He owned a big plantation fifteen miles from Austin and worked lots of slaves. We had the best master in the whole county, and everybody called us "Townes' free…

"Huh! What you say, did you say somethin' 'bout de ole age pension?", questioned Will when approached on the slavery question, but he answered readily, "Sho! sho' I was a slave an' I aint ashamed to admit dat I was.…

John relates: "My father and mother, John and Fannie Ellis, were sold in Springfield, Missouri, to my marster, Parson Ellis, and taken away from all their people and brought to Johnson County, Texas. "My marster, he was a preacher and…

Steve relates the story of his life as follows: "I wasn't very big when I was a slave. Fact is, we was set free 'fore I was big enough to remember much about how dey does but I's hear my mother tells 'bout dem Louisiana…

"I's have de bes' white folks in Maryland. I's born in a three-room frame house and I had one of them statements (birth certificates). When I five years old my old missy she say, 'Dat gal, she sho' am gwine be dependable…

My mistress owned a beautiful home and three hundred twenty acres of land in the edge of Columbia, in South Carolina, just back of the state house. Her name was Mrs. Louisa Green and she was a widow lady. That's where I was born, but when her…

Jenny, who was ill at the time she was interviewed, shook her old white head and said, "I's hear tell of dem good slave days but I ain't nev'r seen no good times den. My mother's name was Lisa and when I was a very small…