Lou Williams
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"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 and I makes nursemaid out of her.' When I eight years old she trusts me with dem white chillen. I loves to fish so well I'd take de li'l chillen to de creek and take off my underskirt and spread it out on de bank and put de chillen on it while I sho' cotch de fish. Massa, he start lookin' for me and when he gits to de creek, he say, 'Dar's de li'l devil.' He know dem chillen safe, so he jus' laugh.
"In de fall massa puts us nigger chillen on de bale of cotton and takes us to town and gives us money to buy candy and dolls with. We allus had good food and lots of fish and rabbits and possums, but when my missy see dem possums carryin' de baby possums round she fall out with possum and she say, 'No more possum bein' cooked 'round here.'
"When I jes' a li'l gal I seed de stars fall and when everything got dark like and dem bright stars begin to fall we all start runnin' and hollerin' to our missy and she say, 'Chillen, don't git under my coat, git on your knees and start prayin', and when we begins to pray de Lawd he sends a shower of rain and puts out dem stars or de whole world would a been burned up.
"When massa take us to town he say he want us to see how de mean slave owners raffles off de fathers and de husban's and de mothers and de wives and de chillen. He takes us 'round to de big platform and a white man git up dere with de slave and start hollerin' for bids, and de slave stands dere jes' pitiful like, and when somebody buy de slave all de folks starts yellin' and a cryin'. Dem sho' was bad times. Our massa wouldn't do his niggers dat way and we loved him for it, too.
"We had big gardens and lots of vegetables to eat, 'cause massa had 'bout eight hundred slaves and 'bout a thousand acres in he plantation. In summer time we wore jes' straight cotton slips and no shoes till Sunday, den we puts on shoes and white dresses and ties a ribbon 'round our waists, and we didn't look like de same chillen.
"Dere a big arbor for de whites to go to church and we goes, too. When we starts down de road to church, our mama, she start sayin' things to make us be quiet. We pass de graveyard and she say, 'See dat spirit runnin' 'long here with us?' When we gits dere we hardly moves. We could jine, if we wants to.
"My mama, she Black Creek Indian and none of dem white folks wants her. When massa buys my daddy and us chillen we had done been sold 'way from her and we cry and she cry, and den she follow us to our plantation and cry and beg our massa let her stay. He say, 'She ain't no good but put her in de house and let her do some patchin' and mendin'.' Mama, she cry and say, 'Thank God, Thank God! I's git to be with my husban' and li'l chillen.' She make de good spinner and weaver and old missy, she say she couldn't do without her, 'cause she spin cotton cloth for summer and woolen cloth for winter.
"Niggers didn't have much weddin's, but when massa find dem takin' up he tells everybody to dress in white and de two what was takin' up together has to march up and down till de big supper comes off. Dey was man and wife den, but me, I's diff'rent. I's had a 'spectable weddin', 'cause missy, she say I's her nursemaid. De preacher, he reads, and I's all dressed in white clothes and sech a supper we never had befo'.
"All de slaves wasn't so lucky as we was, though. We lives close to de meanest owner in de country. Our massa wouldn't keep no overseer, 'cause he say his niggers wasn't dogs, but dis other man he keeps overseers to beat de niggers and he has de big leather bullwhip with lead in de end, and he beats some slaves to death. We heared dem holler and holler till dey couldn't holler no mo! Den dey jes' sorta grunt every lick till dey die. We finds big streams of blood where he has whopped dem and when it rained de whole top of de ground jes' looks like a river of blood dere. Sometime he bury he niggers and sometime de law come out and make him bury dem. He put dem in chains and stockades and sometimes he would buck and gag dem.
"We seed he niggers goin' by our plantation with de oven on de heads 'round three o'clock in de mornin' on de way to de fields. Dese ovens made of wood and tin over de tin cup dat fit de slaves' heads. Each nigger have he bread and some old hairy bone meat a-cookin' with fire coals in dese ovens. Dey made not to burn de head and when dey gits to de fields dey sets dem down to finish cookin' while dey works till breakfast time. De mamas what expectin' babies was whopped to make dem work faster and when babies was sick dey has to put dem in de basket on top dere heads and take dem to de cotton patch, and put dem under de cotton stalks and try to 'tend to dem. Lawd, Lawd, dem was awful times, and I sho' is glad I has good white folks.
"Some dat man's niggers allus runnin' 'way and dey sets de nigger dogs on dem and catch dem mos' times. Den dey treat 'em so bad dey wouldn't never want to run away no more.
"We allus gits Saturday evenin' off to wash our clothes and sometime we has dances Saturday night. I has two brothers, Jim and William and William git kilt in de war. My two sisters named Relia and Laura. We has corn shuckin's and big suppers and on Christmas our massa buys us de present, most times shoes, 'cause we didn't have any shoes.
"When de white folks dies or gits married everybody sho' carries on big. When we sick dey gives us snakeroot tea and cana and sage tea and if we's bad sick, dey gits de doctor. Missy, she make hog hoof tea, jes' bile de hoofs in good whiskey for de cold. Den she put camphor ball and asafoetida 'round our necks to keep off diseases.
"When de war ends we sees a white man comin' down de road on a hoss and de road full of niggers followin' him, singin' and shoutin' and prayin'. I stays with massa till he die, then I marries and has one chile and one grandchile, and I lives with her."
