MY LIFE AND TRAVELSBy LEVI BRANHAMCHAPTER II MANY visitors would come to see the white folks and I would have the privilege of putting up their horses and shining their shoes and they would tip me with nickels and dimes. Soon I accumulated four or five dollars and I asked my mistress to let me go to Tennessee to see my mother. At last the day came for us to go. "Miss Beckie" gave me my money. She put it in a pair of my pants. There were several white people along and also some colored folks who were going to Tennessee. We camped at a little place called Varnell. Mr. Tom Polk Edmondson bought some whisky and gave me a drink of it. Finally I got to feeling funny and staggered to the wagon tongue and reached in the wagon for my breeches. I found the breeches, but no money was in them. I don't know, but I suppose some of the work hands had stolen it. That was the first whisky I had ever tasted. When we returned to Georgia "Miss Beckie" asked me did I give my money to my mother? I told her that I lost it or some one had stolen it from me. She said she expected they did. While I was in Tennessee I would have to go to a little town called Jasper, to get the mail for the white folks. This town was about six miles from the farm where they lived. There was a colored man on the Tennessee farm who was interested in teaching the colored boys how to read and write. He would make figures and letters on a wooden pad to teach us. One day my mother decided to buy me a book, so she gave me a dime and I went to the post office at Jasper where I saw a good many almanacs on a table. I asked Mr. Jim Owens, the postmaster, to give me one of those books—and he gladly handed me one. I walked away very proud with my book in my hand and a dime in my pocket, thinking about what I would buy. So I bought candy with the dime. When I reached home I told my mother that I gave the dime for the almanac. I stayed in Tennessee for about six months. While in Tennessee I became very fond of a white fellow by the name of Mr. Bill Bramlett. He would often let me ride his mule to the field. We were both very dear friends. After the surrender I would often visit him while we both lived in Murray county. We continued to be good friends until he died which was about eight or ten years ago. Mr. Edmondson transferred me back to Murray county to my old home in 1861. Memoirs Of A Slave
Memoirs Of A Slave