I HAVE seen three wars in my life. When I was a boy we saw a comet and I asked Mrs. Rebecka what was a comet. She said, "the comet is a sign of war," and I asked her did "they get up in the trees and shobt ?" She said "no, but sometimes they get behind trees."
This was the civil war. The next war was the Cuban war, and then the World war.
When we were refugeeing in 1863, we went as far as Mayhill and camped and bought seven sacks of flour and each sack had one hundred pounds of flour in it. Mr. Edmondson bought this to travel on and we carried ten or twelve head of milk cows. Just about good day light Bragg's army came by and we had to wait until they got by. Then Mr. Bill Edmondson and the negro men stole a mule and a hog from the army. The soldiers also had a little negro boy riding along behind. I wondered why they did not steal him, too. In this travel they also stole a fine dog and this dog was a regular negro catcher. After the surrender some man came along and claimed the dog, but no one ever claimed the mule and the hog. We got to keep them.
After we reached Terrell county, we children were not used to ribbon cane and peanuts, so one day Mr. Edmondson bought a lot of peanuts and cane and we children had to shell the peanuts to plant. Mr. Edmondson stood over us with a stick to keep us from eating them, but we managed to eat some of them any way. We would shell them and slip them into our mouths so quick that he did not see us. And when he had the cane planted, we would slip to the patch and dig it up and chew it. After the cane was ripe we boys went to the patch and ruined about a half acre. Mr. Edmondson had a whipping man, and he was my uncle, so he called us together and asked about the cane. As soon as one would own to eating the cane he would let them alone and get the next one. I think I was about the fourth and I was so scared I gave the thing away when he had hit me about four licks. There was one boy who never would own to eating the cane. He had about twelve or fifteen boys to whip, but we boys would always prepare ourselves for whipping by wrapping our bodies in old tow sacks. Mr. Edmondson did not care so much about the cane as he did about us telling a lie. When we dug the peanuts we put them in an old log house, and we boys would go down in the bottoms, cut a long pole, and would stick one end in a crack of the house then all of us would get on the other and raise it up so some one could stick his hand in the crack and drag out the peanuts. Well one can never tell what a crowd of boys will do.
During the Civil war, 1865, Old Man Dover sent all the negroes over to a little town called Dover in Terrell county to fast and pray. Another little negro boy and I got our fish hooks and started to go fishing. He told us if we did not go to fast and pray that we would have to get our hoes and go to the field and work, so we went on to Dover with the rest of the colored people and I got down and prayed the best I knew how. This was the words of my prayer:
"0 Lord, please help Abraham Lincoln to whip Jefferson Davis." When we were all through praying we went back home. Mr. Edmondson said to me, "what did you pray?" and I told him that I prayed like this: "Oh Lord, please help Jefferson Davis to whip Abraham Lincoln," and he said, "you prayed right," and handed me a half dollar. I was afraid to tell him what I prayed.
In 1862 the slave owners had paddle rollers that they used to whip their slaves with when they were caught away from home. Once two slaves who belonged to Seay were caught on Mr. Edmondson's place for running off from their master's home. I ran along behind them to see what the white people were going to do with the slaves. They whipped them, giving them twenty-nine or thirty-nine licks each. All slaves caught after sundown without a pass were beaten. It was always an easy matter for Mr. Edmondson's slaves to obtain a pass, because most of the white folks would give the slaves a pass. The slaves of other owners would hardly ever get a pass, but they would go anyway.
In 1863 I begged Mr. Edmondson to let me stay with some other white people (Mrs. Keister.) After some begging he consented for me to go. I went on to Mrs. Keister's, and after I had stayed two days I became dissatisfied and ran away. Mr. Edmondson told me that I would have to stay because I had made a trade with them. I went back and stayed about a month. During my stay with Mrs. Keister I had to wash dishes. They drank milk from large tumblers, and one day just before I washed the dishes I fell asleep and when I awoke the milk had gotten hard in the tumblers. I studied what to do for a long time. Finally I thought of pouring hot water into the tumblers to soften the milk. I put all the tumblers in a row and poured water into them. Just about the time I had finished filling all the glasses all of them bursted open. I took the broken tumblers and threw them into the well. Every time I would break anything I would throw it into the well. After the surrender I came back to Mrs. Keister's and she told me about finding the broken dishes in their well when they cleaned it out.
I went down south and stayed about nine years. When I came back to Murray county I stayed with Mrs. Keister again. I did not have anything to do, only cut wood for the fires and tend to the horses. Mrs. Keister was very good to me and when I did not have anything to do she would teach me how to read and write. She taught me arithmetic, geography, also history. About three years ago (1926) I began to think of how nice Mrs. Keister was to me, so I sent her some corn and watermelons. A few weeks later I carried her some tomatoes. When I reached her home I knocked and she came to the door. I asked her how she felt; she said, "I am feeling very well, but I can hardly get about." I went in and talked with her. She teased me about throwing dishes into the well. Mrs. Keister was very feeble at this time, and told me her time was not long. Her last words to me were, "We must be ready to meet death."
Memoirs Of A Slave