Course, I'm tellin' you what she tell me, mostly. I was too little to 'member much 'bout slavery time. I just can 'member de Yankees. You know they say even de devil ain't as black as he is painted. De Yankees did take off all de mules, cows, hogs, and sheep, and ransack de smoke-house, but they never burnt a thing at our place.
Folks wonder at dat.
Some say it was 'cause General Bratton was a high 'gree mason. While Marse John, who was a Confederate General, was off in de war, us had overseers. They made mother and everybody go to do field. De little chillun was put in charge, in de daytime, wid an old 'mauma', as they called them in them days. Dere was so many, twenty-five or thirty, dat they had to be fed out of doors.