He was at my father's bedside when father died. He's dead now.
"My father was a carpenter and a wait man (waiter). He was a finished
carpenter. He used to make everything 'round the house. Sometimes he
went off and worked and would bring the money back to his master, and
his master would give him some for himself.
"My mother worked 'round the house. She was a servant. I don't know that
she ever did the work in the field. My daddy just come home every
Saturday night. My father and mother always belonged to different
masters in slavery time. The Douglasses and the Currys were five or six
miles apart. My father would walk that distance on Saturday night and
stay there all day Sunday and git up before day in the morning Monday so
that he would be back home Monday morning in time for his work. I
remember myself when we moved away. That's when my memory first starts.
"I could see that old white woman come out begging and saying, 'Uncle
Washington, please don't carry Aunt Lize away.' But we went on away.
When we got where we was going, my mother made a pallet on the floor
that night, and the three children slept on the pallet on the floor.
Nothing to eat--not a bite. I went to bed hungry, and you know how it is
when you go to bed hungry, you can't sleep.
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