All the endurin' time he cooked at the camps. Then
he run off from war when he got a chance before he was mustered out and
he never got a pension because of that. He said he come home pretty
often and mama was expecting a baby. He thought he was needed at home
worse. He was so tired of war. He didn't know it would be valuable to
him in his old days. He was sorry he didn't stay till they got him
mustered out. He said it was harder in the war than in slavery. They was
putting up tents and moving all the time and he be scared purt nigh to
death all the time. Never did know when they would be shot and killed.
"Mama said the way they bought grandma was at a well. A drove of folks
come by. It was the nigger traders. She had pulled up her two or three
buckets. She carried one bucket on her head and one in each hand. They
said, 'Draw me up some water to drink.' She was so smart they bragged on
her. They said, 'She such a smart little thing.' They went to see her
owner and bought her on the spot. They took her away from her people and
she never heard tell of none of them no more. She said there was a big
family of them. They brought her to Brownsville, Tennessee and Johnny
Williams bought her.
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