Those bombs would jar the house so hard and
we could see the smoke that far.
"We was allowed to visit Saturday night and Sunday. If you had a wife
you could go to see her Wednesday night and Saturday night and stay with
her until Monday morning and if you were caught away any other time the
patrollers would catch you. That is where the song come from, 'Run
nigger run, don't the patarolls will catch you.' Sometimes a nigger
would run off and the nigger dogs would track them. In slavery white
folks put you together. Just tell you to go on and go to bed with her or
him. You had to stay with them whether you wanted them or not.
"After freedom old master called all us slaves and told us we was free,
opened a big gate and drove us all out. We didn't know what to do--not a
penny, nowhere to go--so we went out there and set down. In about thirty
minutes master came back and told us if we wanted to finish the crop for
food and clothes we could, so we all went back and finished the crop and
the next year they gave us half. So ever' since then we people been
working for half.
"Here is one of my boy songs:
'Sadday night and Sunday too,
A pretty girl on my mind
As soon as Monday morning come
The white folks get me gwi-ng.
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