There she made sharecrops. That was the third year after freedom. That
is what my father and mother called it, sharecropping. I don't know what
their share was. But I guess it was half to them and half to him.
"I do general housework. I been doing that for eleven years. I never
have any trouble. Whenever I want to I get off.
"The slaves used to live in one room log huts. They cooked out in the
yard. I have seen them huts many a time. They had to cook out in the
yard in the summertime. If they didn't, they'd burn up.
"My mother seen her master take off a big pot of money to bury. He
didn't know he'd been seen. She didn't know where he went, but she seen
the direction he took. Her master was Paul Barringer. That was on
McKeever Creek near Sardis. It was near the end of the war. I never
heard my mother say what became of the money, but I guess he got it back
after everything was over.
"They had to work all the time. When they went to church on Sunday, they
would tell them not to steal their master's things. How could they help
but steal when they didn't have nothin'? You didn't eat if you didn't
steal.
"My mother never would have been sold but the first bunch of slaves
Barringer bought ran away from him and went back to the places where
they come from.
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