"In Memphis he tells Massa he knows whar one o’ his hosses is whut wuz stolen. Massa tells him kin he swear to it, he kin have it. So mah fathuh goes to de law ’bout dat hoss—Dey asks him can he ’dentify it—an’ he say it got a white star on its face an’ a white stockin on lef’ hin’ foot. So he git de hoss.
"I’se married 63 years ago—got de license outa Sardis. ’Bout twenty year ago ah went back dar tuh visit—tuk some o’ my chillern an’ showed ’em de chuch dere at Fredonia whar we usta ’tend service.
"Dey war mos’ly perty good to us down dah—’cose we nevah cud go nowhars 'thout a pass or we’d git whupped. Dey had a doctor woman to take care o’us iffen we’s sick. Her name’s Miss Ellen—An’ dey’s good an’ careful 'bout womens when dey’s gonna have a baby. She wuz jes given light work to do, ’cause dey wanted big healthy famblies.
"One time dey wuz Ku Klux come to de do. Ah nebber seed em ’cause ah run an’ crawl unner de bed, but ah heerd um say, ’Please gi’ me some water, I ain’t had a drink since de battle o’ Shiloh.’
"Ole Jeff Davis sho’ made it hawd fo’ de cullud folks but wid Abe Lincoln an’ de grace ob de Lawd we’s all free now."
*Interview with Wylie Miller,* *Cape Girardeau Co., Missouri.
*"I’se gonna be 83 cum nex’ Nobember. Mah mammy’s name wuz Easter. We belong to Ole Massa Henry Miller so we goes by de name o’ Miller. Mah daddy’s name wuz Israel an he belong to a neighbor name Brown so he go by de name o’ Brown. Ole Missus name wuz ’Frohnie an dey had three boys whut went off tuh war. Dey live in a two-story frame house—dat down close to Bloomfiel’.
"De fust time we ever seed sojers, dey wuz a big crowd o’ ’em cum up to our place. When us chillern seed ’em we crawl unner de house—white and black, all o’ us. De Blue Coats look unner dere an’ dey say, ’Come out o’ der, you, or we kill all o’ you’. We’s sure scared but we crawls out. Dey didden hurt us none, but dey ’rests Ole Boss. Dey takes him up stairs an’ acks him things. I spects dey didden do him no harm but dey keeps him locked up.
"Dey wuz a feller hangin’ roun’ dere named Bolen, Nas’ Bolen—he wuz a bush-wacker and we seed dem Blue coats chase ’em across a ten acre fiel’ but dey didden catch ’em. Den dey take all de bes’ meat in de smoke house—we sho’ did hate to stan’ dere an’ see ’em cut down all dem good hams. An dey had de women folks inside a cookin’ fo’ ’em, an a bakin bread. An’ de sojers wuz all roun’ de bahn an de gran’ries feedin our cahn to dey hosses. When de sojers lef’, my mammy an’ a feller name Nash Miller escape an’ go off wid de sojers.