"An I remembers one boat load. Boat load got as far as Cairo, Illinois, and lots of de darkies jumped overboard and was drowned."
"Were the overseers on the plantations Negroes or whites?"
"Overseahs, white," Higgerson replied, "Overseahs white. A darky was the niggah driver. Darkies didn’t ever get to go to the big house where the planter lived. De niggah driver reported to the overseah, and the overseah reported to the boss.
"Now this is the way with me," Higgerson continued. "My father, who was also my boss, he kept a store, and I went to de store to take care of de children, cause de boss done send for me. Well, one time when the wah was on, some Federal soldiers come and done scared me so bad I forgot all about de chile and run home, and de soldiers burned de bridge, you had to cross befo’ you got to de store. So after dat de ole man run a boat across."
Hoping to get some idea of how Christmas was celebrated among the Negroes on the farms and plantations the aged man was asked what he remembered of Christmas, in slavery times.
"One Christmas I never goin’ to forget", he replied.
"Jes before Christmas lots of people came to de store to buy and de groun’ was all covered wid snow. An de man what run de store was getting ready to close up, cause it was getting dark, and close at dark a man come and wanted in and de store keeper wouldn’t let him in. An it got later and later, and by an by Joseph, dats me, was sent to de store to find why de storekeeper ain’t come home yet and Joseph went to de store, and looked in and saw de old man on his back, his throat cut wid de blood runnin’ all over de floor and $1,400 dey knowed he had—gone. Dere was whiskey and blood runnin’ all over de floor. Whiskey was cheap dem days; good whiskey, too.
"When they set the niggahs free, the boss man come out and read de papers to ’em sayin’ dey was free. And I went to Boonville and joined de Union Army, November 23, 1863. I served in de 25th Corps, Second Division under General Whitsell. I was in de last battle of de war at Palmetto Ranch, Texas, on de Rio Grande, just 36 miles from de Gulf. When I was discharged from de army to go home, I thought—why I have no home, where shall I go? Den I decided to go back to Boonville. All my family was scattered.