"Our clothes was made mostly outen osnaburg wove on de plantation. We had wool clothes for de winter time dat was carded on de place. We had shoes made by our own cobbler an’ tanned on de plantation. We called dese brogans.
"Atter de surrender, de Yankees camped near our place, an’ bought aigs f’um us. Dey offered me a hoss iffen I would go nawth wid dem, but I jus’ couldn’t leave de Massa even dough I did wanted dat hoss mighty bad. I was twenty-one years old when Massa came to me one day an’ say: 'Isaam, you is a grown man now. You is got to boss your own business. It’s up to you to fin’ work. I can’t keep you no longer. Good luck Isaam. You has been a good nigger, an’ you is gonna make somebody a good worker.’
"Atter I lef’ Massa I worked at diff’ent jobs, sich as: loader, roustabout on different steamboats an’ cotton picker. I worked on de _May Boyd_, _Lula D._ an’ de _Gardner_. One of de ole songs sang on de boats went somp’n lak dis:
De John T. Moore De Lula D. An’ all dem boats is mine If you can’t ship on de Lula D. You ain’t no man o’ mine.
"I been ma’ied three times, Mistis, an’ Lawd chile I done forgot de name of my fust wife. I guess she still livin’ somewhere caze she was too mean to die. My secon’ wife was named Dora, an’ she is daid. I got a wife now name Lily. She purty good.
"Yes maam you can take my picture, but lemme git my hat, caze I ain’t got no hair on my haid, an’ I looks better wid a hat. I’se got to be fixed up stylish."
*From record of a conversation in 1884* —_Francois L. Diard, Mobile, Alabama_
George Washington extolling the virtues of a plain, homespun suit—granite-jawed Andrew Jackson defying the British at Pensacola—horror and massacre at Alabama’s old Fort Mims—savages skulking near the fort, their bronzed bodies glistening in the hot August sunlight.
These were among memories of parchment-skinned Uncle Tony Morgan, who was interviewed on Oct. 1, 1884 by Jim Thomas, another slave, and a record of the conversation held in the files of a family in Old Mobile, Alabama. Uncle Tony was 105 years old then.
The story is told by Thomas, former slave of the Diard family. Uncle Tony was the slave of Mobile Judge H. Toulmin, grandfather of the later Judge H.T. Toulmin, who was appointed a judge by President Jefferson.