hard and we ainâ had nothinâ to sleepee on but de floor. Sometime de bluff it so high we got to chunkee de wood down two three times foâ it git down where de river is. De steamboat didnât used to burnee de coal. It burnee de wood anâ it usee so muchee wood!
âDe war commences but we doan know âbout it when it start: we see de white folks runnee up and down. Dey go in de Mobile. Dey come out on de plantation. Den somebody tell me de folkses way up in de North make de war so dey free us. I lak hear dat. Cudjo doan want to be no slave. But we wait and wait, we heard de guns shootee sometime but nobody donât come tell us we free. So we think maybe dey fight âbout something else.
âDe Yankees dey at Fort Morgan, you unnerstand me. Dey dere on account de war and dey doan let nothinâ come passee dem. So poâ folks, dey ainâ gottee no coffee anâ nothinâ. We parchee de rice and makee de coffee. Den we ainâ gottee no sugar, so we put de molassy in de coffee. Dat doan tastee so good, you unnerstand me, but nobody cain do nothinâ âbout it. Capân Jim Meaher send word he doan want us to starve, you unnerstand me, so he tell us to kill hogs. He say de hogs dey his and we his, and he doan wantee no dead folks. Derefoâ you know we killee hogs when we cain gittee nothinâ.
âWhen we at de plantation on Sunday we so glad we ainâ gottee no work to do. So we dance lak in de Afficky soil. De American colored folks, you unnerstand me, dey say we savage and den dey laugh at us and doan come say nothinâ to us. But Free George, you unnerstand me, he a colored man doan belong to nobody. His wife, you unnerstand me, she been free long time. So she cook for a Creole man and buy George âcause she marry wid him. Free George, he come to us and tell us not to dance on Sunday. Den he tell us whut Sunday is. We doan know whut it is before. Nobody in Afficky soil doan tell us âbout no Sunday. Den we doan dance no moâ on de Sunday.
âKnow how we gittee free? Cudjo tellee you dat. De boat I on, it in de Mobile. We all on dere to go in de Montgomery, but Capân Jim Meaher, he not on de boat dat day. Cudjo doan know (why). I doan forgit. It April 12, 1865. De Yankee soldiers dey come down to de boat and eatee de mulberries off de trees close to de boat, you unnerstand me. Den dey see us on de boat and dey say âYâall canât staydere no moâ. You free, you doan bâlong to nobody no moâ.â Oh, Lorâ! I so glad. We astee de soldiers where we goinâ? Dey say dey doan know. Dey told us to go where we feel lak goinâ, we ainâ no moâ slave.
âThank de Lorâ! I sho âppreciate dey free me. Some de men dey on de steamboat in de Montgomery and dey got to come in de Mobile and unload de cargo. Den dey free too.
âWe ainâ got no trunk so we makee de bundles. We ainâ got no house so somebody tellee us come sleepee in de section house. We done dat till we could gittee ourselves some place to go. Cudjo doan keerâhe a free man den.â
VIII
Freedom
A fter dey free us, you unnerstand me, we so glad, we makee de drum and beat it lak in de Affica soil. My countrymen come from Capân Burns Meaher Plantation where we is in de Magazine Point, so we be together.
âWe glad we free, but den, you unnerstand me, we cain stay wid de folks what own us no moâ. Derefoâ where we goinâ live, we doan know. Some de folks from cross de water dey done marry and got de wife and chillun, you unnerstand me. Cudjo not marry yet. In de Affica soil when de man gottee de wife, he build de house so dey live together and derefoâ de chillun come. So we want buildee de houses for ourselves, but we ainâ got no lanâ. Where we goinâ buildee our houses?
âWe meet together and we talk. We say we from cross de water so we go back where we come
Bret Witter, Luis Carlos Montalván