Project 1885.1
FOLKLORE		Elited by: ~
spartariburg Dj~t ~4	390153	Elmer Purna~ge
June 21, 1937


STORIES FROM EX—SLAVES


	“Yes sir, I drinks jes‘ a leetle likker, and I drinks it ——— I don‘t let it drink me. One call fer another. tar it goes ‘till you be‘s drunk. I is 97 years old and I ain‘t never been drunk in my life. No sir—ee, nobody ain‘t never saw me drunk. It sho drink some of ‘em though.

	“Heep o‘ stars Leu ~vhen I was young. Dey fell regular fer a minute er so. I laid down fer a nap and de niggers woke me up a hollering. Ev‘y darky was scared, but it sho was a pretty sight.

	“I ‘members de earthquake, too. r~e earth shake and tremble so hard dat some loose bricks ~e1l out my chimney and de pitcher sell off de winder—sill down on de fib‘. I was ‘bout 50 years old den, ii I ‘members correct. Dat come ‘long in 1886.

	ttI also ‘members Gen. Wade Hampton. When I was a build..

ing up de breastworks to keep de Yankees from shooting us. Dein was scary times, but de Ku Klux days was scary times de most.

	‘1i~1y young marster, Dr. Johnny Hill, used to have nie drive him t o Padgett ‘s Creek Church. Somet irne us go to de Q,uaker church, den agiri, us ~o to church over in Goshen Hill.

	“ABout Lus‘ thing my white folks had n1e a—doing, was gwine fer de papers up to de sto‘ at Sardis. I would git a lot o‘ letters, Ler in dein 4ays, de white folks rit letters to one