350014
Oklahoma Writerst Project	45


)IARTE.4 CUNNIXG~AM
	(white) Age 81 yrs.	.
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma


	My fatherts naine was A. J, Brown, and. my mother~s name was Rattie Brown. I was born in the East ‚ in Saveer County, Tennessee. I had. twelve sisters and. brothers, all are dead but two. T. S. Brown lives at 32? W. California, and. Maudie Reynolds, my sister lives at Minrovie, California.

	We lived. in different kin&s of hous~s just like we do now. Some was of log, ~me frame and. some rock. I remember when we didntt have stoves to cook on, no lamps, and. not even any oan&les until I was aboat six years old.. ~e would take a rag and. sop it in lard. to make lights.

	All of our fu.rniture was home meAe, but it was nice, We had. just plenty . of every thing. I t wasnt t like i t is in these days where yo‘u have to pick and. scrape for something to eat.

	My grandfather and. grandmother gave my mother and. father two slaves, an old. woman and. man, when they married.. My grandfather owned a large planta..

tion, and. had. a large number of slaves, and. my father and mother owned several farms at d,ifferent places. Our mother and. father treated. our slaves good..

They ate what we ate, and. they stayed with us a long time after the Wai‘. I remàmber though all of the slave~ owners werent t good. to their slaves. I have seen tem take those young fine looking negroes, put them in a pen when they got ready to whip them, strip them and. lay them face down, and beat them until white wheips am se on their bodies. Yes ‚ some o f them was treated awful sean. ~

	I saw mothers sold. from their babies, and babies sold from their aethers. They would. strip thein, put them on the auction block aM sell them ~ bid. them off Just like you ~o~ld. cattle. Some would.‘ sell for