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~~4()OJ 8
	Sarah Probst	District Three
	Reporter	Meigs County
	Audrey Meighen	Folklore-Ex-Slavee

Author4~di tor

Mr, William Nelson

Aged 8$

	“Whar‘s I bawned? ‘Way down Belmont1Mjssouri, jes‘ cross frum C‘lumbus Kentucky on de Mjssissippi. Oh, I ‘lows ‘twuz about 1BI1$, caise I wuz fo‘teen when Marse Ben done brung me up to de North home with hirn in 1862.“

	NMYP Pappy, he wuz ~‘Kaintuck‘, John Nelson an‘ my•manny wuz

Junis Nelson. No euh, I don‘t know whar dey wuz bawned, first I member ‘bout wuz my pappy bujldjn‘ railroad in Beimont. Yes suh, I had five sistalis and. bruthahs. Der names lets see Oh yes

der wuz, John, Jim, George, Suzan and Ida. No, I don‘t member nothin~

-~‚
~	my gran~parents.“

	“My mammy had her own cabin for ~nir and us chulluns, De ~iz rails stuck through de cracks in de logs fo‘ bedB with straw on top fo‘ to sleep on.“

	t$~tId I do, down dar on plantashun? I hoed corn, tatahs,

garden onions, and hepped take cair de hosses, mules an oxen. Say I could hoe onions goin ‚ backwards . Yessuli ‚ I cud.“

“De first money I see wuz what I got frum sum cohere fo‘ sellin‘ ~‚ dein a bucket of turti‘ eggs. Dat wuz de day I run away to see sum Yankee steamboats filled with soljers.«