Ex—slave Stories	Page Two ‚
( Texas)








He always ‘ranged for parties and sich. Yes, suh, he wanted dem to have a good time, b~t no foolishraent, ju.s‘ good, clean fun. There am dancin‘ and singin‘ mostest every Saturd&y night. He had a little p1atfor~~ built for de jiggin‘ contests. Cullud folks comes from all round, to see ~ho could jig ~1e best. Sometimes two nig~ers each put a cup of water on de head and see who could jig de hardest without spillin‘ any. It w~s lots of fun.

	“I must tell you ‘bout de best contest we ever had. One nigger on our place was de jigginest fellow ever was. Everyone round tries t~ git some-. bod~y to best him. He could put de 4ass of water on his head and make his feet go like triphammers and sound like de snaredr~un. He could whirl rou.nd and sich, all de movement from his hips r~~‘wn. ~ow it gits noised round a fellow been found t o beat Torn and a o ritest am ‚ ranged for Saturday evenin‘. There was a big crowd and mon€~ ara bete but master bets on Torn, of course.

	“So dey starts jiggin‘. Torn starts easy and a little faster and faster. The other fellow dom‘ de same. Dey gits faster and faster and dat crowd am a—yell ‘ ‚ Gosh~ There ~m ‚ c iteraent . Dey j‘ keep a-.gwine . It look like Torn done found his match, but there am one thing yet he ain‘t done - he ain‘t made de whirl. Now he does it. ~veryone holds he breath, ~nd de other fellow starts to make de whirl and he makes it, but jus‘ a spponful of water slougha out his cup, so Torn am de winner.

	“When freedom come, the niaster tells his slaves and says, ‚ What y~ gwine do?‘ Well, euh, not one of dem knows dat. De fact am, dey‘s scared dey gwine be put off de place. But master says dey can stay and work for money o r share . He s aye they might be t rouble ‚ twixt de wh es and. ni~gers