Botetourt-Alleghany-Amherst County Virginia USGenWeb Archives History - Books .....Persinger Family Journal Vol 2 1910
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Susan Persinger persingers@yahoo.com December 21, 2010, 7:15 pm

Book Title: Persinger Family Journal Vol 2

This journal was kept by Mary Margaret Persinger 1858-1919? a daughter of 
Peter Persinger from Botetourt County, Virginia and Martha ?,  granddaughter 
of Gabriel and Rebecca Persinger and a great granddaughter of Sarah Persinger 
and Joseph Sparrowhawk.

 The second journal contains 188 entries from 1910-1912 but also included here 
are a number of loose pages from 1907-1909 that were never included when 
transcribing the first journal as they had been placed in the second journal 
by mistake. Most entries had no date attached to them and many were loose so I 
know some mistakes were made in trying to put them in order. There is little 
doubt that some mistakes may also have been made during the typing as in many 
cases it was almost impossible to tell the difference between the lower case 
letters e and i as she never doted the i. Lower case o, a, and u presented 
similar difficulties at times. The primary area this created concern was with 
the transcribing of some of the names. There is a great deal of Persinger 
family history going back as far as 1800 included among the accounts of day-to-
day activities. If anyone has information on any of the individuals listed 
here please feel free to share it with me. As a result of transcribing the 
entries into MS Word the program automatically corrected many spelling and 
grammatical errors, but many were deliberately left as written in order to 
give the reader and researcher insights into the language of the region. In 
cases where words were illegible, a best guess was made. 
     I give permission for the posting of all or parts of the journal to the 
Internet to any site for genealogical research purposes, however use of this 
for profit is prohibited without written permission from Susan Persinger Jones 
or Mary Jones. persingers@yahoo.com

  

       Miss Lewis ask me if I would do her a favor. I tell her she never has 
to do her no asking cause I do what I can to be helping her. She was wanting 
me and sis to go over to where Miss Jenny lives and see if she is doing fine. 
I know she was thinking that it hurt me to be telling me the truth. Her man 
never let her go see bout her cause where she be living now there be only 
colored. She say she have Mister Lewis send over one them boys that work with 
him to be going with us. He send us Hambone over and me and sis was happy bout 
it cause him and James good friends. Lord knows that he done been by my place 
plenty of times. First time we meet up with him we was calling him Mister Ham 
and he say that he was wanting us to call him like everyone else do. It be a 
fair piece getting to her place cause you gots to leave the county but we had 
us a good time with Hambone. He is as big as a bear and I know some folks 
ascared of him but sweet Jesus that boy ain’t got him no bad bone in his body. 
Miss Jenny lives with her sister and her granddaughter. She say she worked for 
the Lewis family and plenty of other folks in her years. One day she fell on 
some ice and busted up her hips and back and now she is barely able to be 
walking. I was happy to have Hambone with us cause the area she be living in 
have a fair share of no gooders all over.  We had met her a few times afore 
cause she visited with Miss Mary and Miss Jones. They was all slaves on the 
same plantation and she ain’t never had her no easy life. A body never had to 
be looking close to see that they don’t have them much. Miss Lewis had give me 
ten dollars to give her. At first she say she not take it but sis say that 
turning away a gift from the heart is a sin. She take it and ask that we give 
all the thanks to Miss Lewis for what she done. When we get back me and sis 
fix up some pork stew but it was hard eating. I don’t want to be thinking that 
poor woman going hungry some days.

     I had me a bad spell last night. I had me these bad pains in my chest and 
the sweat was just a running from me. I was thinking that maybe I be seeing my 
Adam soon. Blessed Jesus I be better today but it done set my mind to thinking 
bout so many things. I never want to be leaving sis and my family. I feels 
like there be so much I want to tell them bout fore my time comes. I was 
thinking back on Miss Etta and how me and sis promised we come back when we 
was growed and see her. She was a relation of Miss Dooley and was living on 
the other side of the state. Daddy send us down to her place sometime round 
1870 I think cause I was bout twelve. We was there neigh on six months. There 
was some kind a trouble but we never knowed what it was. One day they say we 
is going and when we gets back they never say why they done it. Miss Beverly 
say one time when we tell her bout it that round that time there was some 
trouble out of pattyrollers. She say they catched them this mulatto boy and 
nearly beat him to death. A day or so later over in the next county they go 
into this house full of mulattos and lash them bad. They was saying that mixed 
folks be from the devil and it was their job to send them back to him. She say 
some of her people gone up north til it done passed.  Maybe they was afeared 
they be coming for us. Sis say she don’t think that was the problem cause if 
we was over in Ritch Patch those boys killed them any that come for us. Course 
daddy never knowed him those people like we knowed them. Sis still wanting to 
put it all on momma but that been her way. Miss Etta had been a slave afore 
the war. She was good to us and treat us like we was her own. She say her 
master sell off all her babies long fore the war so it was just the three of 
us at her place. Now we had to work long side her on that farm but work never 
killed anybody. She was doing her some kind of sharecropping on the place with 
a couple of other families. She say she never minded the work cause it was 
easier than when she was a slave and had to be in those fields no matter the 
weather. Both them beds in her place had them a cornhusk mattress and it took 
a body some time to get comfortable in them. I rather have me hay any day over 
cornhusks. Every night she put us to bed with a song. A body never know by 
looking at her that she done seen her a life of miseries. She never had money 
for candy and such but she would fix us some butter candy and that was good. I 
wish we had us her receipt for potato dumplings. When they come for us she was 
crying and say it like the master selling her babies from her again. We hugs 
her and promises her that we come back and visit with her. I reckon by now she 
done passed cause she was born round 1808. I pray she passed at peace. She had 
her no learning so she never could have wrote to us. One day she had me put 
down on paper all the names of her family and showed her how her name looked. 
I was thinking that when we gone back I learn her how to do her some writing. 
Course the years done come up on us so fast a body never had time to be doing 
all they been wanting. Maybe she is with her babies now.  Sweet Jesus it gnaw 
at me thinking that good woman passed waiting for the day me and sis come 
back. We talked one time with Raymond bout going over to visit with her but 
never got round to it.
 

 
     Linda and my Sara stayed the night with me and sis and we had us some 
good eating. My Sara brung part of a cake that the folks she work for give her 
and that was some of the best cake we ever have us in this house. Her and 
Linda did them a lot of talking with sis and I never understand what those two 
up to cause she always say in the past that sis awful bossy but maybe she is 
getting better as she gets older. She still complain bout the way folks is 
treating her at work and I lets it pass cause we having such a good visit I 
don’t want do no fussing and sometimes she try and get one started I thinks 
for the fun of doing it. Linda course has no trouble telling me and sis 
everything her momma is not doing for her and the rest but no need to be doing 
so cause we know that she gots her a lazy turn. James knowed that when he 
married up with her so it is not our place to be saying nothing bout what she 
done or not done. My grandma say if it aint on your plate aint your concern. A 
time or two I knows sis getting ready to say something and I give her our sign 
and she hushes up. Lord Jesus knows that sis not take to a body doing nothing 
but aint our plate. I knows Linda aint walking round in no white gown either 
and we both know that my Sara is as mouthy as an old momma cat when she has 
her a mind to so no need to be taking sides cause doing so make the other 
believe that we paying no never mind to what they is doing. I loves me all 
mine and so do sis but wrong is wrong. They gots them better raising then they 
show some days. 

     Sweet Jesus James gots him lots of work and I praise you for that. Times 
seem so out of sorts cause when we was little a body not need to be working 
for other folks all the time if they had themselves a little patch of dirt. We 
growed most of our food and hunted for meat and when we needed money for 
something we do some work for someone or sell us something and get what we 
needed. Seems like these days a body gots to be working most days just to keep 
their bellies full. I knows part of it every one wanting to buy them this and 
that instead of making do with what they has. Some of mine is as bad as the 
rest so cant do me no complaining. Sis say we gots to accept that times is 
different and we never see it like it was. I reckon that is the way it be so 
no need to fret over what we never change. After they gone sis just look at 
the floor and shake her head. I knows that mean don’t ask me nothing cause you 
never want to know bout it anyhow.  I been wanting to put me out some grapes 
cause that vine of mine done died. We had lots of them over in Ritch Patch but 
most of them used by the boys for wine and such so we never gets us to many 
but Miss Fridley always make certain we has some for us and we could hunt us 
up some out in them woods if we had a mind to. 

  Miss Odell had some folks visiting. Me and sis cooked up some hoe cakes and 
a pot of greens and took them over. Lord there was such a passel of food that 
she could feed them all up for ages. Miss Terry brung over some stew that she 
done fixed up. Sis say she not put a dash of salt in the stuff and if there 
was any meat on that pork bone it done been eat off fore she put it in the 
stew. I never eat me any of it. I knows how she be doing some her cooking. Now 
there are some things she cook up good but most time she is rushing when she 
do her cooking and a body can taste it. She made sis a little mad cause she 
was walking round like some peacock talking bout how good what she cooked up 
was but least sis keep hush . Sis loves her Miss Odell and never be causing 
her no trouble in her own place.  Me and sis was talking with Mister Shaver. 
When he was growing up his people lived in Botetourt County. We was asking if 
he ever knowed any of our people. He say when he was little they was living 
not far from where Miss Sara was living. His people is all mulattos like me 
and sis. He only knowed him Miss Sara after she was old but say she was most 
times like a dog that done been put in a pen to long. I say I knowed me that 
look cause I done seen it more times than a body can count on my granddaddy. 
Sis say that be cause they wanted to be back out in them mountains but didn’t 
have them the legs to be doing it no more. He say she was nice but had her 
that odd turn bout her. Mister Hood and Miss Phebe was living with her and he 
say the most of them colored over that way had them a problem with them two 
cause everyone was knowed they was passing. He say some of his done been 
passing to but they never was putting on in front of him or other colored folk 
bout it. Lots of white folks is easy to be fooling. There be so many of them 
whites that is darker than me. If a body is light skinned and know how to talk 
and act white they never get found out. Mister Shaver say he always been to 
dark to ever been thinking of doing him any passing.  We say we done heared 
tell bout Mister Hood cause our Granddaddy Persinger told us but Miss Phebe 
never had her no colored blood cause her daddy was an Indian. Course for lots 
of white folks aint no difference tween colored and Indians cause they both 
aint white. She do have her a turn bout her that could make a body believe she 
hiding her something but that just her way. Granddaddy say that she always a 
good sister to him but even he say she has her different ways. He always say 
she was good at cooking her up some pies and I wish I had me her receipt for 
green tomato pie. Most folk all say it was the best they ever eat. Miss Odell 
can do her up one to that aint bad at all. Sis say she put her a drop of 
vanilla in it and that why it is so good. Sis likes her anything that taste 
like vanilla and my James the same way. I seen him and my Mary finish them up 
a whole vanilla cake at one sitting and the whole time sis there puffing 
herself all up cause she was the one that done made it. Like folks say the 
test of the cook is in the eating of the cake so sis is a good one cause most 
times she make one up not a crumb go uneat.

   We cooked us up a big pan of gravy and had us some beets and biscuits with 
it and we been eating good. Tom was here part of the day with us. He sit and 
visited with us while me and sis did us our work. He sang some songs for us 
and that boy gots him the voice of an angel. He done carved me and sis each a 
dove out of wood. We sure was proud to be getting them cause it lets us know 
he be thinking bout us when he not come round these parts. Sis say she going 
to get her some string and put hers round her neck. Sis say she want him to 
know how much she be appreciating what he done. I wish I could get him in 
church more but he aint got him no mind bout going so no need to be pushing 
him when he can’t be pushed. Anyhow a body got to want to be in church for it 
to do them any good. I wishes some days that we had us a church like we did 
when we was up there in Ritch Patch. Now those folks knowed how to do them 
church. During the summer we have us a foot washing bout every two weeks. We 
all meet up and we all wash each others feet like Jesus done. Folks in these 
parts don’t be doing it and looks at a body like they is febble minded if 
something mentioned bout doing it. Aint my place to be telling folks how to do 
them their church but it sure would be a pleasure to do that stuff again. 
Course the preacher’s wife act like me and sis aint got us a lick of sense but 
least it aint only us. Miss Terry say she treat her most times like she not 
even there. I never be wanting to spread gravy on her cause I think she gots 
her a good heart but she do fret a body to death at times. She acts like 
nobody round these parts got them any learning but her. Miss Beulah say she 
was born during slave days cause it was round 1824 and she knowed lots of 
folks from them days that never got them no learning but she got her some. 
Truth be told she have more than the preacher’s wife but Miss Beulah keep hush 
bout it. Lord sweet Jesus I loves having that woman round my place. She say 
some days she be hurting cause she never knowed what happened with her momma 
and daddy and knows that by now they done passed over and her not even knowing 
where their graves be but any hurt she gots her she keep inside and a body 
never know it was there. When she pass on those angels all be glad to welcome 
her and then she see her folks again.


  Sis up and burned her hand on our fry pan. It is not bad but she been 
nursing it all day so I been doing me some sewing. Least she is still doing 
the cooking cause I has several things I need to finish up fore the week is 
over. I got two sets of curtains to do but they don’t have to be finished til 
next week so sis be able to help me fore then. Sis say we get them done in a 
day. I don’t care me much for the color of the material but aint for my house 
and aint my money. If a body say do them up in this fabric aint my place to 
say they is as ugly as the devil’s sister. We had us some pork and berry pie 
today. We need to bake us up a pan of potato bread in the morning cause I 
knows Tom coming by and he ask sis special to make it up. I be sure that 
burned hand or not she do it for him. I been saving back a few eggs for him 
and sis say she cook up some beans with onions. She knows that boy can do him 
some eating when he has a mind to. Seems like he is the quietest of all mine 
and I always wondering what that boy gots him on his mind. Not like my Sara 
that tell a stranger every thing she is thinking. Miss Odell say that some 
folks talk cause they never stand them no silence. I can understand that cause 
some days when it is just me here in the house I talks to my cats. They may 
not be understanding me but they act like they listening to every word I says. 
I knows my James talks to that dog he gots over at his place. Miss Eliza say 
that some times a body needs an animal to listen to them cause lots of folks 
not wanting to hear a body’s problems. I knows I tells my cats things I never 
tell no one but sis and the good thing bout that is that when they hears a 
secret it stays a secret.  Course there be days when a body has to have them 
someone to talk with bout their troubles. I thanks sweet Jesus that I always 
have me family and friends to be doing it with. 

      Miss Odell was visiting today and say there is talk of a fever in the 
next county and so me and sis been in the house all day. I hates me the very 
word. I knows what sorrows a fever brings with it. Aint no telling who die and 
who live when it come to a house. Me and sis done seen enough of it to know 
the fever aint no kids toy. When it come it come to kill. Miss Amanda always 
say cold at day break, warn at noon, hot at supper be dead soon and lord we 
done seen it many a time. Me and sis knowed us this man Mr. Coleman. He was a 
tanner and a stronger man than most and never a pain to speak of. I was taking 
care of his mommas house. She was old and in the bed most of the time. She had 
fell from a horse and done busted herself all up. I was doing the cooking and 
such. Most days Mr. Coleman not leave his house for work til he see me put the 
light in her window. One day I keep looking for him to leave and them Miss 
Coleman come over and ask me if I had me any of them herbs that Miss. Amanda 
done made me up. I say that we done used them up but get her to bring her some 
in the morning. By the next morning he done passed. Sweet Jesus his family 
never even got him in the ground fore it took his wife and two of his 
daughters and then it was gone. Nobody knowed where it came or where it went. 
It was just there one day killing lots of good folks and a couple days later 
gone. Some of the whites put it on the Indians and the colored. That never 
made no good sense to me and sis cause a couple of them taken with it. After 
they all was in the ground his brother come up and say that he don’t want no 
more devils looking after his momma. There this woman that I done changed her 
bedclothes every morning and washed them up after she done done her business 
in them during the night say that me and sis done tried to poison her food. 
She tells him that she want us gone. Never even give us the money we was due 
but sis say god deal with them. I don’t dwell on it cause grief cause a body 
to do things they knows is wrong. Sweet Jesus know that when he took my Adam I 
was mad at the world and mad at god and mad at sis but she pay me no never 
mind and fore long the madness gone. Anyhow I knows I see my little angel 
again.

     I had me a pain in my legs when I get out of bed. Sis give me some salve 
to rub on it and now it feels fine. It don’t smell to good but bless Jesus a 
little smell better than any pain. Miss. Jean was by today and we had 
ourselves a good visit. I give her some of sis’s vanilla cake that she made up 
with the walnuts that Miss. Odell give us. I never say nothing but I think 
that woman done knowed herself some hungry days. She eat it right up so I fix 
her a plate of greens and turnips and she eat like she aint had nearly a bite 
in days. She say she got a letter from her boy who works up north but he never 
sent her a penny. It don’t surprise me none cause John always was thinking 
bout himself and was nothing but trouble when he was round these parts. Now 
his momma living with her brother and his family and they barely able to be 
doing for themselves. Her momma and my grandma were friends cause her momma 
was a free woman. Her momma had her seven kids and all died fore she was seven 
months along excepting Miss. Jean and her brother Andrew. She say it cause her 
momma was born a slave and when she was little her master beat her all the 
time and done messed her up all on the inside. When her master died his family 
give her momma her freedom and they come to Virginia. She never knowed her 
daddy cause some slavers caught him when she no more than three. She reckons 
that they sent him down south and sold him even though he was a free man. They 
would have caught her to but say her momma run with her two kids into the 
woods. Miss. Jean only had her the one boy and she never say why. Miss. Odell 
say her man sickly and died fore John very old. I give her some food to take 
with her. She say she not want it but I lies and say that it go bad if she 
don’t so she take it and go. I pray sweet Jesus knows that I say a lie cause 
she not take it otherwise and not cause I wants to lie. Me and sis know what 
being hungry is. We done been hungry more than we can count. I know Miss. 
Bowen always say that nobody leave her house hungry and me and sis the same 
way. I gives bread crumbs when I can to the birds cause they hungry to.  
Granddaddy Persinger  leave stuff out for them cause he say his people was 
from the bird clan. He say his daddy told him that if you feeds them they 
carry your prayers to the heavens. I don’t got me no big prayers for them but 
I do ask them to tell my baby Adam that I miss him and to keep him happy til 
me and sis get there with him. I tell Miss. Lewis bout that and I was thinking 
she be laughing at me. Stead of laughing she say she believe it and ask me to 
be putting her old bread out back for the birds. She say she gots her some 
prayers that needs answering. The more I sees the more I knows that people is 
people regardless of who they be or how much they has.

     Me and sis went to church today and not many there cause there is talk 
that the fever getting close. The preacher say that god help protect us but 
the fever put fear in the heart of folks. Even sis ascared that the fever get 
here and not much put the fright in her. Sis had her new dress on today and it 
sure was pretty. It is yellow with little blue and green designs in it. I did 
most of the work on it but sis did the collar work. She made herself a little 
hat to wear with it and she sure looked like she could be in a picture book. 
Miss Charity set with me and sis. Sweet Jesus know that woman aint had her no 
easy life but I loves her. She so funny cause she mostly deaf on one side. 
Bless her soul she be asking me through the preaching what the preacher is 
saying. I ask her over after church but she got her some relations so she have 
to eat with them. Sis ask her if she is ascared of the fever. She say if no 
master or them soldiers during the war never done killed her dead she not 
fretting bout no fever cause god take her when he ready. The kids came by 
after church and we all had us a big meal. I likes to see my family eat and 
sweet Jesus know we always having us a good time. Course they leave the clean 
up all to me and sis. Linda and her momma came but James out working. She eat 
and then sits herself down on my davenport and never moved. Most of the day 
she like she was mad at the world and sis wanted to say something but I asks 
her to keep quiet. At least she come by and not often she do that. We got 
everything put up and cleaned so no need to be complaining.

  Thank you Sweet Jesus. I got me a letter from my David and he say that he is 
happy. I misses me that boy but a man got to do for himself. My granddaddy 
Persinger say that a woman stays close to the land and ties a family to their 
roots. He say that it be the job of a man to open up new paths for the people. 
A tree has got to spread its limbs or it die and if its seeds don’t spread far 
then new trees never grow. David like that tree. He gots to find new land and 
I gots to accept that. I wish I had me the eye like Miss. Sara cause then I 
know how he is doing all the time. James say that I has me more on my plate 
then I knows what to do with so I needs to limit me what I be fooling bout. 
Lord that boy always knows him what to be saying to his momma even when she 
gets to acting feeble minded bout things. I know he worries bout me fretting 
over things the way I be doing. My James is a gift and I knows it. I just give 
all praise to Jesus that I know my David is doing good and that I got me my 
James.
  
    Miss Terry not been in church so me and sis went over to her place to 
check in on her. She was sick with the fever and not a crumb fixed up for 
eating so sis gets a fire in her cook stove. We cook her up a pot of beans and 
some bread and she thanks us for coming by. Lord knows that Miss Terry can 
fret a body to death but aint right to let any god’s creatures be alone when 
it is ailing. After she eat she say she feeling a little better. Me and sis 
told her bout all that we done heared in church. We has to start with what the 
preacher’s wife was wearing and what songs we was singing. We tell her that 
Miss Jasmine brung her new baby to church and he as white looking as my 
brother Floyd. Whenever daddy not round we called him docksee, which is Indian 
talk for turtle. For a long time I was thinking that be cause he as light as 
the belly on a turtle but sis say it cause he was always sticking his head out 
that he looked like a turtle. Truth be told only granddaddy Perrsinger knowed 
why he called him that and some things he never share with nobody. I wishes we 
knowed us more of them words but wishing not getting so things be as they be. 
Now my David almost as light as her baby but my David gots him more of them 
Indian looks than do her baby. Course Miss Jasmine is light and her man is 
just a little darker than me. We knowed Miss Terry feeling better cause she 
starts telling us both how Miss Jasmine’s man is as lazy as an old cat and she 
never lift a hand at cleaning up her place. She say she is not happy with the 
songs and ask who they let pick them out. Sweet Jesus I was thinking she not 
even sing a word one of them and still gots her something to say. We come home 
and we gots enough sewing to do to keep us busy for a long time. We never like 
having to work on god’s day but Jesus understand that a body gots to get their 
work done or there be no money coming on the place. I knows James never let us 
go hungry but that boy has his own needs and me and sis like doing for 
ourselves. Some days I feels like we back in the old days when most times it 
just me and sis. I thank Jesus that we never be like that again cause even 
when the kids gone a part of them always is here with us. I be expecting my 
Mary to come round the corner at any minute to tell me something the others is 
in to and then James come in and say get yourself back outside cause momma 
gots her work to do. Sweet Jesus how many times we have to put the food back 
on the cook stove while one of us go out to peacefy them. I wonder how a body 
ever find the time to do it all but we done it. So many women put so many 
babies in the ground fore they a few years old and I only lost me my Adam and 
that was a blessing from god. I still remembers when Miss Mandy over in 
Alleghany County was over at Miss Wrights showing off her new baby. It was 
bout time to be leaving so my cousin bring the horse over to her. Fore anybody 
knowed what happening that hateful old horse up and kicks at Miss Mandy. He 
misses Miss Mandy but his kick kills her baby dead in her arms. I knows many 
that put four or five of theirs in the ground. Lord knows I aint puffing 
myself up cause it was only with the hand of sweet Jesus that me and sis able 
to do it. Miss Jones say it was cause mine had themselves two mommas where 
most only has them one. I knows that be the gospel cause without her we have 
never made it this far. When one was sick one of us stay and doctor them while 
the other took care of the rest. When my James had him the fever one of us 
stayed with him night and day til he better. One would sleep while the other 
up and when I had me problems with my David being born I knowed that sis was 
doing the mommying for me while I healed myself up.  

   Seemed like the day be so long and then Miss Celia’s boy come and give us 
some huckleberries that she done cooked up. Lord knows we aint had us none 
since Moses in the desert.Sis made us up a pan of persimmon bread and some 
fried turnips and onions and we been eating good. We use to go huckleberrying 
when we was little and me and sis liked looking for them. Now I favor me 
blackberries and we did us some berrying all over those mountains. Granddaddy 
Persinger had him a nose for it cause he stop and sniff the air and fore we 
knowed it he done found us a patch. Them that Miss Celia sent over was good on 
that bread and by dark we done finished up them and most of the bread. Sis one 
of the best at making persimmon bread there is. Most folks never add them 
enough sugar course with the price of sugar round here a body can be 
understanding bout it. She can do her up a good persimmon pudding to and I 
likes to eat it with my eggs. I got to go over to Miss Lewis’ place in the 
morning and sis going to help the ladies clean up the church. I like to be 
doing my part with them but I knows she is expecting me and she been good to 
me and mine.


   Miss Lewis been sick now for several days so I been taking care of things 
at her place. I like working at her place cause it never take me long to clean 
round the house and cooking never do take me much time. When I is not busy she 
never mind me handling one her books cause she know I always take care when 
turning them pages and never touch me one lest my hands done be scrubbed to 
the elbow. Sis gone over with me yesterday and so I had me lots of time for 
reading. Lots of folks we work for expect a body to be standing there in the 
kitchen or doing something even if it not need doing and a body try and sit 
down bound to be told they is not paying for sitting but she never that way, 
Course she know me and sis takes good care of things and we never leave one of 
them windows unwashed. Seems like me and sis been working most of our days so 
never be a problem. I never remember all the different folks we done worked 
for but I still knows who most of them was. Sweet Jesus on days like this I be 
missing me my baby Adam. I see him one day but that not make the hurt less but 
not my place to be questioning god on why he take my baby cause we all his to 
do with as he wants. It is just that I sees all the folks that always is in to 
some meanness and they is still here and my little angel gone.

     Me and sis been trying to remember us all the songs we sung in Church 
when we was little. These days a lot of folks don’t be singing them old songs 
any more. There was one we liked and my grandma would sing with us. It go sing 
me to heaven. Sing me to Jesus. Heading to heaven you will find me singing but 
we not recollect the rest. There was one that go take me to the river. Take me 
to the river for Jesus. Put me under. Put me under for Jesus. Bring me up. 
Bring me up for Jesus. Make me one. Make me one for Jesus. Me and sis loves to 
sing and when we was growing up we sing all the time. Lots of them songs was 
church songs but we sung all kinds. I liked me Jack go hunting. It go Jack go 
hunting in the woods takes with him his old gun shoots at the cow shoots at 
the hen gets eaten by a bear when his bullets at an end. Seem to me that we 
had us some good times and a body forget bout all the bad things that done 
gone by. Sweet Jesus when Miss Nettie come by we all sing til we near fall 
asleep in them chairs. Lord knows we miss us that woman. She was born round 
1800 up next to where we was from in Alleghany County. Her family done come to 
those parts fore she was born from over there in Europe that why they never 
was any good at speaking them English. She say they never talked it at home. 
She say she had her the reddest hair when she was growing up but all I 
recollects is it done turned gray. She had herself round fifteen babies but 
many never make it very old fore they done been taken. She could do her some 
singing. When we go over her place or she come over to Miss Fridley’s somebody 
always come long with his banjo and fore long they be a bunch of them people 
coming down and we all was singing and having a good time. Nobody never was in 
no foolishness but some of them men be in the berries but Miss Fridley say 
that if they was in some meanness on account of it she not be having them back 
over and they minds themselves. When we go over to her place there was more 
food than a body ever think bout eating. Miss Ella done all the cooking on the 
place. I never knowed much bout her cause she was always in the kitchen 
cooking on something or the other and when she come out her and Miss Nettie 
talked them a different language. I try and talks to her one day when Miss 
Nettie had me fetch her reticule from the house and liked not to understand me 
one word she say but least she was always smiling at a body. Miss Nettie had 
her candy and food shipped in to her from Richmond and other places. Sweet 
Jesus some of that stuff was the best a body ever put in their mouth. 

James and Hambone been working with one of them Miss Sally’s boys somewhere 
over close to Roanoke. Sis say she don’t recollect which one they say. Sis 
real good with figures but has trouble sometimes with names. I think all them 
Callenders was born in Botetourt County cause grandma was good friends with 
their momma Miss Sally. Grandma always talked highly of her so I reckon her 
boys done took after her. Course grandma never done he no bad talking bout 
nobody. Most times if they was bad people she keep hush. That way if she say a 
body was good folks knowed they was good. Me and sis been sewing most of the 
day. I need James or one of the boys to get me some more chicken feed. Lord 
knows the price of it going up all the time. I don’t let it pester me. Miss 
Bowen always say that a body gots to put good feed in one end to get them good 
eggs from the other. Least I know if we don’t have us no work we can still get 
us money from our eggs. We has more people wanting eggs than we can get us 
eggs for. Sweet Jesus knows we keep our price fair and we only sells those 
that we knows be good. I don’t never try and slip in any small ones either 
cause we keep them for us. It is like with our sewing. If a body does their 
best and asks a fair price people buy what they gots them to sell. Cheat one 
person and a body lose them ten buyers. Sis say we that way cause those folks 
over in Ritch Patch done raised us right. Sweet Jesus I misses me those people.

    There was this big squirrel on top my old pine tree turning in circles and 
a calling so loud a body be able to hear it from far away. It give me what 
grandma always call chicken flesh. I come right back in the house and if sis 
not been there I put myself right to bed. I was shaking and wanting to cry. My 
granddaddy Persinger told me and sis that a squirrel was special and they has 
the power to give folks signs from the spirit world but they can also bring 
meanness. The day my Adam passed I was hoeing the garden when this squirrel 
come to the apple tree beside granddaddy’s bees and starts this loud calling. 
The whole time he was turning in these circles there on that tree limb. It was 
not like what they regularly sounds like but it was different and was like it 
cut a body to the bone. I gets me this pain in my chest and then I thinks bout 
my little angel and run back to see on him. He done passed and later I thinks 
that maybe if I been faster my sweet baby still be with me. My granddaddy had 
learned me those things but that day I was giving it no never mind and my baby 
was took. I should have been there cause the hoeing never take me no time but 
I was out there meandering round and my mind not on my work. If I had been 
working me like I knowed how to do it I been done and in with my Adam. Sweet 
Jesus I done carried this with me all these days and now it was like this 
squirrel was here to remind me that I was a no good slackered that cause me to 
lose me my baby. Some days I work my fingers til they bleed praying that god 
forgive me for what I done. After James come I beg god not to take him for 
some foolishness I do. I say if he keep my James safe I work til I falls over 
and never do me no complaining. I keep thinking maybe that squirrel came there 
to tell me that death take my baby cause death was thinking I not love me that 
angel enough cause he was not white enough for me. Maybe he was back to cut me 
deep again. Granddaddy done learned me that when high in the tree a squirrel 
three circles makes, death soon one of yours takes. He learned me that. I 
knowed that cause death always come in threes. Sis tell me to sit myself down 
and she go out to see bout this squirrel. She come back and say that it was 
not doing nothing just sitting there on that limb. She say listen that 
squirrel out in a pine tree and that don’t mean nothing to me. Then it like a 
cloud done moved and I knows what it mean. That pine tree with a squirrel in 
it is for good spirits and never bring nothing bad. After she say that I was 
feeling better but my heart still full of the miseries. It is like I gots me 
this sore that never be healing itself up. Some days it beats at me til I feel 
like I done been took by the madness. My dear little angel I misses you more 
than you ever know. I know you is in heaven and I see you one day. Fore I do I 
wants you to know that fore you was born it is true that your momma wanted to 
see you looking white not cause it make life easy for you than if you was dark 
but for me. I was thinking that I get me your daddy then. Lord sweet Jesus in 
heaven forgive me, but that be the truth little angel. I swear that your momma 
never had her any hurtness in her heart bout you being dark. After you come I 
swear to you that the moment I sees you I loved you more than any thing I ever 
had me. Every day I sees you and thanks god that you mine and the day you 
passed like a deep burn on my soul that never done healed and never be right. 
If I could have brung you back by opening up my own chest on that day I have 
done it for you. Aint a day passes me that I don’t think bout you and prays 
that you taken care of by them angels.
 
   Had one of my back teeth to crack on me but praise sweet Jesus it not 
splinter all the way down and aint got me no pain with it. I remember when we 
was little over there in Alleghany County. Mister Craft always come round and 
take out peoples teeth when they had them one a hurting or they done gone to 
the bad. When they knowed he was coming they take out the jug and the person 
take them a couple or three swallows to help get out any pain that be coming. 
He had them put a chair against the wall and they sit with their backs against 
that wall. Now if they was little then two men hold them still at the 
shoulders. They would put them a spit bucket that they used when they was 
chewing their tobacco beside that chair so they could spit out the blood and 
any tooth that come out. Mister Craft would take out his little bag of tools 
and he knock that tooth right out of their heads. If it splintered or done 
broke off then he have to do himself some digging round in there and lord a 
person able to hear them some of those screams from far off. Sweet Jesus when 
he had to knock out three from Mister Stull that man trying to fight them and 
the men has to hold him down on the floor and even Miss Stull sitting on his 
legs and Mister Craft hammering away at his mouth. Hearing all that like to 
give a body a death chill. After he was done they take a plug of tobacco and 
put it in the hole to stop them that bleeding. If they took them an infection 
one of the women fix up a poultice and put in on the tooth and it was the 
nastiest thing a person ever put in their mouth. They couldn’t swallow cause 
some them things in them poultices make a body sick so they have to spit that 
stuff out. Most times folks was fine cause Mister Craft say he got him a 
strong arm and a good eye and if that tooth knocked right out and the hole 
covered up no infection come from it. I know I was ascared every time I seen 
me that man thinking he done come to knock out my teeth. I praise Jesus that I 
done been blessed with mostly good teeth.

     Amos broke the handle on my hoe but say he will get him a piece of wood 
and fix it up for me. Lord knows that boy is always breaking something but he 
has him a good heart so I never get mad over some piece that got no meaning in 
my heart. He come in the house and say mawmaw and I knows that he has done 
been into something cause that bout the only time he call me that. Least he 
finished up most the work fore he broke it so not much to be complaining bout. 
I fix him up some head meat on bread and then we shared some candied tomatoes. 
Sis made them up cause she knows I love them but I know she never mind Amos 
eating them all up. Anyhow we gots more honey and sugar so she can fix us up a 
mess tomorrow. That boy is a joy to us both and not many as good as him any 
been put in any woman arms. I thank Jesus every night that he done give us the 
family we has.

    James come by and told me that Miss Rebecca done passed and I sure was 
sorry to hear bout that. I aint seen her that woman in years and now I regrets 
not visiting her fore she passed. We stayed many a night at her house. They 
had them some odd ways of doing things. After the meal they have to put the 
kitchen chairs up on hooks on the wall cause her man say that sitting 
something a body do at meals and at night when it is to dark to work. Many a 
time I seen her standing by the table with a needle and sewing her up 
something and I was thinking that it would be easier if she was to take her 
one of those chairs down but she never did. Our bed at night was under the 
table and she put down the blankets and tell me, sis and her girl Emma to get 
ourselfs right off to sleep. Emma and me was good friends and had us some good 
times. We would wait til we heared them snoring and then we play games like 
blind man’s ladder and spider webs cause you played them with twine and they 
was quiet. They never had them much food to eat so when it was put down on the 
table we eat as fast as we could cause if you was slow at the grab you go 
hungry. Sis say Miss. Rebecca favored me cause she have a girl named Mary that 
bout my age that died when she was little and she had a couple of other 
children die when they was real little to. Jesus know it be hard being a momma 
cause you never stop fretting over what come of yours. My grandma tell me that 
when they first get themselves married that one of granddaddy Persinger’s kin 
lose a child to wild hogs. Someway he get caught up in some brush and the hogs 
rush him cause he been eating on something and they smell it on him and fore 
anyone get to him they done ripped him up and him no more than four or five 
years old. Least my baby Adam pass peaceful in his bed and I give praises to 
Jesus for that.


    I got me leak again in my kitchen roof round my cook stove pipe and every 
time it rain the floor gets covered. I know James and Amos fix it up soon as 
they gets them some time. I knows such things worry some to death but we so 
happy to have a place with glass in the windows and no quilts up as doors and 
walls that wind don’t blow through that little things like nothing to us. We 
done bedded down more nights than a body can count in a barn with the animals 
but sis say that if it was good enough for baby Jesus then we got no reason to 
be complaining.  We both like us the smell of fresh hay and aint no softer bed 
to be found anywhere and its warm as long as there is no big wind outside. I 
keep saying to myself that we has it good here and better than many folks has 
it. I recollects when Miss Becca over in Ritch Patch lose her place in a fire. 
All them boys came out and started skidding in logs and they worked from first 
light til dark and Mister Bowen bring over some jugs but say they not get into 
those berries til the sun go down and only those that been working. By the end 
of the next day they had a place up. Those boys worked hard cause they all 
wanted in those jugs. They knowed them that it was bout the only time they not 
have to worry bout their women getting in a fit over it. It had only one small 
room and a dirt floor cause they didn’t have them neary a board one. Miss 
Becca thanked them all cause without them folks they be sleeping with the 
chickens so it didn’t bother her that she had a dirt floor. Course it weren’t 
long til they had them a proper place put up in its stead but I agrees with 
her cause any place better than no place. Lord knows me and sis done bedded us 
down in a chicken pen afore and never want to be thinking bout doing it again. 

     Me and sis was over at the church most of the day cleaning. We got us 
another traveling preacher coming on Sunday and the preacher wants everything 
just right.  Miss Odell hurt her back so me and sis did all the lifting and 
moving. I hope folks come out to hear him speak cause the preacher want the 
church to be full and the last time the church was not even half full. I get 
all mine I can to go but no telling how many be there. When we was little 
there was lots of preachers that would travel round from place to place and on 
weeks they was not there one of the men do the preaching. When we first come 
here Mister Lee did it many a Sunday when the preacher not come and do him a 
good job. A body never know he couldn’t read him a bit but he done learned him 
all those verses and not a hymn he didn’t know. When he passed Mister Paul 
moved on his place but he don’t come to our church no more cause him and some 
of the men had them words. Sis say that him and Mister Brown was never able to 
get along cause was Mister Brown to set in the way he want things done in the 
church and course Mister Davis and Mister Brown was good friends and he always 
took his part so he say he has him his church at home. Jesus knows that Mister 
Brown was hard bout lots of things but he was a good Christian man and he 
lived what he speak and when that be the case aint nothing no one can say bout 
it. Aint no body going run me out my church. Miss. Mary always say that church 
was for talking to Jesus so if you gots a problem with some folks there then 
you not need to be talking to them any how. 

   The wind like to tear the house a part last night. It was so loud that it 
give me and sis a fright and we got ourselves out of bed and sit ourselves 
down in the kitchen. We done lost us our porch roof to the wind afore and not 
wanting to lose it again. The lightning done made the sky look like day and we 
was thinking that it be the end of us all. I was praying that sweet Jesus save 
us and Sis starts fixing up a bite to eat. I ask her why she cooking up 
something when the house bout ready to go . Sis have her this little smile on 
her face and say if she going to be meeting up with Jesus she was going to 
meet him with her belly full. Sis has a way of putting a body at ease. Fore 
she was done we done eat up some of my selling eggs cause she say if the house 
fall to the ground they go to waste anyhow and a pan of bean bread. We was 
eating and funning so much we never even knowed the storm done passed us by. 
Thank you Jesus the house stood and other than a broke window we make it fine. 
I hates me a storm but aint nothing a body can do bout them. Least I has me 
sis here with me. I was pondering that sis must be taking after Miss Sara 
cause sis always been the rock of the family. Granddaddy Persinger’s daddy say 
that was why he loved him Miss Sara cause he never seen him no woman Indian or 
white that was not ascared of nothing. The first time he met up with her he 
was out in them woods. He say she come up on him and starts talking like she 
done knowed him all her days. He was cooking him up something over a small 
fire and she come over and help herself. He didn’t take to her right off but 
when he leaves she follows him. He was thinking that she was some crazy white 
woman. After bout the third day he ask her where she be going and she say we 
is going back so you can meet up with my people. She tell him if we is going 
to have us a family I wants them to meet up with you first. After that he say 
no man let a woman like her be getting away. He knowed a woman like her give 
him strong sons. Granddaddy ask why he just not take off in those woods and 
never be looking back but he say she was faster in those woods then he was. 
Sweet Jesus he was right. All them boys she give him was like wild animals in 
those woods. Granddaddy was the fastest runner of the bunch but say his 
brother Eli was the best climber and tracker. His daddy called him squirrel 
cause he go straight up one them trees and never look down. When they had them 
some fruit to be picking say the folks always say let squirrel get up in the 
tree after it. Say when they run them a coon up a tree he go right up and 
shake it down. His brother George was the best of the bunch at hunting and 
knife throwing but I don’t recollect what they called him. I seen him put a 
knife in the middle of a ribbon at fifty feet and he was strong as any of them 
up there in Ritch Patch. Jesus knows that I miss me those folks. 

     Sis cooked us up a nice meal today. It pains me some days that sis never 
had her no babies of her own and I knows some of the blame laying at my feet 
cause she knowed I needed her to be helping me raise up mine. That first 
winter after Raymond passed we never made it without her. I had me a bad fall 
and was in the sick bed and there come bout four feet of snow. We was snowed 
in up there on that mountain and the wood almost gone. We had us some food 
down in the root cellar but no way to be getting to it. Sis climbs through the 
window cause the door never open with all that snow. She digs through the snow 
to the wood pile and chucks the wood to James and then she digs down through 
all that snow to the root cellar and got us some food. Sweet Jesus when she 
done come in she bout frozen dead but she still cooked up us all a meal. When 
we get to heaven bet granddaddy’s daddy say that sis was the kind of woman he 
wanted all his female relations to be. I hope he is proud of me also.


     Sis done killed her a rat with my broom by my flour sack and give it to 
the cats. It strike a body odd that one get in here in the first place cause 
my cats kill all they can find but this one got by them. Sis say its cause I 
feeds them to much but I just smile. Sis say she fix me up a new broom. She is 
good at broom making. I say aint no need cause I pay no never mind to a rat 
having been killed dead with it. Sis get things like that on her mind and I 
know fore long I has me a new broom in the kitchen but if she do then I give 
my old one to Miss. Rita. I done seen hers and its falling apart and she not 
care what sis done killed with it. Miss Nicely done got me a couple more 
people wanting me to do them a Bible cover. They seen hers in Church and all 
wanted them one like it. She done sold a lot of things for me. Sis say she 
help me with them cause they pay good money. I has to do the stitching of the 
designs and that take time but we get them done in a week or two. People that 
got them money don’t seem to mind buying them things if they made right. 

     Sis say she seen Miss Gert and she is moving back to Alleghany county. I 
guess her and her husband done taken care of their problems. Her man always 
had him an eye for the ladies and done had him two or three by several 
different ones. I never understand why she stay but love an odd thing to see 
and sis say that she love him. I know Miss. Wolf try and talk her out of 
marring him but aint no talking to some folks cause they never listen. I know 
something is going on with my Sara and Linda. They was by here and then they 
outside talking in hushed words and looking back to see if me and sis 
watching. Linda’s momma is in her sick bed and ask Ben to have us fix her up 
some food and we does it cause if not she make James do it. James like Miss 
Gert cause he stay with her no matter what she do. Sis fix up a pan of bread 
and I made up a pot of greens and turnips so he could take them over to her. 
We send the last of our buttermilk with him cause I don’t want none mine going 
hungry. Sis say she fix us up a slop roll tomorrow and I be looking forward to 
that course that mean I gots to do the cleaning up and that take time as she 
use a number of pots to get it done. She puts her four or five eggs in a pan 
and mixes in some pork, bout a cup or so of meal, a couple of tomatoes and a 
small amount of greens. She fry that up while she got a pot of beans cooking 
with some bacon and butter and in the next pot she puts her some pork fat and 
a little milk and sugar and cooks that til the fat done most melted. When it 
is all done she mixes them together and we has us some good eating. We took a 
pot over to the church supper and Miss Charity liked to eat herself sick she 
eat so much. I think she would have but sis promised to make her a slop roll 
and bring it over. 

    My gray cat finally showed back up this morning like nothing my bother but 
I was just happy to have the old thing back. Been working over at Mister 
Parker’s place and the work aint hard but it take most of the day cause I gots 
to fix them up something to eat fore I leave. Least they let me eat all I 
wants fore I leave so don’t have to do me no cooking when I gets home. His 
regular girl had to leave to take care of her momma. He say she may be back in 
a week or two so I work til she come back. Miss Parker is a nice lady but she 
just sit round the house all day doing nothing. She do fix breakfast but I has 
to fix her lunch and make up the beds. She likes to read and always have a 
book in her hands. She has her three boxes full of shoes and I wonders why a 
body need so many but not my place to ask. The first day I was there she ask 
me if I can read. When I says I can do me some reading she sends me to the 
store with a long list of things to buy. Sweet Jesus I might near not make it 
back with all the stuff. When I get there she never lifted a hand to be 
helping me put it away. She just sit back and say put this under the basin and 
put that in the box next to the table. They pay better than most so I do as 
she say and keep hush. Except when he eating I never seen Mister Parker 
without a pipe in his mouth. He has tobacco special sent to him. In all my 
born days I aint never smelled anything like it cause it got a sweet smell to 
it. Ben come by and give me three dominecker hens that someone done give him. 
They is old and I turn them upside down and they aint had no eggs in a while. 
Grandma learned me how to tell if a hen be laying by looking at her bottom 
side. If it is moist and soft then she laying but if it hard and dry she not. 
I give them a while to see if they starts anyway cause I likes me the color 
and if I can get them to laying again they be good hens. My grandma always 
raised her up some. Some days I worries myself bout what come of Ben but then 
he do something good and I knows he got him love in his heart and there be 
Jesus and he look after that boy for me.

     Ben and Amos was by and helped clean up round the place while me and sis 
over at Mister Parker’s house. Amos done fixed up my hoe. Sweet Jesus I don’t 
reckon that oak handle he done made for it break to easy this time. After they 
leave I was just not feeling right like something out of place or different. 
Me and sis study on it a while but never settle on what it be. Then I go to 
let my momma cat out and look down and my prayer rock gone. I looks and the 
others still there but it make no never mind cause granddaddy Persinger say 
there gots to be four of them for them to work. He learned that from his daddy 
and me and sis done four for every place we ever live since we was grown. He 
say take four flat stones and you paints four red dots in a line on each. Once 
you got them painted you puts them down one on each side of the house with 
then dots going out and after you puts them down you puts some tobacco on the 
stone. Them stones when down right bring peace and protect them that is in the 
house. We never says nothing to church folk bout it cause they never 
understand but we knows them ways not wrong. I was doing me some reading in 
one them books over at the Lewis place and it was talking bout all those 
traditions that done come from over there in Europe and nobody think nothing 
of it if a body follow them but if a person want to follow them any of the old 
Indian ways folks start talking like they do the devil’s work. I never blame 
me them boys cause it was my fault for not telling them why they was there and 
explaining how important they be. Me and sis go right down to the creek and 
find us a new stone. When we back with it we paints them dots on it and put it 
where it should be. It makes me sad some days thinking bout how when me and 
sis gone maybe all these things gone to. Maybe some body find our things and 
think they just be some painted rocks and like Amos toss them away.  

    Miss Lila done been in the sick bed neigh on five days and me and sis take 
her over some greens and a mess of fried onions. Some of the church ladies 
been doing turns helping look in on her. Poor soul look like she pass on any 
day but she eat all we brung right up. We sits and reads the Bible and she 
tell us bout all her family. Course we knowed most of them but we never say 
nothing. We knows that some time a body talking not cause they wanting to tell 
you something but cause they needs to be doing the talking for themselves. 
Some of them tales we done heared so many time we knows them bout as well as 
she do. We sits there and puts on like it was the first time we was hearing 
them. She ask sis if she do her the favor of sewing up a burying dress and say 
it not be any need for something fancy. She say she not have anything she feel 
right meeting Jesus or the angels in. Course sis say she get sewing soon as we 
gets home so she doing it up now. I offer to help but sis say she wants to do 
it herself. I understands cause those two always been close and I knows sis is 
hurting inside but she not wanting the world know her business. Miss Lila say 
she don’t want it or need it fancy but sis done cut the buttons off her best 
Sunday dress to put on it. She say Miss Lila always say how pretty they was. 
Sweet Jesus know that woman gots her a heart on her the size of a bucket. She 
done saved for ages to buy her them buttons but her love bigger than her 
wanting for them.

     Sis finished up her dress for Miss Lila. She ask me if I wants to go over 
with her but I say I stay here. Some times a body needs them time to say what 
they might not if other folks round. When she come back I wonders how Miss 
Lila like it and sis say she cried when she give her it. Sis never say her 
anymore so I keep hush bout it. We fix us up some potatoes and bread. We 
finish the last of our berry pie and she was all quiet and it tear at me. 
Sweet Jesus know sis feels her pain deep and try and hide it but I knows where 
it be. I know sis like to do her some talking bout Granddaddy Persinger so we 
goes over some of the stuff he done learned us and fore long she talking like 
her old self. Sis like me and don’t believe that it is wrong to believe in 
them old ways and still be church going. We was talking bout the time we 
visiting over at Miss Wolf’s place in Ritch Patch and it starts to snow. 
Granddaddy come and say we needs to be getting ourselves on fore the snow get 
to deep. Miss Polly visiting and she say we can all go to her place first and 
then if it was not to bad we can go on from there.  Miss Wolf offer us a bed 
but granddaddy say he wants to get home cause grandma be there by her 
lonesome. Miss Wolf put some bread in a satchel and a couple of pork bones for 
Miss Polly’s dog. Whenever a body see Miss Polly there was her dog and she 
even let him sleep in the bed with her. She called him Old Man and he was 
brown with some black and white on him. He was right near as big as I was. 
When we was leaving Miss Wolf yell out her door and tell Miss Polly that she 
should ride her Old Man home and we alls laugh. We was not gone long and it 
like the sky done opened up and the snow coming so fast a body not be able to 
see them nothing. Then the wind pick up and it near bouts knocks us down and 
poor Miss Polly say her legs giving out on her. She was next to seventy-eight 
years old and was not much bigger round than a rabbit. Me and sis was getting 
powerful cold and granddaddy say we go back to Miss Wolf. When we turns back 
it was so bad we knows we never find our way.  Miss Polly say Old Man lead us 
to her place but Granddaddy say we never get there. We comes on this old hen 
house and granddaddy knowed we was way far from where we get ourselves to a 
warm place cause that hen house all that be left of the place where Miss Sara 
staying when he and his brother was born. We gets in and barely room to be 
standing up and snow was blowing in through the cracks. After we inside 
granddaddy go out and cut him some cedar branches up. He put then round them 
cracks and fore long they done caught so much snow in them that most the wind 
was not coming in. He start a small fire and we all quail up with Old Man and 
we was all ascared so he start telling all us stories. Me and sis done knowed 
us them but Miss Polly never heared her most of them and me and sis has a good 
time watching her reaction. We never gets us much sleep and the snow keep 
coming. Granddaddy had him some winter meat with him and we take out the bread 
that Miss Wolf give us and he divvy it out. He give them bones to Old Man and 
he was half on top of Miss Polly and with him eating on that pork bone look 
like he done bit off her arm and eating on it and we all get us tickled. Me 
and sis never worried for us cause we knowed nothing in those mountains hurt 
us if granddaddy there but Miss Polly was the one we was ascared for. Miss 
Polly shaking a bit and sis put her arms round her and tells her we keep her 
safe. She just look at us and smiles so big and say sweetums don’t be you 
doing no fretting bout me and Old Man cause I was birthed here in these 
mountains and I die here but not be anytime soon. Say a body never be getting 
to her age if a little snow and cold do them in. Granddaddy Persinger say he 
hope the scraps of food last us if not he have to hunt something up. Miss 
Polly say that be fine as long as he not be looking over at her Old Man cause 
aint nobody eating him if we all has to starve. She give that dog a big kiss 
and then she look over at me and sis and say but don’t you fret yourselves 
none cause we not starve. When she lay herself down he let her use him like a 
pillow and there the two of them like they was one. We was there two days fore 
we can get us back to Miss Wolfs place.  She fix us up something and we eat 
like we never had us no food afore. Sweet Jesus that food taste better than 
anything we ever had. Old Man was there at Miss Polly’s side and she was 
dropping him scraps and then he lay himself down cross her feet. We looks over 
and there Miss Polly and her head was right down on the table next to her 
plate and part her hair was in the bread. Me and sis was thinking she done 
passed but then she start to snore and we knows she fine. We was there another 
day and then the weather done changed and we takes Miss Polly home. When we 
get there they all comes out saying they afeared she done been taken in the 
storm. Miss Polly just say hush yourselfs up bout that cause this been nothing 
but a handful of flakes compared to what I seen me in my years. When she tells 
them we done been two days in that hen house down by where Miss Sara’s cabin 
was they likes not to believe it. She tells them all that hen house like a 
palace compared to places she done slept her afore. Side she say Old Man never 
let nothing happen to her.  Me and sis laugh ourselves sick all the way to 
granddaddy’s bout the things she say. It weren’t a year or two later that Miss 
Polly passed and when she do Old Man go up to where they done put her in the 
ground and lay himself down on top. Every time they trys and get him off he 
turn right back. They puts a rope round his neck and tie him at the house but 
he never eat him nothing. That night he gets himself off and two days later 
they find him back at her resting spot. He had dug down in that frozen dirt 
til he not able to do him any more digging he circle himself up and passed. 
They gets one of Miss Polly’s old pieces to put round him and all those men 
puts him side her in the ground. Even the men folk was crying when they do it. 
Lord Jesus I never understand why they was putting on like that over some dog 
and then after me and sis get us our first cat and she passed I knowed. Me and 
sis like a beaten child cause we cried ourselves dry over that thing. When we 
gets home grandma never ask bout what we done seen us out in that storm. I 
figures she knowed that a storm never done stopped him in the past and not be 
doing it then. I wishes some days I had me her heart cause she never doubt for 
a moment that when he leave no matter what come he be back. I reckon me and 
sis that way most times with my James but still I worry myself when he gone 
and I know sis do to.

    Linda come by and sis fixed her up a big plate of the greens and potatoes 
that we been eating on all day. I knowed she was mad at the world like my Sara 
is at times so I was trying to do me some talking to her cause I know she 
listen to a body some days. I tell her that life is hard and that just the way 
it be. My granddaddy Persinger say a body fights to get borned into the world 
and gots to fight everyday to stay in the world. A single bee never be able to 
keep the bears away from the honey but a whole hive fight one off. He say that 
a family is like that hive of bees and that if you has you a family you never 
have to fight off that bear alone. The world does not care bout a body going 
hungry or getting torn up and most people don’t be caring but a family do. I 
never know if she paying me any mind bout it. Sis been talking with her bout 
things so maybe she can have her seeing good sense. Sweet Jesus some of these 
folks today never understand how things be and want to be living like there be 
nothing out there that can be bothering with them. I done seen it more times 
than a body count but me and sis is here cause we always been a family. Course 
she lay it all on her momma but her momma not need to carry her all the blame. 
Lord knows Linda has got her two shoulders of her own. I don’t want these 
babies to be thinking that the world is all bad but people is like mushrooms 
and a body needs to know which ones to be fooling with cause the good ones is 
very good and the bad ones will put a body in the ground.

   I was cooking me and sis some breakfast and a double yolk come out one my 
eggs. Miss Amanda always say when a double yolk from an egg you see, good luck 
in the house for three days there be. Me and sis start saying that over and 
over acting like we was at a church meeting. Sis was all laughing and I likes 
to see her happy cause she was still sick in her heart over Miss Lila. She say 
she go over after we eats and see bout her and my soul was hurting. I was 
afeared she come back in the sadness but when she come in she was all smiles. 
Miss Lila was up and bout the house she say and a body never knowed she been 
so near the door. Miss Lila say Jesus must be to busy to be coming for her 
right now. Course Jesus come for a body when he is ready. I like to see sis in 
good spirits cause she done earned her the right. She has her a bigger heart 
than most folks ever be thinking she do. Sis just has her ways but I know what 
is in her heart and it is nothing but good. I hope she knows how much we all 
care bout her. I thank Jesus that we been together all these years.

     Me and sis done started on the dresses for the Baker girls. Jesus knows I 
loves working with her. I gots to stitch Mister Baker’s initials on some 
handkerchiefs cause Miss Baker wants to give them to him as a surprise. I gots 
to do it with special thread that she done give me to use and its finer than 
what I uses so it take more time to get it done than most but she pay us good 
for it. She is not like a lot of them rich white women round here cause she do 
her own cooking and keep her own house. She can do her some sewing but never 
had her much a mind for it. Sweet Jesus knows I never talk bad bout her cause 
she is a good woman but she showed me a little blanket she done sewed up. If 
it been mine I have resewed the whole thing but she seemed as happy as a cow 
with a new calf bout it so I make over it. Her parlor look like it from a 
book. She say most of the things in it her family done send them a while 
back.  She gots her lots of pretty things all over her place and all them is 
as clean as you please. I never been in her place without her putting 
something in front of me to eat on and she always offer me something to drink. 
When it come it not like some houses I goes to where they gives you an old cup 
to be drinking from cause she give it to me in her best. I feels me at ease at 
her place and she talk to me like we be family and she always saying please 
and thank you to me.  She never ask me bout slave days or if I has me any 
learning or if we colored folk like working for white folks. Miss Beulah say 
she come from money and that fore the war her family was what they called 
abolists cause they wanted to set them slaves free. I know she loves her 
church and don’t have to be in her place long fore you hears least one praise 
Jesus come out of her. I done worked for her husband’s brother a couple of 
times and his wife not that way at all. Sis was with me one day and she calls 
out to some folks she gots coming to visit and say come on in and meet my two 
new nigger ladies that work for me. I tell sis to give it no never mind cause 
she was poorer than us fore she get herself married up. She can fluff up all 
she wants as long as she pay good and she do. It do no good to try and tell 
her we was not no niggers cause we gots us Indian and white relations. Not do 
any good anyhow. Miss Beulah say they bout near lynched her granddaddy years 
ago for thieving and her daddy bout as bad. After she married into some money 
she not even allow her people to visit her. She say she even pay them to move 
out of the area so she can put on like she born on a silk carpet. Course she 
is fair with us bout paying and more than one time I done left there with a 
basket of stuff she done give me so I never go against any thing she tell us.

    The rain done come down in buckets. Miss Fridley always call them Noah 
rains when they come like this. Sweet Jesus I recollects we had us this one 
Noah rain round 1876 or 1877 and it like never to stop. A couple of folks got 
themselves washed away and nary a sign of them ever seen again. There was 
water coming out some them hollers where nobody ever seem them water afore. 
One them Bowen boys say he was bringing in the cows and they was crossing them 
this little stream on their place. He say all the sudden he looked back and 
that stream done made itself into a river and one his milk cows done been took 
under. It washed out Miss Jane’s hen house and hog pen. When it was done all 
she could find herself was one of her white hens bout half drowned. Least ways 
me and sis been in the house all day. I got me a book to read and sis been 
doing some sewing so it not been to bad a day. I has to read some parts two 
times to get what they is saying but I do enjoy having me a book. I give 
thanks to sweet Jesus that those women over in Alleghany County learned me to 
read cause it is a true gift. Lots of white folks never bothered to be 
learning us nothing but they wanted us to have us some learning. I never know 
what I do if I never was able to do me some reading. Most days I never has me 
no time to be doing it but with the rain aint nothing much else needs doing. 
We has us some sewing to get done but that not take much time. Sis say since 
she is in the house anyhow she make us up a good meal. She cooked us up a 
turnip and pork pie and some vanilla cake with nuts. I wish Linda would get on 
better with her momma but not my place. I knows that she aint James’ blood but 
she is mine as much as if she was born to me. I aint seen the like in all my 
born days the way her and my Sara been putting on of late. Sweet Jesus I give 
it all to you.

    I has me a good start to my day cause I gets me a letter from my David and 
he send me a couple of dollars and then Amos come by to visit with me and sis. 
I cooked him up a couple of squirrels that he done hunted him and a mess of 
greens and turnips. He is going with his daddy tomorrow to do some work over 
next to Roanoke so I knows I not see him for a spell. Some days sweet Jesus I 
feels me like I never understand what goes through some folks heads. My Sara 
come over after Amos get here and she was here most of the day. She eat some 
squirrel meat but little else and nary a word from her for Amos. After he 
leaves, me and sis try talking to her but it like she never hear nothing we 
say. She was all mad cause she say she hates the folks round here and aint 
nothing to do round here and that she don’t got her no friends. She done had 
words with the preacher’s wife over some foolness and I know she gots her some 
hurt in her soul but I don’t know me how to be fixing it. She say she not want 
to be mixed no more. She say she is to dark to be white and to white to be 
colored and that maybe if she was some where else she get her some sun and 
then be dark enough that nobody know bout her being mixed. Not do any good 
telling her that is the burden that being mulatto a person got to bear. I been 
light all my days but then sis be dark. Lord I done knowed me lots of them 
that want to be something other than mixed but not something a body can fix. 
You is what you is. Sis tell her that we still know us some folks down in the 
Carolinas. Where they be most all them folks Indians or Indians mixed and they 
be her people and accept her right off. She say she don’t want to be Indian. 
She only gots her a couple choices cause she can be Indian, colored, mixed or 
white and that be better than most cause most only gots them one history. If 
she is not be happy with none of these I don’t know what to be saying. It sets 
a body to thinking cause here I have me no trouble out of my boys and the 
girls out shaking the last apple off our tree. A body think with me and sis 
here that we be able to set them girls right. Thank sweet Jesus most times she 
pay mind to what sis say and she talk to her out in the back for a long time. 
Grandma always say long as Moses in the desert stead of a long time and I was 
thinking bout that while they out there and wishing me that grandma here to 
talk to my Sara. She would have the right words but I never seem to find me 
them when I talks to my Sara. Grandma have a way bout things and lots of times 
she never has to say her nothing cause you knowed what she was thinking. Some 
gots them that gift. When they do talk it like they take time on each word so 
they say more in a word or two than it take another half a day to say. She 
leave and I know she was still mad but she tell sis she go over and talk with 
Linda bout it all. Sis say they had a nice talk but truth be told sis do most 
of the listening and she do most of the talking but not my place to say.  
Maybe that help but lord knows it done put me in the cellar. I ask Jesus to 
fix her up cause I never think me and sis be able to. Course she been that way 
since she was little so I reckon it something she gots inside her.

    Miss Bessie done moved back and me and sis be happy bout it. We done 
knowed her for ages. She been living with one her boys for bout three years 
now ever since her man passed and the place has been boarded up since she 
leave. She say she made up her mind that she not care for it down there in 
Norfolk and she wanted back here. Our daddy did some work for her years ago 
and me and sis would go over some with him. That woman knows how to set a 
table and sometimes she has two different kinds of meat and three or four 
dishes of other stuff all at one meal. She always says eat all you want cause 
if we eat it all up we just gets us more. In her kitchen she had herself four 
of those big glass jars likes a person find in a store. Each one of them jars 
had them a different kind of candy inside. After the meal we gets to pick one 
piece out of each jar. Her daddy was a white man and they lived up north and 
had them some money. Her boys done themselves proud and one owns him a lot of 
property down south. Miss Terry say that her man was into everything but 
church. Course she always chinning off bout someone. Miss Bessie say her girl 
living up round New York and her and owns her a couple of businesses. Miss 
Sola is her baby and she say she was thinking she to old to be having any more 
and then there she was. She is a beautiful girl with long black hair and a 
soul never find a harder worker than her. She not like most cause she has her 
more learning than people round here. They send her up north when she was 
little for a number of years and she went to a real school up there. A person 
never knowed she come from money by the way she act cause she is as friendly 
as she can be. She had an eye for my brother Floyd. Sweet Jesus I was wishing 
she be part of the family but he never had him a mind for her. Sis tell him he 
be needing someone like her that was a worker or he could end himself up with 
a chair hound that not hit a lick at nothing like my James. She tell him that 
he be marrying into money and never have to be fretting bout finding work and 
making do like the rest of us. I never knowed what the problem was but Miss 
Bessie say he told her he never liked him no light skinned girls. I told her 
that not docksee talking cause those be daddy’s words that he never been able 
to get out his head. That don’t make no good sense anyhow cause grandma say my 
real momma was real light skinned and docksee’s momma was what folks called 
yellow cause she so light. Daddy must of liked him light skinned women or why 
he be with them. I think some days that after our sister Ahtseelah up and 
passed on like my sweet angel, daddy just never the same. Sis remind me when 
we gets ourselves home that I called him docksee there in front of Miss 
Bessie. She say if he knowed he have himself a fit cause he say he never want 
to be called that again. I knowed that but was out of my mouth fore I could be 
stopping it. I pray sweet Jesus that my little brother able to clear his head 
of all that one day cause I know he has himself a good soul but he has to much 
of daddy in him to let it get out. I loves me all my family and lord it is 
hard not being able to be a family with them all. Sis says all we can do is 
turn it over to god and if it is to be then it be.

   We had us this peddler Mister Isaiah come by the place. There was this 
little goat with him and it the cutest thing and he say that if we wants any 
brush eat this goat do it for us. I not really needing me any brush eat but 
she just to pretty to be passing it by. She was white with just a little brown 
on her ears so I buys it and puts it out back. I names it Sassy cause 
everything I says to it, it answer me back. I gots to go over Miss Baker’s 
place so I give it some water and it seem happy as you please. I come back and 
she gone and I start calling for her but I reckons she lost so that money be 
gone to but find out she was out behind my chicken pen. Sis say they aint 
nothing but trouble and since we been talking bout wanting us some good fresh 
meat she go out and take care of it for me. I stay in the house cause I think 
it to cute to be killing it dead. Sis takes no time in finishing it up cause 
she is good at it. I gots to say she was good with them onions and greens but 
it do give a body pause when you eats something you done named. After we 
cleans up we get to sewing on a new church dress for Nancy. I think she will 
look like a little angel when we get it all done. 

   Some days I think I aint got me no good sense at all. I needed me some 
sugar and some coffee so I go to the store and the price a bit more than I was 
wanting to give for them. I reckon they gots to make them some money to so I 
gets me them and two pieces of stick candy. Lord knows me and sis do like us 
some fore we bed ourselves down and aint no sin. I was leaving and then I sees 
me this doll in the window and she just the prettiest thing. She got this 
little bonnet on her head and I was thinking that Nancy love to have her that 
real doll. Fore I can stop myself I walks right up like some queen and say I 
buy me that doll. Sweet Jesus I give over a dollar for it and pray it don’t be 
no sin spending money like that. I tell sis what I done and bout expecting 
that she be mad but then she say she give me half on it so it be from both of 
us. Sis say that it not be no sin lessen a person using needs money to be 
buying their wants but we has us plenty of needs money so god never be upset 
especially when you giving the thing to a child. The Bible say Jesus loves him 
children so he never be mad that we done give good money for a doll for that 
little angel Nancy.  I can’t wait to see her when we give it to her cause she 
going to be like a regular princess. Lord knows I be wanting mine to have 
themselves more than me and sis ever had us. Now I aint doing me no 
complaining cause we had it better than lots of folks and most times we had us 
a full belly. Those folks give us what they had them to give and if we didn’t 
get it, it was cause they never had it to be giving or else we had gotten it. 
Me and sis not able to do a lot but what we gots us we never mind spending on 
our babies. Sis say maybe we go over there tomorrow and give it to her that 
way we not have to be waiting to see how she acts when she gets it. Maybe 
Sissy not be in bed but I tell sis to keep hush regardless cause that be our 
day and we don’t want nobody spoiling it for us.

    Me and sis had us a good day. We done give Nancy her doll and sis say we 
do her up a dress to match it. We been wanting to sew up one for her anyhow. 
That little bonnet put me in a mind of the one Miss Mandy give me when we was 
over in Ritch Patch. I never done forgot bout her doing it and how it make me 
feel so special. Maybe when Nancy done growed up she think bout that doll and 
be remembering me and sis. Granddaddy Persinger say that as long as a person 
has them memories of a body it like that body never done passed. I love me my 
people and god done blessed me good. I think if we been looking for folks to 
raise us up we never have found us better. We knowed that they loved us and 
that be better than having things. A body can be losing them things but if 
they is loved that never be lost. Me and sis love us all of ours. I think even 
Sissy was glad we done it. She even offered us some coffee and some bread and 
she almost never do that lessen we fix it up ourselves. She has her an odd 
turn but I reckon she loves us.

   I don’t think I gets me more than a little nap all night long worrying bout 
my Sara. Sis was peculiar acting and keep telling me I needs to walk myself 
over to the church. She say for me to go and sit myself down in front of the 
church and pray awhile. I wonders what madness done taken hold of her but I do 
as she say. Sweet Jesus if the truth be told by time I gets myself home I was 
feeling some better. I starts me up the steps and there was sis with this cow 
look on her face. Lord I was thinking that it was more than that sweet angel 
handle. I walk in and there was Ben and he has one my quilts out and it was 
like the world out of place. He then pulls that quilt away and he and sis 
jumping up saying how you like it and sweet Jesus at first I never notice me 
nothing. Then I sees me this writing desk with a chair side it. Ben say him, 
Amos and their daddy done bought it off Mister Anderson and they get it cheap 
cause one them legs broke on it but they done fixed it up. Dear sweet Jesus a 
body never know it been broke. I give me that boy a hug and we jumps up and 
down together cause I always wanted me a writing desk. Sweet Jesus I prays it 
aint no sin but I has. I not want to be puffing up but it is as pretty as any 
Miss Baker got in her parlor. Now I aint saying that just cause my babies done 
got it for me and fixed it up. It has got all these designs in the wood and 
James done carved that new leg with them so you has to get real close to 
notice it even done been fixed. I was proud as I could be cause I gots me one 
but also cause my babies done done this for me. Sis say she knowed bout it for 
more than two weeks and say she like to bust keeping it in. I wants to cry I 
was so happy and then I thinks how I bout let some foolness sour me my days. 
We cook up a good meal for Ben but we tell him that when his daddy and Amos 
get themselves back we is going to have us a feast. After he done gone we 
start talking bout what all we is going to cook us up. Lord knows it take two 
days to fix up all we wants to have us but sis say she pay it no never mind 
that even if we gots to stay up the whole time we get it all made up. Sis say 
she is going to make us up some three meat pie and she most never makes it 
cause it take so long but she knows James loves it. I will make me my apple 
dumplings special for Amos and for Ben sis cook up bacon bread and course we 
need us a vanilla cake and maybe an egg pie to cause they all likes them that. 
I thinks I done hugged me that woman more than thirty times today. Every time 
she pass me by I grabs her. I never know me how she held her that secret cause 
most times we never be able to keep us something from the other.  I thanks 
Jesus for all he done give me. I gots me a family that I loves and loves me 
and we all going to bed with our bellies full. And thank you Jesus for my 
writing desk. It has little places where I can put me my paper and a place to 
put letters and such. I feel me like I want to stay here all night cause it 
has a feel bout it and I can see me some man that had him lots of learning 
writing important things on it over at Mister Andersons work. I feels smarter 
just sitting here at it. I remember when Miss Fridley take me with her to 
visit one of her friends. They had them this writing desk and their boy was 
sitting there doing him a lesson for school. After we leaves I dream that me 
and sis get to go to school and when we gets home I has me this writing desk 
and I work at it everyday doing my schooling and when I finishes I gets to 
take me out a nice book and sit there and read all I wants. When I was older I 
tells myself that be some foolishness and now my babies done give me my dream. 
Jesus knows that I be proud of my davenport but that something we all can use 
but this desk for me. Miss Jones say that a body never know when the lord 
answer them a prayer and it is so true cause he done answered me one that I 
done forgot bout making.

     Me and sis was out visiting today and had us a good time. I fixed up some 
soup and we had us some nut cakes and we eat up the last of the sweet greens. 
I would like to have me another mess of beets and sis say she needs her some 
more vanilla. Course sis put it in everything if she could. Sis say she thinks 
today be the day our sister Ahtseelah passed over. I reckon she be neigh on 
fifty-two years old had the lord not called her home but I not be certain of 
that. Momma lose her a baby fore her and I figure granddaddy called her that 
hoping she be strong enough to make it cause it put a fire in her soul but 
some things not to be. I always was thinking that she had the prettiest name 
of all of us. I never knowed the sadness that daddy must have been feeling him 
with both the women he loved him the most passing in front of him til I lose 
me my Adam and Raymond. Miss Beverly told us that daddy favored him her and 
when they was showing her off to folks he was like one of them peacocks. Maybe 
if I had knowed me better when I was little things be different tween daddy 
and me but never do a body no good thinking on such. I miss me my real momma 
some days and don’t make no good sense cause how can a person miss what they 
never knowed them but maybe a momma and her babies all tied together. I can’t 
get my head round it but the missing be there. I wonder if she lived if we a 
had us a houseful of brothers and sisters and all be real close. I aint doing 
me no complaining cause Jesus been good to me and mine and I give him thanks 
everyday for what I got me. Sis say I be doing me to much thinking bout things 
and ought to be just accepting that things is what they suppose to be and let 
the rest pass me by.

    I been sitting here at my writing desk like some big old chair hound but 
sweet Jesus I feels me like a cat that done caught a big fat rat to be eating 
on. I done been blessed and I know it well. Maybe when a body not thinking 
right things get all rearranged in their heads and they not be thinking like 
they knowed they should be doing. My Sara and Linda gots them some problem and 
they needs to be putting themselves in straight but sis say let it pass like 
river water and sweet Jesus knows I been a trying. I done had me a mess of 
beets today and some candied tomatoes so I be living good. I been trying to 
think me on what else I can do for the boys so they knows how they done 
touched my heart. Sweet Jesus I aint seen me happy days like this in a long 
time. It be like my burdens all so light that a body be in some madness even 
pondering on them. Like the song say Jesus done give me wings to fly with. 
Miss Ivalee come by and she say she wishes she had her a writing desk like I 
got me. Say she never do any writing or reading at it but it be pretty to look 
at. She never had her no learning cause her master was one of those that if he 
even seen a slave act like they recognize them any of those letters he sell 
them off his place. He never believed in slaves having them religion. He told 
them that heaven was for white folks so if they was caught praying or singing 
they was beat to the bone. Say they wait til him or the overseer not round and 
do them church. She worked most the time in the fields and say that overseer 
tell each one how much they gots to get done and a body not leave them fields 
til it was done no matter the time. Most days they get them two meals a day 
and most that was what a white person never eat. They give them a couple of 
potatoes and a little meal for each cabin and they have to make do on that. 
Bout once a week they get them some pork fat or bacon and maybe a cup or two 
of beans. It put me in a mind of what Miss Mary say cause Miss Ivalee say she 
eat what she could find and if she had to be stealing a bone from the dogs she 
do it and they take it back and break it open and cook it up to fix a bit of 
soup from it. They add in a little flour and wild greens and that was their 
meal. They would even catch them all the bugs they could get and eat on them. 
She was born on December 25 of 1815 so feel like her birthday is special and 
she is proud of it and that she done seen her as many years as she has. After 
she done gone I was thinking how me and sis always had it better than a lot of 
folks.

     The church was full today of folks and after the preaching we had us a 
big meal and most everyone stayed. Lots of mine gone with us and Amos won him 
another ribbon for knowing the most verses. He done won it three times in a 
row but next time he be to old. The others gots them a cross on them but this 
one blue with a little star in the middle. I gots me the other two on the wall 
in front my bed and now I be putting this one up next to them ones. I know the 
preacher’s wife in a fit over it just like Miss Cora was when Amos beat out 
her boy and Miss Ola when he beat out hers last year. Miss Odell say the 
preacher’s wife been bragging bout three weeks how her nephew coming down for 
the week and how he been going to a real school up north. Ben tried for the 
ribbon for naming the books of the Bible but never had him no mind bout 
learning them good. Sweet Jesus that boy was last in the bunch. His friend 
Daniel come and finished in third. I was hoping me that shame him into doing 
him some studying for next time but he never payed it no never mind. Miss Fay 
won for having the most family there. That woman had her sixteen babies and 
most still round these parts and most not come to church as a habit but when 
she say come on family Sunday they know they best be coming. Her man come with 
her and I aint one for spilling gravy on another cause lord knows that woman a 
good Christian lady and do what be right but a person could smell the jug on 
him from cross the church. Blesses Jesus know I had me enough of mine there 
that we not shamed by our number and least one of mine leaving with a ribbon. 
Amos come by after it all over but none the others come. He give the ribbon to 
sis to look at. She say don’t you want to take it home and let your momma see 
it fore we puts it on the wall and he say my momma holding my ribbon now. 
Sweet Jesus she smile so big not room on that face for nothing else. I worry 
myself bout his momma and how one day she be regretting how she done her kids. 
Miss Odell say some women like that and gots them no mind for mommying their 
own. Sis take her outside and when they come back in she be doing for them all 
if I ever let her but I don’t want James to be having more troubles then he 
already gots him to be handling. I say let her stay layed up in that there bed 
of hers as long as the kids and James come here cause we still gots us lots of 
mommying left over and no need be letting that go to waste.

       Ben brung over a hen turkey for me and sis to clean and cook up for him 
but truth be told it for his momma. Sis fix it up with onions and we cuts off 
us some fore we send the rest back with him. I bet James never see him a bite 
of that bird but aint my place to say nothing. Fore Ben come over she had her 
an ache and I was worried that she taken some sickness but when he come in she 
was up in that kitchen singing. I say sis I do up that bird so you sit 
yourself down and rest. She say never be minding bout her cause she was fine. 
I look in and here she was working that bird with one hand and fixing on Ben’s 
hair with the other and the whole while a big old smile was on her face like 
she some banny hen that done found her a basket of chicks. Jesus knows she 
gots her mommying in her blood. Miss Susan give us some sweet greens that she 
done made up and they was good with that turkey. I eat lot more than I oughta 
but I guess it was no sin. Lord knows that woman can do her some cooking. She 
give us some candied turnips and I never believed that they be as good as they 
was. She was a slave fore the war but she worked mostly in the kitchen and she 
did all the cooking. The master paid some white man to come to his place and 
learn her and the woman that worked in the kitchen with her some fancy 
cooking. After the war she stayed on his place til he passed cause she say he 
done give her her freedom long fore the war started and then after he passed 
she worked for his brother. Her master let her learn to read and write and she 
better at it than me. She gots her a receipt book and she always cooking up 
stuff we never heared of. She can make her up all kinds of bread and a body 
never believe she use the same corn meal that me and sis uses. James took her 
over a groundhog that he killed out by her garden and she send us a plate of 
it and it like no meat we ever eat. Lots of white folks get them to do the 
cooking for them when they gots company and when Mister Robertson had him all 
his relations over at his place he had her do most the cooking and pay her 
good for it. Miss Odell say the plantation where Miss Susan at growed then 
tobacco and her master have more than a hundred slaves. Say the overseer was a 
nasty man and beat them slaves til it leave scars. Miss Susan say she never 
concerned herself bout such things cause she never round them field hands any 
how. I need to be learning me how she make up some of them things cause they 
do be good.

   Sis done near bout give me a death fright. I gets up out of my bed cause I 
heared something in the house. I was thinking that my cats in some foolness 
but it was sis. She had her the miseries bad and sis aint hardly ever had her 
any sick spell. I knowed she was sick and never know why I let her do any the 
cooking. I was ascared to be leaving her but Ben come by and I send him to get 
his daddy for me. He brung Miss Odell and a couple of ladies from the church 
come with her. We doctored on that angel all day and well near dawn the next 
day. Miss Pinn always say put a pinch of wood ashes in sweet water with some 
clover and have a body sip on it so we made some up and give to her. She is 
getting better now and we done figured that sis got her some poisoning from 
that turkey we done fixed up. I left the scraps on the stove to give the cats 
and sis seen them and eat her a small piece of the meat. Turkey can turn bad 
on a body fast and if I been thinking I have give it to them cats right off. 
Course it might have been a touch of the fever but aint no need to be thinking 
on what it was cause she mostly better now. Sweet Jesus I never knows me how I 
make it without her. I was thinking that if she pass I be joining her in the 
grave. Thank you Jesus for healing her. All praise to god I give.


Me and sis and Miss Odell sit with Miss Bessie in church. She been a member a 
long time but this was the first time she been back since the new preacher and 
his wife come to the church. When she walked in the preacher’s wife bout near 
dropped her jaw to the floor cause Miss Bessie all dressed up like one them 
women a body see in a picture book. Miss Terry say she never take her eyes off 
her during the service. Now Miss Bessie can do her some singing and I loves 
hearing her do it. She even know her how to be playing a piano and has her one 
in the parlor over at her place. Her daddy had him a mind that she get her 
proper learning and she say he pay good for it to cause she be having white 
folks coming in and learning her stuff. I wishes me and sis had us some of 
that but sweet Jesus I be happy with what I got me growing up cause we gots us 
more than lots of folks. When we gets ourselves home I fix us up some soup 
with a couple of onions and a few greens in it cause sis feeling better but 
say her belly still reminding her that she was sick and that’s what I give her 
the last time she had it when she ate on that rabbit that Miss Cora cooked up.
 
    We been wanting to fix us up a new design for a quilt. Sis wants to do one 
with mask designs on it like them that Granddaddy use to carve up. Sis never 
cared her mush for writing but now she can draw up anything she gets her a 
mind to and a body know exactly what it is. I think we gots us enough 
different scraps that we can do us up one easy enough. Course this just be for 
us or one the family cause we never want to be sharing it with some folks that 
has them no good idea what them designs for. Granddaddy would carve him these 
masks out of wood and bark. They was the prettiest things but to speak the 
gospel some of them I was a little ascared of. Grandma say that when he was 
with his people in the Carolinas they did them all kinds of dances with them 
on. He never let us handle them any but had them on the walls and some he put 
him by his bed. I know when me and sis was living down there in the Carolinas 
some of them Indian folk had them masks like his. When we was living over 
there by Miss Bark’s place she say they had them dances like the corn dance 
and others and some of the times they be wearing these masks but I don’t 
recollect me what for. Miss Bark was this Indian lady and her daddy and 
granddaddy’s daddy were relations. Granddaddy would stay some at her place 
when he was down that way. Sis say she was born round 1797 but a body never 
believe she be as old as she was cause she was as spry as a summer colt. She 
could do her some cooking and some the best food we ever ate us was over at 
her place. She told us that when granddaddy’s brother squirrel come and stayed 
with her for a few days he was the funniest man she ever meet up with in all 
her born days. She passed while we was up at her place but sweet Jesus she 
have her this look of peace bout her when she was passing. Those folks come 
from all parts of them mountains to be with her and they was singing these 
songs in Indian and she say that she is ready and fore a rooster can crow 
twice she done passed. Sis say she draw up one of Miss Bark’s designs and we 
use it to cause then it be like sis’ memory box for us all.

Mister Abraham come by the house today to get the stuff we done collected for 
the church. We has enough to meet most our needs praise Jesus. He visited with 
us and we give him a plate of the beans and onions sis done cooked up. He is a 
good Christian man and one the best workers we has at the church. He say he is 
bout sixty-five years old and he aint ever been out of the county in his life. 
He been a farm worker most his life and say he don’t mind him the work cause 
that is all he has knowed. He can write his name and can read him a little but 
never had him no time or a head for learning. He is such a happy man and 
always singing. His folks never was no slaves but he say he never knowed him 
his grandparents so don’t know if they was or not. He put his wife in the 
ground years ago and only had him the two boys but they done moved away. It 
not seem to fret him none. He had him a dog for years but say he gots him a 
big old cat now that sleeps with him. I tell him if he wants to come over 
after church on Sunday to eat with us all he is more than welcome. 

I been doing more sewing on my memory quilt with the mask designs on it. Sis 
sure did some the designs right. We doing it up in squares and that make it 
easier cause I got to stitch on some the designs. Sis cut out a good design 
for the deer mask and sewed it on and I did the antlers in some of that nice 
thread that Miss Lewis give me. James say when we done he be able to sell it 
quick and for some good money but we tell him this quilt is our memory quilt 
and just for us. Each of them squares help a body know who we is and where me 
and sis done been and seen us. The square we done up for Miss Bark is as 
pretty as can be. James was to young to remember him anything bout her but say 
he recalls what all we done told him bout her. She hid herself back in them 
mountains when them troops come taking her people out west. I reckon the she 
had her them mountains in her blood and rather die there then let anybody take 
her out of them. I never was thinking sis be able to draw up one for her but 
she got her an eye for it. Sweet Jesus she drawed up that pattern right from 
her head and then cut the material and I sewed it up. We only come up with 
eight designs of them masks cause we don’t remember us any more so we got to 
decide how we do the other four squares. Sis say she do up a pattern for one 
the fighting roosters but I have to do me some fancy stitching to make it come 
out good and then we do with a hive of bees on it. I gots me enough gold 
thread to do them bees but lord it take me bout as long as Moses in the desert 
to get all them bees done. Sis say aint no need to be doing but one or two of 
them bees but I believe I do six or seven cause that make it look better. We 
has to dwell on it for a spell. Like sis say aint no need to be hurrying to 
get it done cause it is our memory quilt of granddaddy Persinger and took a 
spell to get us all them memories so it ought to take one to get it done.


    We done got us a frame to put the three ribbons Amos done won him. James 
got the wood and made it up for us and I put it by my bed. James never say but 
I knows he is as proud as he can be bout him winning another ribbon. James 
gots a turn bout him that some folks don’t understand. He is like some them 
men that we knowed over there in Alleghany County and most times never let 
what on the inside show in his face. My granddaddy Persinger the same way at 
times but me and sis always knowed how he was but some see him as being hard 
cause of it. I think James the way he is cause he never had him the chance to 
be a child. He had to be growing up fast cause he was the oldest and he had to 
be helping raise up the others. I love me that angel and me and sis know he 
gots him a big heart. It is like he be afeared that if he let what he feeling 
out it make him weak and he never be able to get it back in him. Granddaddy 
was like his brothers and be hiding cause they was ascared cause what they 
done seen them. His brother George the best of them at not letting it fret 
him. He say that Mister Persinger that raised him up treated him as good as 
his own and that made it easy on him.  They was all family so he got to see 
Miss Sara all he was wanting to and Miss Sara never pay no never mind to who 
her kids calling momma and daddy cause they was hers even if she was not doing 
the raising. Like that with me and sis cause we call daddy’s wife momma and 
she not our blood but she was our momma and so is our real momma. Course sis 
not always be seeing it that way. Granddaddy never could stomach him having to 
call her Miss Sara round some them folks but that just be what the Bible call 
pride talking cause a name don’t mean nothing. His sister Phoebe never had her 
that problem cause the law never take her away. Course then she marry up with 
a man that never let her be round her family as she like to. Sis say that her 
fault and no need to be putting it all on her man. If she let that Persinger 
blood come to a head one time he never be telling her who not to be talking to 
ever again. James never has to be throwing no love yous at me and sis cause he 
shows us how he be feeling every time he see us.

   Miss Terry come by for a visit. She brung over some potato and squash cakes 
and they was good after sis heat them up and we put some butter on them. Sis 
say that when she fix them up after she mix up them potato and squash pieces 
she don’t put her in enough meal and then never fries them in enough pork fat. 
Least she was thinking enough bout a body to bring us some over and she likes 
the way she do her cooking so not our place to be bad talking her food. Maybe 
me and sis to particular bout cooking anyhow cause Tom come by and eat him 
four or five of them in no time so he must have been liking him them a lot. 
Tom my baby and the youngest of the litter but he has him his ways. He gots 
him a good appetite for eating but don’t spend him much time on it. He is like 
an old black snake and swallow all his food whole. Miss Terry say the 
preacher’s wife still mad as she can be that Amos beat out her nephew for the 
blue ribbon. She wants the church to do it different next time but don’t make 
no sense cause Amos be to old to play anyhow and then maybe her nephew be 
winning him one. She want to have them some questions bout things like the 
names of them presidents and what number they was and the names of all them 
states. Miss Wilson say that has nothing to do with being a church goer and 
she is right. I knows me some of the names of them presidents and they called 
one of Granddaddy’s brothers after one of them but never know what number all 
them be. Miss Terry say she is not sure just how many states they is and why a 
body need to be knowing them all anyhow. If you in a state you know what it is 
and if you going to a state you know how it is called and if a body don’t they 
can be asking some body bout it.  Aint my place to be bad talking the woman 
cause she is the preacher’s wife but it is like if she not causing hard 
feelings she aint happy. It don’t fret me none cause that my church and Jesus 
knows no matter how she be acting if they is having church me and sis be 
there.  

     Miss Lewis had her some folks come down from Boston. They aint never been 
down this way so they wanted to try them all the kinds of food we be eating 
down here. I never give it much thinking bout cause I was reckoning that most 
folks eat like we do us. She ask to buy two of my young hens and we cleaned 
them and took them over. She had me fry one of them up and bake the other with 
some onions and potatoes. They liked them and say they was good but they gots 
them chickens up there in Boston so Miss Lewis say she pay me extra if I could 
find something special. Course as good as she been to me and mine she never 
have to pay me extra cause we be happy to do it. I send Amos and Ben and a 
couple of their friends out and tell them not to be coming back lessen they 
get me what I needs out of them woods. They come back with two small coons and 
a ground hog. I cooked them up and sis fixed up a slop roll and Miss Beulah 
give me some pickled okra and candied tomatoes. Miss Odell made some 
blackberry bread and we cooked up some sweet greens and a persimmon and nut 
cake. Those folks like to fall over when they seen all we brung out of her 
kitchen and they all praising the food and how they never eat anything like 
that in all their born days. When we tell them that they eating fried coon  
and ground hog stew they was funning each other and talking bout how them 
folks up their way never be believing what all they done eat down here. I was 
happy that they liked them the food but I was more pleased cause it make Miss 
Lewis so proud and so was Mister Lewis. He was leaning back in his chair and 
puffing all up telling them folks that they eats like that all the time. They 
told me if I ever wants me a job to come up there to Boston and they give me a 
job. Miss Lewis show them the quilts I done made up for her and they say bring 
any you gots over and we see bout buying us some. They buy the four quilts 
that we not been able to sell yet and the two sets of pillow covers and pay 
good money for them. Amos say we should been selling them our mask quilt but 
sis say we never sell it and when we is gone if him or any the others sell it 
we come back and haunt them all their days. I still has to finish me up two 
more squares on it but I aint in no hurry cause I want this done up the best 
we can cause we doing this for our people.  We been thinking bout doing one of 
them up with a deer with an arrow in it for the one Miss Sara killed dead with 
that bow and arrow. Take some fancy stitching to get it done but I never be 
minding doing it. We aint got us no idea bout the last one but she say she 
think on it and we come up with one.

 After church me and sis gone over to visit with Miss Ivalee. The poor thing 
has had her a bad belly pain for neigh on a week and we been fretting over it. 
We took her some onion stew and she eat barely a bite. She say she gots her no 
appetite for nothing. Other than that a body not know she was ailing much 
cause she act like she always do. Sweet Jesus knows we love us that woman but 
she bout talked our ears off. She say the onion stew put her in a mind of when 
she was a slave and the master let them slaves put them out a little garden. 
They had to work it at night after they get their work done. They growed them 
lots of onions cause they was easy to dry up for the winter. She say her 
family eat onion stew and fried onions most every day. One year they put them 
up bout twenty bushels full of onions and they was all so happy cause they 
have them plenty for winter. One day the overseer come and say the master 
needed him some money. That man took every one of them to sell and never give 
them anything in their place. After that she was thieving her whatever she 
could so they could eat. Say she had her this little pail and each night after 
they was all asleep in the big house she sneak in the barn and take a little 
milk from each of them cows. In the morning when the overseer was watching 
them slaves milk those cows he never knowed that she had took her some. She 
also sneak herself into the hen house late at night cause some hens lay fore 
they go to roost and she thief her any eggs she could find and grub round for 
any corn them chickens done missed. She never be grabbing her no hens cause 
the overseer make one of the slaves count him those hens every morning and 
every night and if one come up missing all them slaves suffer for it. They 
would cook all she got up and eat it quick so that not even them other slaves 
knowed what they been doing. I feels bad some times cause me and sis never 
been done that way cause we was never no slaves. I listens and Lord I be sorry 
for the way they was treated but I think that me and sis been killed dead 
cause that been the only way to keep us from escaping. We would been like our 
granddaddy Persinger when those men was after him cause once we was in the 
woods no man be catching us. I tell her that our granddaddy and his people 
helped runaways and that the white folks she was knowing her was not like 
those we knowed us in them mountains. I don’t know if she was thinking we was 
funning her or not cause she give us this odd look. Sis explained that up 
there we was like this big clan and them folks fight with each other over some 
nothing but better no one outside the clan come in to it cause they all put 
them straight in no time. I never be certain she believed us but if a body 
never knowed them folks like our people then it might seem to strange to be 
real.        

We had us the biggest piece of ham meat today. Miss Odell over and we fixed it 
up and had us a pan of hard bread and a vanilla cake. We done drunk us two 
pots of coffee fore we was through.  Me and sis been taking turns visiting 
over with Miss Ivalee cause we been ascared she not be able to look after 
herself. I never say nothing to Miss Odell bout it cause her and Miss Beulah 
barely able to be looking after themselves and I knowed if they was thinking 
she needed her some help they be trying to go over and do for her. Miss Ivalee 
say that after she was given her freedom she come to Botetourt County and 
hired herself out to a Mister Hudson. She say he was a hard man but a fair one 
and til she knowed him and his wife she never knowed her any really good white 
folks. He had him some important job but she don’t remember exactly what he 
done but she worked for him til he passed on sometime round 1869 or 1870. 
After that she worked for Mister Smith til sometime round 1885 and after that 
she just go from family to family doing what ever work she could get her. She 
never eat a bite of the pork we took over but she did eat her some of the 
bread soaked in some milk and drunk her some of the hot tea I fixed her up 
with a little honey in it. Sis say she thinks she is getting better and sweet 
Jesus I hope it be the gospel.



    The preacher say that with all the troubles that been round these parts we 
all need to be praying that god come and straighten up the mess that be eating 
at the souls of every body so he had us do a prayer day. We had enough come 
that we able to keep it up til way after dark. Me and sis took our turns at 
leading them prayers but most the women not do a part but did the singing. 
Some of the folks don’t like a woman leading the praying but I don’t know me 
if that be cause they old timey or not. Now I know the Bible say that a woman 
to be keeping hush in church but I think that more with the business of the 
church and we always let the men take care of those things but I never believe 
that it be a sin for a woman to be praying to sweet Jesus in front of men 
folk. Course aint my place to be telling others how to be doing their praying. 
Miss Terry took her a turn or two and that picked at me a bit cause one day 
she say she against it and then the next she for it. I was thinking she do it 
to spite the preacher’s wife. Lord knows that woman can weigh on a person and 
seem like she always gots to be trying to weed somebody’s garden when it aint 
her place cause she the preacher’s wife and not Jesus.  Her and sis bout had 
them some words but I seen them and ask sis to come help me get some food 
out.  Amos and Ben come by the church and Amos can do him some praying. He 
gots him the voice for it and some them women was saying that he should make 
himself a preacher. He knows him the Bible bout as good as most preachers do 
but he pay them no never mind cause he say he never be able to handle him all 
those garden weeders most churches got them. Amos gots to get himself up early 
in the morning to be doing some work for Mister Andrews. When he needs help he 
always be giving the job to Amos cause he know he do him a good job. I was 
hoping is momma come by the church but he say she feeling poorly so she been 
in bed all day. I been looking for me a letter from my David but not a word. I 
give it to Jesus and pray he look after that boy. 

     The wind like to keep me up most the night. It never was very bad but it 
spooked my momma cat and she never give a body a minute to shut up their eyes. 
I was ascared that she wake up sis and if she had she been sleeping up under 
the porch. I let her in my bed but she never rested in one spot for more time 
then it take a body to get back asleep. Course she is a good cat so it don’t 
bother me much anyhow. The boys come by and give me and sis a duck that 
somebody done give them. People always giving them stuff. I think it is 
because they always so good to folks and like the Bible say a body reaps what 
they be sowing. Sis cooked that duck up with apples and we had us some nut 
bread with it and the boys eat good. I was hoping we have us some left so that 
I could take over some to Miss Ivalee but by the time they was finished with 
that duck nothing left but the bones. Sis boiled them up so we could make us 
up a pot of greens and turnips and say we take some of that over to her. We 
been thinking bout what to do for our last square on our memory quilt and sis 
say we can do us up a beaver for my Adam. Sis gots her a good head for things 
and she say she can cut it out good and then I can use that gold thread and 
stitch round the tail and it look real pretty. It already done took more time 
than we was expecting but we never give it no never mind cause it is nice 
thinking back on all we done seen us. I aint decided where we be putting it 
when we done cause with all that heavy thread I been using for my stitches if 
one of the cats gets on it it get its claws caught up in them and then there 
be no living with sis over it. Sis say she not puffing herself up but her 
squares some the best she ever done her. I need me some more coffee so Amos 
say he bring me by some tomorrow.

     Some days I think the years trying to beat me down like a bad dog. After 
we eat this morning sis gone over to Mister Andrew’s place and I needed to get 
some sewing on some things. I go to my sewing box to get me my needles and not 
a one there. I always puts them in my box when I finish up and never even been 
thinking bout not doing it. Grandma learned us since we was babies to always 
be putting them needles back with the cushion in the sewing box. All I could 
think was that I was going to be like poor Miss Wright. When people go over 
they tell them to pay her no never mind and she be all over the place and 
talking nonsense and barely able to be feeding herself. One night she walked 
out in the middle of the night with no one knowing she even gone out the 
house. Sweet Jesus when they gets themselves up in the morning she out on the 
porch in one of their cane chairs and done been frozen to the bone. She was 
froze up so bad that they had to be thawing her out in front of the stove fore 
they get her burying clothes on her.  A body never know why that woman not get 
herself back in the house but it that way with some folks when they done been 
took by it. I goes outside to see if that clear my head for me but when I gets 
inside I gots me no idea where they be. I bout done worried me to a fit and 
then Ben come by with his friend Daniel. I ask them to help me look for them 
and Ben goes right in and gets them out from my top shelf in the kitchen. He 
say when he was over yesterday he had him a splinter and got them so he could 
dig it out and then put them up there. He knowed better than be getting in 
that box with no asking a body please. Lord I was so happy to know that the 
feeble mind not took me that I never say nothing bout it.  I was so pleased 
that I give them boys the last of the vanilla cake and fried turnips. Thank 
you Jesus cause I was bout out of my mind with worry. When sis come back she 
had herself a good laugh bout it. That woman has a way bout her that make a 
body content when she be round them. I laugh with her but it still give me a 
chill to my bones thinking I done been took by the weak mind.


       Sis say she had her a dream last night bout my Adam. No that be wrong 
of me. He was not just my baby he was our baby cause nobody love that little 
angel more than sis. I forget sometimes that even if a body be strong that 
don’t mean they don’t be feeling them things in their soul. It is easy for me 
to think sis to strong to be feeling her any pain but that aint so. She been 
strong cause she had to be strong not for herself but cause she been strong 
for me and mine. Sweet Jesus forgive me if I done wrong. I never want to be 
thinking that I done made her be what maybe she not. Every time something done 
happened it been sis dealing with it but lord knows we never have made it 
without her. I was thinking today bout something that done happened to us. It 
had to be round 1865 cause the war had been over for a short spell and we been 
sent out to fetch them cows out of them woods. Most times during the war we 
had to stay close to the house where we was staying so no soldiers maybe grab 
us. Some how we get ourselves turned round in them woods and it was getting 
dark. I was acting the baby cause I was telling sis how hungry I be and I be 
cold. Sis had her a piece of hard bread with her cause they give us each a 
piece so if we gots hungry we have ourselves it to eat on. Course we not out 
of sight of the house and I done eat mine up. Sis take out hers and give it to 
me. I say I give her part and she say she not hungry. She had to be cause I 
done eat me mine and my belly gnawing at me and she not had herself a bite. 
She be more interested in seeing my belly full than her own. As soon as I eat 
it up she made a line between a couple of ridges and fore we walked it we come 
across the cow path and followed it back. I know sis never fretting bout 
herself out in them woods but she was afeared for me. Seem like when I do me 
some pondering on it that she done done that all her days. When Adam passed 
she never was able to do her own grieving cause I been took by the madness and 
she had to be strong. She say her dream a good one and there was this woman 
with him and she was thinking it be our momma. Granddaddy say that them 
spirits has a way of getting into a body’s dreams and giving them messages. 
Sis say it gots to mean that they be together and she doing the mommying for 
us til we gets there ourselves. She say Adam was not like he was when he 
passed cause he was walking and bout the size of an eight year old boy. She 
say she knowed it was Adam cause he had him on a beaver design on the shirt 
like the shirt we put on him fore we put him in the ground. We did that cause 
that was his Indian name that granddaddy give him when he not more than a few 
days old. She say that our sister Ahtseelah was there with them to After she 
tell me what she done had her I takes some bread crumbs and toss them out back 
cause I wants them to be knowing that we is happy that they be together up 
there in heaven. Truth be told I never give it no reckoning that my baby and 
baby sister not still be tiny like they was when they passed. 

      Sis done drawed us up a new design for a quilt cause Miss Lewis say she 
can sell us a couple more to her friends and people. This one like the one we 
sewed up with grandma Persinger and the ladies up there for Miss Charlotte 
when she got herself married up. Granddaddy done learned us that most things 
not be a real accident and I be thinking that be the gospel cause her man 
called Sampson and here I been thinking bout how strong sis be and then we 
designing up this quilt like we done give them. Sampson was this man in the 
Bible that was stronger than any folks ever be but then he kill himself to 
kill him dead the enemies of his people. I don’t recollect why they was 
enemies but he killed them dead and himself to. Sis like him cause she as 
strong as any man. I seen her heft up this rock out of our garden that was 
even giving James fits like it was a pebble stone. I knows me that she die for 
me and mine with not even having to be thinking bout it. She always puts me at 
ease when she is with me cause I don’t need to be fretting bout nothing. I 
fixed us up some coffee and a big pot of pork stew and we eat on it all day. 
Miss Lewis give us some of her coffee and that is the best stuff. I never 
asked her for none cause that been bad manners but since she do the offering 
that make it fine. I know she pay good money for it cause she has it brought 
in for her.

     I was eating me on some corn bread and bout got strangled on it. Thank 
Jesus sis was here with me and hit me on the back. Miss Sandy send her 
granddaughter by today with her egg money. I done let her have a lot of eggs 
cause I knowed there was a need and no needs money round her place. She is a 
good Christian woman so I knowed that she would pay me when she had it to be 
paying with. Her youngest boy married up with Mister Saunder’s girl from 
Botetourt. Granddaddy Persinger and Mister Nate worked some together and he 
had him over his place a couple a three times. Most of them Saunders was hard 
workers but one of their relations was always in the jug. It is a problem that 
lots of folks has them and don’t mean nothing bout the rest of their people. 
Even white folks has it sometimes. Granddaddy had him this friend Mister 
Patrick. He was a white man from over there in Europe. He say there was a 
bunch of them in Botetourt County. They was all hard workers. Mister Patrick 
was one of the best at it in the bunch. Then he got himself in the jug and got 
himself hurt so bad he not able to do him no working no more. Miss Sandy done 
seen more than her share of troubles. She had one of hers drown in the river 
when they was bout seven years old and she lost her one of her girls while she 
was in a family way. She is at church most Sundays and she even gets on good 
with the preacher’s wife. Me and sis never mind helping out somebody that be 
trying to do the best they knows how. Miss Fridley say that it aint no sin 
being poor. Some folks act like it is but it aint. The Bible say that Jesus 
loves him poor folk so how can it be a sin. There been times when me and sis 
never had us a penny to be spending on nothing. There was always some angel 
out there that was helping us. Granddaddy learned us that the Indian way is to 
share what a body has with his people. If one share with you then you has to 
share with two to return the favor.

     Miss Wilson send her hired man over today to get the sewing I done for 
her. He give me the money for he sewing and I got to say she pay me good then 
he give me this little painting. He say that some of her man’s people give it 
to them but she say she never hang it cause she not like it a bit. He say that 
she never be getting on good with some of his family cause say they act like 
they gots them way more money than she ever has her but sweet Jesus I aint 
wanting to do me any gravy spilling on a woman that done give me such a nice 
present. She knows I liked me my cats so he say she wanted me and sis to have 
it for us. Sweet Jesus I never be able to get my head round that woman cause 
one day she like she mad at the world and then the next it be like she some 
angel. Some folks got them a turn bout them but don’t mean they not got them a 
good soul. I never know me what she not like bout it cause I think it one of 
the prettiest things I seen me in a long time. It has these cats in a barn on 
some hay and sweet Jesus it like something me and sis done seen us many times 
in our days. I like sitting and looking at it and even sis say she like 
looking at it. Miss Odell say she knowed whoever done bought them that done 
give lots of good money for it cause those things never come cheap. I know it 
be a sin putting your mind on such things but since we never give a penny for 
it, it aint no sin thinking on a gift. I never want to be doing me no puffing 
up over it but even the frame is as pretty as you please. Lord knows we done 
been blessed in so many ways.

   I visited over with Miss Ivalee after I finished me up my work. She gots 
her her appetite back cause she eat everything I done fixed up. I saved back 
two eggs for her and she say she sure glad to be having her some cause with 
the price they getting for them these days aint no hope she be buying her some 
any time soon. Most days my hens give me just enough for selling but I had a 
few left over and me and sis decide we want her to have them to eat up cause 
we can have us some eggs two or three times a week. I stay hush bout that in 
front of Miss Ivalee cause I never what her to think I be puffing myself up. 
Some her relations coming up next few days to see bout her and I know that 
make her happy.  She was telling me all bout them slave days again and how 
they beat them slaves. I told her bout what Miss Pearl say bout them hanging 
this slave and he not more than fifteen years old. Lord sweet Jesus I be glad 
me and mine was never no slaves. I tell her bout what Miss Polly tell us bout 
when they lynched them this slave over in Alleghany County. Miss Polly say he 
belonged to Old man Persinger and everybody knowed that they was friends 
excepting when they was in the jug. Miss Ivalee say they must have been 
getting on good for a master to be letting a slave in the jug cause she never 
heared her of any that let them do that. Say that they may let one of them 
house slaves have a drink from the jug on a special day but it never more than 
a sip. Miss Polly say that them two was always together but when they was in 
the jug they fight sometimes like devils. One time old man Persinger hit him 
over the head with this piece of wood as was ascared he done killed him dead. 
She say he had them doctor him up and the whole time he was crying like a baby 
thinking he done killed his friend dead. One day they doing something out in 
them fields and his slave cut him somehow and he up and died. They lynched him 
for doing it and Miss Polly say that if old man Persinger been alive he have 
killed those men dead fore he let them hang him. One day she was at his place 
and these white men up there talking to him bout something and one those men 
say that if his nigger look at him funny again he beat him to death and then 
give old man Persinger the money for him. Old man Persinger tell them all that 
anyone try such foolness get a bullet for their troubles. Sis say she wishes 
Miss Ivalee not always doing her talking bout them slave times but I think it 
be pressing on her heart and it is good to talk those things out. Some folks 
that way cause it like if they talk bout it then it not be as bad as they was 
thinking it be. Course sis gots her better raising then ever say that to her 
and Jesus knows we both love us that woman and don’t pester me none hearing 
her talk bout anything even when she tell us the same story over and over. My 
granddaddy Persinger always say that what be a pebble to one person may be a 
boulder to another. Jesus knows that Miss Polly tell us the same story over 
and over again bout granddaddy’s daddy and I never minded me it a bit. 

     We had us a good church today. Seemed like the songs coming right from 
them angels. Miss Beverly come and sit with me and sis. She come over after 
church and we fed her up right. Her husband’s momma and granddaddy Persinger 
was friends. Everybody called her Big Betsie. She was lot older than grandma 
and granddaddy. Miss Beverly say that cause she was born round 1789 but she 
don’t recollect where she was born at cause they was already in Botetourt 
County when she knowed her. She say she use to tell them all kinds of stories 
bout her people. Say they payed most of them no never mind cause she was 
feeble minded. Now she don’t even recollect her one of them to be telling her 
own. Me and sis is happy we listened to all granddaddy was learning us. We 
wants our babies to know bout those things but a body can’t make them if they 
has them no mind for it. Thank sweet Jesus most of mine do. I see me to many 
folks today that never want to hear them nothing bout their own people. Don’t 
make me no good sense but guess aint my place to be telling others how to be 
doing. Course when it come to mine own I has me the right to be doing it cause 
they is my blood. I pray sweet Jesus that they aint thinking that me and sis 
done got us the feeble mind cause we always talking bout them things.

     Me and Miss Lewis had us a nice talk today. She talk to me the way I hear 
her do when she talking to her friends and never be looking down on nobody 
cause that aint her way. She puts me in a mind of lots of those women over in 
Alleghany County cause they is that way. We was talking bout some of the 
troubles we been having us at church over some foolishness. She say they 
always in some mess over at her church to over something or the other. She say 
that she been afeared that some of them head off and start them up a new 
church and that be hurting them all. Sweet Jesus it never make no good sense 
that church folk carry on that way and it don’t matter none what color church 
it is cause white churches and colored churches all be doing the same. I 
recalls when Miss Polly was telling us bout the time some of them Persingers 
had them this big fight over religion. It was long fore me and sis was born so 
we never knowed any of them folks. She say they all into this fit over how to 
be doing church and a bunch of them up and leave those parts for good.  She 
say what it was bout but I never was understanding what it was she was saying. 
Lord Miss Ivalee put me in a mind of her cause Miss Polly chew your ear off 
and never give a body no chance to be asking them any questions. I aint doing 
me no mean talking cause sweet Jesus knows both those women as good as any be 
any where but the truth be the truth and it aint bad that they got them that 
turn bout them cause it is just the way some folks be. The Bible is for 
healing a soul not for beating folks with it. Some folks gots them this idea 
that church gots to be done like they wants it done. It like with the 
preacher’s wife wanting to decide what songs we all has to be singing in 
church me and sis sing them and if we wants to be singing some different we 
waits til we home and sings them then. I aint going to march off like some 
beat dog and leave me my church over it. Lord knows if it weren’t her playing 
the peacock be someone else playing it. It never be taking Miss Terry long to 
be a doing it neither. Miss Bark say she always wanted to be singing her songs 
in Indian in church but most them Indians never was wanting to but she never 
in no fit over it. 

I was at Miss Lewis’ place to cook up food for her and her friends then one of 
them come up sick so it was just the two of us and all that food that I done 
cooked up so she give me a good part of it to bring back and me and sis been 
eating on it. Sis say I done cooked it up right but I tell her that part of it 
be that she has her the best to start with. I opened up her bag of meal and it 
look like it just done come from the mill and she gots her a couple different 
kinds of cheese. Most of them is real good but she gots her this one kind that 
I don’t have me no taste for but course I gots me better manners to ever be 
saying so to her. Sis say I be at my writing desk all the time these days but 
it is just that when I sit at it I feel different. I never be able tp put down 
how it be but I know it and for a spell a body not be fretting bout nothing. I 
thank you sweet Jesus for what you done done for me and mine. I know me better 
than to be doing me much pondering on it cause that be a sin. It just that my 
family makes me so proud. It seem like every time my mind starts to beat me 
bout losing me my Adam they bring me right out of it.

Daniel been coming by most days so me and sis can feed him up some. He is a 
friend of Bens and James been letting him stay over at his place. He is just 
as nice and polite as any boy I knowed me. He look almost white cause he say 
his daddy was a white man. His momma passed from the fever a while back so he 
been by his lonesome every since. He aint got him no family in these parts but 
say he gots him some relations down round Georgia and once he gots him enough 
money saved up he is going down there and live with them. That boy can put him 
away some food but I know that cause he been hungry a lot of days since his 
momma passed. Miss Odell say she never know why his momma fooled with that 
white man in the first place. She say he treated her like some piece of 
nothing and she knowed that he had him a family and he never leave them cause 
he have to leave the state cause he get himself lynched if he had him a mind 
to marry up with her in these parts. It don’t make no sense to me cause they 
run Miss Ada’s boy out of the county for messing with a white girl but let 
some white man do that to a colored girl and all they do is give him a good 
talking to. Miss Beulah say she knowed of white men that got beat for doing it 
but generally they not beat bad. Most whites round these parts not take to 
mixing so a body gots to take care bout such things. Don’t matter to me who 
his daddy be cause aint nobody coming to my door and leaving with an empty 
belly I don’t care me none who he be. He done took after James and been 
calling sis momma T and that make her happy and he ask me if he could call me 
grandma the way Ben do and I say sure. Sweet Jesus it do make a woman feel old 
with all these folks calling her grandma.  


    We had us enough eggs left over that sis made us up an egg pie. I done put 
the backing on our memory quilt. I give more for the material than I ought to 
have give but it is pretty and me and sis decided that if we didn’t spend a 
little extra and get the best we could it would pester us the rest of our 
days. I gots me three dresses to finish up this week but Miss Odell say she 
help me if sis has to work but I know we get them sewed up quick. Mister 
Isaiah come by and I got sis a new pair of sewing shears cause the ones she 
been using bout wore out and gots them several bad places. Now these is sharp 
and go through most the material we got with no problem. Sis was wanting me to 
tell her what I give for them but I say it not on her plate so drop the fork. 
She say she not going to be using them to cut on any material that scar them 
up. I was happy I done it after I sees her face cause I want her to know she 
be loved.  Ben and Daniel come by and sis say she knowed they smelled them 
that egg pie and that be why they come over but course she just funning them 
cause she give them every bite if it get them to be coming by the place. 
Daniel was talking bout how he been thinking bout seeing if he could get him a 
job in one those mines. We tell him that a mine nothing but a cave and a cave 
aint for no human folk. When I was not more than nine or ten there was this 
boy that went in one them caves over by Ritch Patch and this big rock come 
down on him and after they gets him out them men was all saying that it done 
smashed him flat so that a body never even know it was him. A cave is for the 
bats and the bears and he better be leaving them be cause no job be worth no 
life. Course I think he be to little for that work anyhow so no need to be 
fretting on it. I been thinking bout my David and my Adam but sis say it be 
best to be putting my mind elsewhere when it come to my David. Sweet Jesus I 
know she is right but it still hard on a momma not knowing how one of her 
babies be doing.

    Sis gone by Miss Ivalee’s place and say she is gone. Sweet Jesus I was 
thinking she was saying she done passed and I start crying thinking bout her 
passing on all by her lonesome over there but then sis say that she means she 
done gone with some of her relations. She say she seen Mister Isaiah and he 
say she gone somewhere over close to Washington and I start me some crying 
again. I will miss me that woman and hope she not be gone long. Lord knows as 
old as she be we just as easy not be seeing her again in this world. Sis fixed 
us up some hoe cakes and peanut soup and eating always make a body feel 
better. There not many that is better at making peanut soup than sis. I think 
it is cause she takes her time when she fixes it up. Sis gots her ways in the 
kitchen but what she cook up is always eat. I don’t feel like no chair hound 
when she do the cooking cause when she do the cooking I do the cleaning up. 
Never much work to it excepting when she do her a slop roll. Sweet Jesus knows 
she runs through all the pots but it is good. We been wanting to cook us up a 
nice pie or two so reckon we will do us up some in the morning. I been wanting 
me an apple pie for a spell now. Sis say if I do one up she start on the 
sewing. Thank you Jesus we gots us plenty of good food to be eating on. Lord 
knows that weren’t always so. Lord I knows we done been blessed.

     Me and sis was talking bout Miss Bark and all those folks we knowed us in 
the Carolinas. She was some relation to granddaddy’s daddy and she say he was 
one of them that always wanted to be following him the old ways. Even when 
most them Indians give it up he say he die afore he take to their ways. She 
never knowed Miss Sara so we would tell her all we knowed bout her. She just 
nod her head and say she was thinking that she had to be the way she was 
otherwise he never taken him no white woman but they was two turnips pulled 
from the same hill. Course she never able to be understanding why he gone out 
west but say that a man got to choose his own trail to follow. That put me in 
a mind of my David. She say that every morning hot or cold he go down to the 
river and wash himself and then do his praying in the old way. She was a good 
Christian lady but say she believed her in some of them old ways to and never 
was thinking that it be any sin in doing it. She say he was as proud as any 
man have a right to be of our daddy and his brothers. I loved me that woman 
cause she knowed who she was. When them soldiers come she say they went back 
in them mountains and they stayed there a spell then she take her youngest to 
some white folks and they hide her til the trouble pass. One day some them 
troops come on the place and one them old white women that had to be near 
eighty go out. Them soldiers say they looking for them Indians she say she 
don’t care what they be after that it aint proper for no men that not her 
relations to be coming by when there is only women folk on the place. One them 
say don’t fret yourself grandma we be gone after we sees in the house. She 
tells them that if any them trys she be sending that man to Jesus. They never 
come in the house and sis say that old woman must had her some Persinger 
blood. Sometimes colored folks want to be bad talking all white people and me 
and sis not have it round us cause we has white blood but also cause there be 
lots of them folks that done stood between coloreds and Indians and any 
troubles coming their way and was willing to fight the devil himself to save 
them. Some these do nothings round here needs to be looking at themselves fore 
they talk such foolness.

   Ben and Daniel stayed the night with me and sis and we enjoyed them being 
here. Now those boys put away some food cause they was doing them some for 
real eating. They eat up two pans of bread and all the cake but lord me and 
sis had us a good time watching those two eat and carry on the way they done. 
Daniel gots him a good head on his shoulders and he is funny as he can be. Sis 
say that if Sissy has her a problem with him staying over at James’ place he 
can stay here with us. He puts me in a mind of momma cause he gots him that 
yellow look bout him. Momma never say nothing to us bout her people but 
grandma say some of momma’s people had been slaves but that was a long time 
ago. Daddy took her down to see some of her people after the war but they 
never stayed long cause they never was getting on good. Grandma say that cause 
her people always saying she was acting to white but that don’t make no good 
sense to me. I has me my problems with her but never none cause she a lighter 
skinned mulatto than me. Maybe cause some of her people was so dark they was 
wishing they more like her cause some folks hit at a body if they gots what 
they want them.I had them boys stack me up some wood for they leave and they 
was funning with sis calling out momma T  you gots to fix us up another egg 
pie if we gots to be working all day like some field hands. Sis was walking 
round after they gone like they done give her a pocket full of gold.  

    Me and sis sewed us up two new shirts for Daniel cause that boy only had 
him the one and bout break my heart seeing a body do without what they be 
needing them but it was sis that give me the notion to be doing it. Sis gots 
her a good soul and I think that it was the way they raised us up. Sis was 
telling me bout the time we was over at Miss Fridley’s. Til she was telling it 
I done even forgot bout it. It was a short spell after the war was over and 
there come this family of colored folk on the place. This man come to the door 
and ask if she got a piece of something that she give his kids cause they not 
had them no food in a couple of days. Sis say she thinks that maybe they been 
freed and got themselves turned round and sweet Jesus that be easy to do up 
there in those mountains even if a body been up there a while. There was four 
of them cause his wife and his two boys that was no more than four years old 
was with him and sis say they looked like they wearing clothes that been 
through a briar patch. Miss Fridley say come on in and I feed you all. He say 
he not trouble her but a little bite for the kids and they be grateful. Miss 
Fridley say hush up and get yourselves inside to the table. She as friendly as 
you please but Miss Fridley stubborn and when she say come she mean come and 
don’t be doing no questioning. Sis took after her when it come to the kitchen 
cause she was an awful fussy woman bout how things to be done and she never 
was letting others at her cook stove. Sis that way some days cause she was 
cooking up them boys some onion stew today and I stir it a spell and sis go 
right over and was tasting it to be sure I aint put nothing in it cause she 
want it her way. Truth be told her and Miss Fridley good cooks and lots of 
things sis cook up better than me. Miss Fridley fed them all up good and when 
they done she send sis down to the root cellar to put some stuff in a sack for 
them. We cant recall where they was going but we think it was somewhere close 
to Covington cause she had one the boys up there show them their way. Sis say 
she remembers that when they was leaving and giving their thank yous she say 
give Jesus the thanks cause he be the one that give us more food than we be 
needing us.

     I done had me some bad dreams so I put some cedar chips under my pillow 
cause most times they works. Granddaddy’s brother squirrel had some them under 
his after he come back from the war cause of what he done seen him but say 
they not help him much. Granddaddy say that some them bad dreams there to 
remind a body what they done done and when that the way them cedar chips has 
them no power to stop them. I know that is the gospel cause mine not cause 
what I done but cause of what I not done me. James never ask me but he know he 
was not Raymond’s son and I never been able to tell him anything more. Sis say 
if he never was asking then he pay it no never mind cause lots of folks never 
knowed them who their real parents be. Maybe it pester me when aint no need 
for it cause if James aint pestered by it why I acting like its all on my 
plate. Aunt Ruthy never payed her no never mind to who her real momma was 
cause she had her a momma that raise her up good and maybe James the same. He 
knowed my Raymond loved him like he was his boy and James never knowed him no 
other daddy.  Grandma say that Miss Wolf over in Alleghany County raise up two 
that not her own. Say they was like me and sis cause their momma up and died 
while they was visiting up that way and the smallest still nursing. Miss Wolf 
tell their daddy to leave them with her til he could get himself back to his 
people and figure what he do. They never knowed what come of him cause he 
never come back for them but Miss Wolf say she was glad. They was her babies 
and she say they never did no asking bout their real folks cause they knowed 
they was her babies. I don’t know why I be letting this fret me. I don’t know 
me nothing bout my momma’s people and that don’t pester me so maybe James the 
same. Sides we gots us enough family already and we gots ourselves a good one. 
Aint no need to be thinking bout getting a new milk cow if the one you gots 
give you more milk then you can use up. It be like in one those books I was 
reading me bout over there in Europe. When they was a good bunch they called 
them the house of this one and that one and when this house done married up 
with that one say they all was stronger for it. We be like that cause the  
Persinger people and the SparrowHawk people done come together and we all 
better cause of it so no need to be thinking bout nothing else. If James wants 
to know I tell him but I know he is proud of them who he done come from 
already. Sweet Jesus knows I loves me that boy and open my own chest if that 
make him safe and happy.

   James took me and sis down to Roanoke with him and while we was there we 
gone over to see Miss Alma. Sweet Jesus we not seen her since bout 1891 when 
we stayed a few months with her people. When we was little her folks lived not 
far from where daddy was working and her daddy worked with him.  Most of her 
people that we knowed done passed or moved out of the area. Her boy is now 
living in Missouri and her girls is all living up north. I was wanting to see 
her momma cause that woman was an angel but say she done passed and I was 
thinking we should of come to see them all sooner but seem like a body let the 
years get away from them. She was a good Christian woman and I never heared 
her speak bad bout nobody. If someone was wanting to bad talk somebody round 
her she just smile and say give it to Jesus and then forget it. Her man and my 
Raymond was like brothers from the first time we walk in their place but she 
say he passed bout nine years ago and I told her bout my Raymond passing. She 
still gots her the quilt that I sewed up for her when we was staying there. I 
was glad that James needed to stay another day to finish him up his work cause 
we stayed with her and it was like the old days. James say that Daniel done 
put him away bout enough money but sis was not wanting to do her no talking 
bout him leaving. Sis done took to him like he was her own and lord he is an 
easy child to love. With some folks you can see the good in them and he just 
like he be wanting him somebody to love him. I think it is hard on us cause we 
never knowed us what it was not to be loved by lots of folks and had us lots 
to be loving. Sis talk bout daddy and momma not doing it much but when most 
your cats up on your lap aint no need to be fretting bout the ones that won’t. 
Course that just her way. We got us some squash and sis say she cook up some 
squash cakes in the morning and a pan of squash bread. We got us some butter 
and honey so we be eating good all day.


   I was out looking at the stars and Amos come out and ask me what I was 
doing and I tells him and he gets him this look like I done gone feeble 
minded. Me and sis set him down and tell him some bout what granddaddy done 
learned us. Sis say that granddaddy’s daddy learned him lots of things that is 
important to me and sis cause they is from our people and help a person know 
who they be. Lots of white folk and colored to see men as rulers of the house 
and women never have much a say like Miss Lewis. Her father make her marry 
herself up with Mister Lewis and she never had no say bout it. He never ask 
her he just say this man is going to be her husband and she had to go by what 
he say. Our people say the woman runs the house and she has her the power. We 
tell him bout Miss Sara and he say he done heared that afore but sis tell him 
that it not hurt him to hear it again. I say I know he never heared bout me 
wanting to throw myself in the river when my Adam passed. The river and water 
for Indian people has power and it is not that different from how Christians 
see them the river when it come to baptisms and such. Lord I knowed he was 
listening real good. We tell him that we is proud of all our parts but our 
Indian part is special cause it was the way of our granddaddy and his daddy 
and we is ascared that when we pass our ways be gone cause no one following 
them anymore. He say them why we always be talking bout them Persingers up in 
them mountains all the time. Sweet Jesus that boy don’t miss him nothing. Sis 
say that we is proud cause our Persinger blood come from a strong people to 
and that their way was a lot like the Indian way cause those women in them 
mountains was strong. We done seen to many women let men run them like horses 
and that not the way it should be. Me and sis never made it if we never come 
from that blood and maybe since he knowed him these things now he never try 
and ever beat him down no woman. I give Jesus thanks for all those people up 
there cause they helped raise us right and they showed us how a body should be.

James come by today and say that Daniel done gone down to Georgia to be with 
his relations. James say he not had him no time to be coming over to give his 
goodbyes cause he had to get him right on that train. He told James to thank 
us for all we done done for him and he never be forgetting him his grandma and 
momma T. James was able to get one of the men he knows to get him on one those 
trains and say he be fine. I know sis already fretting over him. He was not 
our blood but we done started loving him like he was. I pray that Jesus look 
after him cause he be alone and the world not care who you be or that your 
momma done passed or that you still little more than a baby. I hope that angel 
ready for what he gots to be facing out there. I can’t be saying noting for 
certain bout it cause I never had to be dealing me with any troubles on my 
own. Me and sis been together since the day our momma dropped me on the bed 
and my problems always been our problems and lord that do make it easier. 

      My Raymond been weighing on my mind of late. I loved me that man and 
still do cause he the daddy of most of mine. He had him a good turn and I 
never find me another like him if I looked all my days. Fore we married up I 
explain that sis be staying with us and if he had him any bad feeling bout 
that I would understand and we move ourselves on. He say that he been wanting 
to tell me that he never be leaving Miss Amanda behind and we have ourselves a 
good laugh cause we say we already gots us our own clan. Course sis as good to 
him as she could be and Miss Amanda knowed when she passed that she was loved 
by all us up there on that mountain with her. My James always called him daddy 
and still do cause he was his daddy cause he the one that helped raise him up 
and he carry him his name when he never had to be doing that. I wish that the 
others had them more time to get to know them their daddy fore he passed. He 
was working all the time and most times he be gone for they was awake and not 
come in til they long been bedded down for the night but he was working so we 
not starve or be living under a couple of boards somewhere.  We done seen us 
to many folk living like that to be thinking it not happen. We use to visit 
with Miss Bell when we was down in the Carolinas. She was a mulatto woman that 
married up with a Cherokee Indian and they was living just a short piece from 
Miss Bark’s place. There was twelve of them living in this little cabin. They 
had them one little stove that she used for heating the place and cooking up 
their food. They was happy cause they was a family but I know she always 
wanted better for hers but had her no way of getting more. Raymond never was 
wanting to think bout us ending our days in a place like that cause fore we 
leave that mountain they had them a fire and it burned up two of her babies. I 
pray he knows we all fine and we still our own clan cause that put him at 
peace.

      I was looking for me some thread and I finds the hair ribbon that Aunt 
Ruthy give me years ago. It was down by sis’ old Bible. I reckon she put it 
away years ago. She say she don’t recollect putting it in there and I done 
forgot bout her giving me it. It is red with little shapes cut in it. Lord 
knows I was feeling like a real princess when she give me it. She was not my 
daddy’s sister but lots of folks over in Ritch Patch called her that but 
grandma never did. Sis say some folks called her Annie but I thinks sis done 
mixed her up with Miss Charlotte. Sis good with them dates bit I be better 
with names. She was mixed and was bout as dark as me. One day she catch me 
crying cause what Richard done told me and she say that she was mixed like me. 
She take my hand and say angel if you lets what is on the outside mess with 
what you gots on the inside you have yourself a life of the miseries. Lord 
sweet Jesus I done tried to follow that all my days and it been like the 
gospel to me. She was older than my grandma but her back was as straight as a 
table board. When she talk she look a body in the eye no matter who they was. 
I seen many a time that woman walk in a room and all the chairs taken by grown 
men. She say give your old aunt Ruthy that chair and they do it. Stead of 
calling on the women folk to get her something she say to one of them men run 
out and fetch me a dipper of water if you please and they do it. I give her a 
hug and tell myself that I want to be more like her. Next time I sees me 
Richard and he say something I laughs in his face but I never hit him one. He 
gets himself all red in the face and he pushed me down. I never have to hit 
him cause two my male relations tear into him and when they finished he never 
bothered me again. I figured they never bother when he calls me names but 
weren’t nobody laying a hand on their female relations and getting by with it. 
She was born fore granddaddy Persinger cause she remembered him being born. 
She say her real momma was a mulatto woman. Say she not much older than five 
or six when she came to live up at the Persinger place but say she not sure 
how. She knowed she was taken there after her momma passed.  She was always 
visiting with Miss Fridley and Miss Bowen. When we was growing up she was 
always good to me and if she went to the store she buy me a piece of stick 
candy. Sis say Mister Humphrey had him a hard look but I don’t recollect 
nothing bout him. Miss Fridley told me that old man Persinger was her daddy. 
One day I ask Grandma Persinger bout her and she say Miss Ruth’s real momma 
was mixed but that aint nobodys concern but hers bout who her real momma be 
cause momma Persinger raised her as her own. After she say that I knowed 
better than ask anything else cause she had her a way a letting a body know 
that aint going to be no more talk on the matter. Grandma not take to what she 
call spilling gravy on someone. Most folks knowed they could trust her with 
anything. I knowed they was close cause Grandma had her a girl and she say she 
called her Ruth after Miss Ruth but the lord called her home when she was 
still little. Jesus knows it be hard being a woman at times and putting your 
own babies in that cold ground. I miss me Aunt Ruthy. I wish mine as good with 
being mixed as she was. Course nothing like that mattered to those folks cause 
if you was blood then you was blood and that be the end of it. Any that got 
them a problem with it had to deal with them all. A body try and spill gravy 
on their relations soon knowed they done wrong. Never took Richard more than a 
time to learn him that bout my people. Maybe the world not like them folks but 
I wish they was.  

     The preacher come by for a visit and I was sure glad that we done fixed 
us up a good meal cause he stayed and eat with us. We had us some peanut soup 
and been ages since sis cook her any up and I fixed some apple dumplings. He 
eat like he half starved to death. He say we need to get more folks to come to 
church but truth be told I don’t know how we get them to come if they aint got 
them a mind for it. I like me a church full of people but a body has to make 
do with what they has and we do have us some Sundays when the church be bout 
full. He is a good preacher but sweet Jesus he is not able to be talking with 
folks when he not be preaching. Some folks just be that way. Sometimes sis is 
that way. It don’t mean nothing. I know he gots him a good soul and that be 
the most important thing. Jesus knows we done seen us enough preachers that 
never had them their eye on god. After a body sees a couple a three of those 
it is easy to tell the good from the bad. 


Miss Lucy come by for a visit. We told her bout the preacher coming by. She 
ttold me and sis that she never been to happy with him cause when he over at 
her place he always acting like he was wanting to leave soon as he come in the 
door. I know she be fretting bout folks being over. Her place smaller than 
most and the walls holding up with a prayer but lord knows it be clean as it 
can be. She done worked hard all her born days but never been able to put her 
any money together to get her better. Aint her fault cause her man never hit a 
lick at nothing and her two boys bout as bad. That aint no mean talking cause 
she tell us herself that soon as she gets herself a dollar those three out 
jugging. Thank sweet Jesus none of mine sucking on no jug. When we was living 
over in Alleghany County Miss Bowens friend had her a man that was chasing 
that jug all the time. One night he never come home and they find him out in 
their barn the next morning with a rope round his neck. When he was out of the 
jug he was a good man and a body never find them a better worker but soon as 
he was in those berries he turn mean and talking bout taking himself to the 
grave. Granddaddy’s daddy called the jug the white man’s poison. Lord knows 
that be the gospel cause seem like when it come into a home it kill those that 
take to it. Miss Beverly say that it is worse on colored than it be on whites 
but me and sis know that not the gospel. That jug don’t care what color people 
be. Miss Bark told us that the jug done killed bout as many Indians dead as 
them soldiers ever done killed them. If Miss Fridley seen any of hers take him 
more than a drink or two when it not a special day and there be a do bad stick 
side of their head fore they get the third one to their lips. I was 
questioning why god let a jug be in the first place but sis remind me that 
lots of folks use it as medicine and to help kill a body’s pain. God done give 
us it to help us but it be people that use it bad. Sis is lot smarter than 
lots of folks be thinking it just that she keep it inside her most times.

     Yesterday was my angel’s birthday and most of the family come by and they 
was all in good spirits. Sis say that James done told them that if they was in 
to some foolness over here they deal with him. Sweet Jesus I misses me my Adam 
but my James is as good a boy as any mother ever get her. Sis cooked us up a 
big meal and when them miseries was at my door she start up a song and lord it 
made it hard to be thinking on them. I goes in my room and sis come right in 
and say that my Adam was with them angels but his body was in the ground and 
no need to be acting like I be in the ground with him. I knowed she gets 
ascared for me when his birthday come thinking that maybe I go back to the 
river and join up with my baby. I goes back out and Amos and Ben puts on this 
little act for us and we like to fall over. A body needs to be counting them 
their chickens in the hen house and stop fretting bout any that done gone to 
roost in them trees. The lord has been good to me and mine and I know it so 
aint right for a body to be thinking all the time on what they aint got or 
done lost them but it is hard some days. Sis say maybe my Adam and our sister 
Ahtseelah playing together up there in heaven with momma and my Raymond and 
Miss Amanda. I think that maybe daddy like me and after that sweet Ahtseelah 
passed he blame god for taking her. I blamed me god for taking my baby but I 
knows me now he was never trying to punish me. That just be how things be. 
Grandma say she thinks daddy blamed granddaddy some for her passing to cause 
after she pass he tell him where was them good Indian spirits that suppose to 
protect her when they took his baby and after then he never want nothing bout 
no Indian talk round him. Sweet Jesus I blamed me everybody even sis cause I 
was thinkingg why weren’t she or grandma in there with my angel but that was 
just the madness doing the thinking for a body.

   The weather has done turned cold and sweet Jesus it frets a body. Some of 
women from the church met up over at Miss Bessie’s place for a meal and me and 
sis go but we covered up good fore we leaves. She has her a girl helping her 
and me and sis was thinking it sure be different on the other side of the 
table. She has her a set of real ironstone dishes. They is white with little 
blue designs on them and as pretty as you please. She had her a couple of 
things me and sis never had afore and all of it was good. She give us some 
bread that done been made up down in Roanoke and it was some the best bread we 
ever had us. She says that they bake it up in this special oven and I know she 
payed plenty for it to. After the meal sis start to pick up the table and she 
say for her to give that no never mind cause the girl take care of it. Sis 
help some anyhow cause she knowed how it is to be cleaning up all by your 
lonesome while others sitting back doing nothing. Sis never wants people to be 
thinking she some chair hound. Miss Bessie played her piano and we did us some 
good singing but we leaves for it gets dark cause sis say the air be smelling 
like it snow. Miss Bessie send enough food that left over back with us that we 
not have to be doing much cooking anytime soon. We is going to have us some of 
that good bread from Roanoke with a little honey and butter in the morning. 
Sis say after we eat in the morning she go over to Miss Lilas and stay a day 
or two cause she ascared she not been able to be doing for herself.

   I been thinking all day that maybe the snow never end. It already up to the 
fourth step and keep falling. James send the boys over to see bout me but 
other than them been here by my lonesome all day. I hate me a big snow when a 
body by themselves cause a body never know if the roof hold. One day me and 
sis was staying over at Miss Lizzi’s over in Alleghany County. It was a couple 
of years after the war. She was our relation but I done forget how. Fore we 
went Granddaddy Persinger done made us each a piece of hide with some designs 
on them and tells us to wear them. He put them round our neck and say some 
words and puts a smidge of tobacco in our hair. There come this big snow and 
all the folks that visiting Miss Lizzi has to stay cause the snow up to their 
knees. Miss Lizzi had her this small house and it always full of people 
visiting. Never mind how many they was cause everybody always get plenty to 
eat cause that woman do her some cooking and nobody leave lessen their belly 
full. Some of them men jugging so she tell me and sis go and sleep out in the 
barn loft. We not mind it cause we put a big pile of hay and make a bed and 
cover us with some quilts and we was fine. We can hear those men all singing 
and in some foolness but it don’t bother us cause they is all family or 
friends that we knowed forever so no need thinking that there be any trouble. 
If they sing something we knowed we was singing with them and having us a good 
time. Sweet Jesus knows that when me and sis together we can have us a good 
time from nothing. After a bit we asleep and I heared this noise like there be 
some animal up there with us. When I opens my eyes I sees me this woman and 
she all in white and I was thinking that she some angel.  She say go with your 
sister to the house. I don’t move and she say go now go now and then she gone. 
I never be thinking bout the snow and I wakes sis up and say go with me and 
she was thinking I having me a dream walk and follow after me trying get me 
back in the barn. We walks no more than a rock throw from the barn and sis 
yelling for me to wake up and the snow worse then when we come and then we 
hears this sound and looks back and the barn roof done fell in. All them men 
come running out and there the snow done knocked that barn right near the 
ground. Miss Lizzi say if we had been in that barn we been killed dead cause 
it killed her milk cow. I wonders me some days if that person my real momma. 
Sis say that granddaddy done made for certain that the spirits protect us and 
if some folks think we be taken by some madness it don’t mean nothing cause we 
knows. Granddaddy say them spirits round a body and will help them but folks 
has to know how to open the doors so the spirits be seen. He say a body can 
call them spirits or angels or ghosts but they is all the same no matter how 
you calls them.

     Praise be to sweet Jesus James done sold three of my quilts and its like 
god done come down and answered me my prayer cause we can use the money. I 
calls this our needs money cause we don’t want nothing but we needs us some 
things and this money help out. Grandma Persinger always say that god answer 
our prayers in ways we never think bout. Here me and sis been complaining that 
it was to cold and then James sell my quilts to folks cause it is so cold. 
Sweet Jesus a body never know a blessing a blessing. James been working for 
this man that wants him to carve him up some things out of wood and he is 
going to put them out in front of his house. James say he do it cause he can 
do him the carving at home and work on them when he has the time. That boy 
good bout wanting to work course he always been that way. I wish we could make 
it easier on him. I don’t want mine having to work til they drop just to be 
able to feed themselves. The only one that not the best at working is Ben. He 
take after his momma but he still my angel.

   The weather been better here for a couple of days and Amos and Tom done 
gone off fighting them some roosters and they say they can make them some 
money. They aint their roosters but they helps Mister Fitzgerald with his. 
They work them and handle them when they fighting and he pay them good. Me and 
sis knows all bout them fighting chickens cause over in Ritch Patch some of 
them Persingers raised them up. On the day they was fighting them roosters me 
and sis help and we always get us some spending money. Men come from all parts 
bringing them birds in wooden pens and we help unload the wagons and show them 
where to put their birds. The men all thinking how nice we was helping but the 
truth be that sis had her an eye for fighting birds. She study them like I do 
me a book and then go say that this one got him a wild look in his eye so 
match him with that one or the red one that Mr. Wright bring no match for this 
one. After they start fighting we have to stay out of the way cause the men be 
getting in the jug. We stay behind the barn and if a rooster gets himself 
killed they give us the bird and we take them over to where the women was and 
they cook them up for the dogs. I took me a bite of one and the old thing so 
tough I might near never got it down. Now the broth was good for dumplings and 
cooking greens and they cook up big pots of it and feed any that was hungry. 
Grandma Persinger and Miss Fridley cut the feet off and make a soup with beans 
out of them and that was good eating. Sometimes the fighting go on all night 
and me and sis show folks where to bed down but most of the men folk stay up. 
Granddaddy Persinger owned him with his brother these birds that they called 
Potts White legs. They were not big things like I have with my hens but they 
was bigger than a banny. Granddaddy got him a start with them when he was in 
the Carolinas and he brung a bunch back with him and he and his brother 
crossed them up with some roosters that they had and fore long had them some 
good fighters. They always keep the meanest ones to use for breeding and when 
they starts fighting them they win lots of times and them Persinger boys 
always betting their money on them and most times they win. During the war 
they had to hide some of them away in the root cellar at night over at his 
uncles house cause them soldiers have took them everyone of their roosters if 
they had the chance. Mr. Bennett that lived over there got him some fighting 
birds after the war out of Rockbridge and he come saying he win it all cause 
nobody got them birds like his. Granddaddy and his brothers look them over and 
say they put their money on their Potts White legs and he laugh and say he 
happy to take their money. Fore the night over he done lost the money he brung 
and his horse with it but my uncle say they don’t want him to be walking home 
so they say they going to take a calf in its stead and he send it right over 
the next day. We all knowed that that calf not worth no good horse but Miss 
Fridley say they beat him to beat him not to be taking things from his family. 
He had him a bad mind set but Miss Bennett was a good Christian woman and 
nobody take from her. They had people coming over wanting to buy them some 
there birds and I knows that this man give them more than five dollars for one 
of them birds one day and I was thinking he must have him lots of money if he 
give that for a bunch of old roosters but granddaddy say that he wanted to 
breed him some. Me and sis had to feed them when they wasn’t in the training 
pens and those things the meanest a body ever work round. They look a body 
right in the eye and you could see you the meanness in them. Sis say they come 
out the egg that way and sometimes they start killing when they still little. 
One day we went down to where we had some put up and there was this big coon 
in the pen that they done killed. Mean as they was I know granddaddy missed 
having him some after they moved away. I wishes I could see me one of those 
roosters again cause they make me think of him but I don’t know if there even 
be any left up that way.  

    Miss Bessie send her girl by to check on me cause she know sis not here. 
Sweet Jesus knows she is the nicest thing and she gots her some good raising 
cause she knows her manners. She had her bring me some more of that bread that 
she gets down in Roanoke and her girl say to let her go warm it up for me. I 
never say nothing cause we not be wanting nobody in our kitchen fooling with 
our stuff and if sis been here she not let her but truth be told I was feeling 
me the cold and glad for the help. Course what the rooster not know not hurt 
the hen. She sit a spell and we had us a nice visit. Her people not from round 
these parts but say she likes her the folks that she done met here bouts cause 
she say they be friendlier than most. After she leave I gets me some reading 
done cause never had me no mind for doing me no sewing today. I gets by but I 
never at ease anymore when I be by myself. Least I gots me my cats but I do me 
some big missing of sis but I never let on to her bout it.

      I had me some nice company today. Miss Beulah and Miss Odell come by for 
a visit. They brung me some pickled okra and I fried up some cabbage with a 
little pork and we had us a pan of bread. Granddaddy always say a body needs 
them three things good food, good friends and a good end and if you gets you 
that then that is all you can ask of the creator. I don’t know me nothing bout 
how I end but sweet Jesus knows I gots me the other two. I think when a body 
done knowed them hungry days and lonely days they appreciates when they has 
them different. It was neigh on dark when they leaves and I was asking them to 
stay the night cause of the cold but them two pay no never mind to the 
weather. Miss Beulah getting on in years but she say that the only thing be 
stopping her be death and til it come she be going where she chooses. I been 
thinking bout starting me a new hat for sis. She don’t have her no real need 
but I know she like to have her a new one for church.

     Been here all day with just me and the cats. I get me some sewing done 
and bout finished me another quilt. It has four birds looking out from the 
center. Granddaddy Persinger had the design on his tobacco pouch. He told us 
that he got the design from his daddy. I use a double X knot on it cause it so 
thick but Miss Dew say she want it thick enough to keep her good and warm. I 
learned how to do it from Miss Stull over in Alleghany County. Sweet Jesus 
knows I loved me that woman. She was a good woman but had her no eye for 
designing a quilt. Now when it come to putting it together aint nobody better 
with a needle and thread than she was. Miss Bowen always say never let her do 
the picking of the pieces cause they would be all wrong. She say she had her 
some problem seeing colors and she never match them up right. As far as I 
could tell nothing wrong with her eyes. She had her a problem with her leg. 
One day she was getting in wood for the cook stove and there was some snake in 
the pile. He got her right above her ankle. They doctored her up but the 
poison done set in so they had to cut it out. After that they put a hot blade 
to it to get out the poison. It left her with a limp but never seemed to slow 
her down none cause she was always working. After the men folk leave she start 
singing hymns and sing all day til they come back. She would learn me a Bible 
verse and then say now the next time you visits me if you knows the verse I 
give you a piece of butter candy. I still knows me some of them that she 
learned me. She could weave her some of the prettiest baskets a body ever see. 
Some of them was big enough for a child to stand in but most was small ones 
like people needs for eggs and fruit. She made her the best pork pie me and 
sis ever put in our mouths. She would take the pork renderings and cook them 
up with a some corn meal, bit of pork meat, turnips and some berries or dried 
apples if she had any and let it all cook on the stove. She then put it in a 
bread pan and let it cool and then slice it up. She take any left after she 
filled her bread pan and put it back on the stove with some potatoes and 
tomatoes and let them all cook down and then cut it into pieces. A body eat 
that just fore bed and you sleeps all night and never get cold. She helped me 
learn to stitch my letters with thread and I learned lot from her and now be 
glad I did cause I gets extra for fancy stitching. I wish I could see her 
again cause I give her a big hug and say I understand now why she be singing 
all the time. She lose her a baby when he no more than a year or two old and 
she be singing cause she know she see her baby again. Say he was just starting 
to walk and he fall into her cook stove and get himself burned bad. They 
doctored him up good and she was thinking that he have himself some scars but 
be fine. Couple days later she go to change the dressing and he gone. I never 
understood why she talk bout him all the time cause growing up me and sis seen 
death come for folks and knowed that it was a part of life. We never did us 
much thinking bout it. After my little angel passed I knowed why she that way 
and I feels bad that I never knowed how much pain in her soul by her own baby 
passing. She was always looking out her kitchen window up in the back field 
and me there thinking she done seen her a deer or something or that she done 
been taken by the old age madness but I knows that be where they put her baby 
and she never wanted to let him out of her sight ever again. Sweet Jesus 
forgive me for my foolness and please look after baby Adam for me and sis. 


     Me and sis gone to Miss Annabell’s girls burying today. Had her baby and 
god done took her after the baby come cause it come out wrong and now both 
done been taken. We was all with her when the baby was coming but her aunt 
from down at Roanoke was fixing her up and when she saw it was coming wrong 
sent her boy to fetch a doctor but he wouldn’t come but say he see her in the 
morning if they bring her over to his house. Aint right cause if she was white 
he have been there fore the baby come and see things done right. If Miss Bowen 
or Miss. Pinn been here they could of saved them both cause they been doing as 
granny women for ages and I seen them cut round a woman and bring that baby 
out and use thread and sew the momma up like nothing. Sis staying the night 
with her momma and Jesus knows she taking it bad. I been wondering if that was 
how it was when our momma passed or if she put in the ground with nary a tear 
shed. I feels bad thinking that maybe I killed her in coming out wrong but 
grandma say that she had her the fever and that god a taken her anyway. Aint 
my way to be questioning god and he lets us know what we needs and if he don’t 
say nothing then its cause we don’t need to be knowing it but it still sets a 
mind to thinking. The truth be that I give my life if it had come tween me and 
my Adam. They could have put me in the ground and I been happy to take my 
place there cause my baby be living. Momma might be the same thinking that if 
death come for one she glad it leave me and take her stead of me. Miss. Beulah 
come and say she stay the night with me but I say I make it just fine but she 
can stay if she wants. Poor soul done fell asleep on my divanport so I let her 
be and me and the cats keeping company. My James done got him some more work 
down in Richmond building a house for this lawyer. He had Linda bring me over 
a box of stuff he done got me down there and he put five dollars in it but 
Linda say not to let her momma know bout it. She needs to mind herself cause 
sis ready to put her in her place the way she doing James and Linda but I ask 
her not to cause we wants no more trouble than we has already got. 

I heared me this noise out on my back porch and the cats was jumping all over 
the place. I gets me my big stick cause I be thinking that a coon done come on 
the place looking for food. Coons will do that if they get the chance. I goes 
out the door ready to be fighting this coon and there is this pup not much 
bigger than a barn rat. He was all wet and mud all over its feet and just a 
looking up at me. It is brown with a few white patches and look to be bout 
starved to death. I not have me no wishing to have me no dog on the place. 
That hateful thing James done give them kids I gots to have round when they 
brings it over but don’t want me no more. Course dog or not aint nothing 
coming in my house and leaving hungry if I can help it. I gives it some milk 
and some bread and it eat it all down. After it done eat it goes up under my 
cook stove and falls asleep. I knowed Miss Hope been wanting her a dog so I 
takes it over to her place. Course she fall right off in love with it so I say 
she can keep it. Me and sis not want us a dog and it fret my cats near to 
death. I feels sorry for Miss Hope cause she is barely able to get herself to 
church on Sundays cause her back bout give out on her. She has done had her a 
hard life but she gots her the soul of an angel. I wish I had me more time to 
be visiting but her place is a fair piece from mine. She got her this old cat 
she call Sampson. He look to be like a horse side of this dog but Sampson 
start cleaning on it and they starting playing right off. We sits in the 
kitchen and I says I be happy to fix her up something and she has me make up a 
pan of bread. We sits and visits and eat on that a good part of the day. I 
read from her Bible some cause she never had her no learning. Her master was 
one of those that didn’t believe that coloreds should be doing them any 
learning. She cannot write her name but knows how to make her mark on paper. 
Her Bible looks to be bout as old as she is and only be half a Bible. She say 
her and her brother only had enough money to be buying themselves one Bible so 
they tore it in half so they each have them a Bible to carry to church. I 
imagines that since neither of them able to do any reading from it any how 
half a Bible is as good as a whole one. I tell sis that when one of the boys 
come round I will cook her up a mess of something or the other and have them 
tote it over cause I knows she hardly able to be doing her much cooking. I 
know she loves Jumping Allen stew so we will make her up a pot of that.


     Mister Parker’s regular girl is still not back so I been going to his 
place to help out. His brother been in with his family so sis goes with me 
cause a body never get no cleaning done cause those people eating all day 
long. I must have fixed up three or four setting at the table. There was so 
many visiting there is not room at the table for them all to eat at the same 
time. We feeds the men first and then their women folk and the smallest kids 
eats last. I was doing the cooking and sis was cleaning up after them. I 
cooked them up the deer that his brother done killed with his new rifle and 
they all say it was good eatings. We not there at the house more than time to 
get off our coats when they comes in with it. Poor thing not more than a year 
old but a body think they done killed themselves a monster. Course they got it 
hanging in the back and Mister Parker and his brother looking like they has 
them no idea bout skinning it out and cutting up the meat and such so sis say 
let her do it for them. Sis good at it and them men watching her and talking 
bout how they be great hunters. I wants to laugh but I keep hush. In no time 
she got it skinned and nary a tear in it excepting for the bullet hole. Then 
she cut it up. His brother say to sis that she must of done that a couple of 
times cause she was so fast. She say maybe a hundred times but a body lose 
count. They puts the head out on a post and everybody come by gots to walk out 
and take a gander at it. Jesus knows that some got an odd turn bout them.  Sis 
say that those men never knowed them what real hunting like. Lord knows I aint 
doing me no mean talking bout those folks. They is always quick on paying us 
and pay us good. If they aint real hunters aint my place to be saying so. 
Least ways they treats us good so we don’t mind going over there.

       Me and sis was talking bout when grandma Persinger told us bout the 
time Aunt Ruthy meet granddaddy’s daddy for the first time. She just got her 
the milking done and she sees two people and she was thinking it be some of 
the men folk up that way coming cross the field carrying them a big deer. When 
they gets close she sees that it is Miss Sara but say she almost not place her 
cause she dressed in skins and her face all covered in blood and dirt. She 
knowed Miss Sara but say she never seen her man fore that. Course say she done 
heared all bout him from the rest of the family so she not surprised to be 
seeing him. Some of those folks never was to happy bout her being with an 
Indian man. Once she was in a family way weren’t nobody going say nothing bout 
it. Sides she say some them men folk was ascared of her anyhow. Say they come 
up to her and Miss Sara makes the ductions. Aunt Ruthy ask her man if he 
killed it but Miss Sara say she done killed it dead with a bow and arrow 
herself. Say he just stand there like a tree and have him this mean look on 
his face. Then he breaks this smile and tells her that she done brung it down 
with one arrow better than any Indian man do. Now Aunt Ruthy say that Miss 
Sara was in a family way. She say she looked to be dropping that baby any time 
but a body never know it by the way she toted her that deer. Miss Sara and him 
cut it up and was making them some talk and say there this man laughing with 
Miss Sara like his belly split open. Then all the people done come from round 
the place and they talks and them boys all gets to playing the stick game. Now 
the men never was letting no woman play it cause a lot of them folks say it is 
a sin for a woman to play it and I knows Miss Fridley catch her girl playing 
it with some boys and she take a granny switch to her right off but say Miss 
Sara right out there with those men a playing. She must been good at it cause 
she win her a knife off one of those boys. One them boys starts funning her 
bout that deer and say that she never brung that deer down with no arrow and 
that if she killed it she done it with a gun. Miss Sara get his bow and say 
what you want me to shoot. He points out to this tree where some chickens done 
gone to roost and he say get that red hen up next to the top. She put that 
arrow as straight as you please in that hen and when it fall to the ground he 
tell her he never had her do it had he believed she could cause now she done 
killed one his mommas best hens dead. They stays most of the day and they all 
eats off that deer and along night time they bring out a jug but he not take 
any. They offer them a bed for the night but say they don’t take the offer and 
goes off in the pitch black. Grandma say he never was in the berries cause he 
called that white mans poison and never cared him for no house. Now he did use 
him a gun most of the time so I reckon he had him that bow cause Miss Sara 
wanted to use her one. Wonder what Mister Parker’s brother think if he ever 
meet up with somebody like Miss Sara.

      Had us some snow last night but not enough to speak bout. Miss Lewis had 
me do her some sewing for her so had sis take that by her place so I could get 
myself over to Mister Parkers. Some his people is visiting from down south and 
they act like we having some blizzard. They all running outside and strike me 
kind a funny then I remembers me and sis the same way when we was little so I 
pays it no never mind. Sis the better part of the day over with Miss Lewis 
cause she ask her if she work the rest of the day. Sis cleaned up round the 
house and do the cooking. Sweet Jesus they send enough what they got left to 
feed me and sis so never have to bother with doing us no cooking. She say Miss 
Lewis go on and on bout how pretty them two dresses is and ask if she gets her 
some material from down in Richmond if we sew up a couple more. Sweet Jesus 
done made certain me and sis has us all the money a body need to make do. I 
likes when she gets us some of that fancy material cause she always say we 
keep any scraps left from it and I puts them in some of our quilts. Not a word 
from my David but he knows I love him so it worry me but no need to be 
fretting myself to death over it. Two my cats up in my bed but not got me the 
heart to be putting them out so I reckon I has me company for the night. 

     We did not have us many folks at the church supper. I figure the weather 
was keeping most people at home and I was thinking that we miss it but sis say 
it take more than that to keep her away so we fixed up some pork pie and a 
vanilla cake to take with us. Miss Terry done fell on the ice and bout near 
busted herself all up. I trys and be careful cause lord knows I don’t want me 
to have to lay in the bed for a week or more. Miss Bessie not come cause she 
has been visiting with some of her people. The preacher’s wife cooked up some 
greens with onions and they was the nastiest things a body put in their mouth. 
Sis say she never put a piece of fat one in them and done cooked them to long. 
Miss Beulah and Miss Odell made up some potato bread and now that was good. 
Miss Sue make this dish out of corn and chicken that was good and not a bite 
left at the end. Miss Sue bout eighty three years old and Miss Odell say she 
killed that chicken herself and done toted that big old pot herself all the 
way from her place over to the church. If we knowed it me and sis have fetched 
it for her. Both her parents was Africans and she was a slave til the war 
ended. She say she had to work them fields from the time she old enough to 
walk. When she was little she carry water to the field hands and then as soon 
as she big enough to work a hoe she out there with the rest no matter what the 
weather like. Her master was a hard man but he never beat him any his slaves. 
She say they knowed that if they cause no problem and work hard he never sell 
them or their people away. She had her ten children but all done passed but 
five but gots her almost forty grandbabies so she always have family visiting 
or be off to one of their places. She rents out three her rooms in her place 
and that be how she make her money but say her people help her when she need 
it. That the way it should be cause a family needs to stand with their own. I 
love me mine and we do for each other. Some mine may have words from time to 
time but when it over, it over and they knows better than be bringing it to my 
house. They knows I loves them all bit I not tolerate no foolness in my house. 
Course sis say I that way when I be at their place to cause I be thinking that 
momma is always right and knows better than them that’s grown what they needs 
to be doing. Sweet Jesus I knows that be the gospel and I tries to hold back 
my tongue but it is hard cause a baby always a baby in their momma’s eyes even 
if they be fifty. I keep on telling me that they is grown and some their 
babies bout grown so I gots to keep hush when it aint my place to be saying 
nothing.

     Two of my cats was in this big fight over something. I was trying to get 
at time and make them stop but they got in under my bed. Sis come and helped 
me. They was quick enough bout stopping cause sis had her a broom in her hand. 
We was laughing bout it and sis helped me fix my bed back up. Lord we was 
talking so much and funning bout them cats that we done forgot bout the bread. 
We had us a whole pan in the cook stove. By the time we was thinking bout that 
bread it was to late. That pan of bread was as burnt as you please. We 
scrapped off the burnt parts and we put it in our stew and we eat it anyway. I 
don’t mind me the taste but sis was not to pleased bout it, I started to sing 
the hungry Joe song and that got her to laughing. The song is Hungry Joe he 
was way to slow and got him nothing to eat. A burnt up crumb fall at his feet 
and that all he had him to eat. Don’t cry hungry Joe you just to slow and 
cause of that a burnt crumb at your feet is all you has now to eat. Sis is 
easy to be getting out of the miseries if a body can get her to do some 
singing. Course I had to be doing me the little dance that go with it and sis 
was funning me bout that. Sweet Jesus I love me that woman.

     Dear sweet Jesus it was so cold and snowy today that a body not able to 
be even thinking bout going anywhere. Me and sis been keeping company all day 
cause of it. Puts me in a mind of when me and sis with Miss Polly in that old 
chicken house out by Miss Saras old place for two days. When we was there Miss 
Polly told us a story we never heared us afore. She say that there was this 
family of Indians that they had them this little cabin down from where we was 
at. They had them a thatch roof and one little window in it but it never had 
it no wood floor. There was five of them there. This old Indian man that 
everybody call BearTalker but nobody sure if that was his real name or not and 
his wife and three of their grandchildren cause their folks done been killed. 
Folks up round Ritch Patch gots on good with them and they even visit over at 
Mister Persinger’s place. But some other folks never liked having them those 
Indian people round cause say they was devils and kills folks dead in their 
sleep. One night they was all in the jug and start talking bout doing 
something bout it. One of the boys slip away and rides to Mister Persinger’s 
place and say them boys going to do something real bad to Mister BearTalker. 
Those boys gets to Mister BearTalker’s cabin. They block up them the door and 
when they tries to get out they shoots at the door to keep them inside. One 
them Indian girls is bout ten years old. She been out doing her business and 
when she start to the cabin they shoots her and puts a bullet in her side. One 
of the men says now he got to go and finish her up with a knife cause she done 
run off in them woods. The others set fire to the cabin. Those Indian people 
was begging to be let out but they burns them all up fore old man Persinger 
and his men gets themselves there. His men finds them the girl and she told 
what done happen and bout that time the man hunting her catches up to them and 
all those men say they put him under the ground if he not turn himself round 
and fast. He done it to cause he knowed that those men was not playing on it. 
They takes her and try and doctor her up but bout a week later she passes. 
They puts her in the ground and puts up a marker. Miss Polly say even though 
she never knowed her after they tells her the story she go up there often to 
visit with her cause she knowed she not have her no people left to be doing 
it. She say it wrong to let some girl lay their alone. Miss Polly say every 
body knowed that BearTalker was a good man but that he had him Indian religion 
and those men find that out for themselves. A few days after they done burned 
them that cabin couple of them boys takes them a group of their friends up to 
see what they done. When they gets on bout leaving they say they see this 
shadow come out in front of them. One those horses ups and throws one them 
boys that do the burning and snap his neck. When them other boys hears bout it 
they all afeared that Mister BearTalker done come to gets him all them. A day 
pass them by and then one those boys takes him a fever and gone fore that 
night over. The next day one the other boys burns his hands to the bone. Them 
boys that was left asks them a preacher whats they gots to do. That preacher 
tells them that they gots to go back and give them folks a descent burying. 
They does it and clean up all round so that a body never knowed what they 
done. This long fore granddaddy born but me and sis be thinking that he done 
knowed this fore Miss Polly tell us. Sis say she think he never say nothing 
bout it afore cause he never want us to be afeared of people cause those folks 
that done that was not our relations and not from them mountains. He want us 
to know that we was safe round all them folks up there and they come like a 
bunch of bees if they was thinking someone be wanting to hurt us. I think lots 
bout that after they done run off Miss Ada’s boy and not been able to sort it 
out. I wonders if that be why granddaddy’s daddy never cared for sleeping in a 
house and why he was never long in one place. Maybe he was thinking that if he 
was there long some of them whites be coming for him to. It dwells on my mind 
bout such things. I never be understanding how some folks can be doing them 
the meanness they do but Jesus say one day we understand it all.

   Me and sis went by Miss Bessie’s place today to see that it’s being looked 
after cause she still with some of her relations. She has a girl staying there 
that looking after it for her but we wanted to have us a look see just to be 
sure things being done right. I never want her coming back and finding things 
done been put in a mess. Her girl is a good Christian but she be young. 
Sometimes young ones not as careful bout things as they ought to be bout them. 
We go in and the place as clean and neat as can be. She aint no slackered and 
sis say she is proud to be doing it cause that girl never lived in no fine 
place like that in all her days and never was things that she do so. I know 
Miss Bessie be a pleasure to work for cause she don’t lauder over a body. If a 
body do what be expected they gets payed good and treated like they is 
somebody. I done seen me to many that act like the person doing the work be 
some kind of slave and treat them as such. When we come back we cooked up a 
nice piece of pork. Sis fried up some onions and we had us a good time. After 
we eat I finished up some sewing for Miss Wilson and sis did the cleaning up. 
Miss Odell say she stop in on us but we never seen her. I pray sweet Jesus 
that she be fine cause that woman been kind to me and mine. It strikes a body 
strange how some folk like they is part of your family when they never be 
blood kin. Jesus been good bout giving me and sis friends like that no matter 
where we be.

    Miss Beulah was eighty six years old yesterday. We had us a time over at 
her place. Lots of the women from Church come and me and sis fixed up a cake 
for her and we had us a good time. Weren’t nobody that  leave that place with 
an empty belly. We had us a Bible reading to give thanks to Jesus that she 
done seen her all these days. Miss Odell say that a person never know she as 
old as she is. Those two women are angels to lots of folks cause even as old 
as they be they always thinking bout others. We was all talking bout the food 
and what we is going to cook up for her next year when she will be eighty 
seven. Sis say she wants to cook her up some Indian bread. Granddaddy 
Persinger learned us how to make it when we was little but it takes a body 
most of two days to fix it. A body has got to pick up bout a bushel full of 
acorns and then they gots to be put in a big kettle full of water. Now we 
never use all we get cause some no good for bread making. Miss Bowen say that 
sis gots her a nose like an old hound when it come to picking out which be the 
best to use. She can sniff them acorns and tell which ones to be using. When 
we was making it with granddaddy we boil them acorns for more than an hour and 
then pour that water off and then boil them again. We had to do that bout four 
times. Miss Fridley only boil them twice then put them in a bucket of water 
and let them set a day. The next day she pour off that water and let them dry 
and then we ground them and they make a good Indian bread. Granddaddy always 
add a little meal fore he cook it up and there aint nothing better than that 
Indian bread and butter. When I gots me a pan of that and some butter or honey 
I can eat on it all day and never be wanting me anything else excepting course 
I want me my coffee.

    Had us some cracklins with corn bread and honey so it been a good day. 
Mister Parker give us a jar of honey and Jesus knows I likes me some honey and 
sis do to just rather have her sugar in its place. Course she say that and 
then eats her three helpings. Lord knows where she put it all. We had bees 
growing up on the place but I always liked me wild honey the best. My 
granddaddy Persinger and his brothers often went bee treeing. All them folks 
over in Alleghany County get them to walk their place looking for bee trees. 
Granddaddy and his brother squirrel was the best at it cause most had to set 
up traps and track down them wild bees but they could walk in them woods and 
they stand and listen and look bout. Grandma say they could feel when there 
was a bee tree close by. I ask him bout it and he say that he let them trees 
and the bees tell him where they was. He say that if a body listen and feel 
they do the same for themselves but to many be thinking that they smarter than 
the land. Sometimes he take him a dab of honey from his bees and put it on 
something and then sit himself down and wait for them bees to find it. When 
they do he follow them right to the tree where they be hiving up. If they find 
them a bee tree they puts their mark on the tree with a sharp knife. Their 
mark was a double P and a slash for each man in the party. They did it like 
that so they knows how many ways to be dividing it up when they cuts them bees 
out. If they was on somebody’s place then they get half and then they divvy up 
the rest. If they finds a tree done been marked by someone else they leave it 
be cause folks not take well to nobody thieving honey from them. Now 
granddaddy not ascared of them bees and if it just him he cut that tree as 
soon as the leaves start to turn. Most of them men waits til the first snow or 
it turn blue cold cause then the bees not be able to fly out and sting them. I 
always carried me the bee torch for them. When they lit it up it makes smoke 
and they put that near them bees and they never sting as bad. Some them men 
was never wanting to get hold of them bees . Many a time I seen when my 
granddaddy with his bare hand retched down in a bunch of them bees and he come 
out covered with them and holding him a big comb of honey. Sometimes 
granddaddy take him a wood box or a big basket with a hole in it and put him 
them bees in there. That way he could get him a start for a new hive from 
them. I don’t know how he done it. Sweet Jesus by spring that hive be full of 
bees and they stay right where he put them. When we get our part of that wild 
honey me and grandma go through it and run the honey through to get rid of 
dead bees and such. Most of it we sell cause she always had people ready to 
buy all she got to sell and we keep part of the honey we get from granddaddy’s 
hives for us. When she sold her any that wild honey she give me one part out 
of four of the money. Maybe I try and get sis to go out with me and see if we 
can find us one round these parts but she never help me get them bees or honey 
out but I know James and Amos help me get it down.

     Today the day my baby Adam passed and lord it still tears at me but then 
I looks round and in every corner there be a friend or family here to help see 
me through the day. I know I got me the right to be in the miseries but I done 
come to see that god done blessed me and give me more than he took. James 
brung over a whole ham and sis cooked that thing up good and we aint had us no 
eating like that in ages. Granddaddy Persinger been on my mind a lot these 
days but then so has most of them folks over in Alleghany County. We had us 
some good times and Jesus knows they was some good people. Many that we knowed 
growing up that was so good to us done passed on. When me and sis gone be like 
they gone to cause nobody be left that knowed how good they was. With Miss 
Polly gone I reckons aint nobody left to visit that little Indian girls grave 
and maybe someday me and sis be in the ground and nobody ever visit us. Lord a 
body dwells on these things to much and they lose them the sights round them. 
I ask Jesus help make my soul right and give him all the glory.

     Miss Lewis done learned me a new word. It is chapeau and she say that it 
is French talk for hat. She had to show me how to put it down on paper. When 
she done it I was happy cause lord a body never write it that was cause it 
don’t sound that way. Course I don’t think I was saying it right cause when I 
say it Miss Lewis and her friend start to laughing. They weren’t doing them no 
mean laughing bout it cause they was just funning with me. I come home and 
keep telling sis I wants me a new chapeau and we had us the best time bout it. 
Sis say we say that to the preacher’s wife on Sunday and see her reaction. 
Miss Lewis give me a beef heart and a kidney so sis fixed them up with some 
onions and that was the best stuff. I don’t care me much for beef but that 
heart was awful good. Now sis likes her the tongue. When she fries it up with 
some pork and onions a body can eat on that all day and never be wanting them 
nothing else. Miss Lewis give me some of her tea and we fixed us up some and 
it was not bad. I still think her coffee better than her tea, We was funning 
talking bout with my new word and all this fancy eating and drinking we be 
puffing ourselves up real good like some them rich folks over there in Europe. 
Lord Sweet Jesus we has us some good times when we is together. Even when it 
seem like the whole world out of sorts sis makes a body feel like aint nothing 
get to us.


    Couple pages done fell out my book and I finds them under my bed. Got me 
no idea how they got themselves there but there they was. Sweet Jesus knows 
that some days a body not think right but aint no need to be dwelling on it 
cause not do any good. Me and sis done had us a good supper of fish and 
greens. Amos done give us two big ones that him and his friends done got down 
at the river and we fried them up in butter with a small piece of pork fat. 
Bout near made my cats crazy. Sis say no need for them to be looking cause 
aint nothing but scraps once we get done eating. She say that then I sees her 
slip my old mammy cat a piece off her plate. I don’t say me nothing cause I 
always knowed she got her more heart than she put on. She puts me in a mind of 
Mr. Smith over in Ritch Patch at times. Lord sweet Jesus knows that it be hard 
on a body thinking all day bout them that done gone on. I keeps running all 
day to the door thinking that Miss Mary done come over but she gone now and 
aint no use wishing it not so. Sis say I always thinking to much any how. I 
reckon that the way the good lord done made me so no need to be changing now. 
I done made it this far and hopes to see me more years fore he calls me home. 
All the kids just to busy to be coming over all the time and looking in on me 
and Sis. Course Sis say we always done on our own with never no problems to be 
speaking of and you gots to let them be free to live as they wants to live. 
James always be by and as long as we not hungry a soul got better things to do 
than be thinking bout what aint round bout a body.

 Dear sweet Jesus on days like this I wish I had knowed me my real momma. I 
think some days that I bet she was just like Sis and if she lived that the 
three of us had been just like sisters. Preacher says we all meet in the end 
but a body can’t help wondering what she was like. I sees me all the women 
round here these days and they never done knowed them nothing bout how strong 
a woman can be. Sweet Jesus knows that that woman of James one of the worse. 
Lord god forgive me but he know I speak the gospel. There growing up Miss. 
Fridley was not ascared of nothing living or dead. I seen that woman pick up a 
heffer calf and carry it through the snow back to the barn like it was a 
basket of tomatos and never think nothing bout it. Miss. Sara was like any man 
you ever meet and stronger than most. After her man done gone out west 
granddaddy say when she got with Mister Hood she was the boss and he was more 
like her man servant cause she say bring me this and do that and he up doing 
it. He always say he was white but granddaddy say he just look away when he 
say it cause he knowed what he was but granddaddy never make him no never 
mind. There she birthed twins all by herself and poor Miss. Annabel’s girl 
done died with one and all those women folk helping. Me and Sis is like Miss 
Sara cause we do for ourselves and we be just as happy as if we had some man 
to be doing for us. Jesus knows I miss me my Raymond but we is doing fine 
cause we gots us my James and each other. I know Raymond is happy knowing we 
got us each other and he got Miss Amanda to look out for him. I told sis I 
wants to see him when I gets to heaven but first I wants to see me my Adam.

    I was thinking that the weather would be bad today but the sun come on out 
and it was pretty. I took over the pillow covers that I sewed up for Miss 
Wilson. On the way back I sees this old man a walking and he put me in the 
mind of Bo cause he got him one leg shorter than the other. He was white but 
lord from the way he walked I would have swore me an oath that it was Bo. I 
wonder what Bo was thinking all those years. I know he was happy all the times 
we seen him. I know he must have had him a wish to be knowing bout his family 
and what come of them. I reckon my David been on my mind and wondering if he 
thinking bout his momma or if he just having himself a good time and we not 
much on his mind. I know me and sis talk bout what our real momma was like but 
aint no way we ever know so I needs to be thinking on other things. Daddy’s 
wife was a momma to us some but we never was thinking bout her like we do our 
real momma. Sweet Jesus know I aint doing me no complaining cause things is 
the way they is and we done had us a lot of good times and good people looking 
out for us. Like the song say I take them burdens down to the cross of Jesus 
and they be mine no more.

   My house was full of people all day yesterday. James come over with his 
family and Miss Bessie’s boy Jacob and his wife. They are here visiting his 
momma from down south. Him and James been friends since Moses in the desert 
and in a lot of ways he puts me in a mind of James. Jacob done good cause he 
gots all kinds of people that works for him. I never be certain what all they 
do for him but no doubt he gots him some money cause they both wearing fancy 
shoes that look like they never been on a foot one. His wife gots her a French 
name and I never be able to put it down but sis say I can ask Miss Lewis and 
she show me how to write it. She say she gots her French, black and Indian 
blood cause her people from round Louisiana. A body can tell by looking at her 
that she come from money. She was not be puffing herself up none and just as 
sweet as anybody we knows but a body can look her in the eye and tell she aint 
seen her no hungry days. She was talking with me and sis all bout her people 
and course we wanted to talk bout her Indian blood. We tells her all bout Miss 
Sara and her man and bout all our granddaddy Persinger done learned us bout 
them Indian ways. She can talk her French but don’t know much bout her Indian 
people. Course we had plenty time to be visiting cause my Sara and Linda was 
chinning Jacobs ear off. Everyone eat good cause we done cooked up enough food 
to keep them all happy. Sis made up two cakes and a slop roll and a pork pie. 
I made the bean bread and a pot of greens, onions and turnips with bacon and 
some biscuits with honey. Course the kids had to bring their dog with them and 
like to worry a body to death but I tell sis we aint letting no dog ruin us a 
good day. He is just as ugly as he ever was but guess he is part of our family 
now. God done blessed us more than a body ever say. 

     Some old dog bout the place half the night and so we lets most the cats 
in to keep them safe. Amos stayed the night with me and sis and sure was happy 
to have him. Sis say it is like a game seeing if we can cook enough to feed 
him up. That boy put away most of the hoecakes and stew we cooked up and then 
went for my pie. Sis laugh and ask him if he was eating for two. That boy give 
her the biggest old hug and say you two knows you my real mommas. Sweet Jesus 
I was thinking that sis start crying like a baby. She gots her a hard turn 
bout her that make some folks ascared of her but sweet Jesus knows that a 
better woman god never put here. We needs to get us some sewing done tomorrow. 
With the two of us working we be able to sew them up fore dark. Sis is quick 
with the needle but I do better at the designs. Now her stitches is as tight 
as can be. They aint going to give lessen a body tugs at them hard. Sewing 
with sis never seem like real work to be cause we always funning with each 
other. Sweet Jesus done blessed me good and I give him all the thanks for 
doing it.

     Sis done told me something I never knowed bout Miss Sara. Miss. Fridley 
say that fore granddaddy Persinger was born and Miss. Sara little more than 
fourteen her daddy had her out cleaning the barn. They had them this hired 
white man that helped round their place. He weren’t from round those parts but 
he was willing to work for a place to bed down and some food so they take him 
on. Say he seemed like a good enough person but that he keep to himself and 
not say much bout nothing. Miss. Sara was with her back to him when he came in 
the barn. He knocked her down . Fore that man did his business he beat her in 
the face real bad. When he crawled off her she grabbed up the pitchfork and 
put it in his back. He falls to the ground and when he starts to get himself 
up all hollering bout how he going to kill her and such she hit him over and 
over til one of the men pulled her off him. Say by that time most his face and 
chest was gone and she done bout broke that fork in pieces. The women all say 
he earned him that pitchfork and it was a family matter cause he had him no 
people anywhere close by. Them Persinger men come over and they were saying 
how the law might not see it how they did. The men all say they take the body 
out in the woods and burn it fore they put him in the ground. They don’t even 
mark where they put him cause the women say the devil be able to find him just 
fine without no markings. After that Miss Sara keep to herself and ran through 
those mountains like a wild animal. The women all say for the men folk to 
leave her be cause they the ones that done hired that devil man to beat down 
her soul. When a little time passed and she not with no baby cause what he 
done to her the family say that was a sign that god not mad cause they done 
what they done. Miss Sara say that had he put a baby in her she have cut it 
out herself. She tell them all that aint no man ever going to take from her 
like she some she dog again and any man try get himself killed just as dead as 
that one. That be why she had her an Indian man cause no one else could handle 
her and Miss Fridley say he let her be wild and when the two of them was in 
their way it was her doings and not his. I ask sis why she never say this to 
me and fore I get it all out I knows why. Jesus knows that I loves me that 
woman. It makes me glad that Amos say what he did cause that mean more to sis 
than anything I say cause she knows that I loves her. Like Miss. Bowen always 
say to me she not my sister she is my shadow.

     I was doing me a lot of thinking bout what sis say bout Miss. Sara. I 
know what that man done was wrong but I never cut one my babies out of me to 
get back at the man that put it there but aint my place to judge what she say 
cause she the one he beat. I never be able to understand why some men folk 
gots to be acting that way. Now my Raymond a good man and never bother me 
lessen I wanted him to and I knows many a man kill himself fore he do his 
business with a child but a woman always got to be thinking bout such things 
cause if something happen most men going be putting it all off on her. When we 
was working for Mister Green he and one of his boys had them an eye for this 
young colored girl. I don’t recollect her name but we all called her Miss 
Toothy cause she had her the biggest teeth we ever seen on a woman and when we 
calls her that it weren’t no mean thing cause she called herself that all the 
time. She was bout my age and one day the two of them say she gots to do their 
business with them and if not they put her and her momma off the place. They 
gives her money and let her stay on the place and she has to do it cause she 
gots nowhere else to go and knows her family needs the money. Course she still 
had to work the fields like the rest of us and they take her to bed but never 
allow her to drink from anything they used. After a spell she come in a family 
way and even the colored men was putting it off on her and when the baby comes 
he so white that everybody knows who be the daddy. Mister Green put them off 
his place knowing that baby his and when his wife come out he say she like a 
dog that done been with all those men. I never knowed what done happened with 
her and her people after they left but I prays that they be well cause she was 
little more than a child and aint her fault what done happened. Sweet Jesus 
knows that some fool man grab him one of my sweet babies I be like Miss Sara 
and even if they hangs me dead for it I cut that man to pieces. The Bible say 
a soul got the right to defend their own and it never be no sin to do it.

    Ben and Amos over and go out on my back porch and we hears all this racket 
and sis say they must be trying to fix up that first step or is getting us 
some more wood up and we pay it no never mind. Short time later they comes in 
and Amos has him this possum in his hands. We tell them it is one of the 
biggest we ever seen but we was funning with them cause sweet Jesus knows it 
aint. Amos says it was out on the porch behind my woodpile and they picked 
themselves up a piece of wood and killed it.  Sis has them clean it up and she 
then cooks it up with some onions and potatoes. Most time I don’t care me that 
much for possom. Now Miss Jones says she likes it better than chicken but I 
never know how but I gots to say that it is good the ways sis cooked it up. If 
I do the choosing I want me a chicken over it but like grandma always told us 
if a meal is free then it is good meal and that be the gospel.  Ben has him 
some good raising cause he ask sis to fix him up a plate for his momma. After 
they is gone sis say she never like fixing a plate for a chair hound but least 
sweet Jesus she never speak a word of it in front of them. Sis is a good 
Christian but she never can get on with a lazy person.


Miss Clara come by for a visit with Miss.Ida. Miss. Ida visiting these parts 
cause she gots her family here. She is as tall as any man I ever seen and her 
hair halfway down her back and just as pretty and straight as you please. Say 
she lived over in Alleghany County but she never knowed my people caused they 
lived near town. I say we was mountain people and if me and sis had our way we 
still be hugging us them mountains. I don’t like looking out my door and 
seeing another house. Miss Craft had to walk good part of the day to be 
visiting cause them houses so far apart and still she say that people living 
so close make her feel like she choking. Miss. Ida’s daddy was a slave fore 
the war and after they set free the master put them all off his place so he 
had to be finding him work. Her momma was a mulatto woman with some Indian 
blood but she never knowed what kind just that her momma and grandma able to 
make medicine and do for the sick. They lived up that way and say her momma’s 
people never was slaves. Miss Clara gifted me some soap that Miss Ida done 
made up and she ask me if we ever made our own and I near bout fell in the 
floor cause we never knowed no store soap growing up. Aint made me none in a 
long time cause my James buy me some now in the store cause he knows I likes 
me the smell but when we was little we had to make it ourselves. Now sis cant 
stand her no soap making cause she say the smell make her sick but sis just 
that way bout some things. Soon as we would start getting stuff together to be 
making it that girl off to the woods. She had her the eye for finding and 
calling in the cows. She was good with a knife when it came time to be marking 
them calfs. Every family had their own mark like Mr. Bowen. I think he did him 
two slashes on the right ear and a notch on the low part on the left ear. That 
way when he come on a cow in the woods he could tell himself right off if she 
was his or not. People in the mountains then never bother a cow that didn’t 
have their mark. Now he always let sis do the cutting cause he knowed she do 
it right. Her hand was steady and some folks has trouble at it. If they do it 
wrong that can make the calf sick. Me and sis then keep them locked up a day 
or two so as to keep them clean and then we let them back out in the woods. If 
they start getting the bad ear from them cuts we let the dogs lick it then we 
put some stuff that Aunt Ruthy or Miss Wolf fix up on them and they be fine in 
a few days. Mister Bowen always knowed that if he couldn’t find them cows when 
he needed them all he have to do be send sis out and fore long she come back 
with them. It was always kind of funny cause I never say but I knows she was 
always a little afeared of them big cows. Sis never let on bout that and Jesus 
know I never speak a word of it to a soul. 

     Miss Clara was talking bout the preacher’s wife cause say that little hat 
she wearing on Sunday she done ordered up from New York and had to give nearly 
ten dollars for it. Sweet Jesus some folk got more money than good sense but 
not my money to be spending so not my place to be saying. Sweet Jesus knows 
some of my own not be knowing how to hold onto any money. There I give Linda 
some money to fetch me a sack flour from the store and she done come back with 
some so old that the weevils in it and say that all they had. I asks bout my 
change and she done spent it on some foolness but I marches right down to the 
store and show him what she done got and he say colored should be happy with 
what they gets cause some stores don’t want to be selling them nothing no how. 
I say then maybe all the colored start buying somewhere else and he thinks 
bout it fore a minute and say he give me some fresh to be replacing it. I 
don’t want to be doing me no judging of the man cause we always been done 
right in the past by him and maybe he figured some girl got her money for 
foolness got her money for old flour. I pays what I has to for things but I 
aint got it to waste on buying me no old flour.

     Something aint right with my Sara here of late. For neigh on three months 
she been out of sorts. I don’t know what the trouble is but I knows there be a 
problem. I ask Amos bout it but he say he aint heared him nothing bout there 
being any trouble over at her work. That girl got some different ways bout her 
that a body never be able to figure out. She is making good money but act like 
she don’t pay it no never mind. Aint no use in a body trying to talk it out 
with her cause she listens but never hear what a body says. Least she not be 
back talking us so that be a blessing cause I seen to many that has kids that 
talk to them like they is dogs. Course all mine know that James pick him up a 
do bad stick and break it over the back of any of mine that done that to me or 
sis. We had us some deer meat and sweet Jesus when sis fried that thing up 
with some onions it was good. We had us a big pan of squash bread and some 
butter with it and nobody leave with an empty belly. I make mine with flour 
but you can use meal but it is not as good but a body makes do with what they 
got them. I love cooking with sis cause it never do seem like work to me. We 
been doing it together since we was old enough to stand at a stove so seem 
natural. Granddaddy Persinger always say a body cant eat something lessen they 
fix them up something and lord knows we like eating round this place. 


     Linda and Sara done took off for Florida with neary a goodbye. Amos say 
they gots them work down there but lord it tears my soul out thinking bout 
them not being here. I was thinking they had more sense than do such foolness. 
I wants to blame Linda’s momma for it but Sara mine and as Jesus be my judge I 
cant reckon me no reason bout anything I done that make them up and leave. I 
just want to tear at something til my pains go away but that do no good. Amos 
say his momma say she glad to be rid of Linda and that bout breaks my heart 
but the two of them never did get on good. Me and my Sara have words now and 
again but I never see no problem there.  I needs me .

     James and Amos over most of the day cause they been worried to death and 
mindful that I was taking it hard bout Sara and Linda up and leaving like they 
did. James say it not surprise him that they both been talking bout it for 
some time now. I wonders if grandma got like this when granddaddy up and head 
into the woods for weeks at a time. maybe she knowed it was his nature and 
never fretted bout it. My Amos told me that I was the one always talking bout 
granddaddy’s spirit so maybe I should accept that they done took after him and 
followed what was in their blood. That set on my mind a bit and then I ask 
sweet Jesus forgive me my thoughts. Sweet Jesus knows he told me the truth.  
Men don’t hate a dog cause he barks or a rooster cause he crows cause that is 
what they be. It hurts that they done gone but they are like my David and they 
has to find them their own way. Here I was acting like the queen on the hill 
and my own grandbaby done showed me that he got more good sense than me. The 
truth is I want them here for me.I know me better but Sweet Jesus it still 
cuts me. Sis hurting to but she never speaks a word of it but I hear her 
crying in her room but I acts like I didn’t hear me nothing. She says that we 
was young when we headed out to the Carolinas with no thoughts bout how others 
feel. I likes to think that was different cause granddaddy give us the names 
of some people he knowed down there but aint no difference. It was hard on us 
and we had us some bad times but we also had some good ones and we is better 
people for it. Jesus will be with them like he was with us and anyhow Linda 
got her more sense than my Sara so she look out for them both.

     The preacher’s wife come over to me and sis at church and say she was so 
sorry to hear bout what my Sara and Linda done. Say she die if that ever 
happen to her and if we needs to talk she have the preacher come over to help 
us get through these dark days. I look over and sis ready to draw back cause 
the preacher’s wife had her this little smile while she saying it to us. Then 
I see Sis smile and she say that she has no notion bout what she talking on 
cause me and sis knowed they was going and that we was glad cause we 
Persingers is a wandering people. She walk off and I looks at sis and she say 
that it was not all a lie cause the part bout our people was true but any how 
Jesus excuse her cause that woman so high up she miss seeing the angels 
themselves. Sis don’t let nobody talk bad bout mine. She say we pulls the 
weeds from our garden and what others call a weed we may call a flower. She 
say we can say what we will cause they is blood but nobody else better be 
thinking bout spilling no gravy on them and I laughs cause she put me in a 
mind of grandma. I reckon a lie not be as big a sin as hitting the preachers 
wife in church so I let it pass cause she was just following her nature. Miss 
Odell come by after church and we talks bout it all and I feels better cause 
she has her a way of explaining things so a body can see them in their place. 

     Me and sis took Miss. Hope some vanilla cake and had us a good time. That 
dog of hers aint growed much and I gots to say that he aint a bad dog cause he 
sit there like nothing his business. Even Sampson was not into some foolness 
while we visited. I know well that life aint always the same and things move 
on like river water. I has to learn me to see what I got me and not what I be 
losing. My family and my friends is my rock and I thanks Jesus for them all. I 
knows that James and Amos know them more than they be saying but if they is 
keeping hush bout something they got them a good reason for doing it so I put 
my faith in them to do what is right. Jesus forgive me I done asked James if a 
baby be the trouble for one of my girls but he say no baby there to be 
thinking bout so that give me some peace. Sweet Jesus forgive me for ever 
thinking it was. Lord knows a momma gots to be thinking bout those things when 
it come to her girls. I pray they knows that if they was I never say nothing 
bout it. Me and sis would help them all we was able to be doing. Miss Amanda 
say that a body don’t judge those that they loves them. A body accept that 
they is the way they is and love them. Jesus knows that I loves all mine.

     Sis say she thinks I done gone feeble minded on her. I was telling her 
that I miss Mister Brown being at church now that he living with his boy. 
Sweet Jesus knows that man fret a body to death at times but he was a good 
Christian man and he loved him his church. After the war he settled in Amherst 
cause some of his people was from there. He was friends with some of granny 
Day’s people. Sis say round 1882 he stayed a spell with Mister Day and Miss 
Lucy. I never know how sis gets her head on them dates but she do. I remembers 
me people better than she do but I has me a time with dates. Sis say that Miss 
Lucy was a lot younger than Mister Day. I remember everybody called him Old 
Moses but I never knowed if that was his real name or if they called him that 
cause he was as old as Moses. Mister Brown never had him good words for many 
but he always did for them two. He worked some for Mister Kent when he was 
staying with Mister Day and he say they was good white folks to work with. He 
was an old timey Baptist so he was always in some fit over how the preacher 
was doing church but I just payed me no never mind to that. Most times he act 
like he was mad at the world but maybe that cause of all the mean he done seen 
him. I don’t know why it bothers me but it do. It is like this old cat that 
use to come on the place. It was as hateful as any we ever seen us. It would 
fight sometimes with mine but we put out food for it. Nothing going hungry on 
my place if I can be helping it. He never let me pet on him but he would sit 
and watch me in the garden. One day he stopped coming and we never knowed us 
why. I still catch myself looking out back some mornings to see if he is 
there. 

    I take out my letter from my brother again today and reads it. I done read 
it so many times that some the words smudged but it dwell on my mind. Maybe 
what all done happened with my David and the girls put a body in a mood but I 
don’t right off know. When a person gets older I thinks they start looking 
back at the foolness they done seen and know it for the foolness it is. Miss 
Mary use to always say wild cat at night be kitten in the morning and lord I 
sees how true that is. I cant do me no talking bout it with sis but been 
gnawing on me of late. Maybe all this done opened up something inside me. I 
done answered him back but got me a passel of thinking to do. I wonders if it 
be true that the others was thinking that daddy loved us more cause we was 
from the woman he really loved and wanted to be with. Maybe momma knowed that 
and that was the reason that some treated us that way. I never did me much 
figuring on it. It is true that me and sis was always going off to be with 
different ones and we done gone down to the Carolinas and never was thinking 
nothing bout it cause that was the way things was. There sis sometimes was 
thinking that we gone to stay with other folk as a punishment and our brothers 
and sisters thinking daddy send us as some reward. Sweet Jesus life has a way 
of turning things round and round. Maybe all these years there been trouble 
where no trouble need be. I recollects one day we just come back from Miss 
Bowen’s place over in Alleghany County. On Sunday me and sis puts on the 
dresses that Miss Bowen and Miss Wolf done made up for us. When we gets to 
church none the others sit with us. I thinks now that they not sit with us not 
cause they hate us but cause we had us new dresses and they had the same 
clothes they had them for most the year. Daddy had them a new Sunday dress 
made up bout once a year and the boys get one church shirt at the same time. 
One year they give each of the kids theirs but nothing to me and sis. Sis gets 
mad and leaves the house. She never come back in til dark. One time I tore my 
gray Sunday dress and stead of sewing the rip up Miss Fridley made me up a new 
one. When we come back momma say I reckon you have to wear your old black 
dress cause I aint got me no time to be mending you your gray one. I say no 
need cause I done got me a new one with white ribbons round the collar and 
cuffs. They must have believed me a bragger.  Jesus knows I never mean it that 
way but I was hurting cause I was thinking she not care bout me and sis. They 
never seemed to have more than a dollar put away at any time so buying them 
material for all the kids must have been a burden. They never fix me and sis 
up one cause they knowed we had more than the others. I understand that me and 
sis must of looked like we was having a good time. Lord we was always telling 
them bout the candy we get or the cakes that grandma Persinger done made us or 
the pies that Miss Bowen done give us. At daddy’s we most never had us 
anything with sugar and many a day lucky to have a full belly at nighttime. 
Daddy’s place was so small and most of us sleeping on the floor or four to a 
tiny bed that they must have been thinking that we was staying in some kind of 
regular palace when we talk bout staying over with Miss Wolf. All us had our 
problems with daddy cause he never wanted to do nothing with me and sis. Some 
of the others say he done them wrong but I guess he done what he could. Maybe 
his heart hard was cause he never was the kind of man granddaddy wanted him to 
be. If momma love the others more than us cause they was her blood and 
granddaddy Persinger favored me and sis cause we was more like him and his 
daddy seems to me that should equal it out. I wish I had me William here to 
talk to bout these things. William like me and like to see us all close but 
maybe they not see it the way we do. Maybe after so many years a body get use 
to the anger they gots inside them in their soul and it seem natural to them. 
I know sis never let go what she got inside her and I never ask her to. She is 
a good person in her soul and sweet Jesus there aint a body alive that been 
better to me than her. I think some days that Charly Reed done mine a great 
favor when he move on cause sis belong here with us.
 
     This little bird flew into my kitchen window this morning and it bout 
killed him dead. I went to get him fore my cats had him as a meal. I wrap a 
cloth round him to keep him warm and after a spell he was fine and so I let 
him go. Fore I done it I told him that he was owing me a message to my baby 
that his momma is missing him. He went straight to my pine tree so that mean 
the message be delivered. I sewed up several things for Miss Wright and need 
to be getting them over to her. James done gone off with Hambone to do them 
something or the other. Both those boys good workers and folks know they get 
their value from them working. Miss Vera give me some cabbage so I cooked up 
some stew with it. It was not as good as it should be cause it needed more 
pork in it but Ben and Amos come over and eat it up with no trouble. I think 
those two eat anything I put on a plate. Amos ask if I let him read some in my 
writing book. I tell him that when me and sis done passed he can be reading 
all he wants. He say then he prays sweet Jesus never have him read it. Took me 
a minute to understand what he was saying and then I give him the biggest old 
kiss on his head. I think that little bird done took me more than one prayer. 
I love me my family and thank Sweet Jesus that I has me a good one.

    I was thinking that it would be a long day then I had me two white 
Christian ladies come by and bout knocked me over when I went to the door and 
seen the two of them standing there. I aint never heared much bout them 
visiting in these parts but I let them right in and we had ourselves a nice 
visit. They made themselves at home and not like some folks that a body knows 
out of place with where they at. I knowed that they not from these parts right 
off cause of the way they talked and the way they acted. Sis say she thinks 
they was Catholics. It don’t make me no never mind who they was cause aint 
nobody ever showed up on my door done been turned away. I give them some cake 
and made us some coffee and we had us a good time. They wanted to talk bout 
slavery times and was putting down stuff in this little book. I say that me 
and sis never no slaves but I tells them all the stories I done learned from 
folks over the years and that seemed to please them. We knowed us this lady 
Miss Perry but everybody called her granny. Sis say she thinks she was one of 
them Catholics.  She was a white woman that never had her no man or children 
to look after so she was always helping look after other people. Miss Minni 
say she got her lot of money when her folks passed away cause they owned them 
lots of land. Me and sis stayed with her a couple of months. I did the cooking 
and Sis did the housework and we both tended her garden. She was a kind woman, 
but had her some funny ways bout her. She changed her clothes twice a day just 
for noon she go up to her room and come down with a clean set of clothes on 
and give me and Sis the one she had on to clean. She always had some white 
folks staying and we did for them all. After she took ill her sister come and 
boarded up the place and put us right out with nary a goodbye bout it.  Least 
she did give us our money and extra to so no need to be talking bad bout her 
cause she done us right. My David going to make himself Catholic cause they 
never allow him to marry up with their girl if he aint one of them so reckon 
we have some in the family but wishes I knowed me something more bout them. 
Sis say they believes in Jesus and that be all we needs to know cause if they 
is with Jesus then they gots to be good folk. 

     My front door had done come loose so I needed to get James to come by and 
hang it for me. Ben come over and he done got him the biggest turtle I ever 
seen in all my days. Course he say that Sissy done took to the sick bed again 
cause she say she gots her a pain in her neck real bad. I fix it right up for 
him and for I was done James and Amos done come over. It big enough that I 
made up a big pot of stew with it and taken a few pieces and rolled them in 
meal and fried them up. They eats and funning round at the table and I thanks 
lord Jesus that I gots me my family round me. When sis come in she not believe 
it was turtle so I has to get the shell and show her and she says that was the 
best turtle she ever eat. Sis say since I do all the cooking she do the 
cleaning but I stays in the kitchen and helps with the cleaning. We was 
singing us old timey songs and not a better time be had anywhere. It always 
that way with the two of us. I reckon it cause when we was little we was 
always off by ourselves so much. Some days it be like sis say something right 
as I was thinking bout saying it.

     Sis ask me today why when them two white Christian ladies by this way 
asking bout slave times and the war I never tell them them stories bout our 
relations fighting in the war. I studies on it cause I not rightly sure. I 
thinks it cause some things belongs to the family. But she say I aint told all 
the kids them stories and then I thinks that maybe some of them stories for me 
and sis cause we older but she say we heared them when we was lot younger than 
they be. Lord some days she worry a body to death cause sweet Jesus know she 
right bout so many things. Truth be told some them bother me. Granddaddy 
Persinger’s brother was on the side of the south and fought against them 
Yankee soldiers. He always tell bout the time he was spying on some Yankees 
that come in the woods. He say he leave his horse a fair piece away so he can 
sneak in close and they never know he bouts them parts. He go over this little 
hill and finds that he was right in the middle of them Yankees. He was 
thinking that he would be dead soon. It was long bout dark and was raining 
hard. He rub some dirt on his face and clothes and then climbs up in the top 
of this big old tree and tied some the branches to his clothes. He was up 
there hugging this tree and them soldiers right there under his feet. Two of 
the soldiers stop and lean against the tree. They was smoking them their pipes 
and the smoke got in his nose way up there in the tree. He knowed if he cough 
they spot him right off and shoot him dead. He bites down hard on his tongue 
so as not to be doing him no coughing. Them men start to walk off and he had 
to do him his business but no way there in that tree a body take care of such. 
He just hold himself on til they was good and gone. When he told that story 
people always laugh and holler. They all say Eli you old squirrel you done 
near bit your tongue off to keep from coughing so what you cut off to keep 
from doing your business up there in that tree. Course most not know that not 
the end of it cause he most time never say what come next. He come down out of 
that tree. It was so dark and still raining hard that he could hardly see more 
than a rock throw in front of him. He make his way back to where he done left 
his horse. There was this Yankee soldier aside it but he done fell asleep up 
with his back against this tree. He knowed that if he woke him up he would let 
the others know he was there. He say if he shoot him they hear the shot so he 
crawl in behind that tree. He takes his knife and retch round that tree and 
cuts that Yankee’s throat. Say he never had him no good look at that soldier 
fore he done it cause he had him this coat up over his head. When that Yankee 
soldier falls to the ground that coat come off. He looked him in the eye as he 
was passing and he say that soldier was maybe little more than fifteen years 
old and he done killed him dead a child. He say he was mouthing him some words 
but nothing come out and it like to put him in his own grave seeing him do it. 
He talked bout it a lot with granddaddy cause it was always gnawing at him. 
Many a day I was thinking how he lived with knowing he done killed him that 
baby. Granddaddy say that war is war and such things be a part of it but I 
knows he never leave that thing behind him. Miss Bark say when she knowed him 
he had the happiest eyes on him and I done a lot of thinking bout that cause 
when I looked at them sometimes I sees me some sadness in them. I reckon war 
change a man no matter who he be. Maybe I never share that with my own cause I 
don’t want them to know bout such things. Sis say it is a part of who we be so 
I guess maybe I tell it.

    I had me a houseful most the day. James come over and he was playing his 
guitar and we doing us some singing. Miss Odell and Miss Beulah brung over 
some stuff they done fixed up and not anybody leave without their bellies 
full. They done them up this cake with berries and nuts in it and sweet Jesus 
not as much as a crumb left over. Sissy come with James and even sis say she 
feel sorry for her cause she keep saying she pay it no never mind to what the 
girls done but we know she do. Lord knows a child pester a body to death but 
when they take off you feel like there this empty place inside you and nothing 
you can do to fix it. She even take her plate back in the kitchen and put it 
in the wash pan and sis look like she fall over. We seen her crying out on my 
back porch and it cut at me. I don’t care who they is I never be able to stand 
nothing in pain so fore she leave I give her a hug and tell her I love her. I 
think even James was thinking I be feeble minded but some things a momma knows 
her that men folk never get their minds round. That just the way some things 
be. Sis never give her no hug but I seen her pat her back and say if she needs 
us she can come on over and we all talk. I never let on I seen me it cause sis 
tell me if she was wanting me to know what she done. My day like a plate of 
salt and sugar cause there was happy parts and some sad parts all mixed in 
together but then maybe that the way life be. Miss Amanda always say that a 
body can spend all their days crying bout the way things be but the end still 
the same so she rather do her some laughing in its stead. I miss me that woman 
and wish some days she was here to talk to me bout these things I got me in my 
head. I reckon she be keeping Raymond company til me and sis gets there.

    Great be the wonders of the Lord cause he done give me two big surprises 
of late. Yesterday I walks in the house and there sis was sitting having 
herself a good visit with granny Day. She is not our relation but as far back 
as I knowed her we called her granny Day. She is some relation of Miss Pinn 
and got her some Indian blood. She is still wearing her a black dress and we 
never knowed her to wear nothing but black. She say she never wear nothing 
else but black since they put her man in the ground and wear it til she 
wearing white with the angels. She is nearly blind without her spectacles and 
done lost most her teeth but she act the same and always laughing bout 
something.  Lord me and sis love us that woman and afeared we never see her 
again. We had not seen her in since Moses was in the desert but she still look 
like she always did.  She still visits with some of our brothers but I know 
sis never ask bout them from her. James come over and me and sis cooked like 
we not seen here in a good bit. I send James out and he killed me my black hen 
and sis put on some bread and a pork pudding. I fried up a couple of eggs with 
some pork cause I know granny Day loves her some eggs and not cause her any 
trouble eating them. We talk and eat til long after dark. She says she still 
keeps her some of the old ways but most of the others pay it no never mind. 
She puts her down four rocks like we do but she put a straight red line and 
not them dots like we uses. She say she keeps her some pine and cedar branches 
round her bed most nights and after she clean up she put a bit of tobacco in 
the four corners of her house. After her and sis go to bed I write me a letter 
to my brothers. She gets herself up fore sis so I give it to her and ask her 
to keep hush bout it round sis. I never want to do me nothing to be hurting 
sis but I want my family to know we is all well over this way. I never say 
nothing bout Sara and Linda cause that is our concern but I say I miss them 
and hope we get beyond what done passed us. She goes to church with us and it 
was like the old times done come back. Fore she go she give me and sis a hug 
and say never to forget who you be and where you done come from. I hate to see 
her go cause she not got her many years left fore she pass. Sis say she has to 
be bout ninety and I seen her when she was walking in the church and she never 
say nothing but I seen her rubbing her her chest after we sits ourselfs down. 
I seen enough to know that is a bad sign. Jesus knows we seen us some good 
days together and I knows when she pass the angels be happy to see her.

     I was letting myself wallow in the miseries and then I gots to thinking 
that it is wrong the way I keep on allowing myself to feel them. Sweet Jesus 
knows the burden a momma gots to carry with her. The song says a drop of blood 
from the cross and my soul is clean. I wish that Miss Wolfe or Miss Fridley 
was here to talk to me bout these things. They always seem to know how to 
explain things out so they was clear to a body. I misses me those people and 
those mountains. In the mountains life was hard but good cause I knowed what I 
had to do and I done it. Nary a problem come up that one of them folks not 
know them how to fix. Lord knows that any path you takes up that way, take you 
to the house of a friend or a relation. Now they never was allowing no 
foolness so a body feel safe. I knows me lots of folks that say they be 
afeared to death in them woods that something would eat them up but not me and 
sis. Them woods was like a part of us. Like Miss Fridley say they gets in your 
blood and never go away. Maybe I be just an old woman looking back and 
thinking things better than they was but I knows in my soul that not be the 
truth. Sweet Jesus knows that I do be to proud at times and that is a sin but 
I has me my reasons to be thinking such. My granddaddy learned me that we come 
from a proud people and nothing daddy ever say or do changed that for me and 
sis. I has me a family that know they loved and love me. I has me my 
recollections of all those that done passed over and sis say that is like 
having them with us. I still can see granddaddy’s brother George bringing in 
candy and saying he was looking for him some good girls to give it to and sis 
saying we been good just ask Miss Bowen and she tell you. He look and say do I 
know you. Yes I know you be Gabriel’s relations. Then with a big old grin on 
his face he say if you sing me a little ditty I give it to you and we sing 
like something else and then get us that candy. Some days we worked out til 
dark and get ourselves up on that old wagon and there be six or seven of us. 
Lord we was all funning and singing all the way back like we not done nothing 
all day and when we get our meal it was like the best we even had cause we 
knowed we done earned us it. Maybe it was cause hard times with family not 
that hard at all.
 
     Miss Rose’s girl done come back to her momma’s place. I guess her man had 
all he could stomach him of that girl. She always been a chair hound but we 
was all thinking that was cause of her momma. Miss Rose is a Christian and 
loves her church but she never made her girl lift a hand to do nothing at 
home. She would come by when we was cleaning at the church and there Miss Rose 
working her fingers to the bone and her girl setting back doing nothing. She 
never even had to fix up her own bed. Sis say Miss Rose that way cause she was 
born a slave over by Roanoke. She was bout ten when them slaves was set free 
but recollects that fore the war was over she had to go to the fields with her 
momma as soon as she was old enough to work. After they was free they had them 
some bad times and all them kids had to be hiring themselves out. She say she 
made up her mind that her children never have to work like she done when she 
was little. I ask James one day if he had him any hard feeling cause he had to 
be working so hard when he was little or we have never made it. He just give 
me and hug and say helping me and sis never seemed like work at all to him. 
After he done left me and sis talks bout what he done told us. We both was 
crying like a beat child. Lord that boy a gift.


  Some days sweet Jesus seem like a body never get through the day but I knows 
you give me the strength to do it. I was thinking bout what to do me some 
writing bout and decided I put me down the story granny Day done told us. Sis 
say Granddaddy Persinger tell it to us years ago but sweet Jesus knows I can’t 
recollect him doing it but if sis say he did then I know it is so. Some days 
it is like I gots me this big cloud in my head and some days I looks at what I 
put in my writing and I done wrote the same thing down afore. I prays I aint 
getting touched in the head. The story goes that when god first puts men in 
these mountains they never had them no need to be hunting and grubbing the 
fields cause they walks out and the animals lets them kill them dead cause the 
spirits say they do that and they be borned the following spring again. The 
only pause was that men had never to be wasting the gift and be taking only 
what necessary. For a long time this the way things was. Then one day this 
man’s wife come out in her new coat and mittens cause winter coming on and it 
all fine out of deer hide and coon trim and thinking she as high up as them 
spirits. She eyed this other woman and she had her these new mittens and coat 
out of bear and they was all shiny and black and the peoples all tells her how 
nice her new things be. She tell her man that she wants herself a new set out 
of bear and a blanket to. Her man say that is wrong cause she not be needing 
any. She puts on a fit and he give in and kills her a bear to make the stuff 
she was wanting her. The animals all go to them spirits and say how man done 
broke the pact that been since the first man come into them mountains. The 
spirits say they no longer need do for man and the bear can use its claws and 
the deer can use their antlers to fight against man. Fore long all them was 
going hungry cause they not know them how to live from the land. The crows 
seen them this. They called all the animals to a meeting and say that without 
help all them men die.  The snakes say let them die and then this land be free 
of them. The squirrels come and they say they show man how to be putting stuff 
away for the winter. The wolfs say they show man how to track him down any 
animal. Fore long all them animals done agreed to help man but them bears and 
snakes. The buzzard talks with them. Them snakes go underground saying there 
be no more talk. They tell them that the others can do as they please but any 
man they meets they kill dead long with any animal that get in their path or 
come and take man’s side. Finally some of the bears say that if man do the 
rendering afore all them animals when they kills them one they not break the 
pact. The men all agrees that when they kills them one they say a thank you 
prayer and tell the spirits that this animal should come again in the spring 
cause it was a good animal to be letting the hunter take it and they never 
again be taking more than they needs them. I likes me that story and sis do 
to. I wishes we done put all them stories that granddaddy Persinger and the 
others told us years ago but wishing aint fishing so no need be thinking bout 
them fish for supper.

   Something got hold my black and white cat last night and I finds him dead 
out by my basin. He was a good cat and I aint never had one as pretty marked 
as him. Tom come by and had him bury him out by my garden cause he always out 
there with me when I was working. He liked running after birds and I seen him 
catch himself more than one rabbit that come on the place. He would carry them 
under the house and eat on them and then sleep a day afterwards. Granddaddy’s 
sister Miss Phebe had her one marked just like him and she called hers atahyah 
cause it had a little red in it and she say it looked like one them oak trees 
with snow on it. I don’t recollect me now if that was the word for red or one 
of them words for tree. Course hers as mean as any wild cat in them woods and 
she the only one it ever let touch it and mine just as sweet as you please as 
long as a body not be trying and take food from it. I was hoping to have me 
some letter from my David or the girls but not a word and all the kids keep 
hush when I brings them up. Sis say let it pass that we know when we needs to 
know. Lord knows I never make it without her. She made us up a mess of green 
with pork and onions and some berry bread. She never let on but I knows she 
liked her my cat and now missing him. Now that Linda and Sara gone I think 
James like to go somewhere else to and Jesus I loves me this place but if my 
boy go me and sis be right with him. I wants to rest in those mountains when I 
passes but I know that I gots to live me now and my resting place not as 
important as my living place and who be at my side. 

        Miss Margaret is visiting over at Miss Odell’s. Miss Frances was her 
grandma and she trys  to visit up this from Richmond bout once a year.  After 
she visits here she will go and stay at her brother’s place in Roanoke. I 
don’t recollect ever meeting him but she say he gots him a nice job and 5 
children.  He does him some preaching at a church over that way. Sweet Jesus 
knows that Miss Frances was a good woman and Miss Margaret take after her. She 
brung Miss Odell some candy from Richmond and that stuff was good. I made up 
some onion stew, fried cabbage, and a pork pie and we all had us a good visit. 
She say the candy down there may be better but nobody fix up better onion stew 
than we do. She has her some money cause the dress she had on her was made 
from some the best material I ever seen me. She has her two boys but she 
leaves them with her momma when she is traveling. She say she go mad if she 
had to stay all year in Richmond so she does her lots of traveling. She seen 
one of the Bible covers I sewed up for Miss Odell and she wants me to do one 
for her and one for her brother. I has me several that I done sewed up so I 
told her I send them over in the morning and she can take her pick. She done 
give me the money for them so I know sis take them over for me. It seem that 
every time I be thinking we need us some money Jesus give it to me. Been ages 
since me and sis seen us any hungry days and that be the most that a body can 
be expecting from this life. I know I was wrong to be blaming god when he took 
my Adam. It is just that the pain so deep and that wound never done healed 
itself. It don’t take me much thinking on him to get me some tears going. I 
never understand why he done it but it is not my place to be questioning him.


     The heat round here now make a body feel like they is burning up. Jesus 
knows it is hard on a body getting any sleeping done. Miss Sadies 
granddaughter bring her to church for the first time since Moses in the 
desert. Say she will be a ninety next month cause she was born in 1821. She is 
feeble minded cause of all her years and keep telling me and sis that we need 
to leave space cause Mark be in soon. He was her husband and her granddaughter 
say he died the year after the war ended. She talked to me all through church 
but nobody pay her no never mind cause they knows she gots her the weak mind. 
She was talking bout the day them Yankee soldiers give her and her family 
their freedom. She was not in Virginia but I never ask where they was cause 
not be wanting to do me any talking during church. When them soldiers come on 
the place her master ran to the slave cabins and tells them to stay away from 
them soldiers or they kill them all. But them soldiers come and tell them all 
to go to the master’s store and carry away all they can. Her and her family 
gets them some sacks and fill them all and then take off all the while the 
master yelling for them to get back to their cabins. She ask me if I was a 
slave and I try and keep her hush but no use cause she keeps on talking. Jesus 
knows that woman had her a hard life but she has her a good soul. 

   The kids not been by but they gots to live their own lives and sometimes 
that not include me and sis. Course as hot as it is most folks not wanting to 
get out in it. The only ones that seem happy bout the heat seem to be my cats. 
The sun was burning hot and me and sis off in the shade and there them cats 
all stretched out some of them out in it like they was as happy as can be. I 
think some days that god give us cats to learn us how to be. They drink only 
what they needs them, they kills only what they needs them to eat, they sleeps 
when they is tired and give love to anyone that not mean to them. If more 
people was like them sure not be as much trouble as there be round these 
parts. One good thing bout this heat is that it make my tomatoes sweet. We 
started a fire in my cook stove only long enough to bake us up a pan of bread 
and we been eating on it with tomatoes and a little sugar on them. Sis say she 
get herself up early in the morning fore it get to hot and cook us up a tomato 
pie. I can do it but sis better at it than me but she say my tomato dumplings 
better than hers but Sweet Jesus knows it to hot to be making them as they 
take good part of the morning to get them done right.

   Me and sis was out and seen us a beaver. Granddaddy Persinger told us a 
story bout a beaver but sweet Jesus we not able to recollect a lick bout it. 
Some days I be afeared the years taking everything from us and I never wants 
to reach the day when Adam don’t mean nothing to me. It may be that it is a 
sore on my soul that pains me but I want me that pain. Thinking that time rob 
me of all I got me left of that little angel puts me in the miseries. Sis say 
she like to have her that beaver to cook up cause we not had us any good one 
since we was over at Miss Fridley’s place and lord that was over forty years 
ago. I was thinking sis go in that water after it but thank the lord she got 
her more mind then to do something like that. Course sis can’t do her much 
swimming but she pay that no never mind if she wanted her that beaver bad. As 
hot as it been might not been bad to get in that water for a spell. We done 
finished up most the sewing we had to get done so when we get home we out like 
two old chair hounds. I wanted to fix us up a pan of squash bread but sis it 
was to hot to be starting a fire in the cook stove. It was neigh on dark afore 
we come back in the house and so we eat us a couple of raw potatoes and the 
last of our pork pie. We got to do us some weeding in the garden so sis say we 
get up afore the chickens so it not be so hot on us doing it. If I see me 
another year I put me out a few more rows of onions cause we done had us a 
couple messes of green onions and this year I believe they is the best we ever 
growed us.

          Seem like I aint had me a minute to sit myself down for couple of 
days now. I ain’t doing me no complaining cause those we been working for pay 
us good and sweet Jesus knows they let me drink all the coffee I wanted me. 
James come by for a short spell after I get back. That boy doing good but I 
know he worry bout me working so much. I give him some bean bread to take 
Hambone tomorrow. They been doing some work together and I know Hambone likes 
him my bean bread. I hate to think that maybe he not been getting himself 
enough to eat. James know he can come by here when ever he wants to get fed up 
good but Hambone don’t have him nobody. I wish James could do him more eating 
at home cause then he not have to be going like he do. I don’t know how to get 
that woman to do when she gots her no mind for it. Course that is his garden 
to weed so I keep hush bout it. I has to do some more Bible covers cause when 
sis took what we had sewed up so Miss Margaret could pick her out the two she 
wanted she up and bought them all. She say she going to give them as gifts to 
some of her people. Betwixt the sewing we done sold and the working me and sis 
been doing we has us good money coming on the place. One the boards in my 
bedroom bout give way with me. I need to get James to put me down a new board 
but that boy gots him his own work that needs doing. If I ask him he do it 
right away but I never want to be no bother. I slid the bed over a bit so it 
covers the board. That seems to be the best for now so no need to be getting 
no new board. Sis say she wants us to wear our matching dresses on Sunday. I 
think sis looks better in hers then I do me mine. I reckon I will wear it 
cause it please her.


   My new grape vine is growing like a weed and sure be pleased bout that. Me 
and sis loves us some grapes and sis make the best grape soup a body ever eat. 
She has her an eye for knowing just how to cook something up right cause there 
is some things that if they took off to soon or left on to long they not 
nearly as good. Lord it is a blessing to us cause they be people always 
wanting her to do the cooking for them and willing to pay for it. she got it 
from our grandma cause that woman a good cook but then most those women we 
growed up round knowed how to set them a good table. Granddaddy Persinger say 
Miss Sara could do her some good cooking but never had her a mind to very 
often. She rather throw something on the fire and when it looked done pull it 
out and eat it. She never had her a longing for church and say the few times 
he ever knowed her to go she go in hunting clothes more often than not. Course 
everybody knowed how she was and never a word spoken bout how she look 
excepting one time when Miss Fridley talk her into wearing a new dress that 
she made up for her and say every mouth in the place dropped open when she 
come in. When she fixed herself up she was a beautiful woman but that was not 
her way. Folks say that she was as wild as any animal be in them woods and the 
only thing slowed her down and keep her close to the house was when the years 
started talking to her. Granddaddy say she never got over not going west with 
his daddy and sister but I reckon the picture of those mountains to strong in 
her head for her ever to leave them. Sweet Jesus knows I understands how hard 
it be leaving the person you love behind and it just as hard on the one left 
behind as it is on the one going. Least ways she died and resting in those 
mountains but I wonders if her bones at peace or still looking back over those 
hills waiting for him to come back. Granddaddy say when she was passing she 
keep saying his daddy’s name in Indian and calling for him. My Raymond knowed 
I loved him but he also knowed there was a part of my soul that forever belong 
to another man. I thinks he accepted that cause he loved me even it that mean 
he never have my heart just to himself. I pray sweet Jesus he accept that and 
knowed that one love got nothing to do with the other. I love me all my babies 
but part of me in the ground up there with my Adam. I thinks Miss Sara like me 
in more ways than not. If I been older I be in them woods running wild with 
her and me and her be just like me and sis course if I was older than sis be 
older to and there would be three of us wild Persinger women running like 
bears up in Ritch Patch. Some might be thinking we been taken by the madness 
but granddaddy and his brothers understand. It was different for them cause 
they done like that a lot but folks never be spilling no gravy on a man when 
he do it. Course we is different than Miss Sara when it come to church cause 
no matter how many animals we done killed dead in them woods through the week 
on Sunday we go to church. We might have been in skins but we been there. My 
David still not writing but I keeping it out of my head cause I keep telling 
sis that I be Miss Sara. Sis say if that true I should be sleeping out under 
the trees and we laugh ourselves sick.

     Miss Baker give me one of her books to read and I has had me a good time 
with it. Sis had me read her some of it cause that way we enjoy it at the same 
time. I wish I could be content with what I gots me but I still frets over 
those that not here with me. It has been ages since My David write me and no 
word from the girls. I don’t think fretting over them be a sin cause the Bible 
say that a farmer with ninety nine sheep go out looking for the one he done 
lost. I reckons that if a farmer got him the right to fret over one gone out 
of a hundred than a momma got her more of a right to be doing so. Sis remind 
me that mine maybe gone but they not lost and they aint passed themselves 
over. I seen to many folks pass leaving their babies for someone else to 
raise. I thinks bout what Aunt Ruthy must been feeling cause she say she lose 
her her boy and at the same time was having to figure how they raise up his 
babies. My granddaddy Persinger take me and sis right in and now that I gots 
me grandbabies I knows how hard that had to be on them. I loves me them and if 
one of my kids passed I take them babies right in and me and sis do just like 
ours did for us. It would be hard cause when they over don’t take no time 
chasing after them to wear a body down. My Adam pass and he was just a baby 
and it cut me every time I thinks bout that angel. I don’t know if I could 
handle losing one that I done had round me all these years. Miss Baker’s 
brother and his wife was both taken by the fever and she say her momma ask her 
to raise her their girl and say she never had to think bout it cause she say 
she do it gladly and knowed Mister Baker not mind. Course Miss Baker is a lot 
younger than me and sis but we do it if we ever has to and hand it over to 
Jesus to see us through. We knows us so many that not know if their babies was 
living or dead and here me acting a fool cause mine want to travel their own 
paths. It must make me appear like a pig sow wallowing in her own pity. Poor 
Miss Mary with Jesus and she passed never knowing nothing bout her own babies 
cause her master sold them from right under her. I gots to stop thinking bout 
me cause me and sis done traveled our path and we owes it to them to let them 
walk theirs. I knows if my James decide he want to go and live in a cave me 
and sis go with him as long as he want us to. He never go nowhere if I ask him 
not to but I knows now how wrong that be of me and sis. A momma gots her lots 
of dreams bout how they wants things for their babies but I has to remember 
that they gots them their own dreams. Me and sis loves sitting on my davenport 
but we sit on the dirt every day if it will make him happy. As long as we is 
together I don’t care where we be. Lord knows that my writing desk bring me 
joy but that desk was my dream. I gots to be honest and say that if there be 
anyway to be taking it with me I not be objecting but if that not to be then 
that is fine to. Some folks gots them kids that when they grown never wants to 
be round them and here me and sis gots us one that wants us with him forever. 
Praise be to Jesus. Granddaddy Persinger  always say a house aint nothing but 
four wood walls with a cover. A home is the family that is round them walls 
and if you take away those walls you still has you a home.

     I was fooling with something and dropped the little necklace that Miss 
Lewis give me. It fell right through one the cracks in the floor. Weren’t no 
way I could be crawling up under the house to get to it. Thank Sweet Jesus Ben 
come over and got up under there for me. I never want to be losing me 
something that woman done give me. Ben eat up most of the fried cabbage and 
nut bread  I done cooked up. I know they don’t be doing them and real cooking 
at home lessen James do it. I done prayed me more times than a body can count 
that she change her ways. Some got them that turn bout them and aint nothing a 
body can do but pray that they be changing. I misses me my David. Miss Mary 
told me something years ago that done set on my mind. She say if a person has 
them something pressing on them that be a good sign. They took her babies from 
her and sold them off the plantation. She say that most days she never able to 
be doing her no pondering bout them cause she had to be keeping her mind on 
her work. They give them so much to do each day and if they never got it 
finished up they got beat or they cut their rations. By the time she finished 
up her work she was to wore out to be doing it. If I has me time to be 
worrying bout mine then I aint been doing me no slave work this day. That 
means that what I sees me as a pain be a blessing. Sweet Jesus so many things 
a body never able to get their head round.


     I give all praise and glory to Jesus for all he done for us. Sis and me 
gets up early yesterday to fix up something fore it get so hot. James and the 
boys come by cause Sissy back in her sick bed and say she not able to do her 
no cooking so she sends them here cause she knows we never turn them away 
hungry. We was all poking at Amos bout Miss Harriet’s girl that he been 
talking to and then the kitchen start to fill up with smoke and James say the 
pipe must be stopped up and he go to look bout it and fire start coming 
through the wall behind my cook stove. Thank god he and the boys was here or 
we have lost the place. They able to pull down part of the wall and put water 
on the fire and out it. After they out it, they go and get some boards and 
start fixing up the wall and me and sis start cleaning up the mess. We takes 
some of our things out in the air and scrubs down what we can. We starts a 
fire out by the garden so we can get us some food for them boys and then lots 
of folks come on over. Some just be wanting to get themselves a look but most 
come to help so by dark they has most the wall back up and done fixed the 
roof. Praise be to sweet Jesus that the weather was good or we never got it 
done. Miss Odell help me and sis with the cooking and then some of the ladies 
from the church come by with stuff they done made up for us to be helping feed 
them all. After it to dark to do anymore work we all sit round the fire and we 
has us a good time singing and even the preacher’s wife shouting out them 
songs. This morning they finish up and James say we can use my cook stove 
again but I was a little ascared to be doing it but sis say if it is going to 
burn it will burn. Thank Jesus it seem fine now. After everybody done gone me 
and sis talk bout how bad it might have been. We start thinking and say that 
fire could have burned us out and then I think all we got us be gone and sis 
say nothing we gots us be gone but some goods that we can buy us any place. We 
still have us our family even if the whole place taken. Sis has her the gift 
for seeing thing as they be. We both say if James wants all of us to up and 
leave we go. It can be like an adventure and if we marching the wrong way 
least we all be together.

     Me and sis up fore the chickens cause with everything that done happened 
just not be feeling much like sleeping. I still be a little ascared of using 
my cook stove but a body can’t live with fear all their days so me and sis 
planning on using it and pray that god look out for us. Fore we gets a fire 
started these three white boys come to the door. I was thinking they be lost 
but they say they come to help fix up my stove and check on the fire damage. I 
say that we done fixed it up best we could and have to make do cause no money 
to be spending on it now. One them looks me right in the eye and say that Miss 
Lewis done took care of that and all we has to do is let them get to work. I 
be thinking sis fall over from surprise. Those boys tear my old stove apart 
and puts me in a new pipe and then they go to work on the wall. James done 
fixed it up good so he asks me if they be any problem with the roof and I tell 
him that it been leaking round the side window and a small leak in sis’ 
bedroom and fore a rooster can crow twice two of them up on the roof and the 
third say Miss Lewis say you like green and I hope that is so cause that is 
the only color paint we has. Those boys paint my kitchen and sweet Jesus it 
look better than it ever did and the stove never cooked hotter and fore they 
leave they pull up some of the old pine boards from the floor of my bedroom 
cause they was bout giving in a body and put new oak ones down in their place. 
Sweet Jesus I don’t know how a body ever be able to thank her for all she done 
and be honest I not sure why she do it.

  I bout run all the way to Miss Lewis’ place and first thing she ask was if 
those boys done me a good job and fore I can say a word I starts crying like a 
whopped baby and I give her a hug and when I can talk ask her why she done it. 
She say that she owed me cause me and sis do more for her momma than anybody 
else would do and we made her passing easy and I starts to crying again. We 
talked for a long time cause it was not my workday and she fixes us up a bite 
to eat. She say that I be one of her best friends cause she can be herself 
round me and when she is round Mister Lewis people or his friends she never 
can be herself cause they expected her to act the way they be thinking she 
ought to be. I tell her it is the same with me cause when a person is a 
mulatto so many white folks and even black folks make you feel like something 
is wrong with you and she never talk to me like I be some kind of mistake. 
Sweet Jesus I keep learning me more bout folks everyday. When we left us those 
mountains I was thinking that the days of having us white friends was gone. It 
still is not something most white folks round here accept but that is fine 
cause when I be at her place aint nobody be needing to know how we talks to 
each other or how she is treating me and sis. 

    I tell Amos he can bring Miss Harriet’s girl over for a meal if he wants. 
I love that boy and every day he puts me more in a mind of his daddy. James is 
a joy and if that momma of Amos give him a chance he be a blessing to her the 
way James is to me and sis. I get me another letter today from my brother. He 
say granny Day give him the one I wrote and he been thinking bout it all. He 
say he done talked to some of the others and he is not sure there ever will be 
peace but he wants me to know that he would love for me and sis to be visiting 
with him. He say he knows the divide seem big when we was growing up cause we 
was the oldest and momma and daddy never made it easy on any of us. He say 
that when we leave with granddaddy that daddy would tell them never to listen 
to what granddaddy tell them bout his daddy cause nobody care bout them Indian 
ways anymore. He say that time done passed and they got to live in the world 
where there is white and there is colored and nothing else. Daddy tell them 
that his brother wanted to live him those ways and the whites beat him and 
take him away and that if they don’t forget them that foolness the whites get 
shed of them quick cause if you was black those whites say that fine but if 
you was black mixed with white or Indian the whites be thinking that you is 
evil and treat you like dirt and the blacks think you believe you was better 
than them cause you is not all black. That was why he ask me to write down 
bout them ways cause daddy never let them talk bout them. Some of them is just 
like daddy was and now telling people they is black and acting like me and sis 
not worth talking to. We all gots us some black blood but we gots us just as 
much white and Indian blood as we do black. If daddy was wanting to keep 
granddaddy and me and sis from the others he done got his way. A wound never 
heals unless a body let it be but some folks never able to do that. They keep 
picking at it til it festers up again and again. I understand cause sis the 
same way some times. She say some things a body never leave behind and I try 
and tell her that she would feel better if she put that burden down and bury 
it but she have nothing bout it. Least ways they knows that I wanted me all my 
family together but that is not to be. Daddy never understand that granddaddy 
was just thinking of the family and who and what we was. I do understand me 
some of the things momma did now. I remembers that me and sis had these 
designs round our necks that granddaddy done made to help protect us and when 
we come back we still has them on us and she take them from us and say we 
better never say nothing to daddy bout them. I reckon she burned them but me 
and sis was always thinking that she done it cause she hated us and now I 
knows she done it to protect us from daddy. Maybe daddy was thinking that he 
be protecting us cause of our sister passing on. Lord sweet Jesus I gots me a 
lot of pondering to do on things.

    One of the men James been working with give him a part of a sheep they 
done butchered up. We aint had us any on the place since Moses in the desert.  
We cooked up part of it with onions and potatoes and another part with some 
apples. I don’t know which was better cause the kids eat them all up. I think 
I favor the one with apples but then the other was awful good to.  Some of 
those folks over in Alleghany County had them some sheep when we was growing 
up. I never cared much for them cause they aint very smart. They just stand 
there and let something kill them dead and never be doing nothing. Course one 
nice thing bout them that I do like is that they do cook up good. We had us 
some tomato bread and that was good soaked in that broth. Sweet Jesus knows we 
a family that likes to do them some eating. My young hens bout old enough to 
be doing them some laying so we should be getting us more eggs here soon. Lord 
if they anything like their momma they be good layers. That old red hen gives 
me an egg bout everyday no matter the weather. I gone out there with almost 
two feet of snow on the ground and she be up in the nest doing us proud. Sis 
say it be cause I talk to them chickens like they was my kids. Miss Bowen was 
always talking to her. She say let them hens know what be expected and what 
happen to them if the eggs stop coming. She let hers run all over the place 
and she had her this white hen that lay right up on her porch in one of her 
cane chairs. After she put out that egg Miss Bowen go and fetch her a piece of 
something and give it to her to eat up. She would say now you come back 
tomorrow and I give you more. That hen would be looking at her like she knowed 
every word she was saying. If she lay her an egg and Miss Bowen not come right 
out with something that hen stay there on that porch til she get her reward. 


     We done had us an apple pie and a peach pie in the same day and my Mary 
say we must be eating like them rich folks. I don’t know bout that but least 
they cant be eating much better than we been doing us cause sis cooked up some 
onions and turnips with a piece of good pork  and a pan of bean bread. My Mary 
in a family way but she aint told me it cause I think she wants to be 
surprising me with it but a momma knows these things. Sides I don’t need me 
the eye like Miss Sara had her to know it cause I done seen it enough in my 
days to know me all the signs. If she be thinking she surprise me and sis with 
it we go with it cause that make her happy. I don’t think James knows it yet 
course he like most men folk and never know bout such things til the baby 
ready to be born lessen some woman tells them. I aint got me no right to be 
doing me any bad talking bout it cause sweet Jesus knows I was well long with 
my Adam fore I knowed it. Grandma come up and say that she was thinking I was 
and I had never give it no never mind. I think she knows it cause she had her 
this little look on her face like she knowed her something that I had me no 
idea bout. She been that way since she was a baby and never been able to hide 
nothing from me and sis. She still not know that I know she the one that done 
broke up my setting hen when she was little. She never was lying to me cause 
she not say she didn’t break her up but she never was saying she done it 
either. Lord all my babies done growed up and having their own babies but that 
the way of things. I don’t need me no grandbabies to be telling me that I be 
old cause I gots me a mirror. I know I needs to be accepting that but it is 
hard on a body. Granddaddy Persinger say his daddy learned him that we gots to 
accept us the way things be. A leaf on a tree turn red and brown as its days 
coming to an end but it know that when it done dropped to the ground there be 
room for new ones to be replacing it in the spring. Sis say that one day we be 
gone to but we be leaving us a bunch to be taking our place and we be leaving 
them with a strong tree to help keep them up. She be saying that to help me 
but sweet Jesus if I had me the power to do so I stay here forever watching 
over mine but that not the way of things. I aint ascared of passing over but I 
hopes that when it my turn to pass on I be like Miss Bark and has me all my 
relations side me and be singing.

     Sis told me that I been spending all my days at my writing desk. She say 
we got us room for only one chair hound and Sissy done took it. Course she 
just funning with me cause she keep asking me if I put this or that in my 
writing book. Sis tell me to make certain I done wrote bout granddaddy 
Persinger calling grandma his Dove and that was how lots of folks called her 
after they hears him do it. She called him her night sparrow but no one but 
her ever done it. He try and learn her how to say it in Indian but grandma 
never had her no mind for it. She would tell me and sis when he go out to be 
good cause we never knowed when he be watching us. She say that man like a 
night sparrow and we never even know he was round us. We was thinking for a 
long time when we was little that he made himself into a real bird. We be out 
and see us this bird and we be certain we was behaving ourselves and not in 
some foolness. He had him this bird mask by his bed. One day sis ask grandma 
if that what he look like when he made himself a bird. We has ourselves a good 
laugh now bout it but when a person is little they be taking things different 
from what they is. Jesus know that grandma loved her that man more than 
anything. Some days he had to be a hard man to love. Miss Fridley say that 
when she was younger grandma was one of the prettiest women she ever seen her 
in all her born days. Grandma could have had her the pick of the litter and 
she choose him. She never was even eyeing herself nobody else. Folks always be 
asking her how she ever get on good with a man like him. Grandma just smile 
cause she knowed who he was when she married up with him. When he was younger 
he was all over them mountains but she knowed he be back. I think some folks 
that way. They just know them that they be with that person forever. Lots of 
women be in a fit if their man done been gone for months with nary a word. 
Grandma knowed that only death keep her night sparrow from coming back to her. 
He was like Miss Polly’s dog Old Man. When he was bout not much bigger than a 
puppy he take off with some them boys and their bear dogs. She never knowed 
they took him but when they come back they say that a bear done got him two of 
their dogs and Old Man one of them. She cried herself sick for days. One 
morning bout a week later she gets herself up out of the bed and there he be 
on her porch. He was all bite up bad. Sweet Jesus she doctored on him for 
weeks. She put him up in her bed and made them boys hunt her up some fresh 
meat cause that be the best for giving a dog back his strength. If they not 
done it she had put every hen on the place to the axe to make him heal hinself 
up. Folks never knowed how Old Man ever make it back to her place as bad hurt 
as he was. Miss Polly knowed that lessen he was dead her Old Man be back to 
her. It be that way with my James cause he never not come back.

    I done been gawking all day at my painting that Miss Wilson done give me. 
Now I aint no chair hound cause I been doing me my sewing but it do put a body 
at ease looking at it. I always liked me my cats and the smell of fresh hay 
and looking at them cats and that hay just put a body at ease. I don’t never 
be letting no one touch at it excepting sis cause I don’t want it all smudged 
up. I cooked me up some bacon and some potatoes to eat me on cause sis been 
gone over at James place for two days. James say he is wanting to take me and 
sis down to Richmond with him next time he goes. We stayed a while not far 
from there but I don’t recollect ever going there to Richmond. Sweet Jesus I 
prays I aint getting feeble minded. He say me and sis enjoy ourselves down 
there but I cant be leaving the place lessen I has me someone to be looking 
after it for us. Course momma T say she go whenever he wants to be going but 
that just cause he keep telling her how much he loves him her. Sis gots her a 
hard head bout some things but that boy always knowed him how to turn that 
bear into a kitten. Sis love him like he be hers and I reckon he as much hers 
as he be mine cause she had him in her arms fore me and he loves her as much 
as he do me. Miss Mary ask me one day if that pestered me and I say never 
cause without her after my Raymond passed we never lived to be no family cause 
we all been in the ground up on that mountain.

       I tried me a new receipt for cabbage stew today. One of Miss Lewis’ 
friends give it to me. It is not much different from how we do it but there a 
few things that is different. You put beans, some tomatoes and a sprinkling of 
sugar in with it. It turned out real good. I had Tom take a bowl over to Miss 
Molly Ann cause I know she likes her cabbage stew and she been feeling poorly 
of late. Poor thing don’t have her many relations left round these parts. Her 
girl married herself up with one them West boys. Me and sis done knowed all 
them. I believe they was all born in Amherst. Most of them boys turned out to 
have them a way with the women folk. When they growed up they was all easy on 
the eye. Their momma Elizabeth was as nice a woman as a body ever meet. Lord 
they had them a house full of children. Sis say she thinks there was bout 
eleven or twelve of them. We all called her mammy Beth back then. Sis she was 
born round 1844 but I was thinking she was older. It is hard sometimes with a 
woman cause some look older than they is and some look lots younger. Now mammy 
Beth was one the best cooks round. I never know how she was able to keep all 
them fed but she done it. Miss Molly Ann’s sister married up with one of them 
Beverlys so that was why they come up this way. She lost her first man to a 
fever right after the war and her second one was killed in some kind of 
accident. She never say what it was and I never do me no asking cause that 
would be bad manners. She has always been one of the best workers we has at 
the church. I had Tom tell her that as soon as we can me and sis stop by for a 
visit.

    Amos come by with Miss Harriet’s girl and we had us a nice time. Course 
Amos is still to young to be thinking bout anything bout women but it was nice 
to see him starting to become interested in girls. She is a cute girl and as 
polite as you please. I don t think he has him a mind for girls right now so 
no concern that things move to fast. She offered to help sis in the kitchen 
and course sis not accept but thank her for the offer. Sis don’t like most 
people fooling round the kitchen when she is cooking cause she know just how 
she wants things done. We cook together but we done it forever so we knows 
what the other want done and what they want left undone. Sis fixed up some 
greens with potatoes and onions and some tomato bread and she eat good. I like 
Miss Harriet and everybody know she is a good Christian woman. They gots 
themselves a houseful cause her place is smaller than mine and bout ten of 
them over there. Bout four years ago her man walks out to bring in some wood 
for the stove and falls dead right there in back of their house. Sweet Jesus I 
knows how it is to lose your man with a houseful of children to be taking care 
of. Some days I wonders how we ever make it but we take them days one at a 
time and fore we knowed it things be better. Sis is in with Amos and the three 
of them doing all kinds of talking and sis say she help make her up a new 
church dress and I knows sis thinking if Amos gots him a girl here then James 
never be thinking bout heading off for somewhere else. 

     Sweet Jesus I been trying to sort out all this bout daddy and momma and 
not make much sense to me. I was thinking that daddy hated his white part and 
his Indian part and only liked being colored but maybe he just see the world 
different than us. Maybe he never able to feel apart of none of these and 
never be wanting all us kids to have to live with those feelings and never 
feel like we is a part of anything. Lord sweet Jesus a body forgets them so 
many things. I was thinking bout it all and I remembers one time he say 
something to me bout it and I say it never be no problem for the folks over in 
those mountains as they not care what we is cause they knows who we is and 
blood is blood. He gets him this look on his face and answers me back with we 
is not living round those folks. I give it nary a thought. Now I sees his face 
as clear as if he say it yesterday. He had him this sad look on his face. He 
knowed if we was round those folks forever we be fine but the world is not 
like them. Maybe daddy was not a mean man. Maybe he was a weak one and that is 
nothing to be shaming him bout. Me and sis always was round strong people that 
was not ascared of nothing or nobody. There Aunt Ruthy have her colored blood 
and it never was talked bout by nobody not cause those boys up there beat the 
fire out of them but cause she do it herself. Miss Sara put a fork in that man 
that done her wrong and he rotted in the ground and she go on with herself. 
Everybody knowed you try some foolness with her and she cut you dead. Lots of 
them women we growed up round never have them no fear bout nothing cause they 
face down the devil himself if he come after them or one their own. Me and sis 
always say we take after them and sweet Jesus if somebody try and hurt any of 
mine sis die fore she step back and let it happen. Granddaddy done been beat 
by slavers and was running from them troops wanting to catch him and send him 
out west and he always knowed that if he make it back to those mountains those 
folks put some bodies in the dirt fore they let them bother him. He was not 
ascared of nothing and we was judging daddy and momma next to them folks. I 
has trouble accepting me a person afeared of the world but I can love me that 
person cause he is my blood. I love me my white cat but any folks come in and 
he under the bed til they gone but it don’t make him no bad cat cause that is 
his nature. Maybe my David wanting to pass as white make me see daddy better 
cause aint no difference betwixt a mixed man wanting to be only white and one 
only colored and sweet Jesus knows me and sis loves us our David. If we be 
accepting that he is white now why we not be accepting that daddy wants him 
his to be black. My brother Floyd look more like a white man than most whites 
we been round but he lives as colored. Of all us he could pass with never no 
questioning but guess he never want that for himself. Granddaddy had him white 
blood but he always wanted to live him Indian ways but he never was judging 
his brothers cause they was wanting to live as whites. They knowed who they 
was. When his brother Eli killed him this boy during the war he say he put 
some tobacco on the boy’s body and told his spirit that he never knowed he was 
just a boy. Miss Mary that married up with his brother George tell grandma 
that he never bed himself down fore seeing that there is at least one cedar 
branch out on his porch. Some got them a problem with that but don’t make me 
and sis no never mind what folks feels bout it cause we knows what we is and 
we proud to be it and not afeared of letting folks know what we be. Daddy may 
be right that the world we gots to live in aint that way but I aint going to 
be joining me my cat under the bed cause of it. Aint my place to be spilling 
gravy on momma cause she not be blood. Maybe she was like her people and I can 
respect me that cause if that was their way then that their way. I don’t know 
if I ever respect me my daddy cause of his ways but I can love him cause he is 
my daddy. That some my brothers take after daddy and want to be only black is 
not my way of doing things but I still be loving them cause if I don’t then I 
never be what I wants to be. Granddaddy Persinger say that the Indian way be 
for a man to walk his own path and others may not understand the path cause 
they don’t see them the markers he is following but if he is a man we gots to 
let him follow his own markers. Lord god in heaven I never knowed he was 
talking bout daddy but I thinks now he was. I was thinking that maybe he hated 
him his boy cause of the way my daddy treated him and turning away from his 
Indian ways but now I thinks he never respected his path but he loved him 
still and was accepting that it was his path to follow. Sweet Jesus I never 
wants mine to be thinking that I hates me them cause they not follow my path. 

     Got myself up this morning and I go to put my cats out and sweet Jesus my 
hens was all over creation. I checked the pen and all I could figure me was 
the wind broke down one of the boards. Course the hens always go back at dark 
but we was not wanting any of them to get eat up so we kept an eye on them all 
day. Tom come over and fixed up the pen for me so they not be getting 
themselves out any time soon. I love watching my hens scratch round in the 
dirt and it seems like they always so happy. Give them a little corn and a dry 
house and they is fine and pay a body back with eggs. I wish I had me room for 
a cow. I like to be making me some my own butter and I never mind milking 
least way not much. We gets us our milk and butter at a fair price but aint 
nothing like milking a cow and taking it right in the house and have some on 
the spot. Course my cats would love it to. Sweet Jesus knows when we get the 
time to be tending it but we make do some how. I done started on the new 
curtains I gots to finish up by next week. I been stitching little flowers in 
them and they is pretty but it is hard getting them the same size but sis been 
helping me with drawing them up. I never mind me sewing cause most days not 
seem like work and thank you Jesus all day sewing is better than one hour 
working out in them field’s of Mister Green. Aint no sun burning me up and 
when I get tired I can rest me up a spell and aint no man riding me to work 
faster or he put me off the place. We have us coffee and tea on the place and 
if we wants to drink us two pots in a day we can do it and answer to nobody 
but us. I know we done been blessed and I thanks sweet Jesus that it been a 
long time since we knowed us any long hungry days.

      I took me over a pan of squash bread and some honey to Miss Beulah.  
Miss Odell fried us up some potatoes and cabbage with bacon. They had them a 
pot of some new kind of tea but I didn’t care me much for it. They seemed 
pleased with it so I say it not bad. She was hurting in her back but seem like 
it is better now. Miss Beulah done been all over the place cause she traveled 
with a white girl when she was growing up. She was telling us bout all the 
places she done been in her life. She say she liked being down there in 
Florida and Louisiana cause it was warm most of the time. She lives here cause 
she came back after the war to find her momma and her daddy. She never could 
find them and been all over looking for them. She went back to Maryland for a 
spell cause someone told her that was where her people went after the war 
looking for her.  Her boy and his family still live up that way. I love me 
those two women cause they gots them good souls.

     Miss Odell say that Miss Birdy is coming back to church. Her and the 
preacher’s wife had them some words and she stopped coming. It was over the 
way her boy been doing. James say that he got in with some rough acting boys 
and he been thieving him some. He was over in Alleghany County for a good 
spell but had him some problems and come back here. He say that they like to 
beat him to death over there. I know the last time me and sis seen him he had 
him this big scar on his face that weren’t there the time afore. Ain’t right 
cause Miss Birdy a good Christian woman and all the others she raised up done 
good. Her girl works at a colored school as a teacher. Her other boy gots him 
a good job over in West Virginia. She was born a slave on the Fitzgerald 
plantation. I think that was just a year or two fore the war ended so she 
never knowed her nothing bout being one. I seen her momma couple of times fore 
she passed when she was visiting these parts. She was an awful nice woman but 
never say much. I seen her back one day when she was putting on a dress we 
sewed up for her. She had her these scars all cross it. I never ask how she 
got them cause it not my place. If she wanted me to know she had told me.  I 
never be able to understanding the preacher’s wife but ain’t my place to be 
telling nobody how they should be doing. I know part of it be that the whole 
church loved them Miss Myra. Some had problems with the Preacher but not with 
her excepting Miss Terry. Miss Odell say that she not be pleased with Jesus 
himself. Miss Myra was good helping any folks that was sick and she never was 
acting the peacock. When Miss Eliza was in her sick bed she go over bout 
everyday seeing that she got herself enough to eat. She even help clean up her 
place for her. I never recollect a mean word bout nobody coming out her mouth. 

    I love writing at my desk. It is like every time I do me some writing at 
my desk I be some where else. Some times I play like me and sis is going to 
school and we done come home to do us some studying. I like sitting here and 
reading cause it is the same feeling. Jesus seems to be blessing me and mine. 
I has me more to be thankful for than I ever be able to put down. I told Miss 
Bessie bout some of the things I done wrote down and she says she write if she 
has to do it but she rather read her something instead. Course she has enough 
money to buy all the books a body ever have time to read. She says that Jacob 
talked to my James bout coming to work for him. She says he do him right and 
give him and his family a nice place to stay and it sure make life easier for 
him. I know the day is coming when we gots to cross us that road and sweet 
Jesus knows I been fretting bout it. Sometimes a body gots to lay down their 
burden at the cross and move on faith. It is easy to talk Christian but not 
doing it. Like folks say the test of the cook is in the eating of the cake and 
if me and sis believe what we say we do then we gots to show it. I know Jesus 
will go with us and if going is what James wants of me then we is going.

   James come by today and say that someone done broke into Miss Baker’s house 
and sweet Jesus the first thing I thinks is please don’t let it be the one of 
the colored folk round here that done it. He say it was not that they was two 
white boys from out of the county and they done found the stuff they took. I 
never tolerate me no thieving. I reckon I understand if a person had him 
hungry children at home and no means of getting them food but even then they 
needs to be asking folks to help. The lord knows that the church done helped 
out a number of folks needing them some help. We even let a family stay in the 
church for more than a week when they lose their place. Course the preacher’s 
wife had her a fit and for months afterwards she still picking at it but that 
woman fret a body to death so we pays her no never mind. I asks James if he 
got any news on my lost lambs. He smile and say now momma shepherd your lambs 
is not lambs anymore. They grown sheeps and they all is fine. I think sis was 
going to fall over dead she was laughing so hard. We all starts and I say fine 
but if there be a wolf out there you let me know and he say bah bah and it all 
starts again. Lord I loves me that boy and I give Jesus all the praise. Sis 
say he keeping an eye on them and we needs to turn it over to him and Jesus 
and leave it there. I thinks so many times that I never know me why Jesus done 
give me two angels like sis and my James.
    
   Me and sis been all the way down to Richmond with James. We never seen the 
likes of people in all our days cause every where a body look there was 
someone. I was thinking that we never go but then he gets Ben and Amos to come 
and look after my place and sis finally agree to come with me. We boarded with 
this woman he knowed down there and she was nice but the food she serve was 
not as good as we gets at home so sis had her enough and say she help her in 
the kitchen and she did most the cooking and even them other boarders say that 
it was good. We goes to this big church and it was so different from most 
colored churches we been at. When it over sis say to me that they never even 
had them any real church singing and the people more like they at a burying. 
This lady turn to us and she not much more than thirty years old and she touch 
my shoulder and say now grandmother you gots to remember that this is 1911 and 
those slave days long gone. I don’t mind that cause she gots no way a knowing 
that we never was no slaves and lots of folks call any old woman grandma but 
then her girl say that just cause a body dressed like a field hand no need 
acting like one in church. Truth be told me and sis was not in our best cause 
we never take us no church dresses but they was pretty but I never believe 
that we was looking like some field hands. Her momma back hands her and makes 
her say she sorry and I knows it is not her momma’s fault cause you can raise 
them right and still have them act a fool. Sis never even get herself upset 
cause she say those folks was not our people and we never seen them afore and 
never see them again so what it matter what they thinks bout us. It surprised 
me cause most times somebody call sis a field slave and there be trouble. We 
did have us a good time but a body not feel at ease with all those people 
round all the time. Lord some those people over in them mountains of Alleghany 
County fall over dead if they had to be living there. It not just people but 
they gots them all kinds of stores and me and sis buy us some material that 
the prettiest we ever seen in our days. Now we had to pay dearly for it but it 
was just to pretty not to get a piece of it.

    My grandbaby Nancy was here the day with me and sis. We take her to church 
with us and we done made up a new dress for her and she was like a little 
angel. Fore a body know it she up and doing for herself and only seem like 
yesterday we was helping her come to this world. I look back and the years 
done passed right on by. My baby Adam been gone neigh on thirty three years 
but the pain as strong today as it ever was. Folks say that time make a wound 
heal but that is not always the gospel. I try to push the pain back but it 
never stays down long and fore I know it the pain is cutting at me again. Sis 
say that maybe that pain is something I needs me and that it never ease up til 
I can accept it and god forgive me but I never believe I can do me that. We 
give Nancy some of sis’ apple pudding and her momma have her a fit if she 
knowed it but sis say she pays her no never mind and besides she is not 
planning on telling her nothing bout it. Sis made up some pickled turnips and 
sweet greens and we all had us a good meal. When James brung Nancy over bout 
near killed me dead from fright cause he say for me to look at this blister 
she got her and soon as I seen it I was thinking it was the pox. Praise be to 
Jesus that Miss Odell was here cause I was shaking and ask her in a hush voice 
to come look see and I say please say it aint the pox and she touch it a 
moment and then break out in a laugh and say aint no pox on this house lessen 
you counts splinter pox and I nearly dance with joy. She done took out the 
splinter and we put a little salve on the blister. I never been ascared of 
many things but I still has me bad dreams bout the pox. I remembers when we 
was over at Miss Wolf’s place in Alleghany County and me and sis was not very 
old but I don’t recollect if it was after the war over or not. Mr Persinger 
come riding up to her place and he yell for her to come to the door but keep 
all the kids inside. She go and I heared him say that they was thinking his 
grandbaby have the pox and Miss Wolf start to cry and say Sweet Jesus protect 
us all. We all had to go into the kitchen and she say we to stay in the house 
and if we got to do us our business there be a pail in the back room that we 
to use. Her boy ask what happen if we go out and she say he bring the pox in 
and kill us all dead and we start to cry and she say hush up and dry up our 
faces cause that not help nothing. Seem like every hour we all had to take off 
our clothes and she checks us good looking for them pox. Bout three days later 
someone come by and says it was not the pox and all those folks was singing 
and giving god the thanks. Seem like everywhere we done been a body had to be 
careful bout the pox. When we was in the Carolinas lots of those older folks 
always talking bout how many done died with the pox and now it is like this 
demon spirit that be hiding there waiting to come and get me and all mine. 
Miss Ruthann say her momma had her the pox and it never killed her dead but 
then Miss Pearl lose one her babies to it. I don’t know why it fret me like it 
do but sweet Jesus it do. I think it is cause I never be afeared of passing 
over but if I has to see me another of my babies put in the ground afore me I 
rip open my own chest.

     Sis seen Seth today. Been a while since he come by for a visit. That boy 
loves him sis’s vanilla cake and she told him to stop by and she fix up one 
just for him. Seth has him six fingers on one hand and six toes on one of his 
feet. The first time he showed me and sis his hand I know he was thinking that 
maybe it surprise us. I just look him in the eye and told him that two of our 
relations over in Alleghany County had them extra fingers and toes. One of 
them Persinger boys had him six fingers on each hand but me and sis not been 
able to recollect his name. I can see me his face as plain as day but lord his 
name escapes me. Course in our days we done seen us all kinds of things. Miss 
Polly say one her sisters was born with one of her arms ending at the elbow. 
She never say why but some things a body never understand. I been able to get 
me a lot of sewing done up today. I finished up the dress for Miss Addy and 
sis say she take it by tomorrow so she have it for church on Sunday. I bout 
not had been enough buttons to finish it up but thank Jesus I find me two that 
matched them in the bottom of my sewing box. If I get me some time tomorrow I 
finish up the dresses for Miss Judy’s girls. Those girls shooting up like 
weeds and done out growed them the last ones I sewed up. Course their daddy 
gots him a good job so they can afford them nice clothes. Miss Terry don’t 
care much for Miss Judy but that just cause she never had to be doing her no 
work off her place. Me and sis is happy for her and she do for hers. She had 
her momma at her place til the day she passed over and she seen that her momma 
wanted for nothing. Her girls never has to do them no asking twice to be 
getting them stuff and she is always making over them. I think that maybe if 
my real momma never passed she be like that. Maybe we not have us the money 
that she do but money aint nothing but something a body buys things with.  
When a person look at Miss Judy they can see the love she gots her in her soul 
for her girls. I know me that look cause it be the same way when sis talking 
bout James and the others. I pray mine see the same look in my eyes cause 
sweet Jesus knows I has me love like nothing else for all mine. I know it be a 
sin but sometimes I see me a nice big house and think if I had me the money I 
buy it for James and his. I done got me what I needs me to be happy but I gots 
me lots of things I would buy for mine. I never be spilling no gravy on Miss 
Judy for giving hers all she can cause I do me the same if I had it to be 
giving. All me and sis gots to be giving ours is our love and the stories bout 
who they be. Granddaddy say that if a man knows what his people afore him done 
seen them it makes his path easier. 


     Miss Iona come by and fixed up me and sis’ hair today. We never let her 
cut it cause we just don’t believe us in that but Miss Lewis say we should 
have her fix it up nice for us. Sis had her put hers in braids and she is so 
pretty and it smell good to.  She just as nice as she can be but lord she put 
a body in mind of Miss Terry cause she never hush up. She say she was born in 
Alleghany County round 1847 but she not sure of the day but lived most her 
life in Botetourt County. She had her six children and most still live close 
by excepting her boy Thomas cause say he live down in Arkansas. Her family 
never go to our church and I was wanting to ask her why but I not want her to 
be thinking I tending her garden. I know some folks never be doing them any 
church going and some on mine don’t but a soul gots no power to make them go 
if they gots them no mind bout going. My granddaddy never had him much a mind 
for church going but he always had him religion. Now when we was growing up 
those folks over in Alleghany County knowed how to have them church. Not like 
those down in Richmond. Lots of them folks was tongues speakers and church 
often go on most the day with us stopping for a meal and then back to the 
church meeting. Some of them was dunkers and every summer we have one Sunday 
for dunking. That was always an all day meeting and many times go on til it 
was to dark to be seeing. They take a body and get them in the water and put 
them under three times but I can’t recall why they done it three times. Some 
them was healers and people bring them sick folks from all over them parts and 
they put this oil on their heads and have what they calls the laying of hands 
and many times if that person had him the faith they was healed. Some of them 
women had them church scarves and they put them on themselves when they get to 
church and take them back off when they leaves but when they prays some them 
women put them back on. Course now most the younger ones not do that any more 
and I never understand me why not but not my place. Me and sis gots us one but 
then we never wears it round here cause we never seen nobody with one but Miss 
Beulah but we uses it at home sometimes. Miss Amanda that live over there had 
her what they call the gift of prophecy and she could see things that not 
happened yet. That not what they called the gift of the eye like Miss Sara had 
her but I don’t remember how she say they was different but she say they was.

     Some of the ladies at the church decided we have us a gathering over at 
Miss Birdy’s place. We all wanted her to know how happy we be that she is back 
with us, The preacher’s wife didn’t want to go with us all. Miss Odell say she 
never say her word one to Miss Birdy the whole time she was in the church. 
Reckon saying nothing better than starting up more trouble. We told the 
preacher we was going and he say he was pleased that she done come back. Her 
boy was not there praise be to god. Miss Beulah say that maybe if her man 
still alive that boy do better. I don’t know that I believes me that. Now he 
was as good a Christian man as a body find themselves any where but with kids 
it be like with some them acorns that we use to make Indian bread. The look 
fine in the basket but when you busts them open they all rotten on the inside. 
Folks always saying a daddy put things right. Me and sis raise mine up after 
Raymond passed over. Sweet Jesus knows I aint puffing myself up but mine never 
had them a bad bone one. They might not be in church as much as we be liking 
but they all gots them good manners. Miss Birdy say she is glad that she is 
back in the church. She never mentioned the preacher’s wife and we act like we 
know nothing bout what done happened. Sis made up a slop roll and most 
everyone brung a dish of something or the other. Miss Bessie brung some of 
that good bread from Roanoke and we eat up every bit of it. We sung and  had 
us a good time. Miss Birdy say her boy over in West Virginia been sending her 
some money. Her girl send her some whenever she able to be doing it. That make 
me feel better for her cause lord knows a body always be having them expenses. 
Miss Terry went with us all but least she was behaving herself. I think she 
has her good in her heart but like Miss Bowen told us some people never let a 
body see the good in their heart cause of the foolness that in their mouth.  I 
need to finish up my sewing fore the end of the week and  gots to work over at 
Mister Andrews couple of days. He gots him a regular girl now but wants me to 
help out while they have them some relations visiting. That man do like my 
cooking and he pay good most times. 

      I sold me all my eggs today so me and sis had us some money to buy a 
little sugar and some tea and coffee. Seems like every time we in that place 
the prices done gone up but nothing a body can do bout it so no need 
complaining and I do like me my coffee. Jesus knows that some days I misses me 
my Raymond and not be able to get him off my mind. He was not like most men 
and accepted me and sis as we was and never tried to change us or come betwixt 
me and sis. I thinks some days it was cause he seen how his momma and her 
sister was done during slave days and he never wanted to be treating him any 
woman the way they treated his momma. Raymond’s daddy was a white man. He 
never talked much bout her passing and I reckon that wound still to open to 
think bout healing it so I never ask bout such. Her sister Miss Amanda was a 
good woman and a better soul a body never find them anywhere. Me and sis would 
sit ourselves down and listen to all those stories bout slave days and we 
would sing and eat and have ourselves a good time. I gots to get myself up 
early tomorrow cause we gots to go over to a friend of Miss Lewis and measure 
for some things she wants us to sew up for her. Miss Lewis say her friend gots 
her a big house and if she like what we do she sure to give us plenty of 
sewing work cause she say she not want the same stuff other people putting in 
their houses so she not want to be buying her things from no store.

     Amos go with his daddy and when they was gone they see this man get 
himself killed dead by one them trains. Say it bout cut that man in half and 
even James say that it was a bad sight for any man to be seeing. It be 
pressing on Amos and lord that bring out the momma hen in sis and she been at 
his side the whole time. Sis is hurting in her heart cause that little angel 
hurting cause of what he done seen him. That boy done seen death come afore 
but never like that. Me and sis done seen it in all the ways a person think 
possible and if we knows the person it is hard but if we don’t it never weigh 
on our mind. Like my Grandma always say most folks enter this world in pain 
and leaves it the same way. I know it something a body needs to learn for 
themselves but if we have it our way that boy never have to be learning it so 
soon. I not able to even recollect all the folks that we done seen pass on. 
That boy that got run over by the logs over in Alleghany County is the one I 
remembers most and cause that I knows Amos never get that man passing out of 
his head. Adam’s passing was the most painful for me but that sweet angel 
passed in peace and that boy was all busted up. One of my cousins over in 
Ritch Patch got himself killed by a deer. He done got him on the ground and he 
and his daddy was thinking that it was dead and he go over and see it was 
still breathing so he retch down to cut his throat and all sudden that deer 
start to get himself up and gets him in the belly. They take him back to his 
daddy’s place and all the family go over cause they knows he done been hurt to 
bad for them to be saving him. The women all form a prayer circle round the 
outside of the house and we all prays and sings calling on god to save him 
cause nobody else do it or that if he pass let it be in peace. They tries to 
give him a drink from the jug to help the pain cause he screaming from all he 
enduring but it come right out him so Miss Betty get her roots and mushrooms 
and cuts them up in little pieces. She takes her this white powder and mixes 
it in. She say to his momma afore she do it if she is ready to say her 
goodbyes cause once she start them there be no way to stop what come after. 
She put some in his mouth and tells him to hold it in his mouth like it be 
tobacco and they take away the pain. He get real quiet and then some them men 
saying that them things was helping him but Miss Betty say for them to hush 
such talk in front of his momma cause they was not for healing they was for 
helping a body pass with no pain. After a short time he close his eyes and 
never open them again. A body sees them all those things and they can fret a 
body to death or a soul can say that is the way things be and go on. Amos gots 
him a strong will and I knows he be able to let go what he done seen but it 
take time and there be some pain in his heart but he will mend himself. Sis 
take longer cause she rather be hit herself that one our babies taking it. She 
tell James to leave him here and he stay with us the night. Fore she bedded 
him down she had him laughing and funning with us so he done started down the 
right path. Sweet Jesus knows you never be able to protect them from all the 
badness in this world.

   We took the table and kitchen chair covers and panty curtains over to Miss 
Estela’s place. She say she loves them and now she wants us to do her matching 
covers for all her chairs on the place and matching curtains for her parlor. 
She say she wants us to do us some dresses when she get the material and a 
couple shirts for her man. I tell sis we never be able to get all that sewing 
done but she say that the two of us get it done. We made us up a pan of hard 
bread and we eat it with milk and aint nothing make a body feel better. I 
soaked mine in cooked tomatoes cause I had me a taste for them. Sis just soak 
it in milk and didn’t take us as long as Moses in the desert to eat up most 
the pan. Amos come by and praise Jesus he seem to be handling him what he done 
seen fine. It is easy to forget that me and sis seen more bad things then this 
long fore we was as old as him. He always will be a baby to us but he is not 
no baby any more. Sis say he aint growed up either but sis got her a special 
place for that boy and I wanted to tell her that he never be growed up as far 
as she concerned. Course having folks round a body that care bout a person 
make it easier see you through them hard times cause they be your rock. I tell 
Miss Odell what that boy done seen and she make up some rock candy and leave 
it here for him cause she know he likes to have him some. That woman gots her 
a big heart. I give him the candy and he ask me why she do it and he put me in 
a mind of something sis told me. When my baby Adam pass I had me more folks 
coming round to help me than a body count. I done forgot most all that come by 
but sis recollects most of them all. I was in the madness and she say mud ball 
come by to see bout me. His was the son of granddaddy Persinger’s brother 
George and that was me and sis funning name for him. We was bout the same age 
and we always got on good and he was always funning with me and sis but I 
never think he be making the trip all the way over to be seeing bout me. Sis 
say he give me a little iron cross with my baby’s name wrote on it and I take 
it and keep rubbing my baby’s name. She say while I doing it I keeping asking 
him why he do this for me. I understand now why he done it. She say fore he 
leave he give me a hug and say be strong snow ball cause that was his fun name 
for me. I wish I had me that cross cause I don’t recall nothing bout seeing it 
but sis say she believe I put it under a rock on my Adam’s grave. So many 
things bout that time that I got me no mind bout. Miss Mary told me one day 
that it is god’s gift to me as a way of protecting me from what put me in the 
ground otherwise. She say she never wanted her that gift cause she wanted to 
keep all those things fresh in her head even if they cut her to the bone. 
Jesus knows that woman had her more sorrows than most but she at peace now but 
I still miss me that woman.
 
     I reckon the weather keep most folks at home today. When we not be going 
some where and nobody come by it make the day seem so long. Never took us long 
to finish up our sewing. We got us more food fixed up than we eat in a week 
cause James say he may come over with a couple of the men he is working with.  
Me and sis been trying all day to figure out what Miss Etta’s family name was. 
We don’t understand how we can recollect all bout her but not her family name. 
Sis say maybe we never knowed it so that mean we never done forgot it. Sweet 
Jesus she was a good woman. She was hired out by her master with several other 
slaves on the plantation to another plantation. She leave her children with 
her sister cause he done hired her out many times and she never gone more than 
a few months. When she get back she finds that the master done sold several of 
the slaves off the place. She always say that not even the overseer knowed 
where he done sold them slaves. Miss Etta was thinking bout putting herself in 
the grave but some them slaves tell her that someday she be able to find them. 
She stayed close to the plantation cause she was thinking that if they come 
back they be able to find her but nobody never come. We never knowed for a 
long time that her master never done sold him her babies. They was took by the 
fever. Miss Dooley say she could never get her mind round that so she was 
always looking for her babies. If someone tell her that they was took by the 
fever she say that was the master’s lie. I think that if that been me and all 
my babies in the grave I would have opened me my own chest. Lord I know I done 
been blessed. I think that I has me some troubles then I do me some thinking 
bout some we done knowed and it make it like my troubles aint nothing. It be 
to easy for a body to be making a wild cat out of a kitten. Miss Fridley 
always say if a body only gots them problems cause of money then they aint got 
them no problems. 



   Miss Estela had me over better part of three days working for her. She is 
awful peculiar bout how things be set round her place and she have me put a 
chair here and then say put it there. I never mind me a bit cause she is just 
as friendly as she can be and she know what she wants and willing to pay good 
for it. I see why her and Miss Lewis is good friend cause they act alike. She 
ask me all bout my people and a body knows when a person doing them not mean 
nothing talk and when they be listening to what you saying and she had her a 
true interest in me and mine. I think she is a lot older than me and sis but I 
not ask cause that be bad manners but she say all hers done growed up and 
living on their own. She say her momma is part Italian and I wanted to do me 
some talking bout how they be cause of my David but I don’t want to seem like 
I trying to dig in her garden so mostly I just let her talk. She say she could 
talk her some Italian when she was little but not be able to do much now cause 
been so long since she do it. Her daddy was a lawyer so they had them some 
money. She say her people gone and stayed in Europe during the war but her 
daddy’s brother fought for the south. They come back after the war and say 
they find their place burned to the ground. All her furniture still aint got 
here but what she gots so far is nice. She wanted them to go and live over 
there in Europe but they decided to come round these parts cause they already 
knowed them some folks here and say she wanted some place where there not as 
many people as where they been living. Sweet Jesus knows I can understand 
that. Her man not be here til sometime next month cause he gots some things to 
finish up for he comes in. I told her if she gets ascared there alone in that 
big house me or sis come and stay a night with her but she say her sister 
coming in tomorrow to visit with her so she be fine. Miss Odell say she knows 
she not Catholic cause she be going to that church over by where Matthew be 
working. I give thanks to Jesus that me and sis has us so much work to do. My 
grandma told me one day when I ask her bout having to work so hard that the 
day she stop working she pass on and I never understand me what she was saying 
but now it be clear to me.  

    Miss Odell come by today and say she seen this fox take off from side my 
chicken pen and put a fright in me but thank Jesus he never was getting to my 
hens but I seen where he been digging. I cut us some of the cake that sis done 
fixed up and some coffee and we has ourselves a good time. I was afeared that 
maybe Miss Beulah was ailing but she say she is fine but her legs is giving 
her fits. She was telling me bout how the preacher’s wife and a couple of the 
ladies at church done had them words over some foolness. Miss Carla’s girl is 
bad bout starting up something and then acting like it aint her plate at all. 
She was trying to do her mouthing bout Sissy one day and sis heared her and I 
was thinking sis put her in her place if she not hush up. Her and sis has them 
problems but sis don’t take to others tending our garden. She say Mister Luke 
had them all make up and even the Preacher’s wife quieted down. Mister Luke 
love his church and do put up with no foolishness. He was a slave on the Smith 
plantation fore the war and folks say even the overseer was a little ascared 
of him cause he is as big as any man I seen me in all my born days and he 
still stronger than most men that aint seen them his years. Course he just as 
nice as you please and aint many men as good a Christian man as he be. James 
say that even when he round only men he never let them be doing no bad 
talking. Most his relation live round Roanoke so he only in these parts when 
he is visiting with his girl and her family.


     One of my roosters up and flogged me this morning. I went out to feed 
them and get the eggs like I always been doing and fore I knowed it he got me 
on the leg. He give me a gash but it aint deep. I was thinking that maybe that 
fox wanting to do me a favor. I done told him that when one of the boys get 
over this way they deal with him. He will be tough lessen we cook him up 
right. Sis is good at cooking them old ones up so they is fit to eat. She not 
be back til tomorrow so just been me and the cats here by our lonesome. I did 
me some sewing on a new quilt that we started. We doing this one in black, red 
and yellow and I think it be real pretty when we finish with it. I done some 
fancy stitching on it but I only put one design it the middle and little 
designs like it in the corners. I think we be able to sell it quick. Never had 
to do me no cooking cause sis cooked up plenty fore she left for me to eat on 
all day. She evn put me on a pot of coffee. Not much else to do so I been 
doing me a lot of thinking today. I never been able to get my mind round all 
me and sis done heared bout them slave days. Miss Beulah was a slave but she 
got to go all over the place. They never even treated her like a slave and 
then give her money and a house. There Miss Ruthann and her momma treated fine 
and they was slaves and then others had them devils as masters. Sis always be 
saying that people is people and they be some good ones and some bad ones. 
There Mister Lewis treat us like we was family and then Mister Green treated 
us like we was dirt. Those white boys burned up them Indians over in Alleghany 
County and shot up that little girl but them Persingers protected her and 
tried to doctor her up. I feel bad for some of the folks we done knowed us 
cause some seen them mostly the bad and me and sis seen us the bad but we seen 
us the good to. Truth be told we done seen us more good than anything else. I 
give Jesus all praise for that. 


     Mister John come by today to get the dresses we sewed up for his wife. He 
is just as nice a man as a body ever meet. I was glad he come to get them 
cause that wife of his is awful fussy bout things.  Course she pay good so I 
can handle fussy but sis a different matter. Sis done promised to keep hush 
round her cause when they need them some sewing done they always be coming to 
us. I know there be several women closer to where they live that do sewing but 
they travel all the way over here to give us the work. She draws out the 
designs she wants on them and very particular bout the thread we use and the 
stitches got to be to her liking but it is their money they spending. I give 
him some bean bread to eat on cause I know he likes it. They has them a girl 
come in to do the cooking but he say his wife wants her to do up fancy dishes 
all the time when all he wants is regular food. I reckon bean bread to plain 
for her taste but I tell him anytime he round these parts he can come on in 
and we feed him up right. Sweet Jesus knows that boy has done good. I know his 
momma and daddy as proud as any can be. There he started out with most of 
nothing and now he be making him some money. He even helps out them when they 
be needing a little extra. I know it weren’t easy on him. Miss Odell say his 
people sent him up north for a spell to get him some learning but when he come 
back some the folks round here didn’t take at first to a black man having him 
so much learning. He never give up and now even most whites treat him good. 
Course nobody has to be in the room with him long fore they know he a talker. 
Some has them the gift. It like everything he say be important cause of the 
way he say it. Sis say that man could talk the devil out of his pitchfork if 
he had him the chance. He gots him four boys and they is as well manner as any 
we done seen us. He done made sure that all of them gots them learning. I seen 
his boy Robert write up an order and the letters as plain as if they was wrote 
in a book. All mine got them some but nothing like his do. They go to some 
church over in the next county but I don’t think they is Baptists. Miss Odell 
say what it was but I can’t recollect what she say it was. When he leave I 
give him some bread to take with but told him to watch them crumbs or we both 
get beat if one gets on her dresses. He laughed real hard and say that be the 
truth. I love having good people over cause it like they fill the house with 
their goodness. People like him make it hard for any miseries to be coming 
round.

    I been thinking bout Miss Mary all day. She has me and sis and Miss Odell 
and a few others that remember her passing but not many. That little marker on 
her resting place be nothing but a name fore long. I been thinking bout all 
them stories bout her life that she told us and now those things passed with 
her. I never want to think that be the way with me and sis. We tell all the 
kids bout what granddaddy Persinger learned us but I not want to burden them 
with this if they gots them no mind for it. Sis say she know Amos listen to 
what we say but I say I put more of them down so that they has them after we 
pass. Amos does like him the star rock story that granddaddy learned us when 
we was little cause he always having sis tell it to him and truth be told sis 
better at telling it then me. The story starts fore the time that man had him 
no pact with the plants and they not give man anything to eat so man had him 
only meat and nuts. One day a beetle says that them animals give men meat and 
hides but he had him nothing to give to them men. Then he recollects the star 
rock that come from the sky years fore men ever in those parts and rested 
itself at the bottom of a deep lake. Beetle go to the bottom of the lake but 
the rock to heavy so he call on all the water creatures to help him. They 
brung it up and call for all the clans of man to come. The beetle say to take 
the star rock back with them and build a big lodge . He tell them to put them 
that star rock in the middle of that lodge. The lodge have four doors one to 
the north for the clans from the place of many mountains, one to the south for 
the clans from the place of many swamps, one to the west for the clans from 
the place of many dry lands, and one to the east for the clans from the place 
of many meadows. At the start of spring each of them clans was to send one 
woman to enter from the door of her clan. When all four clans put them their 
hands on that star rock and speak the sacred name give by the beetle on that 
day it shine like a star. The first year they goes inside and the star rock 
say I give you a great gift from the plants if that be what you all wants and 
they agrees and the star rock give the clans the gift of corn but not like the 
corn we has us today cause it growed all year in cold days and hot days and 
when one ear pulled from it another grow in its place. The next year it give 
them beans that growed all year like the corn and the clans of men liked them 
new foods they was eating them. Each year they got them a new gift from the 
plants. After lots of years done passed the four women goes in and when the 
star rock offers a gift from the plants one say we has enough from the plants 
what else you give us. That star rock say I give the gift of a death where 
there be no pain. When a man nears him the end an animal guide goes to him and 
say go to the lodge of the star rock and when he do he pass with no pain. They 
talks and all agree. The next year they asks for the gift of a birth where the 
momma feel her no pain and that star rock give them it. The next spring the 
women start to fight over what gift they wants them and two say one thing and 
two say different. They leave with no gift and two of the clans say the others 
cheat them and say that if they had them that star rock they get what they 
want and never mind what the others be wanting. The clans try and break them 
that star rock into four parts but the rock never splinter cause it be to 
strong. A great buzzard come and say he will take that star rock and break it 
into four parts. The buzzard lift it high up the sky but when it drop it never 
break. The next time he go higher than he ever done afore and drop that star 
rock and it splinter into four parts. Each clan takes their part and builds 
them their own lodge but when the first day of spring come nothing happen.. 
Then beetle come and say that the spirit of that star rock gone and never come 
back. The spirit that lived in that star rock call to buzzard and say he done 
wrong. He say he done broke the circle so he circle in the sky for all his 
days so that all them animals know what come by breaking the star rock. He say 
that he take back all the gifts but beetle ask him to only take part. After he 
ponders on it that spirit say that the clans of man can keep them all them 
plant gifts but they never be growing them in the cold like they done afore 
and man have to fight the dirt to get them plants to grow.. The clans burns 
them that lodge of the star rock and say that beetle done wronged them. Beetle 
say they be wrong cause they have them no plants if he not tell that spirit to 
let them. Some them try and kill beetle dead but he gets himself away. Beetle 
takes him the four parts of the star rock and drops them back in the lake and 
then say to all them clans of men that the clans of insects never again come 
to the side of men. He say from this day we at war. Them gifts that we get for 
you we take back if we can. Granddaddy say that why we has to fight them bugs 
all the time or they eat a garden up and why the bees sting and spiders bite 
but a body cant never be blaming them bugs cause they never wanted to be at 
war with us. He say some has made peace with the clans of men but sweet Jesus 
me and sis never been able to recollect that story. It fret me that that story 
maybe lost just like those of Miss Mary. Sis say she think on it and see if 
she recollect her any part of it.

     My mind seem to be running all bout the place most of the day. I has me 
so many things to go through in my head that sometimes I feel that if I don’t 
find me no markers I be lost. Sis reminded me what Mister Willie told us. He 
say that when we had more things on the mind then we could handle us to stop 
and and study on a tree. I never understand me what he mean but it do work. I 
don’t know why but after a while of studying on that tree and it like those 
problems not that big at all. I miss me that man cause he put me in a mind of 
my granddaddy Persinger. He was an Indian man that lived not far from Miss 
Bark‘s place. He was older than she was but I don’t recollect exactly how old 
he was. He only had him one eye cause he lose him one in a fight. We would 
visit with him some and he always offer us something to eat. He would do most 
the talking and we just listen. Granddaddy had learned us that the Indian way 
was to just sit and listen to the old ones talk and not to be doing no 
interrupting. He say if we do that then maybe we be learning us something. 
Even Miss Bark would sit and listen as he talked. Mister Willie would always 
say that men has them so many problems cause they has themselves to many 
things. He say that all that he owned him that was important to him he could 
carry on his back. The rest of them things was just things. I think I 
understand now what he was saying. The rest of them things is just things and 
me and sis can carry on our backs all that we gots us that is important to us. 
I love me my Bible but I also follow some of them Indian ways cause they also 
give me peace.

   Not a word one from my lost lambs but James keep saying to be putting my 
mind on something else. Sis say that why we gots us all this work cause Jesus 
doing his portion to keep our thoughts on something else. Sis cooked us up 
some bean bread and a pork pie and we been eating on them all day. Miss Odell 
come by for a short visit and say the preacher been sick so one the men be 
taking his place on Sunday. After she go me and sis get ourselves on our 
sewing. Miss Wilson done seen her some the things we made for Miss Estela’s 
place and wants me and sis to do some more sewing for her cause she want to be 
replacing most her curtains and me thinking they still like new but aint my 
money and sweet Jesus know I never do me no judging bout that woman ever 
again. Folks is folks cause here she was wanting her better than those at Miss 
Estela’s place and they is both white and then sis can make her up a new hat 
for church and Jesus know I speaking the gospel that by the next Sunday the 
preacher’s wife go out and buy her a new one even when she don’t need her none 
trying to out do sis. Me and sis is happy to have the work and little doubt 
that when we do them up she give her old ones to some the poor folk round 
these parts and I knows they be getting them some quality stuff cause she buy 
the best material a body can get. Sis say aint nobody gots them anything 
better than what we gots us down in Richmond but I reminds her that we was not 
able to afford more than enough do us two pillow covers but they do be 
pretty.  I has me a taste for some pears and James say he pick me up some next 
week. I not want to be thinking that I putting a burden on that boy but he ask 
me if I wants me something. Sis can make up the best pear dumplings a body 
ever eat. Some folks just seem to have themselves a gift when fixing up food 
and sis gots her the gift. Raymond always say that she take a little of 
nothing and make it up into something them Kings over in Europe be pleased to 
eat. Had Charly Reed ever ate him any her slop roll and that woman never been 
able to get him. Miss Jones always tell me that anyone look at me know I eat 
me good and she is right. Like folks say plenty of good food and dry house 
then nothing to be complaining bout.


     Tom come over today and I sure was glad to have him here. He say he come 
to visit but I know that boy come so I could feed him up. He eat him two 
plates of fried potatoes and onions and most of the bread.  That boy can do 
him some eating. I give him a piece of the cake sis fixed up and put some 
homey and butter on it and he weren’t long in swallowing it all down. He even 
licked him the plate and I laughed and told him I keep all my plates for him. 
That way I not have to do me no washing of any of them. He say that Miss 
Birdy’s boy done got in some trouble. He done took off in the middle of the 
night for somewhere. He told his momma he let her know when he gets himself 
settled but never say where that be. I know she is sick at her heart bout that 
boy but least she be able to sleep without wondering how he act when he come 
in. Me and sis never has to do us no thinking bout such things cause none of 
mine ever been in no jug. I think I will fix her up a bite of something and 
take it over to her. Problems seem bigger than they be when a body all by 
their lonesome. Sweet Jesus knows I ain’t got me no right to be saying it but 
a person needs to be counting what they has and not what they done lost them. 
Course Miss Amanda always say knowing something and accepting something never 
be the same thing. 


      The preacher’s wife had her on a new ring and a big necklace that she 
say he got her over in Roanoke. They was pretty but I never know how a person 
work with a ring that big on their finger. Miss Terry was in a rage over it. 
She say it is not right with the church needing money, She say she been better 
if she give that money to the church stead of buying such. Course Miss Terry 
and the preacher’s never get on good. Granddaddy Persinger say a body can’t 
keep them two bulls in one field. It that way with them two cause they both 
wants to be the boss. Sis never answer her back. She told me that it was her 
money to do with as she please. Sis don’t be missing her to many chances to 
bad talk her so I knowed she must have been in a good spirit. When we get home 
she cooked up a pot of stew and some cake. She was singing the whole time. I 
was thinking she acting a little feeble minded but I keep hush.  After we eat 
she do the dishes. When she do the cooking I most always wash them up. She 
even give my cats some bread and then I knowed that things out of sorts. We 
start us some sewing and she still singing. I finally ask her what done got in 
her head. She go to her room and I was ascared I done hurt her somehow. She 
come out with this little piece of wood. The way she was holding onto it a 
body have thought it was a tiny baby there in her arms. She let me handle it 
and it had I love me my momma T scratched in it. Sis say Amos snuck it on her 
bed when he was over last night. Sweet Jesus that boy done put her heart in 
the heavens. I don’t care me a bit if Sissy never hit her a lick at work. That 
woman done give us a gift of that boy that worth more to us than any mount of 
money out there.


   This little fox was trying to get himself in with my chickens again today 
and me and sis run him off and he turn back as soon as we at the back door. 
Sis chuck her this rock right at him and he don’t pay it no never mind so she 
get her another. Sis put it up side his head and killed him dead on the spot. 
Ben come by and we give it to him to cart off the place but he cut the tail 
off and say he do some thing or the other with him. I cooked up some squash 
cakes and some pork and we fed him up good. We love us that boy but sweet 
Jesus knows he gots him this lazy turn bout him that a body needs to be 
keeping an eye on. Now when we say do he do it but if we let him behave like 
he do with his momma not a thing get done on the place but that boy do got him 
some manners. I had him drop off the sewing we done finished up so me and sis 
been planning us the next quilt. I think we do us the one with the rings cause 
lots of folks seem to like them that one and we never has us no problem seeing 
all of them we can sew up. Thank sweet Jesus sis got her that fox cause we 
sure need us the money our eggs bring in. I never understand why it take so 
much money these days for a body be able to make their way. We done seen us 
the day when two dollars more than enough to be buying food for a long spell 
and nowadays it not last most times more part of a week. Course we feeding us 
a whole clan here some days so rather have me my clan here than any money in 
my jar.

        I been doing me some reading from my Bible. I like reading it but some 
of the words I never understand. Most of the times I do. Even when I don’t it 
still give me peace. For as long as I can remember me and sis had us a Bible. 
I think Miss Bowen over in Ritch Patch give us our first one but I can’t be 
sure of that. I had me a big pan of fried okra and onions today. Miss Fridley 
use to say that a big problem after a big meal never seem to be that big 
anymore. I do like to do me some eating but rather have me a houseful eating 
with me. My momma cat been acting like she gots her some pain. I think she 
done hurt her paw but don’t appear to be hurt bad. Maybe she like me and the 
years beating at her. I know some days my legs give me a fit and I know that I 
aint hurt them none. She been up under the cook stove most of the day. I 
reckon that heat feels good to her. I know if I get me a pain if I hugs me my 
stove don’t take long til they feeling better. I need to do me some cleaning 
round the place. It strikes me odd that one day a grain of dirt in the house 
frets me til I get it up and other days there could be a shovelful and I pay 
it no never mind. Course I never let me no shovelful in the house but sweet 
Jesus it do make a body think.

       I go out on sit myself down on my porch today and I feel like 
granddaddy Persinger for a spell cause I catch myself looking back at them 
mountains.  It eat at me a little cause here I got me all this work to be 
doing and there me out on the porch like I gots me nothing to do at all. 
Course I done got me a good portion sewed up today so not like I out there the 
whole daylong. I don’t believe it is a sin for a body to take a couple moments 
for themselves. Some my best talks with granddaddy was out on his porch and I 
miss him not being here with me. Some days he was out there cause he was 
missing him his sister Mary and his daddy and was wishing him and Miss Sara 
gone west with them. He give her an Indian name to but I never be able to 
recall me the Indian word he. Granddaddy Persinger give all his kids and 
grandbabies Indian names like his daddy did but I never certain why he picked 
him some of those names. He say his sister Mary was the darkest of all them 
kids of Miss Sara and maybe that why he was wanting to protect her all the 
time. One day him and Mary was at some folks over in Alleghany County. Mary 
was not more than four years old at the time. One the boys come running and 
say that two government men was looking for Mary cause they been trying to 
take her from Miss Sara. They tell him to take Mary to Miss Polly’s place and 
then get himself way from that place cause they see him with her they know who 
she be. He take her and tells Miss Polly she needs to hide her fore them men 
gets there. Miss Polly say she be in her house and she aint hiding her cause 
that was her house and nobody take her out of her house without her say so. 
Granddaddy gets himself in the woods but he don’t go far off cause he knowed 
those men never be able to see him once he in them woods. He was thinking that 
if they grab them his sister he be able to jump them when they head out and 
get her away. The men get there and Miss Polly was at the table with Mary on 
her lap cutting apples. One the men ask her who that girl is and Miss Polly 
say that is her girl. They act like they was not believing her and she tells 
them that if they want to call her a liar in her own house they be regretting 
it. Bout that time a couple those boys from up in there gets to her place. One 
them boys yells and ask her if there be any trouble. She takes the two men 
outside and say aint no trouble here but if you boys see these folks back to 
where they comes from I would be obliged. One the men start to say something 
bout Mary. Miss Polly with that big knife from cutting them apples in her hand 
points it at them. She say you go now with these boys cause it is almost dark 
and it would be a shame for you to be having some accident up here in these 
mountains and never get back to your own folks. They knowed what she was 
saying and they go with them boys. Sweet Jesus I miss me that woman. I still 
see her and Old Man walking through those woods like those folks down in 
Richmond do a road. She never fretted herself one minute thinking that she 
ought not be doing it. I know granddaddy never wanted his sister to go out 
west but in his soul he knowed it was better for her. Granddaddy knowed he 
could not go cause he never leave him Miss Sara or those mountains. I thinks 
some days he out on that porch cause looking at them mountains help a body 
sort things cause they let you know what you be and they give him their 
strength. Sis say he was like Sampson from the Bible and those mountains was 
like Sampson’s hair and as long as them mountains there and he was there in 
them mountains he was strong enough to fight him any trouble that come his 
way. I prays my David be strong enough for the path he done taken cause he has 
to walk it alone. Granddaddy carried him a cross cause of who he was and what 
he done seen him. My David has to carry his cross cause he is who he aint. He 
say life is better if you is Italian but he will be learning for himself if 
that is worth cutting his blood ties. He never be able to claim us once he 
start that path. He will always be mine but it is like having you a pretty 
dress but then told you never be able put it on yourself so just be happy you 
got it. Maybe those mountains call me cause when we was there we knowed who 
and what we was and no need to be hiding from nothing or nobody excepting 
during the war and then them soldiers was not our people. I thank Jesus some 
days that my little angel resting there with those that accept him no matter 
the color he was.

We done got us a couple messes of pears and thank you sweet Jesus we been 
eating on them two days now. James done brung them over and Amos say he stay 
the night with us cause it be looking like it blow up a storm and he not want 
us to be by ourselves. I know he been with his daddy working over in Roanoke 
and after a week he was bout starved to death and he know sis fatten him up 
like a fall hog. She done it to cause she fixed him a mess of greens with some 
pears cooked in and they was good but she also cooked up some tomato bread and 
pear dumplings and then fore he bedded down she done took two my selling eggs 
and cooked them up for him. He sit and talked to us while we did us some 
sewing and we had us a good time. Sis is going over to do some work for Miss 
Baker tomorrow. Say she thinks she be having her there for bout three days and 
I be over at Miss Lewis’ place most the week. I done bout run out of my 
writing paper so I needs to get me some more. Lord knows sis happy that Amos 
here with us and she even let my cat jump up on the table and never throwed 
nothing at it.

     I had me a new cat come on the place today. I was letting my momma cat in 
and this new one come on in. It is white with some yellow on it. It is a very 
pretty cat and I know it been round people. It is not ascared of people or my 
cats. As soon as it eat it jumped up on my divanport and gone to sleep. Miss 
Rachel stayed the night with me. She been visiting with some her relations 
round these parts. I think she was tired of sharing a bed with three people so 
she knowed she have her a bed to her lonesome here with me. Her people never 
done them no mixing so she bout as dark as anyone I ever seen me. She say she 
have her no problems if one of hers was but just not the ways things been with 
them. Her boy married himself up with one of those Bannister girls and she is 
fairly light cause most them is mixed but she say all their children dark as 
she be. She is a good Christian lady but say her people still follow some of 
them African ways. Miss Jones is the same way. I don’t know me nothing bout 
how they do them. I was thinking bout asking her but some folks don’t like 
talking bout such outside the family. My brother is like me and sis and still 
follow him some those Indian ways. He never talks bout doing them to nobody 
cause it something some of them folks never be accepting. I wish she visit 
more but she say her legs getting to bad to be doing her much anymore. She say 
she was born round 1840 so the years adding up. I had to help her up a couple 
of times. At least she is not feeble minded and still remembers the dates all 
hers born. She even recollects when she first meet up with me and sis. She say 
it was in 1873 at daddy’s place but even sis say she never be able to put her 
mind round the date. I know her and momma got on good cause one of momma’s 
people married her cousin. I never knowed him but Miss Rachael say they lived 
up in Maryland. She say that daddy and momma’s people never got on good but 
she never say why. Sis say she was always thinking that momma the one that had 
the problem with her people but maybe that not so. Course sis see things her 
way when it come to momma. I been thinking that momma told grandma it was her 
problem to keep it off daddy.  Momma had her problems but she loved daddy as 
much as I did me my Raymond. I never seen it when I was little but now I sees 
that she the one that keep the family together. Sis act like she was some old 
chair hound but that not the gospel. I know it had to be hard on her cause me 
and sis not always acting our best round her. Daddy was never an easy man to 
be getting on with. I guess she done the best she could. I never say it to sis 
but sweet Jesus I know I do have me love in my heart for her.



    A skunk got himself up under the house and lord it give me a fright cause 
here I gots me all this material that Miss Lewis done payed her good money for 
and if he spray might never get that stink out of it. We smelled him all day 
but I puts all the cats in the house so they not get him to spraying. Ben and 
Amos watched til he come out last night and then put up some old boards so he 
not be getting himself back under there. They was thinking it some big game 
but sis told them that they get themselves sprayed and they be sleeping out 
with the chickens. Granddaddy Persinger say one little game chasing with 
deelah the skunk gets a body one month in the river washing him away. He had 
him a story his daddy told him bout them but other than that expression me and 
sis not able to recall a word of it. Amos and Ben stayed the night with us and 
I was happy they was getting on so good cause they not always be doing so. I 
think sometimes Ben is wishing Daniel stayed here with us cause they was such 
good friends. James say on the boys he know that work for the railroad done 
seen him and say he with his people and doing good. We played us the Bible 
verse game but Amos got them all so Ben not be wanting to play any more. Sis 
tries and learn them the build a tree game but Ben not got him the eye for it. 
He wanted them to play some cards. Me and sis never say nothing cause we not 
sure if they is a sin but they say their momma lets them play so we keep 
ourselves hush. Some folks in church say they is the devil’s game but then sis 
say we knowed lots of people that play them and say they not. Sweet Jesus it 
was fun watching them play cause Ben got him a mind for playing them and me 
and sis was laughing ourselves sick at how they was acting. Sis cooked us up 
some nut cakes and a pot of greens and onions with some pork fat and sweet 
Jesus know them boys gone to bed with their bellies full. Me and sis knows we 
done been blessed by god with our family cause so many not have them even a 
part of what we gots us. Miss Becca always tell us that a small house full of 
folks better than a big one empty and that be the gospel cause when the house 
is full it is like a body feel content with what they has. We done worked for 
so many folks that has them more money than a body ever spend and a house full 
of nice things but no people to be sharing it with. I thank Jesus I got me 
mine.

My Tom done give me new shoes that he bought me down in Roanoke. They are the 
prettiest things but I never want him to be spending on me.  He give sis a new 
hat cause he know she likes her her hats. He never say what he give for it but 
sis say she knows he give more than he ought to be spending but I knows she is 
happy as she can be with it cause she keep putting it on and fooling with it. 
It do look good on her and she say she wear her black dress with the white 
buttons with it to church in the morning.  I done finished me the dress for 
Miss Rowena and James say he take it over to her for me on Monday. The people 
she is working for make her work all day on Sunday doing them their cooking 
and looking after the place. They pays her extra for it but she say she hate 
missing her church but a body gots to earn them their way. Her boy Jed been 
working some with James and he say he gots him a mind for working. Her man 
took the wasting and been gone bout ten years. Her Jed like my James and help 
look in on her so least she not doing it all by herself. Sis say she gots her 
a taste for a slop roll so she cooked one up for tomorrow and I will cook some 
bean stew fore we go to church so we be eating good tomorrow. My hens giving 
me plenty of eggs so me and sis keep back a few and have us eggs when we gets 
ourselves up. Jesus knows I love me my eggs and biscuits. I not been eating 
many cause we gots us plenty folks wanting to be buying them from us so when 
we has extra for us it is like a feast.

I bout near put my sewing needle through my thumb. My fault cause I was not 
keeping my eyes on whats I was doing. The cats was into some fuss and I was 
telling them to settle up. Sis get it out for me and then we soaks it and sis 
made up a poultice and tied it up. It not looking like it is taking an 
infection so praise Jesus for that. Mister Isaiah come today and we buy us 
some pork meat and a new bread pan. We spends more than maybe we should but he 
is a fair man and we been needing a new bread pan for a spell now. Sis say it 
aint no sin to be spending money on something we gots us a real need for. We 
say we going to put us some money aside cause we soon be needing a new fry 
pan. Sis fix us up some hoe cakes and pork pudding and say she do most the 
sewing if my thumb paining me but I never feel at ease sitting while she doing 
all the work sides I gots to finish up the stitching of the designs on the 
Bible cover for Miss Ona May but I do that in the morning. 

   Sweet Jesus I been keeping me an eye on my thumb for infection. I wish Aunt 
Ruthy was here to look at it for me. Aunt Ruthy was good at making poultices 
and such and lots of folks had her make them medicine up. A wild cat get at 
one of them Bowen boys and he had him these big gashes in his face and arms 
and she doctor him up and fore long he just fine. She did most the raising of 
Miss Charlotte but I thinks she was her granddaughter and not her girl but 
lord knows that some days I has me trouble recollecting how all those folks 
went together. Sis says that Aunt Ruthy tried to teach Miss Charlotte how to 
treat sickness like she done but she was never to good at it. It takes a 
special person to know just how much of this and that to put in them poultices 
and when to put them on and when to change them. Those people not book trained 
like a doctor but granddaddy say that nature done trained them and when they 
is real they can tell by looking at roots and such and know by how they look 
and smell what they good for. I will put me her ribbon in my hair and think I 
sleep with it in then I knows I has me some good dreams cause those days was 
hard but Jesus know I go back to them if I had me the power. My granddaddy say 
hard times with good folk at your side make them times softer. I thanks Jesus 
every day that all my days I had me good folks side me and none better than 
sis.

     Me and Miss Estela had us a nice talk while I was doing me the cooking 
over at her place. Now that woman knows how to fix up some coffee as good as 
anybody get them anywhere and she free with it to cause she say when I finish 
me my cup to go get me another if I please. I tell her what sis say bout our 
grandma Persinger being part Italian and sweet Jesus forgive me if it is a sin 
but I was baiting her. I gots me better raising then to be doing me that but 
it been pestering me. She say some Italians as dark as me and I asks bout them 
Catholics and she say most them are Catholics and her momma was one and she a 
Catholic to but she go with her man to his church. Some her people never 
wanted her to marry up with him cause he was not one of them Catholics but 
when she done it they accepts him cause they not as strict as some them folks 
be bout it. She say that they gots them a pope but I never asks what that be 
but sound something like a king. They do something with them saints and do 
church different from most cause she say the people is real quiet the most of 
the time. She say they gots them a preacher but they calls him a priest and he 
does most the talking. They pray to Jesus like we does but his momma Mary gots 
her a special place to but I not been able to sort out all she was saying bout 
her. It do make good sense that Mary cause she his momma be special. They has 
them something they calls like a roselee and they gots them this necklace that 
they uses for praying. Lord it done put my mind at ease. When me and sis talks 
bout what she say, she say that necklace they gots them no different from them 
things that granddaddy was always making up for us cause he say they helps a 
body get closer to them good spirits. She say that Miss Perry talked bout them 
saints but I don’t recollect her doing it round me but they don’t sound to her 
to be any different from the spirits that Miss Bark was telling us bout like 
granddaddy Persinger done so why it fret a body by what someone be calling 
them cause they all bout the same thing. Sis say that maybe grandma one of 
them to cause she had her some Italian blood. She never say she was but she 
never say she not. If she was then my David not turning on his blood cause he 
gots him some Catholic in him. Course seems like they is a lot like us anyhow 
and sis say we pay it no never mind if he make himself an old timey Baptist so 
not much different. Seem to me that we done been making us a wild cat out of a 
kitten. I always be missing me that boy but if he following his blood aint no 
sin being done. Jesus know I rather him living as one of them Italians then be 
there in the grave like my Adam. James say that Miss Rowena’s boy done busted 
up some ribs and not be able to do him any work for a while. Lord Jesus I 
recollects when my James busted up some his and like to put me in the ground 
with fright. Sis say we fix up something in the morning and take it over to 
them. He be strong so we sure he mend himself up just fine.
    
     That skunk was back last night and a body could smell him all over the 
place. Least ways he never found what he was looking for round here and headed 
himself off. I was wanting to put the cats in so they not get themselves 
skunked but they was already out when he come on the place. Thank sweet Jesus 
none of them got in his way. Me and sis eat up the last of the bread Miss 
Bessie sent over. I need to fix up the last of the greens in the morning or 
they be going to the bad soon and sis say he been wanting to fix us up a slop 
roll anyhow. Nancy got in my writing book when the kids was over and done tore 
up bout five of my pages but I never be blaming that little angel cause I 
knowed they was coming and I left the old thing out on my writing desk. She do 
be a joy and she going to take after grandma Persinger in the face more than 
any of mine. If she take after her soul Lord sweet Jesus she be a good woman 
and do right by her own. I never heared me a bad word one bout my grandma in 
all my born days and truth be told don’t know how anyone come say them cause 
not one thing bad bout her. She be quiet and maybe some not understand that 
that just be her way but folks always say that they never be able to find them 
a better person than her. I pray that me and sis round long enough to be 
teaching her bout our people but that be in god’s hands.

         I don’t know why my Sara been on my mind all the time. I think some 
bout my David but maybe it is different cause she is a girl. Sis say it be 
cause I called her after Miss Sara and was thinking that she be like her. Sis 
say maybe she is but a momma never see it. Maybe Miss Sara’s momma was 
fretting herself bout all that done happened to her. There she was barely 
fourteen years old and running by herself all over them woods. Then she bring 
her home an Indian man that was gone lots of the time. My Sara not out in them 
mountains. If she was I would know me better what trouble might be coming her 
way. Me and sis know that if a body know how to get them some food that aint 
much of nothing in them that bother a person. There is bears and snakes but if 
a person knows bout them they never be no problem. Granddaddy say that snakes 
never be wanting anything to do with men and rather not be round them. If a 
person let a snake know you in those parts then it go under ground til you 
gone. Now if a body step on one of them or be bothering bout them they bite 
quick as you please. A bear gots himself a pact with men so it be the same. A 
body gots to be remembering that a momma bear not care bout no pact when it 
come to her babies. If you see them you got to stay away or she come after 
you. Other than that those mountains as safe as any house be. Some folks never 
want to be by their lonesome but if a person look good at them mountains they 
see that they is full of things. Course I never was out in them by myself much 
cause me and sis always together. Some days I think we been better to stay up 
there in those mountains where Miss Bark lived. Course that was what have been 
better for me and sis cause we knowed how to live in them but a body gots to 
be thinking bout the whole family. My Sara is in a place I don’t know me 
nothing bout. Lord knows she not the strongest of mine. What she do if someone 
grabs at her. James say that Linda will be looking out for her but who will be 
looking out for Linda. I don’t want to be doing much talking bout it all cause 
I don’t want folks thinking I becoming feeble minded. I seen me to many that 
way. Poor souls just set and tell a body the same thing over and over again. 
Sis say that sometimes I be that way bout granddaddy. If I be doing that I 
think most folks be knowing that it not cause of no feeble mindness. I be 
proud of that man and all he done learned us. I pray that that ain’t no big 
sin. The Bible say that to much pride a sin but that be pride cause of 
yourself not your people.



      Hambone come over with James cause they was out and bout half starved to 
death. I cooked them up some potato cakes and we also had us a pan of bean 
bread. They eat good and was funning with me. I knowed that Hambone has him no 
woman at home to do him any cooking. He had him a woman that he loved but she 
passed a number of years back. She was in a family way and bout time for the 
baby to be coming she took a fever and passed. He say he ain’t never wanted to 
think bout no other woman cause she his wife and be his wife in heaven. Some 
folks believe them that when a body gets to heaven they is married up to the 
wife or husband they had them here. I don’t know that I believe me that. I 
know we all be together and see each other and that a person’s folks be their 
folks in heaven but I don’t know bout the rest. I know what it like to lose 
someone you loves and I respect that he never want to be with nobody else. 
Most men ain’t that way. Some don’t even wait til the woman done passed over 
to be eyeing them someone new. Sissy’s first man up and left fore Linda was no 
more than two years old. Me and sis was always putting it on her being a chair 
hound but I know it don’t matter to some men how the woman be acting. They get 
them the eye and take off. They need to be minding that god punish those that 
don’t do right. Linda never seen her real daddy after he leave. James say he 
headed off with some young girl but less than a year later he took him some 
sickness and that girl up and leaves him there in his sick bed. He died all by 
his lonesome with no one even caring. It bothers me any poor soul passing like 
that but sometimes they get from life what they done give. It be like when 
folks talking bout them confederate soldier getting themselves killed dead 
during the war. That don’t cut at me cause those boys was wrong but it do 
bother me hearing bout them Yankee boys getting killed dead. I reckon had 
somebody killed them granddaddy’s brother Squirrel that have cut at me cause 
he was my blood. I thank sweet Jesus that my Raymond true to me and I never 
had me no man after him. I did love me Bernard but that was fore Raymond. I 
think now that it was better that we never was together. If a man not strong 
enough to stand up to his daddy he be to weak for me. I never be able to 
respect a man like that. Hambone say Miss Lewis been having him go over and 
keep watch on Miss Jenny.  Miss Lewis is a living angel and I never be 
allowing no mean talking bout her in front of me. He say Miss Jenny making it 
but only cause her sister and her granddaughter been working some and Miss 
Lewis send some food to be helping them out. It ain’t right that a body got to 
be living like that. She tell Hambone that least she aint no slave anymore. I 
done heared all bout her old master from Miss Mary and Miss Jones so I know 
that woman seen her some hard times. I thank sweet Jesus that me and sis never 
was no slaves.    




     Miss Estela and Miss Lewis had them a big party at Miss Estela ‘s place 
so that they could be making all the ductions to what they calls the right 
people. We knowed us some them folks but lot of them we never seen afore. Took 
me and sis two days just to get all the cooking done for that gathering and we 
was there way after dark cleaning up and they say get yourselves on home and 
you can come back and finish up in the morning. We not gone a rock throw off 
the place and these two white boys come up to us and they was in the jug and 
acting a fool. We tries to go round them and one step in front of sis and 
start the devil talk saying what he going to do to us. He grabs at sis and she 
pulls out her sewing shears out her pocket and tells him she cut him dead fore 
he do it. He laughs at her and say don’t she know it against the law for some 
nigger to be cutting on a white man but when he grab again she put a gash in 
his arm but it not deep and not much blood and they raise up all this yelling 
and I was doing me some to and then looks back and there be Mister Lewis and 
Miss Estela’s man. They ask me what happen and I tells them and those boys say 
she is going to be killed dead for cutting a white man and Mister Lewis say to 
those boys these two works for us and be expected back in the morning to clean 
up. He say he knows their daddies and them boys start to say something and 
Mister Lewis say you wants to heal yourself up at home or in front of the law. 
Them boys take off out of there and Mister Lewis tells his hired man that we 
is to upset to be walking home by ourselves that he wants him to see us home 
safely. He is a white man that live out back of their place and do most of the 
outside work on the place and do the heavy toteing and such. He was saying yes 
sir and as polite as you please and when we gets ourselves home he say if we 
has anymore trouble out of those pudding head white boys let him know and 
Mister Lewis put them straight. He then say be sure to tell them over at 
Mister Lewis’ place how he done by us and we say surely. Lord I like never to 
get me a wink of sleep I was so out of sorts but then sis like we done seen us 
nothing at all. We gets back over to do the clean up and Miss Estela asks if 
we fine and did we gets ourselves hurt and sis say she thinks she done dulled 
her sewing sheers and we all starts to laughing. Miss Lewis says that her man 
done made certain those boys give us no more trouble. When we back home sis 
start talking bout how them boys like scared puppies in front of those two and 
we starts laughing bout it. Sis say they better be thanking sweet Jesus she 
not have her no pitchfork and I was rolling. James and Amos come in and say 
they heared we had us some trouble, Sis say no but Miss Sara needs her a edge 
put on her sewing shears. Sweet Jesus we starts again and James and Amos 
thinking we done been took by the madness. James say those boys daddies 
sending them down to Roanoke and told them to keep themselves out of these 
parts cause if they comes back they gets their whole families run out of the 
county. Amos tell sis that he should been expecting a blade after he grab at 
sis and she say she never cut him for that. Say she cut him cause he called us 
nigger trash and we aint no nigger trash. We is Persinger women and she make 
this little jab and we back on the floor. James gots him this strange look so 
me and sis explains bout it all and Miss Sara and he still act like he 
fretting himself and say they stay the night with us. Maybe it be something a 
man never able to get a hold on but I loves having them here and truth be told 
I had been fretting me bout sis and all this. Now I sees that sis be what she 
say she be but then she always been that way. I knows she cut that boy not 
cause she afeared of them two boys cause she have ripped them apart like 
taking corn off the cob with her hands if she had her a mind to. She was 
thinking she had to be protecting me and sweet Jesus I loves her for it.

My Mary still keeping her secret but we been playing like two old blind foxes 
in a hen house. Sis say I better be practicing me on how to be acting like I 
never knowed when she tell us. I hope the baby come fore we leave cause I want 
to hold it least once. Me and sis took some food over to Miss Birdy’s place. 
We had us some good pork meat and some bacon bread. She seem like she is doing 
fine but a momma knows that it ain’t easy letting go of your babies no matter 
how old they be. It is harder when they be in trouble all the time. Some 
people can never be saved. if they would listen to a body maybe they be fine 
but some like her boy and think they know it all. Aint much can be done to 
save them but pray that Jesus change their heart. Least she gots her two that 
be doing good. When we was going over to her place there was this hawk flying 
right over our heads. On the way back it was like it was following us. Sis 
think it is a sign for us. We has us a family bond with them cause 
granddaddy’s daddy carried their name. When we leave those mountains to go to 
Miss Ettas me and sis was ascared. Granddaddy told us never to be afeared 
cause we carry the blood of our people. A man can go only so far in a day but 
them spirits go anywhere they wants as fast as they wants. He say they would 
watch out for us. That hawk a sign that them spirits going with us.


      We been needing us a new fry pan but when Mister Isaiah come by we 
decided not to get us one. We did get us some thread. He had him this little 
goat with him Sis look at me and say we aint getting us no goat today. We has 
us a good laugh bout that time I buys me this little goat that I called Sassy. 
I say least she was good the way we cooked her up. We started talking bout the 
time one of Aunt Ruthy’s relations killed him Miss Fridley’s goat. He was bout 
my age and me and sis called him Hezie the cryer but we was just funning with 
him. Lord that boy was good looking and he had him a voice. I loved just 
listening to him talk. Truth be told he was always puffing up in front of us 
but that just his way. He would sing him the Jack go hunting song all the 
time. If he stop me and sis say sing it one more time if you please. I 
remember he was afeared of spiders. Sis would tease him bout putting one in 
his shirt and he go off running. That be why we was calling him Hezie the 
cryer. One day he was hunting and he shoot Miss Fridley’s goat dead. He was 
thinking he done killed him a doe deer. When he come up to her place he looked 
like he done seen him a basket full of spiders. I know he was thinking she 
smack him side his head for what he done. Been someone round these parts they 
have left the goat and never tell nobody nothing. Those boys raised better 
than that. When they done wrong they face right up to it. He tells her what he 
done to her goat and how sorry he be. Miss Fridley just smile and say you 
killed her so you clean her up. She keep the hide but I don’t know what she 
done with it. Now had it been one her cows things be different. I reckon she 
never cared much for that old goat anyhow. Maybe she was thinking it worth 
that goat just to see as big a man as he was shaking out on her porch. Miss 
Fridley was an angel but if a person riled her she put them in their place 
soon enough. All them people over there knowed that she never be having her no 
foolness on her place. When she told folks bout what he done and how he was 
looking she just roll out laughing. Sweet Jesus I misses me those people. I 
know them times was hard but we always was having ourselves a good time.
 

     Sweet Jesus the lord moves a body in ways they never be thinking bout. 
Here me and sis been thinking bout all them days we had us and me a fretting 
bout what we done forgot us after all these years. She was in her memory box 
and we was talking bout her helping mark those calves over in Ritch Patch when 
we was living there. We was funning  and them sis pull out this paper that I 
done forgot me that I ever wrote it. Sis know that I never be opening that box 
for nothing and never let a kid one fool with it. I knows those her things and 
a body gots them the right to have something just for themselves. I never be 
knowing why she keep that paper. Sis got a turn bout her and something bout it 
must a been weighing on her. It say June 1881 and it had daddy’s Indian name 
wrote on it. It was wahlowsee, which mean some kind of frog in Indian, but I 
never be sure now what kind it was. Granddaddy give it to him right after he 
was born cause grandma say he looked like this little frog when he come. Sweet 
Jesus a body forgets them so many things that they done knowed them their 
whole lives. It put me back a bit cause sis was talking all bout it. Sis most 
times don’t want us to be doing no talking bout daddy and the others. She says 
that granddaddy told her that afore Ahtseelah passed on he answered to it but 
then after she was took by them angels he say he never wanted him calling him 
that again. Only the family was calling him that anyhow. Everybody else call 
him by his Christian name but daddy say his Indian name sound African and 
folks never take to no black man doing him any African talk. Course sis was 
wanting to put it all on momma’s back cause of it. I never say nothing cause 
that is her way but daddy had him a mind to. There was these Indian letters 
aside it. Sis say Miss Bark tried to learn us some them Indian letters but we 
never able to wrap our heads round them. Some look like what we already 
learned us but had them a different sound. I recollects that now cause she say 
a word in Indian and me and sis try and say it and she fall out laughing. Lord 
Jesus we has us the best time at it. It had waysa on it to and heavens above I 
done forgot me all bout him. That was the name of Miss Bark’s yellow cat and I 
loved me that cat. He would sit pretty as you please. He let a body rub on him 
and never think bout doing him no biting. He was as big as an old coon and his 
fur just as shiny as anything. She had her a dog but I never put his name down 
and sis say she never recall it course sis never did take much to no dog. We 
was talking bout Miss Mary talking bout eating her that dog back during slave 
days and sis say that granddaddy’s brother told them he had to eat him one 
during the war. He was out and done run out of food and this old hound come 
walking along and he killed it dead and him and a couple of them soldiers eat 
it right up. Sis say she been thinking bout doing that to the kid’s dog and we 
has ourselves a good laugh. Maybe the years is not beating me as bad as I was 
thinking. I never mind me getting old if I can keep me my wits but I been 
afraid that the years maybe steal my memories from me. Lord knows I feel 
better now. It be like Miss Polly say one day when we was over at her place 
and sweet Jesus it was blue cold and somebody say Miss Polly aint you chilled 
to the bone over there so far from the stove and she just smile and answer 
them that she gots her her memories to be keeping her warm. I never knowed 
what she was saying but lord Jesus it be clear to me now.

  Me and sis had us a long talk with James. James says that we never have 
enough if we stay here the rest of our days. I say we making it and have us 
enough to eat but he says that he wants us to have more so that maybe his old 
momma not have to work til she fall over dead. Jacob will give him and Amos a 
job. They both been down there and seen the house where we will be living and 
say it is a big house with enough rooms that me and sis can have us our own 
place in it cause all he has to do is put up one wall and a door. Tom wants to 
move into my place and sweet Jesus I never was thinking that Tom not go with 
us but James says Tom might want to come down with us later.  Ben not going 
either as he wants to stay with Tom and James says he gots him no objections 
cause Ben is old enough to say what he wants. He says that if I say no he will 
stay here but me and sis done set our minds on things and I told him we was 
ready to go. He says he wants to leave next month. Me and sis was talking and 
maybe my Sara and Linda knowed the best way just up and leave cause no 
goodbyes mean no tears and sweet Jesus there be so many here that I cant say 
goodbye to without a river of tears. We has to do us some thinking on how 
should be doing all this. I don’t know me nothing bout no Alabama. Sis say she 
knowed it was a state but that bout all. Sweet Jesus I be lying if I say my 
stomach not turning itself inside out but the decision done been made.

     We been going through things trying to figure out what we taking with us. 
I aint in the miseries sweet Jesus bout it as much cause me and sis done 
talked bout it. When my Raymond passed my James had to make himself a man then 
and there cause we had us a houseful that had to be fed and looked after. I 
recollect that even when he was little he tell me and sis that one day he 
wants to see him all these places but he had to give up those cause no time 
for thinking bout those things when a body had got to work. We was living on 
Mister Miller’s place and I worked for him in the house and James had to work 
for him to. That boy had to leave fore first light and most days not get back 
fore dark. When that tobacco start coming in he was out in them fields and 
barns even on Sunday and when he gets his pay he give me every penny. He come 
back here cause me and sis wanted to and we never was asking that sweet angel 
what he wanted him cause we knowed he follow us. My babies done growed up and 
this is bout him now cause Sweet Jesus knows he done earned him the right. I 
think some days he took up with Sissy cause he knowed she go wherever we was 
wanting to go cause she never cared a bit bout those Carolinas. Sis say it 
cause she is a chair hound and all she care bout is being where she can sit 
herself all day all pretty like but that just sis way of talking. Miss Mary 
god rest her soul told me one day that she was thinking that Sissy that way 
cause she knowed me and sis the boss of things anyhow so it like she was 
waiting for us to tell her what to do and sweet Jesus knows Ben that way at 
times to. Course I always say I be wanting to do me some traveling fore I pass 
over but going to visit and going to stay be different but least ways I be 
with my clan. Sis don’t know why we even talking bout all this cause not that 
many years ago we was in the Carolinas and seem like since we was little we 
been in no place for more than it take a rooster to crow twice and then we 
gone. The longest time was over in Alleghany County and Botetourt County but 
that was cause we was little. Since I was round fourteen me and sis been 
packing up to go someplace or the other looking for work. Even fore Raymond 
passed we never in any place long. Sis say we come to this place in 1903. I 
think it was in 1902 but sis better at dates than me. I know we was over at 
Miss Carol’s place bout 6 months while we was waiting on James to get up this 
way. Afore that we was in the Carolinas and sweet Jesus we was all over them 
mountains. Sis say we was like them cows we tended when we was little over in 
Ritch Patch cause we be out in them mountains for a spell and then come back 
home to these mountains here and be gone fore we even had us time to settle. I 
was thinking that maybe this time we be somewhere longer than Moses in the 
desert but if I was younger that maybe not even be in my head. I been 
reckoning that we just like Moses now cause he was moving all over the place 
for all those years and him and his made out fine.



Additional Comments:
 About 188 entries out of 229 were recorded here. The rest were either faded 
or damaged in such a way as to be all but unreadable. When only part of an 
entry was damaged, the readable areas were included here. Certain sections 
were still intact within the journal and thus we know that they are in the 
correct sequence. Loose pages were put in the best order possible. 

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