Racial Group.
                                                   CHARLES GREEN.
                          -2- 





     "When ole John Morgan came through a raidin', he tuk meat

en hosses fum ouah place, en jes' lef de smokehouse empty."

     "Father en my half-brother George Spencer Green jined up

with the 112th Kaintucky boys, en wuz with Gin'ral Sherman

marchin' ter de sea.  Father he died, but Spence comes home arter

de war en settled en er lower paht er Mason County.  Us, me en

the girls, Martha en Nannie went ter live with George Spencer kaze

he wuz my half-brother. I worked roun' on farms, en finely in 1881,

I came ter Springfield.

     "I built me er shanty on East Main St. jes' below de stan'pipe.

All youn' wuz woods.  East Street Shops wua just startin' ter be

built en I carried de hod fer it en de Arcade, en Metallic Casket,

en er Y.M.C.A.; en I mixed all er mortar fer de Fairbanks Building.

      'I go t married.  My wife en five er my chilluns are  daid.  I 

got five chillun livin'."

      "Way back in de days when I was a chile, folks tole us chilluns

dat ef us wuz bad de witches gwin'ter make de goun' hot whe'evah us

walked, en our feet would burn sho'.  Dey say de ole devil gwine'ter

stick er pitchfork en us ef us wuz bad, en snakes ud crawl en our 

hair, en lots o' things dat nobody  nebber teaches  chillun now. But

fact is; folks is got lots more reasonin' now den   when  I  come'long."

      "Us thought de Yankee soldiers  wuz comin' ter carry us off,  en

dey tole us ter hide if us seen em.  I member one night; twuz mos'

dark; I seed some Yankee soldiers, en I wuz skeered ter death.  Dey

yelled at me, en I tuk ter my heels;  den dey shot en de  air en I run




			

Works Progress Administration (WPA) Ex-Slave Narratives

Charles Green, Ex-Slave Narrative