Muir - editing                           District #2.
Henry                                    Montgomery County
                                         Stories from Ex-Slaves.


             Interview with John I. Young.

      An Independence Day baby was John I. Young,  82, former
slave of 146 Harvard Ave., Crown Point, and he has betaken of
some of the character and noise of the day.  He is a patriot
in his love for his country and his race, as well as a erusa-
der and an orator.  Although he has a retentive memory and is
not adverse to recalling his slavery days, he refuses to be
held down long to the main points of his subject.  Given the
least excuse, and he will pop off like a bunch of fire crackers
 about anything that pleases or annoys him.  His common speech
bristles with pyrotechnical effects.  His gray moustache also
bristles fiercely when he is "orating".  But he also has a
 sense of humor. Wild laughter usually follows one of his out-
 bursts.
       "Guess you think I'm a pretty mean old cuss", he remarked
 at the close of the interview.  "But, pshaw, I just get ex-
 cited when I members de wrongs of my people and have to blow
 off steam.  I just love to speak.  I allus talked and speech-
 ified.  I got int'rested in politics when I was 18 years old,

 and was makin' stump speeches and tryin' to carry Newberry and
 Lawrence counties in South Carolina for the Republicans before
 I was old enough to vote. I got mighty unpopular with de 
 Democrats who lived near me, so de postmaster, Old Man Cobb,




			

Works Progress Administration (WPA) Ex-Slave Narratives

John I. Young, Ex-Slave Narrative