’Here’s my little gun
  His name is number one
  Four and five rebels
  We’ll slay ’em as they come
  Join the ban’
  The rebels understan’
  Give up all the lan’
  To my brother Abraham
  Old Gen’l Lee
  Who is he? 
  He’s not such a man
  As our Gen’l Grant
  Snap Poo, Snap Peter
  Real rebel eater
  I left my ply stock
  Standin’ in the mould
  I left my family
  And silver and gold
  Snap Poo, Snap Peter
  Real rebel eater
  Snap Poo, Snap Peter.’

“And General Sherman gave the comman’, ‘Silence’, and ‘Silence’ roared one man, and it rolled all down the line, ’Silence, silence, silence, silence.’  And they all got silent.

How Freedom Came

“They had a notification for a big speaking and that was in Perry, Georgia.  Everybody that was able throughout the State went to that convention where that speaking was.  And that is where peace was declared.  Every man was his own free agent.  ’No more master, no more mistress.  You are your own free moral agent.  Think and act for yourself.’  That is how it was declared.  I didn’t go to the meeting.  I was right there in the town.  There was too many people there.  You couldn’t stir them with hot fire.  But my mother and father went.

What the Slaves Expected

“They didn’t expect anything but freedom.  Some of them didn’t have sense enough to secure a home for themselves.  They didn’t have no sense.  Some of them wasn’t eligible to speak for themselves.  They wanted somebody to speak for them.

What They Got

“I don’t know that they got anything.

Immediately After the War

“Right after the War, I stayed with the people that owned me and worked.  They give me two dollars a month and my food and clothes.  I stayed with them five years and then I quit.  I had sense enough to quit and I went to work for wages.  I got five dollars a month.  And I thought that was a big salary.  I didn’t know no better.  I learnt better by experience.

Negroes in Politics

“Just after the War, the Republicans used to have representatives at the state convention.  After the Democrats got in power, they knocked all that in the head.  Colored people used to be on juries.  But they won’t let them serve now. (Negroes served on local grand jury last year.)

“I knew one nigger politician in Georgia named I.B.  Simons.  He was a school-teacher.  He never held any office.  I knowed a nigger politician here by the name of John Bush.  He had the United States Land Office.  When the Democrats got in power they put him out.  I knowed another fellow used to be here named Crockett Brown.  He lived in Lee County, Arkansas.  He was a Congressman.  I don’t know whether he ever got to the White House or not.  I ain’t never seen no account of it.  I can’t tell you all any more now.