“I hear’d tell ‘bout some Nigger sojers a-plunderin’ some houses:  Out at Pine Ridge dey kilt a white man named Rogillio.  But de head Yankee sojers in Natchez tried ’em for somethin’ or nother an’ hung ’em on a tree out near de Charity Horspital.  Dey strung up de ones dat went to Mr. Sargent’s door one night an’ shot him down, too.  All dat hangin’ seemed to squelch a heap o’ lousy goin’s-on.

“Lawd!  Lawd!  I knows ’bout de Kloo Kluxes.  I knows a-plenty.  Dey was sho’ ‘nough devils a-walkin’ de earth a-seekin’ what dey could devour.  Dey larruped de hide of’n de uppity Niggers an’ driv[FN:  drove] de white trash back where dey b’longed.

“Us Niggers didn’ have no secret meetin’s.  All us had was church meetin’s in arbors out in de woods.  De preachers ’ud exhort us dat us was de chillun o’ Israel in de wilderness an’ de Lawd done sont us to take dis lan’ o’ milk an’ honey.  But how us gwine a-take lan’ what’s already been took?

“I sho’ aint never hear’d’ bout no plantations bein’ ’vided up, neither.  I hear’d a lot o’ yaller Niggers spoutin’ off how dey was gwine a-take over de white folks’ lan’ for back wages.  Dem bucks jus’ took all dey wages out in talk.  ‘Cause I aint never seen no lan’ ’vided up yet.

“In dem days nobody but Niggers an’ shawl-strop[FN:  carpet baggers] folks voted.  Quality folks didn’ have nothin’ to do wid such truck.  If dey had a-wanted to de Yankees wouldn’ a-let ’em.  My old marster didn’ vote an’ if anybody knowed what was what he did.  Sense didn’ count in dem days.  It was pow’ful ticklish times an’ I let votin’ alone.

“De shawl-strop folks what come in to take over de country tol’ us dat us had a right to go to all de balls, church meetin’s, an’ ’tainments de white folks give.  But one night a bunch o’ uppity Niggers went to a ‘tainment in Memorial Hall.  Dey dressed deysef’s fit to kill an’ walked down de aisle an’ took seats in de very front.  But jus’ ’bout time dey got good set down, de curtain drapped[FN:  dropped] an’ de white folks riz[FN:  arose] up widout a-sayin’ airy word.  Dey marched out de buildin’ wid dey chins up an’ lef’ dem Niggers a-settin’ in a empty hall.

“Dat’s de way it happen ever’ time a Nigger tried to git too uppity.  Dat night after de breakin’ up o’ dat’ tainment, de Kloo Kluxes rid[FN:  rode] th’ough de lan’.  I hear’d dey grabbed ever’ Nigger what walked down dat aisle, but I aint hear’d yet what dey done wid ’em.

“Dat same thing happened ever’ time a Nigger tried to act lak he was white.

“A heap o’ Niggers voted for a little while.  Dey was a black man what had office.  He was named Lynch.  He cut a big figger up in Washington.  Us had a sheriff named Winston.  He was a ginger cake Nigger an’ pow’ful mean when he got riled.  Sheriff Winston was a slave an’, if my mem’ry aint failed me, so was Lynch.

“My granny tol’ me ‘bout a slave uprisin’ what took place when I was a little boy.  None o’ de marster’s Niggers’ ud have nothin’ to do wid it.  A Nigger tried to git ’em to kill dey white folks an’ take dey lan’.  But what us want to kill old Marster an’ take de lan’ when dey was de bes’ frien’s us had?  Dey caught de Nigger an’ hung ’im to a limb.