White children played
together then cause it was a long ways between white folks house, and
colored children raised up wid em. I don't see none that now.
"One thing I done a long time was stay at the toll gate. They had a heap
of em when I was a boy. The fences was rock or rail and big old wooden
gates round and on it marked, "Toll Gate." I'd open and shut the gate.
Walkers go free. Horseback riders--fifteen cents. Buggies--twenty-five
cents. Wagons--fifty cents. The state broke that up and made new roads.
Some they changed a little and used. After that I stand 'bout on roads
through fields--short ways folks went but where the farmers had to keep
closed up on count of the crops. I open and shut the gate. They'd throw
me a nickel. That was first money I made--stayin' at toll gates about
Columbia, Tennessee.
"Ku Klux come to our house and took my papa off wid em. Mama was cryin',
she told us children they was goiner hurt him. I recollect all bout it.
They thought my papa knowed about some man bein' killed. My papa died
wid knots on his neck where they hung him up wid ropes. It hurt him all
his life after that. It made him sick what all they done to him tryin'
to make him tell who killed somebody. He was laid up a long time. I
recollect that. When they found out papa didn't know nothin' bout it,
they said they was sorry they done him so mean.
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