"I don’t know where my parents was born, Old Virginia, I guess, but I was born in seven miles of Dyersburg, Tennessee. My father was Nat Parker and his master was ’Little Dan’ Parker. He was kept on de Parker place but mammy got to see him every Sunday morning. Dey lived about five miles from us. Dey didn’t get to talk in de evening ’cause de white folks preached for us then. We was called together in de brush arbor by a big bell dey rung. De arbor was as big as a square block here in town, but dey was so many of us dat we filled it up pretty quick. De meeting was about like it is now ’cept we didn’t know half de time what dey was talking about, we couldn’t read and learn; had to listen to learn.
"I well remember after meeting mammy would stop and talk with women and she said, ’Minksy, dis is your aunt, my sister. You can walk along home with her’. I was little and I would catch hold her dress tail to keep up. She would meet other women and dey would start talking about de meetin’. First thing I would know dey would be jumpin’ up and dancin’ around and pattin’ their hands until all de grass was wore off slick.
"I didn’t have no chance to go to school, but I was a little tad and did not have to work very hard either. I wasn’t big enough to hitch up de team of oxen but some big person would and then I sure could drive them, drove all day, and I can remember hauling tobacco to de barns all day. We had several barns tall as dat tree, yonder (tree about 75 feet high.) About all we raised was tobacco. Dat sure ’nough was tobacco country, a little corn for de stock and we raised what we eat.
"De only fighting I remember of during the war was on de farm of Dan Parker. De soldiers met right in de middle of his corn and tobacco field and when dey got through de tobacco was tramped in de ground and you couldn’t find a double handful of de corn.
"I have always said I was like a shingle, not like a barrel of snakes. You never saw a crooked shingle and you will never see a straight snake. I have always practiced one thing and dat is telling de truth about all things. Dat is why I can say I don’t know much about de slavery times, I wasn’t old enough. I was just a slave and dat is all. I said when I was a small boy, ’Lord, just give me de power to read de Bible, old blue back speller and the hymn book’. He done dis and I know de Bible by heart. I could preach for six years, and never tell all I know. I can’t write a word or read anything but dese books. For a while I did preach. I traveled by mission. Didn’t own a church of my own and didn’t belong to any special one. I guess I must have preached about five years.