"Yas’m, I’ll be pleased to tell you ’bout whut I remembers aroun’ de time of de War." Aunt Hannah sat stolidly in a chair that virtually groaned under her weight; and gave utterance to this sentiment through a large thick mouth, while her gold ear rings shook with every turn of her head, and her dim eyes glowed with memory’s fires. "Dere ain’t much I can tell you, dough," she went on, "kaze I was only twelve years old when de war ended.
"I was bawn on Marse Bennett’s plantation near Louisville, Alabama. Ma Mammy’s name was Hester an’ my pappy was named Sam.
"I remembers one night raght atter de war when de re’struction was a-goin’ on. Dere was some niggers not far fum our place dat said dey was agoin’ to take some lan’ dat warn’t deres. Dere massa had been kilt in de war an’ warn’t nobody ’ceptin’ de mistis an’ some chilluns. Well, Honey, dem niggers, mo’ dan one hundred of ’em, commenced a riot an’ was a-takin’ things dat don’t belong to ’em. Dat night de white lady she come ober to our place wid a wild look on her face. She tell Massa Bennett, whut dem niggers is up to, an’ widout sayin’ a word, Massa Bennett putt his hat on an lef’ out de do’. Twarn’t long atter dat when some hosses was heered down de road, an’ I look out my cabin window which was raght by de road, an’ I saw acomin’ up through de trees a whole pack of ghosties; I thought dey was, anyways. Dey was all dressed in white, an’ dere hosses was white an’ dey galloped faster dan de win’ raght past my cabin. Den I heered a nigger say: ’De Ku Klux is atter somebody.’
"Dem Ku Klux went ober to dat lady’s plantation an’ told dem niggers dat iffen dey ever heered of ’em startin’ anything mo’ dat dey was a-goin’ to tie ’em all to trees in de fores’ till dey all died f’um being hongry. Atter dat dese niggers all ’roun’ Louisville, dey kept mighty quiet.
"No m’am, I don’t believe in no conjurin’. Dese conjure women say dat dey will make my hip well iffen I gives ’em half my rations I gits fum de gover’ment, but I knows dey ain’t nothin’ but low-down, no-count niggers."
"Speaking of the Ku Klux, Aunt Hannah. Were you afraid of them?"
"Naw’m, I warn’t afeered of no Ku Klux. At fu’st I though dat dey was ghosties and den I was afeered of ’em, but atter I found out dat Massa Bennett was one of dem things, I was always proud of ’em."