"I 'membahs de time when mah mammy wah alive, I wah a small chile, afoah dey tuck huh t' Rims Crick. All us chillens wah playin' in de ya'd one night. Jes' arunnin' an' aplayin' lak chillun will. All a sudden mammy cum to de do' all a'sited. "Cum in heah dis minnit," she say. "Jes look up at what is ahappenin'," and bless yo' life, honey, da sta's wah fallin' jes' lak rain. Mammy wah tebble skeered, but we chillen wa'nt afeard, no, we wa'nt afeard. But mammy she say evah time a sta' fall, somebuddy gonna die. Look lak lotta folks gonna die f'om de looks ob dem sta's. Ebbathin' wah jes' as bright as day. Yo' cudda pick a pin up. Yo' know de sta's don' shine as bright as dey did back den. I wondah wy dey don'. Dey jes' don' shine as bright. Wa'nt long afoah dey took mah mammy away, and I wah lef' alone."
As evidenced by the spelling, the accent of this slave, Sarah Gudger, was strong. The account is written phonetically, rather than by standard spelling.
In this narrative, Gudger recounts a story from her childhood, a memory of her mother and a meteor shower. She mentions that her mother was taken away shortly after, a common happening at the time, when families would be ripped apart when family members were sold to other white families.
There is an indication of a lack of education for both Gudger and her mother, as they both believe the meteor shower to be falling stars. Gudger's mother says that every time a star falls, somebody will die, and Gudger comments that a lot of people will die since so many stars were falling. This indicates that they had spiritual beliefs, since they believed in a link between falling stars and death.
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