I was born in Kentucky on a farm somewhere around 1850, I don’t know for sure. I was told it was in the summer. Where I lived, we did not take to keeping time with the year and date. It is 1866, so I guess I am 16 or thereabouts. My given name was William Thomas Astin, but I answer to will or bill and sometimes to tom. No one calls me Mr. Astin. Most of the time it is hey you, or boy. But I have never been called late for super.

We had not heard from dad after the war started, he was at Chickamauga. We guessed he died there. We never heard from him ever again. My brother Jim was killed at Shiloh. Ma died a couple of days ago, she had been sick for a long time. We had no doctor I believe she died of consumption. That was the thing most of the people died from around here.

I was on my own now, and most of the boys my age were talking about going to Texas. It sounded like a good idea at the time. I took an old sack and put my Sunday go to meeting clothes in and the family bible in it. I don’t know why I could not read or write. And some bread I had made, it was a little hard and a side of bacon, and some black peas and beans. Mom’s old skillet I was all set. I took down paws old fiddle to make some noise so I would not feel alone. I was singing the gospel song I knew.

I buried ma next to the flower bed she loved. Then I put the bridle on old stumble foot our mule. I was headed to Texas. I had no plans or any idea of what I would do when I got there.

There were some of the lasts of the Cherokees headed west on the trail of tears, I followed behind. After a weeks or so. I came to the Mississippi River. It was too far to swim, and I don’t swim. I hung around the town of Hickman, Kentucky. Till a riverboat came in, I ask how much a ride to New Orleans was. He said it was two dollars. I only had five cents I had it for the longest time was never was any place to spend it.

The man was the boat foreman, and I told him I did not have that much money and started to walk away. He called me back and ask can I work hard. I said, “Yes, I can.” He said if I can load cotton bails, he would pay me five dollars when we got to New Orleans. And I could bring my mule. I to sign on as a deckhand will I made a mark anyway.

It seems like we stopped at every bend in the river to load cotton bails. I was backbreaking work, but I manned up to it. They feed me well. I love the blackberry jam and flapjacks for breakfast. I all ways eat my fill. At noon we had ham and beans with cornbread.

Fried chicken for supper and a cold glass of milk. There was some cow on the boat we milked and cool the milk in jars in the river. At night I would set on a cotton bail and play my fiddle a colored man taught me some fun fiddle tunes. It was not long before people were dancing while I fiddled. Someone came up with a banjo and a squeezebox. We were having a grand old time. The sound rallied down the river and echo off the banks.

Soldiers put a dollar or two in my tin cup. I was surprised to get that. It was a fun time for me.

Chapter 2 the slaves at Memphis

At Memphis, a man had boarded with five slave chained by the neck to neck and foot to foot. He was a slave hunter with runaways he caught. A Union Captain told him the war was over and he had to let them go, they were free men and could go wherever they wanted. It looked like a fight was going to happen, but the soldiers back up the Captian, and it all was over. I had never seen men treated that way. We never own any slave. I knew a few, back home from down the road at the plantation, which was next to us. We were just sharecroppers.

I was getting an education on the riverboat. Of how bad some men are. At Greenville, we dock for the night. And took on more firewood for the boilers.

I was beginning to think we would never get to New Orleans. I have been on the river now for two weeks. It is has been a slow way to go. Our next big stop was Vicksburg. The soldiers left there. The slave hunter was made to part with them. A couple of the ex-slaves signed on as deckhands. It made my work lighter. I was glad that they did.

We took on more firewood and more cotton. I did not think we could hold any more. The night came, and we play our music. The ex-slave the one with the banjo taught me to play it, and some more songs. My singing was not too bad, most like it. So far it had made six dollars playing music from the passengers.

I did some fishing in my off duty time and caught five big Louisiana blue catfish. We had a great fish fry that night for supper. I had hushpuppy for the first time, they were good. They had bacon bit with red and green peppers and onions in them.

The deck foreman called me over and gave me a shot of moonshine. I think I got religion right then and there. That stuff was pure evil. No more for me, thank you just the same.

We docked at Natchez for more firewood and got some more cotton. We pick up more passengers filling the cabin. We manage to get it all on board. I don’t know how. We must have had 200 bales on the boat. It was getting hard to get around on the boat. I got a turn at lookout up in the wheelhouse. That was a lot of fun, I could see a long ways off. The captain sent me up to the crow's nest, it was scary at first, but I got used to it. I was to look out for logs and sand bars. I saw what I believe to be sea monsters and told the captain.

He just laughed and said, “Those are alligators, hoping for some scraps from the cook.” I did not know it till the foreman told me the boat was the Natchez king.

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