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Primary source: Orleans Finger, "Cured by Prayer," slave narrative, c. 1936.
Caption: Members of the New Deal’s Federal Writers’ Project interviewed former slaves during 1936–38. The misspellings respect the speech and regional dialect of the ex-slaves. Orleans Finger, born in Little Rock, Arkansas, c. 1858, described his faith in God.
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I'm puny and no 'count. Ain't able to do much. But I was crippled. I had a hurting in my leg, and I couldn't walk without a stick. Finally, one day I went to go out and pick some turnips. I was visiting my son in Palestine. My leg hurt so bad that I talked to the Lord about it. And it seemed to me, He said, "Put down your stick." I put it down, and I ain't used it since. I put it down right there, and I ain't used it since. God is a momentary God. God knowed what I wanted and He said, "Put down that stick," and I ain't been crippled since. It done me so much good. Looks like to me when I get to talking about the Lord, ain't nobody a stranger to me.
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Orleans Finger, "Cured by Prayer," Lay My Burden Down: A Folk History of Slavery (1945; reprint, ed. B. A. Botkin, Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1989), 34.
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