Slave Houses

"The slaves lived in log houses, dirt chimneys, plank floors. They had
beds made out of wood--that's all I know. I don't know where they kept
their food. They kept it in the house when they had any. The slaves
didn't have to cook much. Mars Ben had a slave to cook for them. They
all et breakfast together, and lunch in the fiel'.


Food and Cooking

"There was a great big shed. They'd all go up there and eat--the slaves
would all go up and eat. I don't know what the grown folks had. They
used to give us children milk and corn bread for breakfast. They'd give
us greens, peas, and all like that for dinner. Didn't know nothin' about
no lunch.


Work and Runaways; Day's Work

"My mother and father worked in the field hoeing, plowing and all like
that--doing whatever they told 'em to do. They raised corn and ground
meal. Some of the slaves would pick five hundred pounds of cotton in a
day; some of them would pick three hundred pounds; and some of them only
picked a hundred. IF YOU DIDN'T PICK TWO HUNDRED FIFTY POUNDS, THEY'D
PUNISH YOU, put you in the stocks. If you'd run off, they put the nigger
hounds behind you. I never run off, but my mother run off.

"She would go in the woods. I don't know where she'd go after she'd get