the dye obtained from maple bark; when shoes were made on a wooden last
and soles and uppers fastened together with maple pegs; when the white
preachers preached "obey your masters"; that the first buggy that he saw
was owned by his master, A.J. Lane; it had a seat at the rear with rest
which was usually occupied by a man who was called the "waiter"; there
was no top to the seat and the "waiter" was exposed to the weather. He
recalls when wooden slats and tightened ropes were used for bed springs;
also the patience of "Aunt Letha" an old woman slave who took care of
the children in the neighborhood while their parents worked, and how
they enjoyed watching "Uncle Umphrey" tan cow and pig hides.

"Parson" describes himself as being very frisky as a boy and states that
he did but very little work and got but very few whippings. Twice he ran
away to escape being whipped and hid in asparagus beds in Sparta,
Georgia until nightfall; when he returned the master would not whip him
because he was apprehensive that he might run away again and be stolen
by poorer whites and thus cause trouble. The richer whites, he relates,
were afraid of the poorer whites; if the latter were made angry they
would round up the owners' sheep and turn them loose into their cotton
fields and the sheep would eat the cotton, row by row.

He compares the relationship between the rich and poor whites during
slavery with that of the white and Negro people of today.

With a face full of frowns, "Parson" tells of a white man persuading his
mother to let him tie her to show that he was master, promising not to
whip her, and she believed him. When he had placed her in a buck (hands
tied on a stick so that the stick would turn her in any direction) he
whipped her until the blood ran down her back.