"Potlicker and cornbread was fed to us chillun, out of big old wooden
bowls. Two or three chillun et out of de same bowl. Grown folks had
meat, greens, syrup, cornbread, 'taters and de lak. 'Possums! I should
say so. Dey cotch plenty of 'em and atter dey was kilt ma would scald
'em and rub 'em in hot ashes and dat clean't 'em jus' as pretty and
white. OO-o-o but dey was good. Lord, Yessum! Dey used to go fishin' and
rabbit huntin' too. Us jus' fotched in game galore den, for it was de
style dem days. Dere warn't no market meat in slavery days. Seemed lak
to me in dem days dat ash-roasted 'taters and groundpeas was de best
somepin t'eat what anybody could want. 'Course dey had a gyarden, and it
had somepin of jus' about evvything what us knowed anything 'bout in de
way of gyarden sass growin' in it. All de cookin' was done in dem big
old open fireplaces what was fixed up special for de pots and ovens.
Ashcake was most as good as 'taters cooked in de ashes, but not quite.

"Summertime, us jus' wore homespun dresses made lak de slips dey use for
underwear now. De coats what us wore over our wool dresses in winter was
knowed as 'sacques' den, 'cause dey was so loose fittin'. Dey was heavy
and had wool in 'em too. Marse Lewis, he had a plenty of sheep, 'cause
dey was bound to have lots of warm winter clothes, and den too, dey
lakked mutton to eat. Oh! dem old brogan shoes was coarse and rough.
When Marse Lewis had a cow kilt dey put de hide in de tannin' vat. When
de hides was ready, Uncle Ben made up de shoes, and sometimes dey let
Uncle Jasper holp him if dere was many to be made all at one time. Us
wore de same sort of clothes on Sunday as evvyday, only dey had to be
clean and fresh when dey was put on Sunday mornin'.

"Marse Lewis Little and his wife, Miss Sallie, owned us, and Old Miss,
she died long 'fore de surrender. Marse Lewis, he was right good to all