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Slave Narratives: A Folk History of Slavery in the United States - From Interviews with Former Slaves - Arkansas Narratives, Part 2 by Work Projects Administration
page 154 of 341 (45%)
nuss fuh de Newtons aftuh we wuz set free. De Newtons wuz awful good ter
me and dey wuz good tuh mah ma too. Ah slept up in de big house wid de
Newtons. Ah nevah went ter school. Ah didn' have a chance. Ah went ter
church jes sometimes. We didn have churches. We jes had meetin in our
house we lived in. We cooked on fire places. We cooked our bread in what
we called oven bout so high. We had chickens and eggs, peas, tatoes,
meat and bread but ah didn know there was no sich thing as cake an pie
till ah got to be an oman. Ah can't recollect jes how ole ah wuz in
slave time but ah shore can recollect dem Yankees riding dem hosses and
ah ask may ma what dey was doin and she said gatherin up cotton dey made
in slave time an ah kin recollect an oman a gin. Yo know we had steps
made of blocks saved from trees and she wuz a goin ovah em steps er
shoutin and singin "Ah am free, at last, ah am free at last, ah'm free
at last, thank Gawd a Mighty ah'm free at last." She wuz so glad ter be
free.

My ma in huh time would make cloth. She had a loom. Hit wuz a high thing
and th thread would go ovah th top and come down jes so in what we call
shickle. She'd have a bench so high. The loom was high as dis door and
my ma would set on the bench and her foots wuz on somethin like a
bicycle and when she put her foots on de pedal dat shickle would come
open and make a blum blum an that would make a yard of cloth, an she'd
mash the pedal agin and another yard of cloth. Jes so we'd make eight
and ten yards of cloth in one day. An when hit wuz made we would carry
hit to de white fokes. Dey would make us clo'es outn dat cloth. Ifn dey
wanted colored cloth dey would dye de thread. Dey had what we called a
loom dat would make, le' me see now, Card would card the cotton, and de
looms would make de thread and de shickle would make de cloth, as well
as ah can recollect we would make little roll uv cotton on de cards an
put it on de loom and make thread. De looms was jes so long. Ever time
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