SUBJECT: CHARLOTTE RAINES--OGLETHORPE CO.
DISTRICT: W.P.A. NO. 1
RESEARCH WORKER: JOHN N. BOOTH
DATE: JANUARY 18, 1937
[Date Stamp: JAN 26 1937]
[Date Stamp: MAY 8 1937]


Aunt Charlotte Raines, well up in the seventies at the time of her death
some years ago, was an excellent example of the type of negro developed
by the economic system of the old South.

When I could first remember, Charlotte was supreme ruler of the kitchen
of my home. Thin to emaciation and stooped almost to the point of having
a hump on her back she was yet wiry and active. Her gnarled old hands
could turn out prodigous amounts of work when she chose to extend
herself.

Her voice was low and musical and she seldom raised it above the
ordinary tone of conversation; yet when she spoke other colored people
hastened to obey her and even the whites took careful note of what she
said. Her head was always bound in a snow-white turban. She wore calico
or gingham print dresses and white aprons and these garments always
appeared to be freshly laundered.

Charlotte seldom spoke unless spoken to and she would never tell very
much about her early life. She had been trained as personal maid to one
of her ex-master's daughters. This family, (that of Swepson H. Cox) was
one of the most cultured and refined that Lexington, in Oglethorpe