"Long 'fore day, dat overseer blowed a bugle to wake up de Niggers. You
could hear it far as High Shoals, and us lived dis side of Watkinsville.
Heaps of folkses all over dat part of de country got up by dat old
bugle. I will never forgit one time when de overseer said to us chillun,
'You fellows go to do field and fetch some corn tops.' Mandy said: 'He
ain't talkin' to us 'cause us ain't fellows and I ain't gwine.' Bless
your sweet life, I runned and got dem corn tops, 'cause I didn't want no
beatin'. Dem udder 'chillun got deir footses most cut off wid dem
switches whan dat overseer got to wuk to sho 'em dey had to obey him.
Dat overseer sho did wuk de Niggers hard; he driv' 'em all de time. Dey
had to go to de field long 'fore sunup, and it was way atter sundown
'fore dey could stop dat field wuk. Den dey had to hustle to finish deir
night wuk in time for supper, or go to bed widout it.

[HW sidenote: Beating]

"You know dey whupped Niggers den. Atter dey had done wukked hard in de
fields all day long, de beatin' started up, and he allus had somepin in
mind to beat 'em about. When dey beat my Aunt Sallie she would fight
back, and once when Uncle Randall said somepin he hadn't oughta, dat
overseer beat him so bad he couldn't wuk for a week. He had to be grez
all over evvy day wid hoalin' ointment for a long time 'fore dem gashes
got well.

"Rita and Retta was de Nigger 'omans what put pizen in some collards
what dey give Aunt Vira and her baby to eat. She had been laughin' at a
man 'cause his coattail was a-flappin' so funny whilst he was dancin',
and dem two Jezebels thought she was makin' fun of dem. At de graveyard,
'fore dey buried her, dey cut her open and found her heart was all