no amusement. They would have an old
fiddle--something like that. That was all the music I ever seen.
Sometimes they would ring up and play 'round in the yard. I don't
remember the games. Sing some kind of old reel song. I don't hardly
remember the words of any of them songs.

"Wouldn't allow none of them to have no books nor read nor nothin'.
Nothin' like that. They had corn huskin's in Mississippi and Georgia,
but not in Arkansas. Didn't have no quiltin's. Women might quilt some at
night. Didn't have nothin' to make no quilts out of.

"The very first work I did was to nurse babies. After that when I got a
little bigger they carried me to the field--choppin' cotton. Then I went
to picking cotton. Next thing--pullin' fodder. Then they took me from
that and put me to plowin', clearin' land, splittin' rails. I believe
that is about all I did. You worked from the time you could see till the
time you couldn't see. You worked from before sunrise till after dark.
When that horn blows, you better git out of that house, 'cause the
overseer is comin' down the line, and he ain't comin' with nothin' in
his hand.

"They weighed the rations out to the slaves. They would give you so many
pounds of meat to each working person in the family. The children didn't
count; they didn't git none. That would have to last till next Sunday.
They would give them three pounds of meat to each workin' person, I
think. They would give 'em a little meal too. That is all they'd give
'em. The slaves had to cook for theirselves after they come home from
the field. They didn't get no flour nor no sugar nor no coffee, nothin'
like that.

"They would give the babies a little milk and corn bread or a little
molasses and bread when they didn't have the milk. Some old person who
didn't have to go to the field would give them somethin' to eat so that
they would be out of the way when the folks come out of the field.

"The slaves lived in old log houses--one room, one door, _one window_,
one everything. There were _plenty windows_ though. There were windows
all [HW: ?] around the house. They had cracks that let in more air than
the windows would. They had plank floors. Didn't have no furniture. The
bed would have two legs and would have a hole bored in the side of the
house where the side rail would run through and the two legs would be
out from the wall. Didn't have no springs and they made out with
anything they could git for a mattress. Master wouldn't f