inning and the weaving the master's wife cut the clothes out while the
slave women did the sewing. One of the men was a cobbler and it was he
who made all of the shoes for slave use. In the summer months the field
hands worked in their bare feet regardless of whether they had shoes or
not. Mr. Womble says that he was fifteen years of age when he was given
his first pair of shoes. They were a pair of red boots and were so stiff
that he needed help to get them on his feet as well as to get them off.
Once when the master had suffered some few financial losses the slaves
had to wear clothes that were made of crocus material. The children wore
sacks after holes had been cut out for their heads and arms. This
garment looked like a slightly lengthened shirt in appearance. A dye
made from red clay was used to give color to these clothes.

The bed clothing consisted of bagging sacks and quilts that were made
out of old clothes.

At the end of the week all the field hands met in the master's backyard
where they were given a certain amount of food which was supposedly
enough to last for a week. Such an issue was made up of three pounds of
fat meat, one peck of meal, and one quart of black molasses. Mr. Womble
was asked what the slaves did if their allowance of food ran out before
the end of the week, and he replied in the following manner: "If their
food gave out before the time for another issue they waited until night
and then one or two of them would go to the mill-house where the flour
and the meal was kept. After they had succeeded in getting in they would
take an auger and bore a hole in the barrel containing the meal. One
held the sack while the other took a stick and worked it around in the
opening made by the auger so as to make the meal flow freely. After
their bags were filled the hole was stopped up, and a hasty departure
was made. Sometimes when they wanted meat they either went to the smoke
house and stole a ham or else they would go to the pen where the pigs
were kept and take a small pig out. When they got to the woods with this
animal they proceeded to skin and clean it (it had already been killed
with a blow in the head before they left the pen). All the parts that
they did not want were either buried or thrown in the nearby river.
After going home all of this meat was cooked and hidden. As there was
danger in being caught none of this stolen meat was ever fried because
there was more danger of the odor of frying