of their hands. Mr. Womble says that all the
while that he was working in the master's house they still found the
time for him to learn to be a blacksmith.

When a male slave reached the age of twenty-one he was allowed to court.
The same was true of a girl that had reached the age of eighteen. If a
couple wished to marry they had to get permission from the master who
asked each in turn if they wished to be joined as man and wife and if
both answered that they did they were taken into the master's house
where the ceremony was performed. Mr. Womble says that he has actually
seen one of these weddings and that it was conducted in the following
manner: "A broom was placed in the center of the floor and the couple
was told to hold hands. After joining hands they were commanded to jump
over the broom and then to turn around and jump back.

"After this they were pronounced man and wife." A man who was small in
stature was never allowed to marry a large, robust woman. Sometimes when
the male slaves on one plantation were large and healthy looking and the
women slaves on some nearby plantation looked like they might be good
breeders the two owners agreed to allow the men belonging to the one
visit the women belonging to the other, in fact they encouraged this
sort of thing in hopes that they would marry and produce big healthy
children. In such cases passes were given freely.

All of the newly born babies were named by the master. "The only
baptisms that any of us get was with a stick over the head and then we
baptised our cheeks with our tears," stated Mr. Wombly.

Continuing, Mr. Wombly stated that the slaves on the Womble plantation
were treated more like animals rather than like humans. On one or two
occasions some of them were sold. At such a time those to be sold were
put in a large pen and then they were examined by the doctors and
prospective buyers and later sold to the highest bidder the same as a
horse or a mule. They were sold for various reasons says Mr. Womble. His
mother was sold because she was too hard to rule and because she made it
difficult to discipline the other slaves.

Mr. Womble further reported that most of his fellow slaves believed in
signs. They believed that if a screech owl or a "hoot" owl came near a
house and made noises at night somebody was going to die and instead of
going to heaven the devil would get them. "On the night that old Marse
Ridley died the screech owls like to have taken the