en, who couldn't work in the field,
would make cloth on the looms and the spinnin' wheels. Us didn't have
chairs; us made benches and stools to sit on. Us didn't know what swings
was. Us used to tie ropes in trees and swing in 'em.

"Everybody had his own tin plate and tin cup to eat out of. On Saturday
they would give everybody three pounds of meat, twelve pounds of flour,
twelve pounds of meal, and one quart of syrup. This was to last a week.
Us always had plenty to eat 'til the war started, then us went hungry
many a day because they took the food and carried it to the soldiers. Us
stole stuff from everybody durin' that time.

"They always blowed a horn for you to go to work by and get off for
dinner by and stop work in the evening by. When that horn blowed, you
couldn't get them mules to plow another foot. They just wouldn't do it.
Us always et dinner out in the yard, in the summer time, at a long
bench. In cold weather us always went inside to eat. Whenever us didn't
have enough to eat us would tell the overseer and he seed to it that us
got plenty. Our overseers was colored."

Another old woman said she "started working at the age of seven as a
nurse. I nursed, made fire in the house and around the wash pots 'til I
was old enough to go to work in the fields. When I got big enough I hoed
and later plowed. Us didn't wait 'til sun up to start workin', us
started as soon as it was light enough. When it come to field work, you
couldn't tell the women from the men. Of course my marster had two old
women on the place and he never made them work hard, and he never did
whip' em. They always took care of the cookin' and the little chillun.

"I'll tell you one thing, they had better doctors then than they do now.
When folks had high blood pressure the doctors would cut you in your
head or your arm and folks would get over it then. They took better care
of themselves. Whenever anybody was caught in the rain they had to go to
the marster's house and take some medicine. They had somethin' that
looks like black draught looks now, and they would put it in a gallon
jug, fill it a little over half full of boiling water, and finish
fillin' it with whiskey. It was real bitter, but it was good for colds.
Young folk didn't die then like they do now. Whenever anybody died it
was a old person.

"I know more about conjuration than I'll ever be able to tell. I didn't
believe in it at one time, but I've seen so much of it that I can alm