ple do in slavery time en
how dey live den, but I can' tell you nothin bout no jump about things.
My Massa didn' 'low us to study bout none of dem kind of frolickings in
dat day en time."

"I gwine tell you it just like I experience it in dem days. We chillun
lived well en had plenty good ration to eat all de time cause my mammy
cook for she Missus dere to de big house. All she chillun lived in a one
room house right dere in de white folks yard en eat in de Missus big
kitchen every day. Dey give my mammy en she chillun just such things as
de white folks had to eat like biscuit en cake en ham en coffee en
hominy en butter en all dat kind of eatin. Didn' have no need to worry
bout nothin 'tall. My Massa had a heap of other colored peoples dere
besides we, but dey never live dat way. Dere been bout 80 of dem dat
live up in de quarter just like you see dese people live to de sawmill
dese days. Dey live mighty near like us, but didn' have no flour bread
to eat en didn' get no milk en ham neither cause dey eat to dey own
house. Didn' get nothin from de dairy but old clabber en dey been mighty
thankful to get dat. Oh, dey had a pretty good house to live in dat was
furnish wid dey own things dat dey make right dere. Den dey had a garden
of dey own. My Massa give every one of he plantation family so much of
land to plant for dey garden en den he give em every Saturday for dey
time to tend dat garden. You see dey had to work for de white folks all
de other week day en dey know when dey hear dat cow horn blow, dey had
to do what de overseer say do. Never couldn' go off de place widout dey
get a mit (permit) from de overseer neither else dey tore up when dey
come back. No 'mam, didn' dare to have nothin no time. Didn' 'low you to
go to school cause if you was to pick up a book, you get bout 100 lashes
for dat. No 'mam, didn' have no church for de colored peoples in dem
days. Just had some of dese big oaks pile up one on de other somewhe' in
de woods on dat whe' we go to church. One of de plantation mens what had
more learnin den de others was de one what do de preachin dere."

"My Massa wasn' never noways scraggeble to he colored peoples. Didn' cut
em for every kind of thing, but I is see him beat my stepfather one time
cause he run away en stay in de woods long time. Oh, he beat him wid a
switch or a stick or anything like dat he could get hold of."

"Didn' never know nothin bout doing no hard work in us chillun days.
When I was