a, what was next to
me; Susan--thats me; Isabelle, Martha, Mary, Diana, Lila, William, Gus,
and the twins what was born dead; and Harden. He was named for a Dr.
Harden what lived here then.

"Marse Billy bought my gran'ma in Virginia. She was part Injun. I can
see her long, straight, black hair now, and when she died she didn't
have gray hair like mine. They say Injuns don't turn gray like other
folks. Gran'ma made cloth for the white folks and slaves on the
plantation. I used to hand her thread while she was weavin'. The lady
what taught Gran'ma to weave cloth, was Mist'ess Gowel, and she was a
foreigner, 'cause she warn't born in Georgia. She had two sons what run
the factory between Watkinsville and Athens. My aunt, Mila Jackson, made
all the thread what they done the weavin' with. Gran'pa worked for a
widow lady what was a simster (seamstress) and she just had a little
plantation. She was Mist'ess Doolittle. All Gran'pa done was cut wood,
'tend the yard and gyarden. He had rheumatism and couldn't do much.

"There ain't much to tell about what we done in the slave quarters,
'cause when we got big enough, we had to work: nussin' the babies,
totin' water, and helpin' Gran'ma with the weavin', and such like. Beds
was driv to the walls of the cabin; foot and headboard put together with
rails, what run from head to foot. Planks was laid crossways and straw
put on them and the beds was kivvered with the whitest sheets you ever
seen. Some made pallets on the floor.

"No, Ma'am, I didn't make no money 'til after freedom. I heard tell of
ten and fifteen cents, but I didn't know nothing 'bout no figgers. I
didn't know a nickel from a dime them days.

"Yes, Ma'am, Marse Billy 'lowed his slaves to have their own gyardens,
and 'sides plenty of good gyarden sass, we had milk and butter, bread
and meat, chickens, greens, peas, and just everything that growed on the
farm. Winter and summer, all the food was cooked in a great big
fireplace, about four feet wide, and you could put on a whole stick of
cord wood at a time. When they wanted plenty of hot ashes to bake with,
they burnt wood from ash trees. Sweet potatoes and bread was baked in
the ashes. Seems like vittuls don't taste as good as they used to, when
we cooked like that. 'Possums, Oh! I dearly love 'possums. My cousins
used to catch 'em and when they was fixed up and cooked with sweet
potatoes, 'possum meat was fit for a king. Marse Billy had a son named
Mark, what was a