te Stamp: JAN 26 1937]
[Date Stamp: MAY 8 1937]

Aunt Charlotte Raines, well up in the seventies at the time of her death
some years ago, was an excellent example of the type of negro developed
by the economic system of the old South.

When I could first remember, Charlotte was supreme ruler of the kitchen
of my home. Thin to emaciation and stooped almost to the point of having
a hump on her back she was yet wiry and active. Her gnarled old hands
could turn out prodigous amounts of work when she chose to extend
herself.

Her voice was low and musical and she seldom raised it above the
ordinary tone of conversation; yet when she spoke other colored people
hastened to obey her and even the whites took careful note of what she
said. Her head was always bound in a snow-white turban. She wore calico
or gingham print dresses and white aprons and these garments always
appeared to be freshly laundered.

Charlotte seldom spoke unless spoken to and she would never tell very
much about her early life. She had been trained as personal maid to one
of her ex-master's daughters. This family, (that of Swepson H. Cox) was
one of the most cultured and refined that Lexington, in Oglethorpe
County, could boast.

Aunt Charlotte never spoke of her life under the old regime but she had
supreme contempt for "no count niggers that didn't hav' no white Folks".
She was thrifty and frugal. Having a large family, most of her small
earnings was spent on them. However, she early taught her children to
scratch for themselves. Two of her daughters died after they had each
brought several children into the world. Charlotte thought they were
being neglected by their fathers and proceeded to take them "to raise
myse'f". These grand children were the apple of her eye and she did much
more for them than she had done for her own children.

The old woman had many queer ways. Typical of her eccentricities was her
iron clad refusal to touch one bite of food in our house. If she wished
a dish she was preparing tasted to see that it contained the proper
amount of each ingredient she would call some member of the family,
usually my grandmother, and ask that he or she sample the food.
Paradoxically, she had no compunctions about the amount of food she
carried home for herself and her family.

Strange as it may seem, Charlotte was an incorrigible rogue. My mother
and my grandmother both say that they have seen her pull up her skirts
and drop things into a