cap affect her usefulness.
She liked best to sew the fine muslins and silks of her mistress, making
beautiful hooped dresses that required eight and ten yards of cloth and
sometimes as many as seven petticoats to enhance their fullness.
Hoops for these dresses were made of grape-vines that were shaped while
green and cured in the sun before using. Beautiful imported laces were
used to trim the petticoats and pantaloons of the wealthy.
The Pamell slaves had a Negro minister who could hold services any time
he chose, so long as he did not interfere with the work of the other
slaves. He was not obliged to do hard menial labors and went about the
plantation "all dressed up" in a frock coat and store-bought shoes. He
was more than a little conscious of this and was held in awe by the
others. He often visited neighboring plantations to hold his services.
It was from this minister that they first heard of the Civil War. He
held whispered prayers for the success of the Union soldiers, not
because freedom was so desirable to them, but for other slaves who were
treated so cruelly. There was a praying ground where "the grass never
had a chancet ter grow fer the troubled knees that kept it crushed
down."
Amanda was an exceptionally good cook and so widespread was this
knowledge that the Union soldiers employed her as a cook in their camp
for a short while. She does not remember any of their officers and
thinks they were no better nor worse than the others. These soldiers
committed no depredations in her section except to confiscate whatever
they wanted in the way of food and clothing. Some married southern
girls.
Mr. Pamell made land grants to all slaves who wanted to remain with him;
few left, so kind had he been to them all.
Life went on in much the same manner for Amanda's family except that the
children attended school where a white teacher instructed them from a
"blue back Webster." Amanda was a young woman but she managed to learn
to read a little. Later they had colored teachers who followed much the
same routine as the whites had. They were held in awe by the other
Negroes and every little girl yearned to be a teacher, as this was about
the only professional field open to Negro women at that time.
"After de war Negroes blossomed out with fine phaetons (buggies) and
ceiled houses, and clothes--oh my!"
Mrs. McCray did not keep up with the politics of her time but remembers
hearing about Joe Gibbs, member of the
|