casionally the corn bread was replaced by flour bread. The slaves
drank an imitation coffee made from parched corn or meal. Since there
was no ice to preserve the left-over food, only enough for each meal was
prepared.

Parish seldom punished his slaves, and never did he permit his overseer
to do so. If the slaves failed to do their work, they were reported to
him. He would warn them and show his black whip which was usually
sufficient. He had seen overseers beat slaves to death, and he did not
want to risk losing the money he had invested in his. After his death,
his son managed the plantation in much the same manner as his father.

But the war was destined to make the Parishes lose all their slaves by
giving them their freedom. Even though they were free to go, many of the
slaves elected to remain with their mistress who had always been kind to
them. The war swept away much of the money which her husband had left
her; and although she would liked to have kept all of her slaves, she
found it impossible to do so. She allowed the real old slaves to remain
on the premises and kept a few of the younger ones to work about the
plantation. Douglas and his parents were among those who remained on the
plantation. His father was a skilled bricklayer and carpenter, and he
was employed to make repairs to the property. His mother cooked for the
Parishes.

Many of the Negroes migrated North, and they wrote back stories of the
"new country" where "de white folks let you do jes as you please." These
stories influenced a great number of other Negroes to go North and begin
life anew as servants, waiters, laborers and cooks. The Negroes who
remained in the South were forced to make their own living. At the end
of the war, foods and commodities had gone up to prices that were
impossible for the Negro to pay. Ham, for example, cost 40c and 50c a
pound; lard was 25c; cotton was two dollars a bushel.

Douglas' father taught him all that he knew about carpentry and
bricklaying, and the two were in demand to repair, remodel, or build
houses for the white people. Although he never attended school, Charles
Parish could calculate very rapidly the number of bricks that it would
take to build a house. After the establishing of schools by the
Freedmen's Bureau, Douglas' father made him go, but he did not like the
confinement of school and soon dropped out. The teachers for the most
part, were white, who were concerned only with teaching the ex-sl