were made from large barrels.

When she was about seven or eight, Patience assisted other children
about her age and older in picking out cotton seeds from the picked
cotton. After the cotton was weighed on improved scales, it was bound in
bags made of hemp.

Spinning and weaving were taught Patience when she was about ten.
Although the cloth and thread were dyed various colors, she knows only
how blue was obtained by allowing the indigo plant to rot in water and
straining the result.

Patience's father was not only a capable field worker but also a
finished shoemaker. After tanning and curing his hides by placing them
in water with oak bark for several days and then exposing them to the
sun to dry, he would cut out the uppers and the soles after measuring
the foot to be shod. There would be an inside sole as well as an outside
sole tacked together by means of small tacks made of maple wood. Sewing
was done on the shoes by means of flax thread.

Patience remembers saving the feathers from all the fowl to make feather
beds. She doesn't remember when women stopped wearing hoops in their
skirts nor when bed springs replaced bed ropes. She does remember,
however, that these things were used.

She saw her first windmill about 36 years ago, ten years before she went
blind. She remembers seeing buggies during slavery time, little light
carriages, some with two wheels and some with four. She never heard of
any money called "shin-plasters," and she became money-conscious during
the war when Confederate currency was introduced. When the slaves were
sick, they were given castor oil, turpentine and medicines made from
various roots and herbs.

Patience's master joined the confederacy, but her father's master did
not. [Although Negroes could enlist in the Southern army if they
desired,] none of them wished to do so but preferred to join northern
forces and fight for the thing they desired most, freedom. When freedom
was no longer a dream, but a reality, the Merritts started life on their
own as farmers. Twelve-year old Patience entered one of the schools
established by the Freedmen's Bureau. She recalls the gradual growth of
Negro settlements, the churches and the rise and fall of the Negroes
politically.

REFERENCE

1. Personal interview with Patience Campbell, 910 Cherry Street,
Monticello, Florida

FEDERAL WRITERS' PROJECT
American Guide, (Negro Writers' Unit)

Rachel A. Austin, Field Worker
Jacksonville, F