ots of cooking to do. They would go to church on
Sunday and they would spread their dinners on the ground. My, but they
was feasts. We'd allus git to go as I drive the carriage and mammy
looked after the food. We had our own church too, with our own
preacher.

We had a spinning house where all the old women would card and spin
wool in de winter and cotton in de summer. Dey made all our clothes,
what few we wore. Us boys just wore long tailed shirts 'till we was 12
or 13 years old, sometimes older. I was 15 when I started driving the
fambly carriage and I got to put on pants then.

Our suits was made out of jeans. That cloth wore like buckskin. We'd
wear 'em for a year before they had to be patched.

We made our own brogan shoes too. We'd kill a beef and skin it and
spread the skin out and let it dry a while. We'd put the hide in lime
water to get the hair off, then we'd oil it and work it 'till it was
soft. Next we'd take it to the bench and scrape or 'plesh' it with
knives. It was then put in a tight cabinet and smoked with oak wood
for about 24 hours. Smoking loosened the skin. We'd then take it out
and rub it to soften it. It was blacked and oiled and it was ready to
be made into shoes. It took nearly a year to get a green hide made
into shoes. Twan't no wonder we had to go barefooted.

Sometimes I'd work in the wood shop, dressing wagon spokes. We made
spokes with a plane, by hand on a bench.

I didn't have much work to do before I was 15 except to run errands.
One of my jobs was to take corn to the mill to be ground into meal.
Some one would put my sack of corn on the mule's back and help me up
and I'd ride to the mill and have it ground and they'd load me back on
and I'd go back home.

I remember once my meal fell off and I waited and waited for somebody
to come by and help me. I got tired waiting so I toted the sack to a
big log and laid it acrost it. I led my mule up to the log and after
working hard for a long time I managed to get it on his back. I
climbed up and jest as we started off the mule jumped and I fell off
and pulled the sack off with me. I couldn't do nothing but wait and
finally old Master came after me. He knowed something was wrong.

Old Master was good to all of his slaves but his overseers had orders
to make 'em work. He fed 'em good and took good keer of 'em and never
made 'em work iffen they was sick or even felt bad. They was two
things old Master jest wouldn't 'bide and dat was for