mb
indicates north.) Those old wheels are still in the family'. I got one
of the flax wheels. Miss Ella done give it to me for a present. Leather
was tanned an' shoes was made on the place. 'Course the hands mostly
went barefoot in warm weather, white chillen too. We had our own mill to
grind the wheat and corn an' we raised all our meat. We made our own
candles from tallow and beeswax. I 'spect some of the old candle moulds
are over to 'the house' now. We wove our own candle wicks too. I never
saw a match 'til I was a grown woman. We made our fire with flint an'
punk (rotten wood). Yes'm, I was trained to cook an' clean an' sew. I
learned to make mens' pants an' coats. First coat I made, Miss Julia
told me to rip the collar off, an' by the time I picked out all the
teensy stitches an' sewed it together again I could set a collar right!
I can do it today, too! (Again there is manifested a good workman's
pardonable pride of achievement)

"Miss Julia cut out all the clothes herself for men and women too. I
'spect her big shears an' patterns an' old cuttin' table are over at the
house now. Miss Julia cut out all the clothes an' then the colored girls
sewed 'em up but she looked 'em all over and they better be sewed right!
Miss Julia bossed the whole plantation. She looked after the sick folks
and sent the doctor (Dr. Jones) to dose 'em and she carried the keys to
the store-rooms and pantries. [HW: paragraph mark here.] Yes'm, I'm
some educated. Muh showed me my 'a-b-abs' and my numbers and when I was
fifteen I went to school in the log church built by the Moravians. They
give it to the colored folks to use for their own school and church.
(This log house is still standing near Bethania). Our teacher was a
white man, Marse Fulk. He had one eye, done lost the other in the war.
We didn't have no colored teachers then. They wasn't educated. We
'tended school four months a year. I went through the fifth reader, the
'North Carolina Reader'. I can figger a little an' read some but I can't
write much 'cause my fingers 're--all stiffened up. Miss Julia use to
read the bible to us an' tell us right an' wrong, and Muh showed me all
she could an' so did the other colored folks. Mostly they was kind to
each other.

"No'm, I don't know much about spells an' charms. Course most of the
old folks believed in 'em. One colored man use to make charms, little
bags filled with queer things. He called 'em 'jacks' an' sold 'em to the
colored fo