ke de rules.

Dey said de overseers were worse den de slave owners. De overseers were
ginerally white men hired by de marster. My father said dey had poor
white men to overseer, and de slave owner would go on about his business
and sometimes didn't know an' didn't eben care how mean de overseer wus
to de slaves.

Dere wus a lot o' things to drink, dey said, cider, made from apples,
whiskey, an' brandy. Dey said people didn't notice it lak dey do now,
not many got drunk, cause dere wus plenty of it. Father said it wus ten
cents a quart, dat is de whiskey made outen corn, and de brandy wus
cheap too.

Dey said de clothes were wove, an' dat mos' chillun went barefooted, an'
in dere shirt tails; great big boys, goin' after de cows, and feedin' de
horses, an' doin' work around de house in deir shirt tails. Grown slaves
got one pair o' shoes a year an' went barefooted de res' o' de time.
Biscuit wus a thing dey seldom got.

Women cleared land by rollin' logs into piles and pilin' brush in de new
grounds. Dey were 'lowed patches, but dey used what dey made to eat.
Daddy said dey didn't have time to fish and hunt any. Dey were too tired
for dat. Dey had to work so hard.

Daddy said he wus proud o' freedom, but wus afraid to own it. Dey prayed
fer freedom secretly. When de Yankees come daddy saved a two horse wagon
load of meat for marster by takin' it off in de swamp and hidin' it, an'
den marster wouldn't give him nary bit uv it. After de surrender, dey
turned him out wid a crowd o' little chillun wid out a thing. Dey give
him nothin'. My mother saved her marster's life, Charles Underhill.

Well you see he wus takin' care uv a lot o' meat and whiskey for Dick
Jordon, an' de Yankees come an' he treated 'em from whiskey he had in a
bottle, an' tole 'em he had no more. Dey searched his home an' found it
in a shed room, an' den dey said dey were goin' to kill him for tellin'
'em a lie. She herd [HW correction: heard] 'em talkin' and she busted
through de crowd and told 'em dat de stuff belonged to anudder man and
dat her marster was not lyin', an' not to hurt 'im. De Yankees said,
'You have saved dis ole son of a bitch, we won't kill' em den.' Dey took
all de meat, whiskey, an' everything dey wanted. Marster promised mother
a cow, and calf, a sow, and pigs for what she had done for him an' to
stay on an' finish de crop. When de fall o' de year come he did not give
her de wrappin's o' her finger. Dat's what my mudder tole me.