o rode
nightly, different planters and overseers taking turns about to do
patrol duty in each militia district in the County.

All slaves were required to procure passes from their owners or their
plantation overseers before they could go visiting or leave their home
premises. If the "patarolers" caught a "Nigger" without a pass, they
whipped him and sent him home. Sometimes, however, if the "Nigger"
didn't run and told a straight story, he was let off with a lecture and
a warning. Slave children, though early taught to make themselves
useful, had lots of time for playing and frolicking with the white
children.

Rias was a great hand to go seining with a certain clique of white boys,
who always gave him a generous or better than equal share of the fish
caught.

At Christmas, every slave on the Body plantation received a present. The
Negro children received candy, raisins and "nigger-toes", balls,
marbles, etc.

As for food, the slaves had, with the exception of "fancy trimmins",
about the same food that the whites ate. No darky in Harris County that
he ever heard of ever went hungry or suffered for clothes until after
freedom.

Every Saturday was a wash day. The clothes and bed linen of all Whites
and Blacks went into wash every Saturday. And "Niggers", whether they
liked it or not, had to "scrub" themselves every Saturday night.

The usual laundry and toilet soap was a homemade lye product, some of it
a soft-solid, and some as liquid as water. The latter was stored in jugs
and demijohns. Either would "fetch the dirt, or take the hide off"; in
short, when applied "with rag and water, something had to come".

Many of the Body slaves had wives and husbands living on other
plantations and belonging to other planters. As a courtesy to the
principals of such matrimonial alliances, their owners furnished the men
passes permitting them to visit their wives once or twice a week.
Children born to such unions were the property of the wife's owner; the
father's owner had no claim to them whatsoever.

"Uncle" Rias used to frequently come to Columbus with his master before
the war, where he often saw "Niggers oxioned off" at the old slave mart
which was located at what is now 1225 Broadway. Negroes to be offered
for sale were driven to Columbus in droves--like cattle--by "Nawthon
speckulatahs". And prospective buyers would visit the "block"
accompanied by doctors, who would feel of, thump, and examine the
"Nigger" to see