cks fitted in the fireplace to put pots on. Once there wuz a big pot
settin' on the fire, jest bilin' away with a big roast in it. As the
water biled, the meat turned over and over, comin' up to the top and
goin' down again, Ole Sandy, the dog, come in the kitchen. He sot there
a while and watched that meat roll over and over in the pot, and all of
a sudden-like he grabbed at that meat and pulls it out'n the pot.
'Course he couldn't eat it 'cause it wuz hot and they got the meat befo'
he et it. The kitchen wuz away frum the big house, so the victuals wuz
cooked and carried up to the house. Ah'd carry it up mahse'f. We
couldn't eat all the different kinds of victuals the white folks et and
one mornin' when I was carryin' the breakfast to the big house we had
waffles that wuz a pretty golden brown and pipin' hot. They wuz a
picture to look at and ah jest couldn't keep frum takin' one, and that
wuz the hardest waffle fur me to eat befo' I got to the big house I ever
saw. Ah jest couldn't git rid of that waffle 'cause my conscience
whipped me so.

"They taught me to do everything. Ah'd use battlin' blocks and battlin'
sticks to wash the clothes; we all did. The clothes wuz taken out of the
water an put on the block and beat with a battlin' stick, which was made
like a paddle. On wash days you could hear them battlin' sticks poundin'
every which-away. We made our own soap, used ole meat and grease, and
poured water over wood ashes which wuz kept in a rack-like thing and the
water would drip through the ashes. This made strong lye. We used a lot
'o sich lye, too, to bile with.

"Sometimes the slaves would run away. Their masters wuz mean to them
that caused them to run away. Sometimes they would live in caves. How
did they get along? Well, chile, they got along all right--what with
other people slippin' things in to 'em. And, too, they'd steal hogs,
chickens, and anything else they could git their hands on. Some white
people would help, too, fur there wuz some white people who didn't
believe in slavery. Yes, they'd try to find them slaves that run away
and if they wuz found they'd be beat or sold to somebody else. My
grandmother run away frum her master. She stayed in the woods and she
washed her clothes in the branches. She used sand fur soap. Yes, chile,
I reckon they got 'long all right in the caves. They had babies in thar
and raised 'em too.

"Ah stayed with the Mitchells 'til Miss Hannah died. Ah even helped to
lay h