t know what de others had in dey
cabins 'cause ma didn't 'low her chillun to visit 'round de other
folkses none.

"Ma's chillun all had vittals from de white folkses kitchen. After Marse
Billie's fambly done et and left de table, de cook wuz s'posed to take
what wuz left to feed de house niggers and her own chillun, and us did
have sho' 'nuff good vittals. All de other slave folks had day rations
weighed out to 'em every week and dey cooked in dey own cabins. When de
wheat wuz ground at de mill it made white flour, and shorts, and
seconds. Most of de shorts wuz weighed out in rations for de slave
folks. Now and den at Christmas and special times dey got a little white
flour. Dey liked cornbread for reg'lar eatin'. Dey wuz always lots of
hogs on Marse Billie's plantation, and his colored folkses had plenty of
side meat. Slaves never had no time to hunt in de day time, but dey sho'
could catch lots of 'possums at night, and dey knowed how to git catfish
at night too.

"'Cross de road from de Big 'Ouse, Marse Billie had a big gyarden, and
he seed dat his help had plenty of somethin' good to bile. Dey won't no
separate gyardens. Dey didn't have no time to work no gyardens of dey
own.

"In summertime us chillun wore just one piece of clo'es. It wuz a sack
apron. In winter grandma made us yarn underskirts and yarn drawers
buttoned down over our knees. Ma made our home-knit stockings. Dey
called our brass toed shoes 'brogans.' I don't speck you ever seed a
brass toed shoe!

"Our Big 'Ouse sho' wuz one grand fine place. Why, it must have been as
big as de Mill Stone Baptist Church! It wuz all painted white wid green
blinds and had a big old high porch dat went nigh all 'round de house.

"If I ever did hear what Marse Billie's wife wuz named, I done plum
clear forgot. Us called her 'Mist'ess' long as she lived and I don't
recollect hearin' her called nothin' else. Marster and Mist'ess never
had no little chillun whilst I was dar. Miss Lizzie wuz dey youngest
child and she wuz most grown when I wuz born.

"Marse Billie's overseer lived in a four-room house up de road a piece
from the Big 'Ouse. Nobody thought 'bout none of Marse Billie's
overseers as pore white folkses. Every overseer he ever had wuz decent
and 'spectable. Course dey won't in de same class wid Marse Billie's
fambly, but dey was all right. Dey wuz four or five homes nigh our
plantation, but all of 'em b'longed to rich white folkses. If dey wuz
any pore whi