d made us all go
up to de house to show Mist'ess how come so many of dem pore chillun
had done been gittin' wet so much. Us got a tannin' den dat Marster
'lowed would help us to git sho' 'nough 'ligion.

"De wooden bowls what slave chillun et out of was made out of sweetgum
trees. Us et wid mussel shells 'stid of spoons. Dem mussel shells was
all right. Us could use 'em to git up plenty of bread and milk, or
cornpone soaked wid peas and pot likker. Dey never let chillun have no
meat 'til dey was big enough to wuk in de fields. Us had biscuit once a
week, dat was Sunday breakfast, and dem biscuits was cakebread to us. De
fust bought meat us chillun ever seed was a slab of side-meat Daddy got
from de sto' atter us had done left de plantation, and us was skeered to
eat it 'cause it warn't lak what us had been used to.

"Chillun jus' wore one piece of clothes in summertime and dey all went
bar'foots. De gals' summer gyarment was a plain, sleeveless apron dress,
and de boys wore skimpy little shirts and nothin' else. Dey mixed
cow-hair wid de cotton when dey wove de cloth to make our winter clothes
out of, and I'm a-tellin' you Missy, dat cow-hair cloth sho' could
scratch, but it was good and warm and Marster seed to it dat us had all
de clothes us needed. De 'omans made all de cloth used on de place; dey
cyarded, spun, and den wove it. Mammy was de weaver; dat was all she
done, jus' wove cloth. Dey dyed it wid red mud and ink balls, and sich
lak.

"Marster never lakked to git up real early hisself in slavery time, so
he had one man what got de Niggers up out of bed so early dat dey had
done et breakfast and was in de field when daylight come. Atter de war
was over and evvybody was free, all de Niggers used to jus' piddle and
play 'round evvy mornin' whilst dey was waitin' for Marster to come. Dem
and de mules would be jus' a-standin' still and when de word was passed
dat Marster had done got up all of 'em would start off wid a rush, jus'
a-hollerin': 'Whoa, dar! Gee haw!' jus' lak dey had done been wukkin'
hard all mornin'. One day Marster cotch 'em at it, and he didn't say a
word 'til time come to pay off, and he tuk out for all de time dey had
lost.

"Sometimes slaves run away and hid out in caves. Dey would pile up rocks
and sticks and pine limbs to hide de caves, and sometimes dey would stay
hid out for weeks, and de other Niggers would slip 'em somepin t'eat at
night. Dere warn't many what run off on our place, 'ca