uld gals say now if dey had to wear dem kind of clothes? Dey would
raise de roof plumb offen de house. But jus' let me tell you, a purty
young gal dressed in dem sort of clothes would look mighty sweet to me
right now.

"Us never could eat all de meat in Marster's big old smokehouse.
Sometimes he tuk hams to de store and traded 'em for sugar and coffee.
Plenty of 'bacco was raised on dat plantation for all de white folks and
de growed-up Niggers. Slave chillun warn't sposen to have none, so us
had to swipe what 'bacco us got. If our Mammies found out 'bout us
gittin' 'bacco, dey stropped us 'til de skin was most off our backs, but
sometimes us got away wid a little. If us seed any of de old folks was
watchin' us, us slipped de 'bacco from one to another of us whilst dey
s'arched us, and it went mighty bad on us if dey found it.

"Slaves went to de white folks' church and listened to de white
preachers. Dere warn't no colored preacher 'lowed to preach in dem
churches den. Dey preached to de white folks fust and den dey let de
colored folks come inside and hear some preachin' atter dey was through
wid de white folks. But on de big 'vival meetin' days dey 'lowed de
Niggers to come in and set in de gallery and listen at de same time dey
preached to de white folks. When de sermon was over dey had a big dinner
spread out on de grounds and dey had jus' evvything good t'eat lak
chickens, barbecued hogs and lambs, pies, and lots of watermelons. Us
kept de watermelons in de crick 'til dey was ready to cut 'em. A white
gentleman, what dey called Mr. Kilpatrick, done most of de preachin'. He
was from de White Plains neighborhood. He sho' did try mighty hard to
git evvybody to 'bey de Good Lord and keep his commandments.

"Mr. Kilpatrick preached all de funerals too. It 'pears lak a heap more
folks is a-dyin' out dese days dan died den, and folks was a heap better
den to folks in trouble. Dey would go miles and miles den when dey
didn't have no auto'biles, to help folks what was in trouble. Now, dey
won't go next door when dere's death in de house. Den, when anybody died
de fust thing dey done was to shroud 'em and lay 'em out on de coolin'
board 'til Old Marster's cyarpenter could git de coffin made up. Dere
warn't no embalmers dem days and us had to bury folks de next day atter
dey died. De coffins was jus' de same for white folks and deir slaves.
On evvy plantation dere was a piece of ground fenced in for a graveyard
whar dey b