the cracks
daubed with mud and, as Emmaline recalled it, were very warm; warmer, in
fact, than many of their houses are today. The furniture consisted of a
"corded" bed, wooden tables and benches. This "corded" bed was
constructed by running rope or cord from the head to the foot and then
from side to side. A wooden peg was driven into the holes to hold the
cord in place. Pegs were a household necessity and had to be cared for
just as a key is today. Most homes also included a quilt slab, a sort of
table used to place quilts on, as a necessary part of the furniture.

Every woman had a certain amount of weaving and spinning to do at home
after coming in from the fields. Emmaline says her mother had to card
bats at night so that the two older sisters could begin spinning the
next morning. A loom was almost as large as a small kitchen and was
operated by hands and feet. Until midnight, the spinning wheels could be
heard humming in the slave cabins. At the hour of twelve, however, a
bell was rung, which was the signal for the slaves to cease their
spinning and go to bed.

Dye for coloring the cloth was provided by collecting sweet gum, dogwood
bark, and red clay. Mixing these together produced different colors of
dye. Sweet gum and clay produced a purple; dogwood, a blue.

Two dresses a year were allowed the women, while two cotton shirts and
two pair of cotton pants were given the men. Everyone received one pair
of shoes. Emmaline's father was a shoemaker by trade and made shoes for
both slaves and the Harper family. The slaves shoes were called "nigger
shoes," and made from rough horse and mule hide. The white folks' shoes
were made from soft calf leather. Mr. Harper had a tanning vat on his
plantation especially for the purpose of tanning hides for their shoes.
Emmaline said these tanning vats reminded her of baptismal holes. The
water was very deep, and once her sister almost drowned in one. Barks of
various kinds were placed in the water in these vats to produce an acid
which would remove the hair from the hides. Layers of goat, calf, and
horse hides were placed in the vats and, after a certain length of time
removed and dried.

Meals on week days consisted principally of syrup and bread and they
were glad, Emmaline stated, to see Saturday come, because they knew they
would have biscuit made from "seconds" on Sunday. Butter seems to have
been a delicacy but little known. "The only butter I remember eating
before we