f thread to spin and cloth to weave 'fore they could go
to bed at night. The menfolks had to shuck corn, mend horse-collars,
make baskets, and all sich jobs as that at night, and they had to holp
the women with the washin' sometimes. Most of that kind of thing was
done on days when the weather was too hot for 'em to work in the fields.

"Marse Robert done his own whippin' of his slaves and, let me tell you,
they didn't have to do much for him to whip 'em; he whipped 'em for most
anything. They was tied, hand and foots, to a certain tree, and he beat
'em with a heavy leather strop. I'se seed him whip 'em heaps of times,
and it was 'most allus in the mornin's 'fore they went to wuk. Thar
warn't no jailhouse nigh whar us lived and Marse Robert never had no
place to lock slaves up when they got too bad, so he just beat the
meanness out of 'em. Thar was one slave he never tetched; that was his
foreman and his name was Robert too, lak I done told you.

"I never seed no slaves sold on the block or auctioned off, and if any
droves of slaves for sale passed our plantation I'se done forgot about
it. No, mam, a slave warn't 'lowed to take no book in his hand to larn
nothin'; it was agin' the law to permit slaves to do that sort of thing.
If us went to any churches at all it had to be our white folks'
churches, 'cause thar warn't no churches for Negroes 'til the war was
over. Not a slave on our place could read a word from the Bible, but
some few could repeat a verse or two they had cotch from the white folks
and them that was smart enough made up a heap of verses that went 'long
with the ones larned by heart. Us went to Poplar Springs Baptist church
with Marse Robert's fambly; that church was 'bout 3 miles from whar us
lived. Miss Betsey, she tuk Grandma Ca'line with her to the Hardshell
Baptist church about 10 miles further down the road. Sometimes Grandma
Ca'line would go by herself when Marse Robert's ma didn't go. Us just
had church once a month.

"When a slave died evvybody on our plantation quit wuk 'til atter the
buryin'. The home-made coffins was made of unpainted planks and they was
lined with white cloth. White folks' coffins was made the same way, only
theirs was stained, but they never tuk time to stain the ones they
buried slaves in. Graves was dug wide at the top and at the bottom they
was just wide enough to fit the coffin. They laid planks 'crost the
coffins and they shovelled in the dirt. They never had larnt to