o a
pine box, and taken to a "burying ground" where he was put in the ground
without any services, and with only the immediate family attending. All
other slaves on the place had to keep on working just as though nothing
had happened.

There were no marriages. The slaves being told to "step over the broom
stick." Many families were separated by sale. "I recollects good when
Mr. Seaborn Callaway come over to the place an' bought my Grandma an'
some other slaves an' took 'em away. We jest cried an' cried an' Grandma
did too. Them white folks bought an' sold slaves that way all the time."

"Honey, there wuz one time when them white folks wuz good to us slaves,"
said Aunt Emma, "an' that wuz when we wuz sick. They would give us
homemade remedies like tansy tea, comfort root tea, life everlasting
tea, boneset tea, garlic water an' sich, 'cordin' ter what ailed us.
Then if we didn't git better they sont fer the doctor. If we had a
misery anywhere they would make poultices of tansy leaves scalded, or
beat up garlic an' put on us. Them folks wuz sho' 'cerned 'bout us when
we wuz sick, 'cause they didn't want us ter die."

When asked about the war and what she remembered of those terrible
times, Aunt Emma slowly shook her head and said: "I never wants to live
through sich sad times no more. Them wuz the hardest an' the saddest
days I ever knowed. Everybody went 'round like this: (here she took up
her apron and buried her face in it)--they kivered their face with
what-somever they had in their hands that would ketch the tears. Sorrow
an' sadness wuz on every side. The men all went off to fight an' left
the women an' chillun an' niggers behind to do the best they could."

"Times wuz so hard, why, honey, in them times folks couldn't git so much
as some plain salt to use on their victuals. The white folks had the
dirt dug up from out'n their smokehouses an' hauled it up to Mr.
Sisson's an' he run it an' got what salt he could out'n it. I 'members
one day I went over there fer sumpthin' an' the dirt what he had run wuz
piled way up high like sawdust these days. There warn't no soda neither,
so the white folks took watermelon rinds, fixed 'em keerful like we does
fer perserves, burned 'em an' took the ashes an' sifted 'em an' used 'em
fer soda. Coffee giv' out an none could be bought so they took okra
seeds an' parched 'em good an' brown an' ground 'em an' made coffee
out'n 'em. Some folks made coffee out'n parched ground wheat too