to the inquiry. She
pondered the question of an interview for a moment and then, with
unsmiling dignity, bade the visitor come in and be seated. Only one room
of the dilapidated two-room shack was usable for shelter and this room
was so dark that lamplight was necessary at 10:00 o'clock in the
morning. Her smoking oil lamp was minus its chimney.

A Negro child about two or three years old was Alice's sole companion.
"I takes keer of little Sallie Mae whilst her Mammy wuks at a boardin'
house," she explained. "She's lots of company for me.

"Charles and Milly Green was my daddy and mammy. Daddy's overseer was a
man named Green, and dey said he was a powerful mean sort of man. I
never did know whar it was dey lived when Daddy was borned. Mammy's
marster was a lawyer dat dey called Slickhead Mitchell, and he had a
plantation at Helicon Springs. Mammy was a house gal and she said dey
treated her right good. Now Daddy, he done field work. You know what
field work is, hoein', plowin', and things lak dat. When you was a slave
you had to do anything and evvything your marster told you to. You was
jus' 'bliged to obey your marster no matter what he said for you to do.
If you didn't, it was mighty bad for you. My two oldest sisters was
Fannie and Rena. Den come my brothers, Isaac and Bob, and my two
youngest sisters, Luna and Violet. Dere was seven of us in all.

"Slaves lived in rough little log huts daubed wid mud and de chimblys
was made out of sticks and red mud. Mammy said dat atter de slaves had
done got through wid deir day's work and finished eatin' supper, dey all
had to git busy workin' wid cotton. Some carded bats, some spinned and
some weaved cloth. I knows you is done seen dis here checkidy cotton
homespun--dat's what dey weaved for our dresses. Dem dresses was made
tight and long, and dey made 'em right on de body so as not to waste
none of de cloth. All slaves had was homespun clothes and old heavy
brogan shoes.

"You'll be s'prised at what Mammy told me 'bout how she got her larnin'.
She said she kept a school book hid in her bosom all de time and when de
white chillun got home from school she would ax 'em lots of questions
all 'bout what dey had done larned dat day and, 'cause she was so proud
of evvy little scrap of book larnin' she could pick up, de white chillun
larned her how to read and write too. All de larnin' she ever had she
got from de white chillun at de big house, and she was so smart at
gittin'