se-power to the gin.--drove mules to the gin. I would drive the cows
out to the pasture too. The milk women would milk them. Lawd, I could
not do no milking. I was too small. The milk women would milk them and I
would drive the cows one way and the calves another so that they
couldn't mix. And at night I would go git them and they would milk them
again. The milk women milked them. What would I know bout milkin.

"I never did any playin', 'cept plain marbles and goin' in swimmin'.

Schooling

"The white girls and boys learned us our A-B-C's after the war. They had
a free school in Kemper County there. My children I learnt them myself
or had it done. You couldn't hardly ever find one in Kemper Country that
could spell and go on. They didn't have no time for that. Some few of
them learned their A-B-C's before the war. But that is all. They learned
what they learned after the war in the free government schools mostly.
They would not do nothin' to you if they caught you learnin' in slave
time. Sometimes the white children would teach you your A-B-C's.

Status of Colored Girls

"They had mighty mean ways in that country. They would catch young
colored girls and whip them and make them do what they wanted. There
wasn't but one mean one on our place. He was ordered to go to war and he
didn't; so they pressed him. He was the one that promised my brother a
whipping. He left like this morning and come back a week from today
dead. The rest of them was pretty good. The mean one was Elijah.

Master's Sons

"Old man McCoy had four sons; Elijah, that was the mean one, Redder,
Nelson, Clay.

Patrollers

"Sometimes the pateroles would do the devil with you if they caught you
out without a pass. You could go anywhere you pleased if you had a pass.
But if you didn't have a pass, they'd give you the devil.

Marriage and Sex Relationships

"You could have one wife over here and another one over there if you
wanted to. My daddy had two women. And he quit the one that didn't have
no children. People weren't no more 'n dogs them days,--weren't as much
as dogs.

Mother and Father's Work

"In slavery time, my father worked at the field. Plowed and hoed and
made cotton and corn--what else was he goin' to do. My mother was a
cook.

Sustenance

"My master fed us and clothed us and give us something to eat. Some of
them was hell a mile. Some of them was all kinds of ways. Our people was
good. One of them was mean.