knitted. We always wore yarn socks for winter,
which we made. It didn't get cold, in the winter in Tennessee, just a
little frost was all. We fixed all of our cotton and wool ourselves."

"For our meat we used to kill fifteen, twenty, or fifty, and sometimes a
hundred hogs. We usually had hickory. It was considered the best for
smoking meat, when we butchered. Our meat we had then was the finest
possible. It had a lot more flavor than that which you get now. If a
person ran out of meat, he would go over to his neighbor's house, and
borrow or buy meat, we didn't think about going to town. When we wanted
fresh meat we or some of the neighbors would kill a hog or sheep, and
would divide this, and then when we butchered we would give them part of
ours. People were more friendly then then they are now. They have almost
lost respect for each other. Now if you would give your neighbor
something they would never think of paying it back. You could also
borrow wheat or whatever you wanted, and you could pay it back whenever
you thrashed."

"We also made our own sorghum, dried our own fruits. We usually dried
all of our things as we never heard of such a thing as canning."

"We always had brandy, wine, and cider on hand, and nothing was thought
of it. We used to give it to the children even. When we had corn husks,
log rolling, etc., we would invite all of the neighbors over, and then
we would serve refreshments of wine, brandy or cider."

"We made our own maple syrup from the maple sugar trees. This is a lot
better than the refined sugar people have nowdays, and is good for you
too. You can't get this now though, except sometimes and it is awfully
high priced. On the plantations the slaves usually had a house of their
own for their families. They usually built their houses in a circle, so
you didn't have to go out doors hardly to go to the house next to you.
If you wanted your house away from the rest of the houses, they could
build you a house away from the others and separate."

I was never sold, I always had just my one master. When slave owners
died, if they had no near relatives to inherit their property, they
would 'Will' the slaves their freedom, instead of giving them to someone
else. My grandmother, and my mother were both freed like this, but what
they called 'nigger traders' captured them, and two or three others,
and they took them just like they would animals, and sold them, that was
how 'Ples' Holbert got my mo