partanburg, S.C.=
=June 1, 1937=

=Edited by:=
=E. Fronde Kennedy=

=FOLK-LORE: EX-SLAVES=

While looking for an ex-slave in a certain part of Spartanburg this
morning, I was directed across the street to "an old man who lives
there". I knocked at the door but received no answer. Then I noticed an
old man walking around by the side of the house. He was tall and
straight, standing about 6 feet 2 inches. He said that his name was
George Wood and that he was 78 years of age.

He stated that he was born during slavery, and lived on Peter Sepah's
place in York County. Peter Sepah's farm, where he was born, was near
the North Carolina line; it consisted of approximately 200 acres. His
parents were named Dan and Sarah Wood. His mother was given to old man
Sepah by his father as a wedding present, and his grandfather had been
given to an older Sepah by his parent as a wedding present. He said it
was the custom in slavery times that a slave be given to the son or
daughter by the white people when they got married.

He was too young to work, but about the time the war was over, he was
allowed to drive the horses that pulled the thrasher of wheat. His
master used to walk around and around while the wheat was being
thrashed, and see that everybody was doing their work all right. His
father lived on another plantation. There was only one family of slaves
on the whole plantation. He, his mother, and five children lived in a
one-room log cabin about 30 or 40 feet from the "big house". Their beds
consisted of straw mattresses. They had plenty to eat, having the same
food that the white folks did. They ate ash cakes mostly for bread, but
once a week they had biscuits to eat. When the wheat was thrashed, they
had biscuits mostly for breakfast; but as the wheat got scarcer they did
not have much wheat to eat. He said that Buffalo Creek flowed pretty
close to their place and that the creek emptied into Broad River.
Shelby, N.C., their market, was about ten miles distant. He thinks that
it was easier then than now to get something to eat.

The log cabin where he and his mother lived was kept comfortably warm in
the winter time. All they had to do, was to go to the wood-pile and get
all the wood they needed for the fire. His mother worked on the farm,
washed clothes and helped with the cooking at his master's house. The
slaves stopped work every Saturday afternoon about three o'clock; then
his mistress would have his mother to p