Boyhood Experiences
"My father used to take me to the mill with him when I was a kid. That
was in slavery time. He went in a wagon and took me with him.
"The biggest thing I did was to play with the other kids. They had me do
such work as pick berries, hunt up the stock, drive the sheep home from
the pasture. And as near as I can remember it seems like they had me
more picking berries or gathering peaches or something like that.
Food, Houses, Clothes
"Corn bread, buttermilk and bacon and all such as that and game--that
was the principal food. The people on our place were fed pretty well. We
lived off of ash cakes and biscuits.
"The slaves lived in old log houses. I can almost see them now. Let's
see--they usually had just one window. The slaves slept on pallets
mostly and wore long cotton shirts.
Patrollers
"I have heard a great deal of talk about the pateroles--how they tied
ropes across the road and trapped them. Sometimes they would be knocked
off their horses and crippled up so that they had to be carried off from
there. Of course, that was sometimes. They was always halting the slaves
and questioning them and whipping them if they didn't have passes.
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