Our beds was made of pine poles nailed to the wall and we slept on hay
beds. My mama and other slaves pulled grass and let it dry to make the
beds with. Our cover was made from our old worn out clothes.
"On Sunday evenings we played. We put on clean clothes once a week. In
summer we bathed in the branch. We did not bathe at all in winter. I
went in my shirt tail until I was eleven or twelve years old. Back in
slavery time boys did not wear britches. They wore shirts and our hair
was long. The slaves say if you cut a child's hair before he or she was
ten or twelve years old they won't talk plain until they are that old."
Interviewer: Miss Irene Robertson
Person interviewed: J.E. Filer, Marianna, Arkansas
Age: 76
"I was born in Washington, Georgia. I come here in 1866. There was three
stores in Marianna. My parents name Betsy and Bob Filer. My mother
belong to Collins in Georgia. She come to this state with Colonel Woods.
She worked in the field in Georgia and here too. Mama said they always
had some work on hand. Work never played out. When it was cold and
raining they would shuck corn to send to mill. The men would be under a
shelter making boards or down at the blacksmith shop sharpening up the
tools so they could work.
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