"What is you talkin' 'bout Miss? I didn't need to have no big weddin' when I married Lige Elder. It was a big 'nough thing to git a man lak what I got. What did I want to have a big weddin' for when all I was atter was my man? Us had done been married 25 years 'fore us had no chillun. Dis here Cornelia what I lives wid was our first chile. She ain't got no chillun. Isaac, my boy, has got four chillun. My old man died 'bout two years ago.
"I j'ined de church 'cause I was happy and wanted de world to know I had done got 'ligion. I think evvybody ought to git 'ligion. God says if us do right he will give us all a home in His Heaven.
"I'd rather have de days as dey is now in some ways. But one thing I does lak to do is eat and us had a plenty of good eatin' den and never had to worry none 'bout whar it was a-comin' f'um. Miss, ain't you through axin' me questions yet? I'm tired of talkin'. I done let de fire go out under my washpot twice. Dem white folks ain't gwine to lak it if dey has to wait for deir clothes, and dis misery in my laigs, it sho' does hurt me bad dis mornin'."
MARTHA EVERETTE, EX-SLAVE
Hawkinsville, Georgia
(Interviewed By Elizabeth Watson—1936)
[JUL 20 1937]
Born in Pulaski County about 1848, the daughter of Isaac and Amanda Lathrop, Martha Everette has lived all her life near where she was born.
Prior to freedom, her first job was "toting in wood", from which she was soon "promoted" to waiting on the table, house cleaning, etc. She make no claims to have ever "graduated" as a cook, as so many old before-the-war Negresses do.
"Aunt" Martha's owner was a kind man: he never whipped the slaves, but the overseer "burnt 'em up sometimes." And her mother was a "whipper, too"—a woman that "fanned" her children religiously, so to speak, not overlooking Martha. All the Watson slaves attended the (White) Baptist church at Blue Springs.
Rations were distributed on Sunday morning of each week, and the slaves had plenty to eat. The slaves were also allowed to fish, thus often adding variety to their regular fare.