One Trizvan
Two Sarah
Three Martha
Four William
Five Mary, the fifth
Six Lizzie, the sixth
Seven Emma, the seven
Eighth Alice, the eighth
Nine Joanna
Ten Havilla
Eleven Ella
Twelve Redonia
Thirteen Caesar
Fourteen Zackie
Fifteen Eddie
Sixteen (He could not remember)
"Three boys so scattered about you can't tell anything about them. All chimney, clay. All chimneys that day, clay. Moved right away soon as Freedom came. Women done cooking and washing same as now. Shuck mattress. My mother was a weaver. Old timey loom. Cotton and wool. Sheckel (Shuttle?)
"I remember one song my mother sang:
Do, Lord, remember me!
Remember me when the year go round!
Do, Lord, remember me!
Why can't you die
Like Jesus died?
He laid in His grave!
He crippled some.
Some He saved.
"I can't get it all.
"My father head man on the plantation. Indigo? Cut the bush down. Put it in sacks. Let it drip out. Call that indigo mud. Raise cattle and hogs loose over the County. No cash money was give to slave. Had to get a ticket. Hire they self out as stevedore—anywhere they could—and pay Massa so much for the time. Smart slave do that. Oh, yes, my father do that. If they keep themselves alive after freedom, they doing well.
"Schooling? Only by night. And that couldn't be known. When he could get any body to teach him 'ABC' but wasn't allowed to go to any school.
"We'd eat peas, rice, cornbread, rye bread, sweetbread. Most molasses. Game was all over the woods. Everybody could hunt everybody land those days. Hunting was free. When I come along had to work too hard to hunt. Could get pike out the lakes. Go fishing Sabbath. That was day off. Sunday free day. Wild turkey. 'Possum. Don't bother with no coon much. 'Possum and squirrel all we could get. Had our garden. Different bean and collard. Turnip.
"Clothes? Regular wool and cotton. Maple dye and indigo. Red, blue, gray. Lot of gray. Big slave owners had a shoemaker. Plenty of hides. Cow hides, deer hides.
"When I married, was working turpentine. Rent timber and cut boxes.