s, "On Christmas each of us stood in line to get
our clothes; we were measured with a string which was made by a cobbler.
The material had been woben by the slaves in a plantation shop. The flax
and hemp were raised on the plantation. The younger slaves had to
"swingle it" with a wooden instrument, somewhat like a sword, about two
feet long, and called a swingler. The hemp was hackled by the older
slaves. The hackle was an instrument made of iron teeth, about four
inches long, one-half inch apart and set in a wooden plank one and
one-half feet long, which was set on a heavy bench. The hemp stalks were
laid on these benches and hackled herds were then pulled through and
heaped in piles and taken to the work shops where it was twisted and
tied then woven, according to the needs. Ropes, carpets, and clothing
were made from this fiber.

"Our cabins were usually one room with a loft above which we reached by
a ladder. Our beds were trundle beds with wheels on them to push them
under the big beds. We slept on straw ticks covered with Lindsey
quilts, which were made from the cast-off clothes, cut into squares and
strips."

Bert can just remember his grandparents.

He would feed pigs; pulled "pusley" out of the garden for them "and them
pigs loved it mighty well".

No money was paid for work. Bacon and "pone bread" baked in the yard in
an oven that had legs and lid on top was the chief food and his
favorite. The coals were put on top as well as under the oven. They
drank sweet milk and butter milk, but no coffee; they also ate cabbage,
squash, sweet and Irish potatoes, which were cooked with, skins on,
greased, and put in the oven. "Possum" and coon hunts were big events,
they would hunt all night. The possums were baked in the ovens and
usually with sweet potatoes in their mouths. The little boys would fish,
bringing home their fish to be scaled by rubbing them between their
hands, rolled in meal and cooked in a big skillet. "We would eat these
fish with pone corn bread and we sho' had big eatins!"

Marse Stone had a big sugar camp with 300 trees. We would be waked up at
sun-up by a big horn and called to get our buckets and go to the sugar
camps and bring water from the maple trees. These trees had been tapped
and elderwood spiles were placed in the taps where the water dripped to
the wooden troughs below. We carried this water to the big poplar
troughs which were about 10 feet long and 3 feet high. The water was
then d