eparate log house out in the back yard. The
fireplace, where the cooking was done, took up one end of the kitchen,
and there was a rack acrost it to hang the cook-pots on for biling.
Baking and frying was done in ovens and heavy iron skillets that sat on
trivets so coals could be piled underneath, as well as over the lids.

"The long shirts slave boys wore in summer were straight like a meal
sack open at both ends, with holes in the sides for your arms to go
through. You stuck your head in one end and it came out the other; then
you were fully dressed for any whole summer day. These summer shirts
were made of thin osnaburg. Our winter clothes were made of woolen cloth
called merino. Old Boss kept enough sheep to provide plenty of wool and
some mighty good food. Slave children had no extra or special clothes
for Sunday; they wore the same kind of gowns, or long shirts, seven days
a week. Old Boss provided brass-toed brogans for winter, but we never
thought of such a thing as shoes to wear in hot weather.

"My owners were Marse Solomon and his wife, Miss Ann Willbanks. We
called them Old Boss and Old Miss. As I saw it, they were just as good
as they could be. Old Boss never allowed nobody to impose on his slave
children. When I was a little chap playing around the big house, I would
often drop off to sleep the minute I got still. Good Old Boss would pick
me up and go lay me on his own bed and keep me there 'til Ma come in
from the field.

"Old Boss and Old Miss had five children. The boys were Solomon, Isaac,
James, and Wesley. For the life of me I can't bring to memory the name
of their only daughter. I guess that's because we frolicked with the
four boys, but we were not allowed to play with Little Miss.

"It was a right decent house they lived in, a log house with a fine rock
chimney. Old Boss was building a nice house when the war come on and he
never had a chance to finish it. The log house was in a cedar grove;
that was the style then. Back of the house were his orchards where fruit
trees of every kind we knew anything about provided plenty for all to
eat in season as well as enough for good preserves, pickles, and the
like for winter. Old Boss done his own overseeing and, 'cording to my
memory, one of the young bosses done the driving.

"That plantation covered a large space of land, but to tell you how many
acres is something I can't do. There were not so many slaves. I've
forgot how they managed that business