olumbia County
said, in describing the Quarters, "Dey look like dis street." She
indicated the unpaved street with its rows of unpainted shacks. "Some of
dem wus plank houses and some wus log houses, two rooms and a shed room.
And we had good beds, too--high tester beds wid good corn shuck and hay
mattresses."

On the plantation of John Roof the slave cabins were of logs. Large
families had two or three rooms; smaller ones one or two rooms.

Susannah Wyman, who was a slave on the Starling Freeman place near Troy,
S.C. said, "Our houses wus made outer logs. We didn't have nothin' much
nohow, but my mammy she had plenty o' room fer her chillun. We didn't
sleep on de flo', we had bed. De people in de plantachun all had bed."

Others described mattresses made of straw and corn shucks. Another said,
"Yas'm, we had good cotton mattresses. Marster let us go to de gin house
and git all de cotton we need."

Another described the sleeping conditions thus, "Chillun pretty much
slep' on de flo' and old folks had beds. Dey wus made out o' boards
nailed togedder wid a rope strung across it instead o' springs, and a
cotton mattress across it."

FOOD

Many of the Negroes with whom we talked looked back on those days of
plenty with longing. Rations of meal, bacon and syrup were given out
once a week by the overseer. Vegetables, eggs and chickens raised in the
little plots back of the cabins were added to these staples.

Ellen Campbell, who was owned by Mr. William Eve of Richmond County
said, "My boss would feed 'em good. He was killin' hogs stidy fum
Jinuary to March. He had two smokehouses. Dere wus four cows. At night
de folks on one side de row o' cabins go wid de piggins fer milk, and in
de mawnin's, dose on de odder side go fer de piggins o' milk."

"And did you have plenty of other good things to eat?" we asked.

"Law, yas'm. Rations wus give out to de slaves; meal, meat, and jugs o'
syrup. Dey give us white flour at Christmas. Every slave family had de
gyarden patch and chickens. Marster buy eggs and chickens fum us at
market prices."

Another slave told us that when the slaves got hungry before dinner time
they would ask the nursing mothers to bring them back hoe-cake when they
went to nurse the babies. Those hot hoe-cakes were eaten in mid-morning,
"to hold us till dinner-time."

On one plantation where the mother was the cook for the owner, her
children were fed from the big kitchen.

A piece of iron crossed