d it mess house, us only had one long table, one
small table, a stove, some benches, a few chairs, and stools. Whenever
us got out of forks the men would make some out of wood to be used 'til
some more could be bought. The food we got on Saturday would be turned
over to the cook.

"When you married, your husband didn't stay with you like they do now.
You had to stay with your marster and he had to stay with his. He was
'lowed to come every Saturday night and stay with you and the chillun
'til Monday mornin'. If he was smart enough to have a little garden or
to make little things like little chairs for his chillun to sit in or
tables for 'em to eat on and wanted you to have 'em 'fore he could get
back to see you, they would be sent by the runner. They had one boy they
always used just to go from one place to the other, and they called him
a runner. The runner wouldn't do anythin' else but that.

"Us made everythin' us wore. Us knitted our socks and stockin's. Things
was much better then than they are now. Shoes lasted two and three
years, and clothes didn't tear or wear out as easy as they do now. Us
made all our cloth at night or mos' times durin' the winter time when us
didn't have so much other work to do.

"When a person died he was buried the same day, and the funeral would be
preached one year later. The slaves made your coffin and painted it with
any kind of paint they could find, but they usually painted the outside
box black.

"The slaves 'tended church with their marsters and after their service
was over they would let the slaves hold service. They always left their
pastor to preach for us and sometimes they would leave one of their
deacons. When they left a deacon with us one of our preachers would
preach. They only had two kinds of song books: Baptist Cluster, and
Methodist Cluster. I kept one of these 'til a few years ago. Our
preachers could read some, but only a very few other slaves could read
and write. If you found one that could you might know some of his
marster's chillun had slipped and learned it to him 'cause one thing
they didn't 'low was no colored folk to learn to read and write. Us had
singin' classes on Sunday, and at that time everybody could really sing.
People can't sing now."

End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Slave Narratives: A Folk History of
Slavery in the United States From Interviews with Former Slaves, by Work Projects Administration

*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTE