o, but he
ain't called me.

How the Day Went

"We got up after daylight. Tom Eford didn't make his folks git up early.
But after he was dead and gone, things changed up. The res' made 'em git
up before daylight. He was a good man. The Lord knows. Yes Lord, way
before day. You'd be in the field to work way before day and then work
way into the night. The white folks called Eford's colored people poor
white folks because he was so good to them. Old Tom Eford was the
sheriff of Clayton.

"His folks came back to the house at noon and et their dinner at the
house. He had a cook and dinner was prepared for them just like it was
for the white folks. The colored woman that cooked for them had it ready
when they came there for it. They had a great big kitchen and the hands
ate there. They came back to the same place for supper. And they didn't
have to work late either. Old Tom Eford never worked his hands extra.
That is the reason they called his niggers poor-white folks. Folks lived
at home them days and et in the same place. When my old man was living,
I had plenty. Smokehouse was full of good meat. Now everything you git,
you have to buy.

"Next morning, they all et their breakfast in the same kitchen. They et
three meals a day every day. My mother never cooked except on Sunday.
She didn't need to.

Patrollers

"Me and old lady Eford would be out in the yard and I would hear her
cuss the pateroles because they didn't want folks to 'buse their
niggers. They had to git a pass from their masters when they would be
out. If they didn't have a pass, the pateroles would whip them.

Jayhawkers

"The jayhawkers would catch folks and carry them out in the woods and
hang them up. They'd catch you and beat you to death.

Runaways

"Colored folks what would run away, old lady Eford would call them
'rottenheads' and 'bloody bones.' We would hear the hounds baying after
them and old lady Eford would stand out in the yard and cuss them--cuss
the hounds I mean. Like that would do any good. Some slaves would kill
theirselves before they would be caught. They would hear them dogs. I
have seen old Tom Eford. He would have them dogs. He was sheriff and he
had to do it. He carried them dogs. He would be gone two weeks before
he would be back sometimes. Alden or Alton was the place they said they
carried the runaways.

Slave Breeding

"They never kept no slaves for breeding on any plantation I heard of.
They would work t