ome live
stock.

As Mr. Kennon owned only a few slaves it was necessary for these few
persons to do all of the work. Says Mrs. Price: "My mother had to do
everything from cultivating cotton to cooking." The same was true of her
father and the other servant. Before the break of day each morning they
were all called to prepare for the day's work. Mrs. Price then told how
she has seen the men of her plantation and those of the adjoining one
going to the fields at this unearthly hour eating their breakfast while
sitting astride the back of a mule. After her mother had finished
cooking and cleaning the house she was sent to the field to help the
men. When it was too dark to see all field hands were permitted to
return to their cabins. This same routine was followed each day except
Sundays when they were permitted to do much as they pleased. When the
weather was too bad for field work they shelled corn and did other types
of work not requiring too much exposure. Holidays were unheard of on the
Kennon plantation. As a little slave girl the only work that Mrs. Price
ever had to do was to pick up chips and bark for her mother to cook
with. The rest of the time was spent in playing with the "Marster's"
little girls.

"The servants on our plantation always had a plenty of clothes,"
continued Mrs. Price, "while those on the plantation next to ours (Mrs.
Kennon's father) never had enough, especially in the winter." This
clothing was given when it was needed and not at any specified time as
was the case on some of the other plantations in that community. All of
these articles were made on the plantation and the materials that were
mostly used were homespun (which was also woven on the premises) woolen
goods, cotton goods and calico. It has been mentioned before that the
retinue of servants was small in number and so for this reason all of
them had a reasonable amount of those clothes that had been discarded by
the master and the mistress. After the leather had been cured it was
taken to the Tannery where crude shoes called "Twenty Grands" were made.
These shoes often caused the wearer no little amount of discomfort until
they were thoroughly broken in.

For bedding, homespun sheets were used. The quilts and blankets were
made from pieced cotton material along with garments that were unfit for
further wear. Whenever it was necessary to dye any of these articles a
type of dye made by boiling the bark from trees was used.

In the s