l floors
were of dirt on the plantation belonging to the elder Mr. Kennon.

A doctor was employed to attend to those persons who were sick. However
he never got chance to practice on the Kennon premises as there was
never any serious illness. Minor cases of sickness were usually treated
by giving the patient a dose of castor oil or several doses of some form
of home made medicine which the slaves made themselves from roots that
they gathered in the woods. In order to help keep his slaves in good
health Mr. Kennon required them to keep the cabins they occupied and
their surroundings clean at all times.

Mrs. Price said that the slaves had very few amusements and as far as
she can remember she never saw her parents indulge in any form of play
at all. She remembers, however, that on the adjoining plantation the
slaves often had frolics where they sang and danced far into the night.
These frolics were not held very often but were usually few and far
between.

As there was no church on the plantation Mr. Kennon gave them a pass on
Sundays so that they could attend one of the churches that the town
afforded. The sermons they heard were preached by a white preacher and
on rare occasions by a colored preacher. Whenever the colored pastor
preached there were several white persons present to see that [HW: no]
doctrine save that laid down by them should be preached. All of the
marrying on both plantations [TR: duplicate section removed here] was
done by a preacher.

It has been said that a little learning is a dangerous thing and this
certainly was true as far as the slaves were concerned, according to
Mrs. Price. She says: "If any of us were ever caught with a book we
would get a good whipping." Because of their great fear of such a
whipping none of them ever attempted to learn to read or to write.

As a general rule Mrs. Price and the other nembers of her family were
always treated kindly by the Kennon family. None of them were ever
whipped or mistreated in any way. Mrs. Price says that she has seen
slaves on the adjoining plantation whipped until the blood ran. She
describes the sight in the following manner. "The one to be whipped was
tied across a log or to a tree and then his shirt was dropped around his
waist and he was lashed with a cow hide whip until his back was raw."
Whippings like these were given when a slave was unruly or disobedient
or when he ran away. Before a runaway slave could be whipped he had to
be cau