ebecca learned along with the
white children. Her father purchased books for her with money he was
allowed to earn from the sale of corn whiskey which he made, or from
work done on some other plantation during his time off. He was not
permitted to buy his freedom, however.

On Sundays Rebecca attended church along with the other slaves. Services
were held in the white churches after their services were over. They
were taught to obey their masters and work hard, and that they should be
very thankful for the institution of slavery which brought them from
darkest Africa.

On the plantation, the doctor was not nearly as popular as the "granny"
or midwife, who brewed medicines for every ailment. Each plantation had
its own "granny" who also served the mistress during confinement. Some
of her remedies follows:

For colds: Horehound tea, pinetop tea, lightwood drippings on sugar.
For fever: A tea made of pomegranate seeds and crushed mint. For
whooping cough: A tea made of sheep shandy (manure); catnip tea. For
spasms: garlic; burning a garment next to the skin of the patient having
the fit.

Shortly before the war, Rebecca was married to Solomon, her husband.
This ceremony consisted of simply jumping over a broom and having some
one read a few words from a book, which may or may not have been the
Bible. After the war, many couples were remarried because of this
irregularity.

Rebecca had learned of the war long before it ended and knew its import.
She had confided this information to other slaves who could read and
write. She read the small newspaper that her master received at
irregular intervals. The two sons of William Lowe had gone to fight with
the Confederate soldiers (One never returned) and everywhere was felt
the tension caused by wild speculation as to the outcome of the war.

Certain commodities were very scarce Rebecca remembers drinking coffee
made of okra seed, that had been dried and parched. There was no silk,
except that secured by "running the blockade," and this was very
expensive. The smokehouse floors were carefully scraped for any morsel
of salt that might be gotten. Salt had to be evaporated from sea water
and this was a slow process.

There were no disorders in that section as far as Rebecca remembers,
but she thinks that the slaves were kept on the Lowe plantation a long
time after they had been freed. It was only when rumors came that Union
soldiers were patrolling the countryside for such o