re and entice de colored folks onto de boat to see de purty
things. Befo' de darkies realized it dey would be out from shore.
Dat's de way she was captured. Fifteen to twenty-five would pay dem
for de trip as dey all brought good prices.

I was born and raised in Louisiana, near Winfield. My mother's Master
was John Rogers and his wife was Miss Millie. Dey was awful good to
deir slaves and he never whupped his grown niggers.

I 'member when I was a child dat we didn't have hardly anything to
keep house wid, but we got along purty well I guess. Our furniture was
home-made and we cooked on de fireplace.

We saved all our oak-wood ashes, and would put a barrel on a slanting
scaffold and put sticks and shucks in de bottom of de barrel and den
fill it wid de ashes. We'd pour water in it and let it drip. Dese
drippings made pure lye. We used dis wid cracklings and meat scraps to
make our soap.

Father took a good-sized pine long and split it open, planed it down
smooth and bored holes in de bottom and drove pegs in dem for legs;
dis was our battling bench. We'd spread our wet clothes on dis and
rub soap on 'em and take a paddle and beat de dirt out. We got 'em
clean but had to be careful not to wear 'em out wid de paddle.

We had no tubs either, so father took a hollow log and split it open
and put partitions in it. He bored a hole in each section and drove a
peg in it. He next cut two forked poles and drove 'em in de ground and
rested de ends of de hollow log in dese forks. We'd fill de log trough
wid water and rinse our clothes. We could pull out de pegs and let de
water out. We had no brooms either, so we made brush brooms to sweep
our floors.

Dere was lots of wild game near our home. I 'member father and two
more men going out and killing six deer in jest a little while. Dey
was plentiful, and so was squirrels, coon, possums and quail. Dere was
lots of bears, too. We'd be in de field working and hear de dogs, and
father and de boys would go to 'em and maybe dey'd have a bear. We
liked bear meat. It was dark, but awful good and sweet.

De grown folks used to have big times at log-rollings, corn-shuckings
and quiltings. Dey'd have a big supper and a big dance at night. Us
children would play ring plays, play with home-made rag dolls, or we'd
take big leaves and pin 'em together wid thorns and make hats and
dresses. We'd ride saplings, too. All of us would pull a sapling down
and one would climb up in it near de top