ars of age who could not hoe as fast as the older slaves
and the breakfast was sat at the end of the rows and as they would hoe
out to the end they would eat, and if you would be late hoeing to the
end the first to go to the end would began eating and eat everything.
So, this 15 year old lad in order to get out to eat before everything
was gone did not hoe his row good and the overseer, who was white at
this time, whipped him so severely that he could not eat nor work,
that day.

The Negroes went to church with the white people and joined their
church. The church was Baptist in denomination, and they built a pen
in the church in which the Negroes sat, and when they would take
sacrament the Negroes would be served after the whites were through
and one of the Negro group would pass it around to the others within
the pen.

As there were no dances held on the plantation the Negroes would
oftimes slip off and go at nights to a nearby dance or peanut parching
or rice suppers at nights after work. Some of the slaves would be
allowed to make for themselves rice patches which they would gather
and save for the dances. To prepare this rice for cooking after
harvested they would burn a trough into a log, they called mortar and
with a large wooden mallet they called pessel, and which they would
pound upon the rice until hulled and ready for cooking. This rice
would be boiled with just salt and water and eaten as a great feast
with delight.

During slavery some of the Negro slaves would kill snakes and skin
them and wear these snake skins to prevent being voodooed they said.
When some of the slaves would take sick and the home remedies would
fail to cure them our Mistress would allow one of the Negro men slaves
to go to the white doctor and get some medicine for the patient. The
doctor would ask questions as to the actions of the patient and from
said description would send medicine without ever going to see the
patient and his medicine would always cure the patient of his disease
if consulted in time.

After the news came that brought our freedom a white union officer
with 20 trained Negro soldiers visited the plantations and saw that
the Negroes received their freedom. He would put on a demonstration
with his Negro soldiers by having them line up and then at a command
they would all rush forward and stand their guns up together on the
stock end without a one falling and get back into line and upon
another command they would