13]

AN INTERVIEW ON SLAVERY OBTAINED FROM
MRS. SARAH BYRD--EX-SLAVE

Mrs. Sarah Byrd claims to be 95 years of age but the first impression
one receives when looking at her is that of an old lady who is very
active and possessing a sweet clear voice. When she speaks you can
easily understand every word and besides this, each thought is well
expressed. Often during the interview she would suddenly break out in a
merry laugh as if her own thoughts amused her.

Mrs. Sarah Byrd was born in Orange County Virginia the youngest of three
children. During the early part of her childhood her family lived in
Virginia her mother Judy Newman and father Sam Goodan each belonging to
a different master. Later on the family became separated the father was
sold to a family in East Tennessee and the mother and children were
bought by Doctor Byrd in Augusta, Georgia. Here Mrs. Byrd remarked
"Chile in them days so many families were broke up and some went one way
and der others went t'other way; and you nebber seed them no more.
Virginia wuz a reg'lar slave market."

Dr. Byrd owned a large plantation and raised such products as peas
potatoes, cotton corn (etc). There were a large number of slaves. Mrs.
Byrd was unable to give the exact number but remarked. "Oh Lordy Chile I
nebber could tell just how many slaves that man had t'wuz too many uv
em."

The size of the plantation required that the slaves be classified
according to the kind of work each was supposed to do. There were the
"cotton pickers", the "plow hands," the "hoe hands," the "rail
splitters," etc. "My very fust job," remarked Mrs. Byrd, "wuz that uv
cotton picking." Mrs Byrd's mother was a full [TR: field?] hand.

Houses on the Byrd Plantation were made of logs and the cracks were
daubed with mud. The chimnies were made of mud and supported by sticks.

Each fireplace varied in length from 3 to 4 feet because they serve the
purpose of stoves; and the family meals were prepared in those large
fireplaces often two and three pots were suspended from a rod running
across the fireplace. Most of the log houses consisted of one room;
however if the family was very large two rooms were built. The
furnishings consisted only of a home-made table, benches, and a
home-made bed, the mattress of which was formed by running ropes from
side to side forming a framework. Mattresses were made by filling a tick
with wheatstraw. The straw was changed each season. Laughing Mrs. Byrd
remark