sums was biled 'til they was tender,
then baked with sweet 'taters, and thar ain't no better way been found
to fix 'em to this good day, not even if they's barbecued. Sho, sho, us
had rabbits and squirrels by the wholesale, and fish too if us tuk time
to do our fishin' at night. They never did lak to see slaves settin'
'round fishin' in the daytime.

"All the cookin' was done in a log cabin what sot a good little piece
behind the big house. The big old fireplace in that kitchen held a
four-foot log, and when you was little you could set on one end of that
log whilst it was a-burnin' on t'other. They biled in pots hangin' from
hooks on a iron bar that went all the way 'cross the fireplace, and the
bakin' was done in skillets and ovens, but sometimes bread was wropt up
in cabbage or collard leaves and baked in hot ashes; that was ashcake.
Thick iron lids fitted tight on them old skillets, and most of 'em had
three legs so hot coals could be raked under 'em. The ovens sot on
trivets over the coals.

"Our clothes warn't nothin' to talk about. In summer boys wore just one
piece and that looked lak a long nightshirt. Winter clothes was jean
pants and homespun shirts; they was warm but not too warm. Thar warn't
no sich things as Sunday clothes in them days, and I never had a pair of
shoes on my foots in slavery time, 'cause I warn't big enough to wuk.
Grown Negroes wore shoes in winter but they never had none in summer.

"Marse Robert Trammell and his wife, Miss Martha, was our marster and
mistess. Miss Ada, Miss Emma, and Miss Mary 'Liza was the young misses,
and the young marsters was named George Washin'ton and William Daniel.
Marse Robert and his fambly lived in a log and plank house with a rock
chimbly. He was buildin' a fine rock house when the war came on, but he
never got it finished.

"Robert Scott, one of the slaves, was made foreman atter Marse Robert
turned off his overseer. Gilbert was the carriage driver and 'sides
drivin' the fambly 'round, he tuk Marse Robert's ma, Miss Betsey, to her
church at Powder Springs. Miss Betsey was a Hardshell Baptist, and Marse
Robert and his wife wouldn't go to church with her.

"That old plantation was a large place all right enough; I 'spects thar
was 'bout four or five hunderd acres in it. Marse Robert warn't no big
slave holder and he didn't have so awful many slaves. His foreman had
'em out in the fields by daylight and wuked 'em 'til dark. The women had
a certain stint o