ved this
history would not have been written.
CHAPTER III.
RAISING TOBACCO, OUR FIRST YEAR OF FREEDOM. MORE PRIVATIONS. FATHER
DIES. IT NEVER RAINS--BUT IT POURS. I BECOME THE HEAD OF THE FAMILY AND
START TO WORK AT $1.50 PER MONTH.
As soon as the corn crop was in the ground we commenced to plant
tobacco. Before the seed was sown, it was necessary to gather large
piles of brush and wood and burn it to ashes on the ground to destroy
the seeds of the weeds. The ground was then spaded and raked thoroughly,
and the seed sown. After it had come up and got a fair start, it was
transplanted in rows about three feet apart. When the plants become
large enough it is necessary to pull the suckers off, also the worms off
the leaves. This task fell upon Jordan and myself.
In picking the worms off the plants it is necessary to use the greatest
care that the plants are not damaged, but Jordan and I were afraid to
touch the worms with our fingers, so we took sticks and knocked them
off, also a few leaves with each worm. This fact called forth some
rather strong language from father, who said we were doing more harm
than good. But our aversion to the worms was so strong that we took
several thrashings before we could bring ourselves to use our fingers
instead of a stick. When the tobacco was ripe there would be yellow
spots on the leaves. It was then cut, let lie for one day, then hung on
a scaffold to be sun cured. It was allowed to remain on the scaffold for
perhaps a week, then it was hung up in the barn to be smoked, after
which it was made into a big bulk and a weight placed on it to press it
out, then it was stripped, and put into hands and then it was ready for
the market. Our crop the first year was not large and the most of it
went to pay the rent and the following winter proved a hard one, and
entailed considerable privation and suffering among the many
ex-slaves, who had so recently been thrown on their own resources,
without money or clothing or food, and only those who have had the
experience can appreciate the condition of things or rather lack of
things, at the close of the war, and these conditions did not only
affect the ex-slaves and colored people, but covered the entire south,
and many former well-to-do slave owners now found themselves without a
penny they could call their own, having been stripped of everything and
compelled to start all over again. Surely "war is hell"--but slavery is
worse. Early
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