ild.
You know they whipped people in those days and forced them. That is
why he didn't go by the name of Watts after he got free and could
select his own name.

"The name of my mother's mother was Celia Watts. I don't know my
grandfather's first name. Old man Alec Watts' father gave my mother to
him. I didn't know anything about that except what was told to me.
They bought her from South Carolina. They came to Louisiana. My father
was bought in South Carolina too. After the Haynes met the Watts,
Watts married old man Haynes' daughter. He gave my father to his
daughter, Mary Watts. She was Mary Watts after she was married. She
was Mary Haynes before. Watts' father gave my mother to Alec Watts.
That is just the way it was.

"My mother and father had three children to live. I think there were
about thirteen in all. There are just two of us living now. I couldn't
tell you where Jeffrey Summerville, my living brother, is living now.

Slave Houses

"The slaves lived in hewed-log houses. I have often seen hewed-log
houses. Have you ever seen one? You cut big logs and split them open
with a maul and a wedge. Then you take a pole ax and hack it on both
sides. Then you notch it--cut it into a sort of tongue and groove
joint in each end. Before you cut the notches in the end, you take a
broad ax and hew it on both sides. The notch holds the corners of the
house-ties every corner. You put the rafters up just like you do now.
Then you lathe the rafters and then put boards on top of the rafters.
Sometimes shingles were used on the rafters instead of boards.

"You would finish off the outside of the walls by making clay cakes
out of mud and filling up the cracks with them. When that clay got
hard, nothing could go through the walls. Sometimes thin boards were
nailed on the inside to finish the interior.

Furniture and Food

"They had planks--homemade wooden beds. They made tables and chairs.
They caned the chairs. They made the tables with four legs. You made
it just like you would make a box, adding the legs.

"A little house called the smokehouse was built in one of the corners
of the yard. They would weigh out to each one so much food for the
week's supply--mostly meat and meal, sometimes rice. They'd give you
parched meal and rye too.

"Sometimes they had the slaves cook their food in the cabins. Mostly
all the time. My people ate in the kitchen because my mother was the
cook and my father was the yard man. The oth