ers mostly cooked at
home--in their cabins.

Work

"My mother and father worked around the house and yard. Slaves in the
field had to pick a certain amount of cotton. The man had to pick from
two to three hundred pounds of cotton a day if he wasn't sick, and the
woman had to pick about one hundred fifty. Of course some of them
could pick more. They worked in a way of speaking from can till can't,
from the time they could see until the time they couldn't. They do
about the same thing now.

Recreation

"I remember the time the white folks used to make the slaves all come
around in the yard and sing every Sunday evening. I can't remember any
of the songs straight through. I can just remember them in spots.

'Give me Jesus, you can have all the world
In the morning when I arise, Give me Jesus.'
(Fragment)

* * * * *

'Lie on him if you sing right
Lie on him if you pray right
God knows that your heart is not right
Come, let us go to heaven anyhow.'
(Fragment)

* * * * *

'The ark was seen at rest upon the hill
On the hills of Calvary
And Great Jehovah spoke
Sanctify to God upon the hill.'
(First verse)

* * * * *

'Peter spied the promised land
On the hill of Calvary
And Great Jehovah spoke
Sanctify to God upon the hill.'
(Second verse)

There was lots more that they sung.

"They could go to parties too, but when they went to them or to
anything else, they had to have a pass. When they went to a party the
most they did was to play the fiddle and dance. They had corn huskings
every Friday night, and they ground the meal every Saturday. The corn
husking was the same as fun. They didn't serve anything on the place
where I was. I never knew them to serve anything at the corn shuckings
or at the parties. Sometimes they would give a picnic, and they would
kill a hog for that.

Life Since Freedom

"Right after the war, my father hired me out to nurse. Then I stayed
around the house and helped my stepmother, and the white girls taught
me a little until I got to be thirteen years old. Then I got three
months' schooling in a regular school. I came here in 1915. I had been
living in Newport before that.