e time. You know in slave time they had an
old woman to cook for the chillen. One day they were going to have
company. This woman that was the boss of the place where the chillen was
kept told the old cullud woman to take a piece of bacon and grease the
mouths of all the chillen. Then she told a boy to bring them up to these
people, and the woman said: 'Oh, you must feed these chillen good, just
look at their mouths!' And the woman said, 'Oh, that's the way they
eat.' They didn't get meat often. That was just to make them believe
they had lots to eat.

"No. They were cut off from education. The way my stepfather got his
learning was a cullud blacksmith would teach school at night, and us
chillen taught our mother. She didn't know how to spell or read or
nothin'. She didn't know B from bull's foot. Some of them were allowed
to have church and some didn't. Mighty few read the Bible 'cause they
couldn't read. As my mother used to say, they were raised up as green
as cucumbers. That old blacksmith was the onlyist man that knew how to
read and write in slavery time that I knew of. My grandmother or none of
them knew how to read; they could count, but that was all. That's what
makes me mad. I tell my grandchillen they ought to learn all they can
'cause the old people never had a chance. My husband never did have any
schooling, but he sure could figger. Now, if you want me to get tangled
up, just give me a pencil and paper and I don't know nothing." She
tapped her skull. "I figger in my head! The chillen, today, ought to
appreciate an education.

"Oh, yes, they were good to the slaves when they were sick. They would
have the doctor come out and wait on them. Most plantations had what
they called an old granny cullud woman that treated the chillen with
herbs and such things.

"Games? I don't know. We used to play rap jacket. We would get switches
and whip one another. You know, after you was hit several times it
didn't hurt much. I've played a many time. In slave time the men used to
go huntin' at night, and hunt 'possums and 'coons. They would have a dog
or two along. They used to go six or seven miles afoot to corn huskin's
and quiltin's. And those off the other plantations would come over and
join in the work. And they would nearly always have a good dinner.
Sometimes some of the owners would give 'em a hog or somethin' nice to
eat, but some of 'em didn't.

"No'm, I don't know if they run off to the North, but some of th