plantation: One is de whole
tas', meanin' a whole han' or a person een his prime. He wus given two
tas' fur dis day's wurk. A tas' carried frum twenty four to twenty five
rows which wus thirty-five feet long en twenty five feet wide. De shree
fourth han' wus given one whole tas' which consists of twelve rows. All
de young chillun wus included in dis group. De half han' was de old
slaves who did a half tas' for dere day's work. When it was time to pick
cotton, de shree fourth han' had to pick thirty pound' an' de half han'
twenty fur dere day's wurk. Dose who attended to the gin only include de
three fourth han'.

"Massa had shree kinds o' punishment fur dose who disobeyed him. One wus
de sweatbox. It wus made de height of de person an' no larger. Jus'
large 'nough so de person woodn' hab to be squeezed in. De box is
nailed an' een summer is put een de hot sun; een de winter it is put in
de coldest, dampest place. De next is de Stock. Wood is nailed on floor
with de person lyin' on his back wid hans an' feet tied wood a heavy
weight on de chest. De shird is de Bilboa. You are place on a high
scaffold fur so many hours an' if you don' try to keep a level head,
you'll fall an you will surely hurt yourself if your neck isn't broken.
Most o' de time dey were put dere so dey could break dere necks."

_SOURCE_

Information from an interview with Mr. Prince Smith, who is supposed to
be over a hundred years of age, Wardmalaw Island, S.C.

=Project 1885-1=
=Folklore=
=Spartanburg, Dist. 4=
=Nov. 29, 1937=

=Edited by:=
=Elmer Turnage=

=STORIES FROM EX-SLAVES=

"Lawsey, honey chile, how does I know jes' when I was born. All sech as
dat don't mean nothing to us old slave time darkies. De mis'tus say,
'Silas, you sho was thirteen years old when dat 'Federate War wound up!
Dat's all I knows and dat's what I goes by. De white folks is worrying
'bout my age being in sech and sech a year and all de like of dat. No
sech as dat don't worry Silas, kaise he sho don't give it no mind, dat I
doesn't.

"Mis'tus call us all to set down on de side steps wid our hats in our
hands. She read dat paper. When she git through, us still sets, kaise no
writing never aggrevated us niggers way back dar. She wait a few
minutes; den she 'low: 'It means dat you all is free, jes' as free as I
is.' 'Dumpling Pie' jumped up and started crying. We all looked at him,
kaise he was a fat lazy thing dat laid around like dumplings