Slave Houses

“The old slave house was a log house built out of hewed logs.  The logs were scalped on each side to give it the appearance of a box house.  And they said the logs would fit together better, too.  They would chink up the cracks with grass and dirt—­what they called ‘dob’.  That is what they called chinking to keep the wind and rain out.

“I was born in a one-room hut with a clapboard room on one side for the kitchen and storeroom.  They would go out in the woods and split out the clapboards.  My mother had eight of we children in that room at one time.

Furniture

“As to furniture, well, we had benches for chairs.  They were made out of punching four holes in a board and putting sticks in there for legs.  That is what we sat on.  Tables generally were nailed up with two legs out and with the wall to support the other side.  The beds were made in a corner with one leg out and the two walls supporting the other sides.  They called that bed the ‘Georgia Horse’.  We had an old cupboard made up in a corner.

Food

“Food was generally kept in the old cupboard my mother had.  When she had too much for the cupboard, she put it in an old chist.

Right After the War

“My mother had eight children to feed.  After the emancipation she had to hustle for all of them.  She would go up to work—­pick cotton, pull corn, or what not, and when she came home at night she had on old dog she called ‘Coldy’.  She would go out and say, ‘Coldy, Coldy, put him up.’  And a little later, we would hear Coldy bark and she would go out and Coldy would have something treed.  And she would take whatever he had-’possum, coon, or what not-and she would cook it, and we would have it for breakfast the next morning.

“Mother used to go out on neighboring farms and they would give her the scraps when they killed hogs and so on.  One night she was coming home with some meat when she was attacked by wolves.  Old Coldy was along and a little yellow dog.  The dogs fought the wolves and while they were fighting, she slipped home.  Next morning old Coldy showed up cut almost in two where the wolves had bitten him.  We bandaged him up and took care of him.  And he lived for two or more years.  The little yellow dog never did show up no more.  Mother said that the wolves must have killed and eaten him.

Schooling