“One day her mistress went to high mass and left a lot of work for my mother to do.  She was only a girl and it was too much.  There was more work than she could get done.  She had too big a task for a child to get done.  When her old mistress came back and her work was not all done, she beat my mother down to the ground, and then she took one of the skillets and bust her over the head with it—­trying to kill her, I reckon.  I have seen the scar with my own eyes.  It was an awful thing.

“My mother was a house servant in Missouri and Mississippi.  Never done no hard work till she came here (Arkansas).  When they brought her here they tried to make a field hand out of her.  She hadn’t been used to chopping cotton.  When she didn’t chop it fast as the others did, they would beat her.  She didn’t know nothing about no farmwork.  She had all kinds of trouble.  They just didn’t treat her good.  She used to have good times in Missouri and Mississippi but not in Arkansas.  They just didn’t treat her good.  In them days, they’d whip anybody.  They’d tie you to the bed or have somebody hold you down on the floor and whip you till the blood ran.

“But, Lawd, my mother never had no use for Catholics because it was a Catholic that hit her over the head with that skillet—­right after she come from mass.

Food

“My mother said that they used to pour the food into troughs and give it to the slaves.  They’d give them an old, wooden spoon or something and they all eat out of the same dish or trough.  They wouldn’t let the slaves eat out of the things they et out of.  Fed them just like they would hogs.

“When I was little, she used to come to feed me about twelve o’clock every day.  She hurry in, give me a little bowl of something, and then hurry right on out because she had to go right back to her work.  She didn’t have time to stay and see how I et.  If I had enough, it was all right.  If I didn’t have enough, it was all right.  It might be pot liquor or it might be just anything.

“One day she left me alone and I was lying on the floor in front of the fireplace asleep.  I didn’t have no bed nor nothing then.  The fire must have popped out and set me on fire.  You see they done a whole lot of weaving in them days.  And they put some sort of lint on the children.

“I don’t reckon children them days knowed what a biscuit was.  They just raked up whatever was left off the table and brung it to you.  Children have a good time nowadays.

“People goin’ to work heard me hollering and came in and put out the fire.  I got scars all round my waist today I could show you.