Soldiers

“I never seed but one or two soldiers.  That was after the surrender.  I suppose they were Union soldiers.  They had on their blue jackets.  There never was any fighting in Nashville, while I was living there.

“About all that I knew about the War was that the men went off to fight.  None of the colored men went—­just the white men.  The colored men stayed back and worked in the field.  Isabel Mitchell and her boys were bosses.  What they said goed.

Slave Houses

“The slaves lived in old log houses.  Some of them were plank houses.  Some of the slaves chinked ’em up with dirt.  They had these big wooden windows in the houses.  Sometimes they would be two, sometimes they would be three windows—­one to each room.  There would be two or three or four rooms to the house.  That would be according to the family.  My mother had three girls besides her own children.  She had a four-room house.  Her house was built right in the white folks’ yard.  My grandmother didn’t work in the field.  She tended to the children.  She worked in the big house.  My mother was boss of the whole thing.  She would go and work in the field but grandmother would see after the children.  She wouldn’t let me go from her to the gate without her.  I just had to follow her everywhere she went.

“Grandmother besides taking care of us used to make clothes.  She cooked for the white folks.  But she sure had to see after us children.  I seed after myself.  I was all the girl-child there and I just did what I wanted to.

“The country was kind of wild in those days.  The deer used to come loping down and we would be scared and run and hide.  Some people would set the dogs on them and some people would kill them no matter who they belonged.

You see, some people had them as pets.

Amusements

“I never seed nothing in the way of amusements except people going to church and going to parties and all such as that.  They believed in going to church.  They would have parties at night.  The white folks didn’t care what they had.  They would help prepare for it.  They would let ’em have anything they wanted to have and let ’em go to church whenever they wanted to go.

And if they took a notion they would have a supper.  When they would have a party they would do just like they do now.  They would have dancing.  I never seed any playing cards.  When they danced, somebody would play the fiddle for them.  When they had a supper, they would usually sell the things.  Then the white folks would come and buy from them.  There would be nice looking things on the table.

Church