Runaways

“Colored folks what would run away, old lady Eford would call them ‘rottenheads’ and ‘bloody bones.’  We would hear the hounds baying after them and old lady Eford would stand out in the yard and cuss them—­cuss the hounds I mean.  Like that would do any good.  Some slaves would kill theirselves before they would be caught.  They would hear them dogs.  I have seen old Tom Eford.  He would have them dogs.  He was sheriff and he had to do it.  He carried them dogs.  He would be gone two weeks before he would be back sometimes.  Alden or Alton was the place they said they carried the runaways.

Slave Breeding

“They never kept no slaves for breeding on any plantation I heard of.  They would work them to death and breed them too.  There was places where old massa kept one for hisself.

Amusements

“Folks had heap more pleasure than they do now in slave time.  They had parties and dances and they would bow ’round.  They had fiddles and danced by them.  Folks danced them days.  They don’t dance now, just mess around.  My brother could scrape the fiddle and dance on, all at the same time.  Folks would give big suppers and ask people out.  They would feed nice times with one another.  Folks ain’t got no love in their hearts like they used to have.

“Folks would give quiltings.  They don’t think about quilting now.  They would quilt out a quilt and dance the rest of the night.  They would have a big supper at the quilting.  Nice time too.  They would kill a hog and barbecue it.  They would cook chicken.  Have plenty of whiskey too.  Some folks would get drunk.  That was whiskey them days.  They ain’t got no whiskey now—­old poison stuff that will kill people.

My daddy was jus’ drunk all the time.  He had plenty of whiskey.  That was what killed old Tom Eford.  He kept it settin’ on the dresser all the time.  You couldn’t walk in his house but what you would see it time you got in.  Folks hide it now.  I have drunk a many a glass of it.  I would go and take a glass whenever I wanted to.

How Freedom Came

“The old white folks told me I was free.  They had me hired out.  I wasn’t staying with my owner.  There wasn’t nobody there with me but the white folks where I was staying.  That morning I got up to get breakfast and there wasn’t no fire and there wasn’t so matches.  I went to some neighbors to get a chunk of fire and they told me to go back to my folks because I was free.  When I got back to the house they was mad and wanted to whip me.  So I just put the fire down and never cooked no breakfast but jus’ went on to my brother’s.  The reason they wanted to whip me was because I had gone outside of the house without their knowing it.

“When I went to my brother’s, I had to walk twelve miles.  My brother carried me to my mother and father.  And then he took me back to old lady Eford, and she told me to go on to my mother, that I was free now.  So he took me on back to my ma and pa.  He said he’d do that so that I could stay with them.