Parish seldom punished his slaves, and never did he permit his overseer to do so.  If the slaves failed to do their work, they were reported to him.  He would warn them and show his black whip which was usually sufficient.  He had seen overseers beat slaves to death, and he did not want to risk losing the money he had invested in his.  After his death, his son managed the plantation in much the same manner as his father.

But the war was destined to make the Parishes lose all their slaves by giving them their freedom.  Even though they were free to go, many of the slaves elected to remain with their mistress who had always been kind to them.  The war swept away much of the money which her husband had left her; and although she would liked to have kept all of her slaves, she found it impossible to do so.  She allowed the real old slaves to remain on the premises and kept a few of the younger ones to work about the plantation.  Douglas and his parents were among those who remained on the plantation.  His father was a skilled bricklayer and carpenter, and he was employed to make repairs to the property.  His mother cooked for the Parishes.

Many of the Negroes migrated North, and they wrote back stories of the “new country” where “de white folks let you do jes as you please.”  These stories influenced a great number of other Negroes to go North and begin life anew as servants, waiters, laborers and cooks.  The Negroes who remained in the South were forced to make their own living.  At the end of the war, foods and commodities had gone up to prices that were impossible for the Negro to pay.  Ham, for example, cost 40c and 50c a pound; lard was 25c; cotton was two dollars a bushel.

Douglas’ father taught him all that he knew about carpentry and bricklaying, and the two were in demand to repair, remodel, or build houses for the white people.  Although he never attended school, Charles Parish could calculate very rapidly the number of bricks that it would take to build a house.  After the establishing of schools by the Freedmen’s Bureau, Douglas’ father made him go, but he did not like the confinement of school and soon dropped out.  The teachers for the most part, were white, who were concerned only with teaching the ex-slaves reading, writing, and arithmetic.  The few colored teachers went into the community in an effort to elevate the standards of living.  They went into the churches where they were certain to reach the greatest number of people and spoke to them of their mission.  The Negro teachers were cordially received by the ex-slaves who were glad to welcome some “Yankee niggers” into their midst.