Louisa and Sam were married in a very revolting manner.  To quote the woman: 

“Marse Jim called me and Sam ter him and ordered Sam to pull off his shirt—­that was all the McClain niggers wore—­and he said to me:  ’Nor, do you think you can stand this big nigger?’ He had that old bull whip flung acrost his shoulder, and Lawd, that man could hit so hard!  So I jes said ‘yassur, I guess so,’ and tried to hide my face so I couldn’t see Sam’s nakedness, but he made me look at him anyhow.”

“Well, he told us what we must git busy and do in his presence, and we had to do it.  After that we were considered man and wife.  Me and Sam was a healthy pair and had fine, big babies, so I never had another man forced on me, thank God.  Sam was kind to me and I learnt to love him.”

Life on the McClain plantation was a steady grind of work from morning until night.  Slaves had to rise in the dark of the morning at the ringing of the “Big House” bell.  After eating a hasty breakfast of fried fat pork and corn pone, they worked in the fields until the bell rang again at noon; at which time they ate boiled vegetables, roasted sweet potatoes and black molasses.  This food was cooked in iron pots which had legs attached to their bottoms in order to keep them from resting directly on the fire.  These utensils were either hung over a fire or set atop a mound of hot coals.  Biscuits were a luxury but whenever they had white bread it was cooked in another thick pan called a “spider”.  This pan had a top which was covered with hot embers to insure the browning of the bread on top.

Slave women had no time for their children.  These were cared for by an old woman who called them twice a day and fed them “pot likker” (vegetable broth) and skimmed milk.  Each child was provided with a wooden laddle which he dipped into a wooden trough and fed himself.  The older children fed those who were too young to hold a laddle.

So exacting was “Big Jim” that slaves were forced to work even when sick.  Expectant mothers toiled in the fields until they felt their labor pains.  It was not uncommon for babies to be born in the fields.

There was little time for play on his plantation.  Even the very small children were assigned tasks.  They hunted hen’s eggs, gathered poke berries for dyeing, shelled corn and drove the cows home in the evening.  Little girls knitted stockings.

There was no church on this plantation and itinerant ministers avoided going there because of the owner’s cruelty.  Very seldom were the slaves allowed to attend neighboring churches and still rarer were the opportunities to hold meetings among themselves.  Often when they were in the middle of a song or prayer they would be forced to halt and run to the “Big House.”  Woe to any slave who ignored the ringing of the bell that summoned him to work and told him when he might “knock off” from his labors.