in the house of the “Widow.”  They used red clay to do the dyeing with.  In the winter time cracked feet were common.  The grown people wore heavy shoes called brogans while I wore the cast-off shoes of the white ladies.  We all wrapped our feet in bagging sacks to help them to keep warm.  We were given one complete outfit of clothes each year and these had to last until the time for the next issue.”

Sheets for the beds were also made out of homespun material while the heavier cover such as the quilts, etc., were made from the dresses and the other clothing that was no longer fit for wear.

As a general rule all of the slaves on this plantation had enough food to keep them well and healthy.  At the end of each week the field hands were given enough food to last them seven days.  For most of them the week’s supply consisted of three and one-half pounds of pork or fat meat, one peck of meal, flour, and black molasses.  The only meals that they had to prepare from the above mentioned articles were breakfast and supper.  Dinner was cooked in the plantation kitchen by one of the women who was too old for work in the fields.  For this particular meal the slaves had some different type of vegetable each day along with the fat meat, corn bread, and the pot liquor which was served every day.  They were allowed to come in from the fields to the house to be served.  Breakfast usually consisted of fat meat, molasses, and corn bread while supper consisted of pot-liquor, bread, and milk.  The only variation from this diet was on Sunday when all were allowed to have bisquits instead of corn bread.  Mr. Favors was asked what happened if anyone’s food was all eaten before it was time for the weekly issue and he answered:  “It was just too bad for them ’cause they would have to do the best they could until the time came to get more.”  When such a thing happened to anyone the others usually helped as far as their limited supplies would permit.

Mr. Favors says that he, his mother, and the two maids ate the same kind of food that the “Widow,” and her nieces were served.  After he had seen to the wants of all at the table he had to take a seat at the table beside his owner where he ate with her and the others seated there.

There were two one-roomed cabins located directly behind the four-roomed house of the “Widow,” the entire lot of them were built out of logs.  These two cabins were for the use of those servants who worked in the house of their owner.  At one end of each cabin there was a wide fireplace which was made of sticks, stones, and dried mud.  Instead of windows there were only one or two small holes cut in the back wall of the cabin.  The beds were made out of heavy planks and were called “Georgia Looms,” by the slaves.  Wooden slats were used in the place of bed springs while the mattresses were merely large bags that had been stuffed to capacity with hay, wheat straw, or leaves.  The only other furnishings in each of these cabins were several benches