I stayed with my ma every night but my mistress raised me.  My ma had to work hard so ev’y time ol’ mistress thought we little black chilluns was hungry ’tween meals she would call us up to the house to eat.  Sometime she would give us johnny cake an plenty of buttermilk to drink wid it.  They had a long trough fo’ us dat day would keep so clean.  They would fill dis trough wid buttermilk and all us chillun would git roun’ th’ trough an drink wid our mouths an hol’ our johnny cake wid our han’s.  I can jus’ see myself drinkin’ now.  Hit was so good.  There was so many black fo’ks to cook fuh that the cookin was done outdoors.  Greens was cooked in a big black washpot jus’ like yo’ boils clothes in now.  An’ sometime they would crumble bread in the potlicker an give us spoons an we would stan’ roun’ the pot an’ eat.  When we et our regular meals the table was set under a chinaberry tree wid a oil cloth table cloth on when dey called us to th’ table they would ring the bell.  But we didn’ eat out’n plates.  We et out of gourds an had ho’made wood spoons.  An’ we had plenty t’eat.  Whooo-eee!  Jus’ plenty t’eat.  Ol’ master’s folks raised plenty o’ meat an dey raise dey sugar, rice, peas, chickens, eggs, cows an’ jus’ ev’ything good t’eat.

Ev’y ev’nin’ at three ‘clock ol’ mistress would call all us litsy bitsy chillun in an we would lay down on pallets an have to go to sleep.  I can hear her now singin’ to us piccaninnies: 

  “Hush-a-bye, bye-yo’-bye, mammy’s piccaninnies
   Way beneath the silver shining moon
   Hush-a-bye, bye-yo’-bye, mammy’s piccaninnies
   Daddy’s little Carolina coons
   Now go to sleep yo’ little piccaninnies.”

When I got big ’nough I nursed my mistress’s baby.  When de baby go to sleep in de evenin’ I woul’ put hit in de cradle an’ lay down by de cradle an go to sleep.  I played a heap when I was little.  We played Susannah Gal, jump rope, callin’ cows, runnin’, jumpin’, skippin’, an jus’ ev’ythin’ we could think of.  When I got big ’nough to cook, I cooked den.

The kitchen of the big house was built way off f’om the house and we cooked on a great big ol’ fi’ place.  We had swing pots an would swing ‘em over the fire an cook an had a big ol’ skillet wi’ legs on hit.  We call hit a ubben an cooked bread an cakes in it.

We had the bes’ mistress an master in the worl’ and they was Christian fo’ks an they taught us to be Christianlike too.  Ev’y Sunday mornin’ ol’ master would have all us niggers to the house while he would sing an pray an read de Bible to us all.  Ol’ master taught us not to be bad; he taught us to be good; he tol’ us to never steal nor to tell false tales an not to do anythin’ that was bad.  He said:  Yo’ will reap what yo’ sow, that you sow it single an’ reap double.  I learnt that when I was a little chile an I ain’t fo’got it yet.  When I got grown I went de Baptist way.  God called my pa to preach an ol’ master let him preach in de kitchen an in the back yard under th’ trees.  On preachin’ day ol’ master took his whole family an all th’ slaves to church wid him.