The large plantations were really industrial centers in which almost
everything necessary to the life of the white family and the large
retinue of slaves was grown or manufactured. On estates where there were
many slaves there were always trained blacksmiths, coopers, carpenters,
tanners, shoemakers, seamstresses, laundresses, weavers, spinners, cooks
and house servants; all employed in the interest of the community life
of the plantation. Those who could not learn to do any of this skilled
work were turned into the fields and called, "hands". Both men and women
were employed in the fields where cotton, corn, rice and tobacco were
cultivated. House servants ware always considered superior to field
hands.
Melinda Mitchell, who was born a slave in Edgefield, S.C., said, "My
family wasn't fiel' hands. We wus all house servants. My father wus de
butler, and he weighed out de rations fer de slaves. My mammy wus de
house 'oman and her mother and sister wus de cooks. Marster wouldn't
sell none of his slaves, and when he wanted to buy one he'd buy de whole
fambly to keep fum havin' 'em separated."
At an early age Melinda and her younger sister were given to the two
young ladies of the house as their personal maids. "I wus given to Miss
Nettie," Melinda said, "Our young Mistresses visited, too, and wherever
dey went my sister and me went erlong. My own mammy took long trips with
ole Mistis to de Blue Ridge Mountains and sometimes over de big water."
Susannah Wyman of the Starling Freeman plantation in South Carolina
said, "The house servants wuz trained to cook, clean up, de man wuz
trained to make shoes. I don't think us had carpenters. I toted water in
de field, hoed some. I wuz quite young. I spun but I didn't weave. Dere
wuz a lady dey had on de place did de weavin'. I had many a striped
dress woven on dat big loom and dey wuz pretty, too."
Susie Brown, who used to live on the Evans plantation on Little River in
Columbia County was too little to do any hard work during slavery times.
"I jus' stayed at home and 'tend de baby," she said. "But my mother was
a cook and my father a blacksmith."
Mary's mother was a plantation weaver. "Mistis would cut out dresses out
of homespun. We had purple dyed checks. They was pretty. I had to sew
seams. Marster had to buy shoes for us, he give us good-soled ones."
Easter Jones, who had only bitter memories of the slavery period said,
"Sometimes we eben had to pull fodder on Sunday. But what I used to hate
worse'n anything was wipin' dishes. Dey'd make me take de dish out de
scaldin' water, den if I drap it dey whip me. Dey whip you so hard your
back bleed, den dey pour salt and water on it. And your shirt stick to
your back, and you hadder get somebody to grease it 'fore you kin take
it off."
Ellen Campbell, who used to belong to Mr. William Eve said she did only
simple jobs about the plantation in childhood, "When I was 'bout ten
years old dey started me totin' water--you know ca'yin' water to de
hands in de field. 'Bout two years later I got my first field job
'tending sheep. When I wus fifteen year old Missus gib me to Miss Eva,
you know she de one marry Colonel Jones. My young Mistus was fixin' to
git married, but she couldn't on account de war, so she brought me to
town and rented me out to a lady runnin' a boarding house. De rent wus
paid to my Mistus. One day I was takin' a tray from de out-door kitchen
to de house when I stumbled and dropped it. De food spill all over de
ground. Da lady got so mad she picked up de butcher knife and chop me in
de haid. I went runnin' till I come to da place where mah white folks
live. Miss Eva took me and wash de blood out mah head and put medicine
on it, and she wrote a note to de lady and she say, 'Ellen is my slave,
give to me by my mother. I wouldn't had dis happen to her no more dan to
me. She won't come back dere no more.'"
Willis Bennefield, who was a slave on Dr. Balding Miller's plantation in
Burke County, said, "I wuk in de fiel' and I drove him 30 years. He was
a doctor. He had a ca'iage and a buggy, too. My father driv de ca'iage.
I driv de doctor. Sometimes I was fixin' to go to bed and had to hitch
up my horse and go five or six miles. He had regular saddle horses, two
pair o' horses fer de ca'iage. He was a rich man--riches' man in Burke
County--had three hundred slaves. He made his money on de plantachuns,
not doctorin'."
Fannie Fulcher, who was also one of Dr. Miller's slaves, and Willis
Bennefield's sister gives this account of the slaves' work in earning
extra money. "De marster give 'em ev'y day work clothes, but dey bought
de res' deyselves. Some raise pumpkins, squashes, potatoes, all sich
things like dat in dey patches; sell 'em to different stores. Jus' like
somebody want ground clear up, dey git big torches fer light, clean up
de new groun' at night, dat money b'long to dem. I year my mother and
father say de slaves made baskets and quilts and things and sell 'em for
they-selves."