WORK, PLAY, FOOD, CLOTHING, MARRIAGE, etc.
Written by:
Louise Oliphant
Federal Writers' Project
Augusta, Ga.
Edited by:
John N. Booth
District Supervisor,
Federal Writers' Project
Augusta, Ga.
In recalling habits of work and play, marriage customs, and like
memories of Southern life before the Civil War, Richmond County's
ex-slaves tell varied stories. One said: "I didn't start workin' 'til I
was 'bout nine years old. Before that I had watched chickens, carried in
wood, gathered eggs and such light work as that. But when I was nine I
started workin' in the field. I didn't plow then because I was too
small, but I hoed and did other light jobs.
"Our marster made our shoes for us out of raw cow hide. Us got two pairs
of shoes a year, one for every day and one for Sunday. Us made
everythin' us needed. The old women, who couldn't work in the field,
would make cloth on the looms and the spinnin' wheels. Us didn't have
chairs; us made benches and stools to sit on. Us didn't know what swings
was. Us used to tie ropes in trees and swing in 'em.
"Everybody had his own tin plate and tin cup to eat out of. On Saturday
they would give everybody three pounds of meat, twelve pounds of flour,
twelve pounds of meal, and one quart of syrup. This was to last a week.
Us always had plenty to eat 'til the war started, then us went hungry
many a day because they took the food and carried it to the soldiers. Us
stole stuff from everybody durin' that time.
"They always blowed a horn for you to go to work by and get off for
dinner by and stop work in the evening by. When that horn blowed, you
couldn't get them mules to plow another foot. They just wouldn't do it.
Us always et dinner out in the yard, in the summer time, at a long
bench. In cold weather us always went inside to eat. Whenever us didn't
have enough to eat us would tell the overseer and he seed to it that us
got plenty. Our overseers was colored."
Another old woman said she "started working at the age of seven as a
nurse. I nursed, made fire in the house and around the wash pots 'til I
was old enough to go to work in the fields. When I got big enough I hoed
and later plowed. Us didn't wait 'til sun up to start workin', us
started as soon as it was light enough. When it come to field work, you
couldn't tell the women from the men. Of course my marster had two old
women on the place and he never made them work hard, and he never did
whip' em. They always took care of the cookin' and the little chillun.
"I'll tell you one thing, they had better doctors then than they do now.
When folks had high blood pressure the doctors would cut you in your
head or your arm and folks would get over it then. They took better care
of themselves. Whenever anybody was caught in the rain they had to go to
the marster's house and take some medicine. They had somethin' that
looks like black draught looks now, and they would put it in a gallon
jug, fill it a little over half full of boiling water, and finish
fillin' it with whiskey. It was real bitter, but it was good for colds.
Young folk didn't die then like they do now. Whenever anybody died it
was a old person.
"I know more about conjuration than I'll ever be able to tell. I didn't
believe in it at one time, but I've seen so much of it that I can almost
look at a sick person and tell whether he is conjured or not. I wouldn't
believe it now if I hadn't looked at snakes come out of my own sister's
daughter. She married a man that had been goin' 'round with a old woman
who wasn't nothin'. Well one day this woman and my niece got in a fight
'bout him, and my niece whipped her. She was already mad with my niece
'bout him, and after she found she couldn't whip her she decided to get
her some way and she just conjured her.
"My niece was sick a long time and we had 'bout seven or eight diff'unt
doctors with her, but none of 'em done her any good. One day us was
sittin' on the porch and a man walked up. Us hadn't never seen him
before, and he said he wanted to talk with the lady of the house. I
'vited him in and he asked to speak to me alone. So I went in the front
room and told him to come on in there. When he got there he said just
like this: 'You have sickness don't you?' I said, 'yes.' Then he said:
'I know it, and I come by here to tell you I could cure her. All I want
is a chance, and you don't have to pay me a cent 'til I get her back on
her feet, and if I don't put her back on her feet you won't be out one
cent. Just promise you'll pay me when the work is done.' I told him to
come back the next day 'cause I would have to talk with her husband and
her mother 'fore I could tell him anythin'.
"Us all agreed to let him doctor on her since nobody else had did her
any good. Two days later he brought her some medicine to take and told
us to have her say: 'relieve me of this misery and send it back where it
come from.' Seven days from the day she started takin' this medicine she
was up and walkin' 'round the room. 'Fore that time she had been in bed
for more than five weeks without puttin' her feet on the floor. Well
three days after she took the first medicine, she told us she felt like
she wanted to heave. So we gave her the bucket and that's what come out
of her. I know they was snakes because I know snakes when I see 'em. One
was about six inches long, but the others was smaller. He had told us
not to be scared 'bout nothin' us saw, so I wasn't, but my sister was.
After that day my niece started to get better fast. I put the snakes in
a bottle and kept 'em 'til the man come back and showed 'em to him. He
took 'em with him. It was 'bout three weeks after this that the other
woman took sick and didn't live but 'bout a month."
Roy Redfield recalls that "when a person died several people would come
in and bathe the body and dress it. Then somebody would knock up some
kind of box for 'em to be buried in. They would have the funeral and
then put the body on a wagon and all the family and friends would walk
to the cemetery behind the wagon. They didn't have graves like they does
now; they would dig some kind of hole and put you in it, then cover you
up.
"In olden times there was only a few undertakers, and of course there
warn't any in the country; so when a person died he was bathed and
dressed by friends of the family. Then he was laid on a ironing board
and covered with a sheet.
"For a long while us knowed that for some cause a part of the person's
nose or lips had been et off, but nobody could find out why. Finally
somebody caught a cat in the very act. Most people didn't believe a cat
would do this, but everybody started watchin' and later found out it was
so. So from then on, 'til the caskets come into use, a crowd of folks
stayed awake all night sittin' up with the dead."
One old woman lived on a plantation where "every Saturday they would
give you your week's 'lowance. They would give you a plenty to eat so
you could keep strong and work. They weighed your meat, flour, meal and
things like that, but you got all the potatoes, lard and other things
you wanted. You got your groceries and washed and ironed on Saturday
evenin' and on Saturday night everybody used that for frolicin'. Us
would have quiltin's, candy pullin's, play, or dance. Us done whatever
us wanted to. On these nights our mist'ess would give us chickens or
somethin' else so us could have somethin' extra. Well, us would dance,
quilt, or do whatever us had made up to do for 'bout three hours then us
would all stop and eat. When us finished eatin' us would tell tales or
somethin' for a while, then everybody would go home. Course us have
stayed there 'til almost day when us was havin' a good time.
"My marster wanted his slaves to have plenty of chillun. He never would
make you do much work when you had a lot of chillun, and had them fast.
My ma had nineteen chillun, and it looked like she had one every ten
months. My marster said he didn't care if she never worked if she kept
havin' chillun like that for him. He put ma in the kitchen to cook for
the slaves who didn't have families.
"People who didn't have families would live in a house together, but
whenever you married you lived in a house to yourself. You could fix up
your house to suit yourself. The house where everybody lived that warn't
married, had 'bout a dozen and a half beds in it. Sometimes as many as
three and four slept in a bed together when it was cold. The others had
to sleep on the floor, but they had plenty of cover. Us didn't have
anythin' in this house but what was made by some of us. There warn't but
one room to this house with one fire place in it. Us never et in this
room, us had another house where everybody from this house and from the
house for the men who warn't married, et. Our beds was diff'unt from
these you see now. They was made by the slaves out of rough lumber. Our
marster seed to it that all the chillun had beds to sleep in. They was
taken good care of. Us had no such things as dressers or the like. Us
didn't have but a very few chairs 'cause the men didn't have time to
waste makin' chairs, but us had plenty of benches. Our trunks was made
by the men.
"People who had families lived by theyselves, but they didn't have but
one room to their houses. They had to cook and sleep in this one room,
and as their chillun got old enough they was sent over to the big house.
Everybody called it that. The house you lived in with your family was
small. It had a fire place and was only big enough to hold two beds and
a bench and maybe a chair. Sometimes, if you had chillun fast enough,
five and six had to sleep in that other bed together. Mothers didn't
stay in after their chillun was born then like they do now. Whenever a
child was born the mother come out in three days afterwards if she was
healthy, but nobody stayed in over a week. They never stayed in bed but
one day.
"When they called you to breakfast it would be dark as night. They did
this so you could begin workin' at daybreak. At twelve o'clock they
blowed the horn for dinner, but they didn't have to 'cause everybody
knowed when it was dinner time. Us could tell time by the sun. Whenever
the sun was over us so us could almost step in our shadow it was time to
eat. When us went in to eat all the victuals was on the table and the
plates was stacked on the table. You got your plate and fork, then got
your dinner. Some would sit on the floor, some in chairs, and some would
sit on the steps, but mos' everybody held their plates in their laps.
Whenever any of the slaves had company for dinner, us was allowed to set
the table and you and your company would eat at the table. In our
dinin'-room, we called it mess house, us only had one long table, one
small table, a stove, some benches, a few chairs, and stools. Whenever
us got out of forks the men would make some out of wood to be used 'til
some more could be bought. The food we got on Saturday would be turned
over to the cook.
"When you married, your husband didn't stay with you like they do now.
You had to stay with your marster and he had to stay with his. He was
'lowed to come every Saturday night and stay with you and the chillun
'til Monday mornin'. If he was smart enough to have a little garden or
to make little things like little chairs for his chillun to sit in or
tables for 'em to eat on and wanted you to have 'em 'fore he could get
back to see you, they would be sent by the runner. They had one boy they
always used just to go from one place to the other, and they called him
a runner. The runner wouldn't do anythin' else but that.
"Us made everythin' us wore. Us knitted our socks and stockin's. Things
was much better then than they are now. Shoes lasted two and three
years, and clothes didn't tear or wear out as easy as they do now. Us
made all our cloth at night or mos' times durin' the winter time when us
didn't have so much other work to do.
"When a person died he was buried the same day, and the funeral would be
preached one year later. The slaves made your coffin and painted it with
any kind of paint they could find, but they usually painted the outside
box black.
"The slaves 'tended church with their marsters and after their service
was over they would let the slaves hold service. They always left their
pastor to preach for us and sometimes they would leave one of their
deacons. When they left a deacon with us one of our preachers would
preach. They only had two kinds of song books: Baptist Cluster, and
Methodist Cluster. I kept one of these 'til a few years ago. Our
preachers could read some, but only a very few other slaves could read
and write. If you found one that could you might know some of his
marster's chillun had slipped and learned it to him 'cause one thing
they didn't 'low was no colored folk to learn to read and write. Us had
singin' classes on Sunday, and at that time everybody could really sing.
People can't sing now."