"I was little when my mother was sold from me. I was runnin' about
though in the yard. I couldn't do nothing. But I was a smart girl. The
first work I can remember doin' was goin' to the field ploughing. That
is the first thing I remember. I was little. I just could come up to the
plough. I cut logs when I was a little child like them children there
(children about ten years old playing in the street). I used to clean up
new ground--do anything.
"My mother and father both worked in the field. My father was sold away
from me jus' like my mother was. Old lady Eford was my mother and father
too. That was in Clayton, Alabama. Old Tom Eford had three boys--one
named Tom, one named William, and there was the one named Giles what I
told you about. William was the oldest, Tom was the second, and Giles
was the youngest.
"I never learnt to read and write. In slave time, they didn't let you
have no books. My brother though was a good reader. He could write as
well as any of them because he would be with the white children and they
would show him. That is the way my brother learnt. He would lay down all
day Sunday and study. The good blessed Lord helped him.