"The first work I did was nursing and after that I was water toter. I
reckon I was about seven or eight years old when I first began to nurse.
I could barely lift the baby. I would have to drag them 'round. Then I
toted water to the field. Then when I was put to plowing, and chopping
cotton, I don't know exactly how old I was. But I know I was a young
girl and it was a good while before the War. I had to do anything that
come up--thrashing wheat, sawing logs, with a wristband on, lifting
logs, splitting rails. Women in them days wasn't tender like they is
now. They would call on you to work like men and you better work too. My
mother and father were both field hands.