"The slaves ate just what the master ate. They ate the same on my
master's place. All people didn't farm alike. Some just raised cotton
and corn. Some raised peas, oats, rye, and a lot of different things. My
old master raised corn, potatoes--Irish and sweet--, goober peas
(peanuts), rye, and wheat, and I can't remember what else. That's in the
eating line. He had hogs, goats, sheep, cows, chickens, turkeys, geese,
ducks. That is all I can remember in the eating line. My old master's
slaves et anything he raised.
"He would send three or four wagons down to the mill at a time. One of
them would carry sacks; all the rest would carry wheat. You know flour
seconds, shorts and brand come from the wheat. You get all that from the
wheat. Buckwheat flour comes from a large grained wheat. The wagons came
back loaded with flour, seconds, shorts and brand. The old man had six
wheat barns to keep the wheat in.
"All the slaves ate together. They had a cook special for them. This
cook would cook in a long house more than thirty feet long. Two or three
women would work there and a man, just like the cooks would in a hotel
now. All the working hands ate there and got whatever the cook gave
them. It was one thing one time and another another. The cook gave the
hands anything that was raised on the place. There was one woman in
there cooking that was called 'Mammy' and she seed to all the chilen.