"The colored folks would put a post out from the corner and bore a hole
and put the other end in it. They wouldn't have any slats but would just
lay boards across the side and put wheat or oat straw on the boards.
The women made all the quilts. What I mean, they carded the rolls, spun
the thread--spun it on an old hand-turned wheel--and then they would
reel it off of the broach onto the reel and make hanks out of it. Then
they would run it off on what they called quills. Then it would go
'round a big pin and come out with the threads separated. Then they
would run through something like a comb and that would make the cloth.
"It was the rule in slave time to card one hundred rolls. Sometimes they
would be up till after twelve o'clock at night. They carded that in one
night and spun it the next night. Start with old cotton just like it
come from the gin. Card it one night and spin it the next. Done wool and
cotton the same way. One hundred rolls carded gave enough threads to
make a yard of cloth.
"In them days they tasked everybody to the limit."