SLAVE NARRATIVES - Library of Congress

The riding boss would come round about nine o'clock to see if you had gone
to bed or not* If they could steal a chicken or pig and kill and cut it
up, this one would take a piece and that one would take a piece and they
would burn the cotton to keep down the scent* The rider would come round
in June and July too when they thought the people would be hunting the
watermelons*
"When the soldiers came, the niggers run and hid under the beds and
the soldiers came and poked their bayonets under the bed and shouted,
♦Come on out from under there* You 1 re free! 1
Destructiveness of Soldiers
"The soldiers would tear down the beehives and break up the smoke
houses* They wasn f t tryin 1 to git nothin 1 to eat* They was just destroy-
ing things for devilment* They pulled all the stoppers out of the
molasses* They cut the smoked meat down and let it fall in the molasses*
Rations
"Every Saturday, they would give my father and his wife half a gallon
of molasses, so much side meat* And then they would give half a bushel of
meal I reckon* Whatever they would give they would give em right out of the
smoke house* Sweet potatoes they would give* Sugar and coffee they'd
make* There wasn't nothing bout buying no sugar then*
A
How the Day Went
"The riding boss would come round before the day broke and wake
you up* You had to be in the field before sun-up—-that is the man would*
The woman who had a little child had a little more play than the man,
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