SLAVE NARRATIVES - Library of Congress

"The country was kind of wild in those days* The deer used to cone
loping down and we would be scared and run and hide* Some people would set
the dogs on them and seme people would kill them no matter who they belonged*
You see, some people had them as pets*
Amusements
*X n&nr seed nothing in the way of amusements except people going to
church and going to parties and all such as that* They believed in going to
church* They would hare parties at night* The white folks didn't care what
they had* They would help prepare for it* They would let 9 em have anything
they wanted to have and let Y em go to church whenever they wanted to go*
And if they took a notion they would have a supper* When they would have a
party they would do just like they do now* They would have dancing* I
never seed any playing cards* When they danced, somebody would play the
fiddle for them* When they had a supper, they would usually sell the
things* Then the white folks would come and buy from them* There would
be nice looking things on the table •
Church
"They had meetings at Center Point, and at Arkadelphia* And they would
let us go to them or anywhere else we wanted* We had to have passes, of
course* They had colored preachers* Sometimes the slaves would go to the
white people f s church* They wouldn't go often, just every once in awhile*
White ladies would get after the colored to come and go with them sometimes*
Sometimes, too, when they would have a dinner or something, they would take
Aunt Sue or mother to cook for them* They wouldn f t let nobody meddle with
them or bother them—none of the other white folks* And they would let them
fix a table for their own friends that they would want to have along*
s- 313