SLAVE NARRATIVES - Library of Congress

"She had been sick for quite a bit, and she was just able to come to
the door and deliver that message* Three weeks after that time, they
brought her out of the house feet foremost and took her to the cemetery*
The news killed her dead* That's been seventy years ago, and they just now
picking up on it!
Slave Time Amusements
"The old people say they used to have breakdowns in slave time—break-
down daaces with fiddle and banjo music* Far after slavery, they had them*
The only other amusement worth speaking about was the churches* Far as the
churches was concerned, they had to steal out and go to them* Old man Balm
Whitlow can tell you all about the way they held church. They would slip
off in the woods and carry a gang of darkies down, and the next morning old
master would whip them for it* Next Sunday they would do the same thing
again and get another whipping* And it went on like that every week* When
old man Whitlow came out from slavery, he continued to preach* But the
darkies didn't have to steal out then* He's dead now, him and the old lady
both.
Houses
"The slaves lived in old log houses. Some of them would be hewed
and put up well* I have seen lots of them* Sometimes they would dob
the cracks with mud and would have box planks floors, one by eight or one
by ten, rough lumber, not dressed* Set 'em as close together as they
could but then there would be cracks in them* I can carry you to some
old log houses down in Union County now if they haven't been torn down
recently.