SLAVE NARRATIVES - Library of Congress

Early Days
n I was little nhen my mother was sold from me* I nas rumiin* about
though in the yard* I oouldnH do nothing But I was a smart girl* The
first work I can remember doin* was goin* to the field ploughing* That is
the first thing I remember* I was little* I just oould oome up to the
plough* 1 out logs when I was a little child like them children there
(children about ten years old playing in the street)# I used to clean up
new ground—do anything*
"Ify- mother and father both worked in the field* l$r father was sold
away from me just like ray mother was* Old lady Eford was xqy mother and
father too* That was in Clayton* Alabama* Old Tom Eford had three boys-
one named Tom* one named William* and there was the one named Giles -what 1
told you about* William was the oldest* Tom was the second* and Giles was
the youngest*
tt I never leanrb to read and write* In slave time* they didn't left you
have no books* Vy brother though was a good reader* He oould write as well
as any of them because he would be with the white children and they would!
show him* That is the way ny brother learnt* He would lay down all day
Sunday and study* The good blessed Lord helped him*
"The man I married was on the plantation* They married in slave time
just like they do these days* When I married, the justice of peace married
me* That was after freedom* our folks would give big weddings just like
they do now (just after the war)* I ain't got my lioense now* Movin*
'round* it got lost* I was married right at home where me and my old man
stayed* Wasn't nobody there but me and him and another loan named Dr* Bryant*
That wasn't far from Midway*
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