SLAVE NARRATIVES - Library of Congress

tf I can't talk much since I had those strokes* Can't talk plainj just
hare to push it out, but I thank God I can do that much* The Lord let me
stay here for same reason^-I don't know what* I would rather go# but he
ain't called me*
How the Day Went
"We got up after daylight* Tom Eford didn't make his folks git up
early* But a:fber he was dead and gone, things changed up* The res* made
*eaa git up before daylight* He was a good man* The Lord knows* Yes Lordf
way before day* You'd be in the field to work way before day and then work
way into the night* The white folks called Eford's colored people poor
white folks because he was so good to them* Old Tom Eford was the sheriff
of Clayton*
f, His folks came back to the house at noon and et their dinner at the
house* He had a cook and dinner was prepared for theaa just like it was for
the white folks* The colored woman that cooked for them had it ready -when
they came there for it* They had a great big kitchen and the hands ate
there* They came back to the same place for supper* And they didn't have
to work late either* Old Tom Eford never worked his hands extra* That is
the reason they called his niggers poor -white folks* Polks lived at home
them days and et in the same place* "When my old man was living, I had
plenty* Smokehouse was full of good meat* Now everything you git, you have
to bty*
"Hexb morning, they all et their breakfast in the same kitchen* They
et three meals a day every day* Hy mother never cooked except on Sunday*
She didn't need to*