SLAVE NARRATIVES - Library of Congress

We planted indigo an hit growed jes like wheats When hit
got ripe we gathered hit an we would put hit in a barrel an let
hit soak bout er week den we would take de indigo stems out an
squeeze all de juice outn dem* put de juice back in de barrel an
let hit stay dere bout nother week, den we jes stirred an stirred
one whole day* We let hit set three or four days den drained de
water offn hit an dat left de settlings an de settlings wuz blue-
ing jes like we have dese days* We cut ours in little blocks*
Den we dyed clothes wid hit* We had purty blue cloth* De way we
set de color we'put alumn in hit* Dat make de color stay right
dere*
Ah'll tell yuh how tuh dye* Br little beech bark dyes slate
color set wid copper* Hickory bark an bay leaves dyes yellow set
wid chamber lye; bamboo dyes turkey red* set color wid copper*
Pine straw an sweetgum dyes purple* set color wid chamber lye* Ifn
yuh don f bleave hit try em all*
Mah ma made cloth while mah pa made shoes* Ah member ^ea
as good when dey handcuff mah ma f s two brothers tuh keep urn from
runnin off when dey got ready tuh sell em* Ah seed urn handcuff
as many as ei£it tugethuh when dey marched dem tuh de pen. Tuh
know dey had uh pen kinder like de pond pen fer cows an hosses*
Well dey would drive us niggers tuh de pond pen an dey had er big
block in de pen an dey put one uv us niggers on hit at a time*
Bid us off tuh de highest bidder* \ Mah ole boss wuz a gambler*