SLAVE NARRATIVES - Library of Congress

He was born a slave in northern Mississippi near the small towns of Red Banks
and Byfealia, was the property of his owner, Sdmond Turner, and was brought to
Phillips County by *his nhite folks 9 some months before the war* Turner, who
owned some fifty other slaves besides Henry, settled with his family on a
large acreage of land that he had purchased about fifteen miles west of Helena
near Trenton* Both Turner and his wife died soon after taking up residence in
Arkansas leaving their estate to their two sons, Bart and Nat, who were by
that time grown young men, and being very capable and industrious soon
developed their property into one of the most valuable plantations in the
County*
la "Uncle* Henry recalls, the Turner place was, it might be said, a world
within itself, in the confines of which was produced practically everything
essential in the life of its inhabitants and the proper and successful conduct
of its operations* Large herds of cattle, hogs, sheep, and goats provided a
bountiful supply of both fresh and salt meats and fats* Cotton and wool was
carded, spun and woven into cloth for clothes, fast colored dyes were made %
boiling different kinds of roots and barks, various colored berries were also
used for this purpose* Medicine was prepared from roots, herbs, flowers, and
leaves* Stake and rider fences enclosed the fields and pastures and while
most of the houses, barns and cribs were constructed of logs, some lumber was
manufactured in crude sawmills in which was used what was known as a "slash
saw** This was something like the crosscut saws of today and was operated by
a crank that gave the saw an alternating up and down motion* Wheat was ground
into flour and corn into meal in mills with stone burrs similar to those used
in the rural districts today, and power for this operation was obtained
through the use of a treadmill that was given its motion by horses or moles
walking on an inclined, endless belt constructed of heavy wooden slats*
2,