Slave Interview ~
Alfred Parrell	Page 3 .
Monticello, P2~a.	p~ij	~	49

	In sea8ons other than picking~time for the cotton the

children were UsUally allowed to play in the evening8. When

cotton crope were large, however, they spent their eve~iings picking out eeeds from the cotton boUe, in order that their parents might work uninterruptedly in the fielde during the

day. The cotton, after being picked and aeparMed, would be weighed in balanceß ~nd packed tightly in ‚ crocust bage,

	Chicken and goose feather8 mere jealously saved dt~. rinß these days. Thiey were ueed for the rnattreßae8 that reek.

ted on the bede of wooden 82at8 that were built in cornere against the welle. Hoop akirts were worn at the time, but fc~r how long afterward Matilda does not r~nember. ~ie only reca11~ that they were dißa~ppearing ‘about 4the tinie I saw a windxx~j11 for the first time‘.

	The coming of the Yankee eoldiers created. much excit~ ment among the slave2 Ofl the Picken8 ~.antation. The slaves ~:

were in ignorance of activitiós going on, and of their a~.

Pruach, but when the firs~ one was si~ited the news 8pread

‘just like dry grass burning U‘ ~ hill‘. Despite the kind~ ne ~ of Governor Pickens the sLaves were h~py to claim their new~~ freedoms Some of them even ran away to join the ~r~ern armie s before they were officially freed. Some a~ terr‘;t~a to shoe their loyalty to their old owners by joining the L~o~thern armies, but in this section they were not per~