4.


	‘!~rus‘ a few of de slave famblifs was ‘lowed to do deir ov~11 coolcin‘ ‘cause Mars:ter kept cooks up at de big house what never had nothin‘ else to do but cook for de white folks and slaves. De big old fireplace in dat kitchen at de big house was mere dan eight feet wide and you could pile whole sticks of cord— wood on it. It had racks acrost to hang de pots on and big ovens and little ovens and big, thick, iron fryin‘ pans w~d long handles
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and hefty iron lids. Dey could cook for ~ time in dat big old kitchen easy. At one time dere was tables acrost one end of de kitchen for de slaves t‘eat at, and de slave chillun et dar too.

	“Marster w~s mighty good to slave chillun. ~e never sont us out to wuk in de fields til us was ‘most growed-up, say 12 or 14 years old. Â Nigger 12 ox 14 years old dem days was. big as a white child 1‘7 or 18 years old. Why Miss, Niggers growed so fast, dat most of de Nigger nurses wern‘t no older dan~ de white chillun dey tuk keer of. Marster said he Warn‘t gwine to send no babies to de fields. When slave chillun got to be ‘bout 9 or 10 years old dey started ‘era to fetchin‘ j~j wood and water, cleanin‘ de yards,
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and drlvin‘ up decows at night. De bigges‘ boys was ‘lowed to

measure out and fix de stock feed, but de most of us chullun jus‘ playedindecrlcksandwoods all de time. SorneUmes us played In~uns and made ~o much fuss dat old Aunt Nancy would come out to de woods to see what was wrong, and den when she found us was jus‘ a-~havin‘ fun, she stropped us good for skeerin‘ her.