District 7

Ad&.la S. Dixon

‘-3-



was not allowed to give his girl ~ny i~orm of gift, end the efforts of acme girls to secretly receive gifts which they clalnied to have “found“, ~re in vain, for the se ~ere taken frc~n them. After the proposal, the procedure was practically the same as is observed today. The oonaent of the parent and the master was ne ce asary. Marriage s were mostly held ~t night and no pains ~re spared to maic them occasions to be remembered and cberi&~ed. ~autif~1 clothes --her own selections -~re given the bride ‚ and friends usually gave gifts for the house. These celebrations, attended by visitors from many plantations, and always by the Towns family, ended in gay“frolica“ with cakes, wine ‚ etc. ‚ for i~fres1nnent s.


I~ii‘ing the first year of married 1~fe the couple remained with the ‘ a mother who instructed her in the household arts. Disputes between the newly~ds were not tolerated and punishment by the parents was the result of snagging“. At the end of a year~ another log cabin was added to. the quarters

and the couple began housekeeping. The moral code was exceedingly high; the penalty for otfendera - married or ein~le ‚ white or colored - was to be banished from the group entirely. Thus illegitimate children ~re rare enough to be a novelty.


Young Phil was in his teens when he began his first job - coach driver for “00v.“ TOWE8. ThiS W~S JUSt before they moved to Śeorgia. Ii~ traveled with him wherever he went, and as the Goy. purchased a plantation in Talbot County, (the house still stands) ‚ and a home in Macon, (the site of Mt. I~ Sales Academ), a great deal of his time was spent on the road. Phil never did any other work except to occasionally assist in sweeping the large yard. The other xt~bera~o~