V1~.nd		~J ‘r~‘
k:;. 20,	1937.	~
~rs		              (Stories from ex-slaves)	G
		            JAMES V • DEANE ‚ Ex-slave.




Reference:	Personal interview with James V. Deane, ex-slave on Sept. ‚1937, at his home~l514 Druid Hill Ave., Baltimore.






	“My name is James V. Deane, son of John and Jane Deane, born at Goose Bay in Charles County, ~Iay 20, 1850. ~y mother was the daughter of Vincent Harrison, I do not know about my fatherts people. I have two sisters both of whom are living, Sarah and Elizabeth Ford,

	“I Was born in a lo~ cabin, a t,rpical Charles County log cabin, ab Goose Bay on the Potomac River. ~he plantation on which I was born fronted more than three miles on the rive~. The cabin had two rooms, one up and one down, very large with two windows, one in each room. There were no porches, over the door was a wide board to keep the rain e~id snow from beating over the top of the door, with a large log chimney on the outside, plastered he~ tween the iogs, in which was a fireplace with an open grate to cook on and to put logs on the fire to heat.~

	“We slept on a home-~made bedstead, on which was a stx~aw mattress and

upon that wasa ieather mattress, on which we used quilts made by my mother to
‚.~ ~

cover.

	“As a slave I worked on the farm with other small boys thinning corn, watching watermelon p~ttches and later I worked in wheat and tobacco fields. The slaves never had nor earned any cash money.

	“Our food was very plain, such as fat hog meat, fish and vegetables raised on the farm and corn bread made up with salt a~id water. .

	“s, I have hunted o ‚ po ssums ‚ and coons • The last time I went coon hwating, we treed something. It fell out of the tree, everybody took