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us had a bi~ breakfas‘ o‘ hot bread, ‘lasses, fried salt meat dipped in corn meal, an‘ fried * taters. Sometimes us had fish an‘ rabbit meat. ~hen us was in de ~ie1‘ two women ‚ ud come at dinuer-.tlme wid basketa filled wid hot pone, baked taters, corn roasted in. de shucks, onlo; tried squash, an‘ b? lied pork. Sometimes dey brought buc kots ‘ cold butter— milk. It sho‘ was good to a hongry man. At supper-time us had hoecake an‘ cold vi‘tala. Sometimes dey was sweetmilk an‘ couards.

	“Moe‘ ever‘ slave had his own little garden patch an‘ was ‘lowed to cook out o‘ lt. .

	“Moe‘ ever plantation kep‘ a man busy hux~tin‘ aa‘ f ishin‘ all de time. ( If dey shot a big buck, us had deer meat roasted on a spit.)

	flØ~ Sundays us always had meat pie or fish or fresh game an‘ roasted taters an‘. coffee. On Chris‘mus de marster ‘ud give us chicken an‘ barrels o‘ apples axt‘ or~nges. ‘CourSe, ever‘ inarster warnt as free handed as our‘n was. (He was sho‘ ‘nough quality.) l‘es hear‘d dat a heap o‘ cullud people never had nothin‘ good Veat.

	ni warnt learnt nothln‘ In no book. Don‘ t think I‘ d a—took to It, nowhow. Deylearnt de house servants to read. Us fiel‘ han‘s never knowed nothin‘ ‚ cept weather an‘ dirt an‘ to weigh cotton. Us was learnt to figger a little, but dat‘s su.. •1

	WI reckon I was ‘bout fifteen when hones‘ Abe Lincoln what called hisse‘f a rail-splitter oo~ne here to talk wid us. He went all th‘o~igh de country jus‘ a-rantln‘ an‘ a-preachln‘ ‘bout us bein‘ his black brothers. De marster didn‘ know nothin‘ ‘bout it, ‘cause lt was sorta secret—lak. It sho‘ riled de Niggers up au‘ lots of ‘em nm aWay. I

t hear ‚ d him, but I d idn‘ pay ‚ im no mm‘.
~sweet potatoes
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