"At corn shucking all the slaves from other plantations would come to
the barn, the fiddler would sit on top of the highest barrel of corn,
and play all kinds of songs, a barrel of cider, jug of whiskey, one man
to dish out a drink of liquor each hour, cider when wanted. We had
supper at twelve, roast pig for everybody, apple sauce, hominy, and corn
bread. We went back to shucking. The carts from other farms would be
there to haul it to the corn crib, dance would start after the corn was
stored, we danced until daybreak.
"The only games we played were marbles, mumble pegs and ring plays. We
sang London Bridge.
"When we wanted to meet at night we had an old conk, we blew that. We
all would meet on the bank of the Potomac River and sing across the
river to the slaves in Virginia, and they would sing back to us.
"Some people say there are no ghosts, but I saw one and I am satisfied,
I saw an old lady who was dead, she was only five feet from me, I met
her face to face. She was a white woman, I knew her. I liked to tore the
door off the hinges getting away.
"My master's name was Thomas Mason, he was a man of weak mental
disposition, his mother managed the affairs. He was kind. Mrs. Mason had
a good disposition, she never permitted the slaves to be punished. The
main house was very large with porches on three sides. No children, no
overseer.
"The poor white people in Charles County were worse off than the slaves;
because they could not get any work to do, on the plantation, the slaves
did all the work.
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