"In the winter the field slaves would shell corn, cut wood and thrash
wheat and take care of the stock. We had our shoes made to order by the
shoe maker.
"My mistress was not as well off before she married the doctor as
afterward. I was small or young during my slave days, I always heard my
mistress married for money and social condition. She would tell us how
she used to say before she was married, when she saw the doctor coming,
'here comes old Dr. Nellums'. Another friend she would say 'here comes
cozen Auckney'.
"We never had any overseers on the plantation, we had an old colored man
by the name of Peter Taylor. His orders was law, if you wanted to please
Mistress and Master, obey old Peter.
"The farm was very large, the slaves worked from sunup to sundown, no
one was harshly treated or punished. They were punished only when proven
guilty of crime charged.
"Our master never sold any slaves. We had a six-room house, where the
slaves entertained and had them good times at nights and on holidays. We
had no jail on the plantation. We were not taught to read or write, we
were never told our age.
"We went to the white church on Sunday, up in the slave gallery where
the slaves worshipped sometimes. The gallery was overcrowded with ours
and slaves from other plantations. My mistress told me that there was
once an old colored man who attended, taking his seat up in the gallery
directly over the pulpit, he had the habit of saying Amen.
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