)
"Yes'm, I was born in slavery, I don't look it, but I was! Way down in
Wilkes County, Georgia, nigh to a little town named Washington which
ain't so far from Augusta. My pappy, he belong to the Alexanders, and my
mammy, she belong to the Wakefiel' plantation and we all live with the
Wakefiel's. No _ma'am_, none of the Wakefiel' niggers ever run away.
They was too well off! They knew who they friends was! _My_ white
folkses was good to their niggers! Them was the days when we had good
food and it didn't cost nothing--chickens and hogs and garden truck.
Saturdays was the day we got our 'lowance for the week, and lemme tell
you, they didn't stint us none. The best in the land was what we had,
jest what the white folkses had.
"Clothes? yes'm. We had two suits of clothes, a winter suit and a summer
suit and two pairs of shoes, a winter pair and a summer pair. Yes'm, my
mammy, she spin the cotton, yes'm picked right on the plantation, yes'm,
cotton picking was fun, believe me! As I was saying, Mammy she spin and
she wears the cloth, and she cut it out and she make our clothes. That's
where I git my taste to sew, I reckon. When I first come to Baltimore, I
done dressmaking, 'deed I did. I sewed for the best fam'lies in this
yere town. I sewed for the Howards and the Slingluffs and the Jenkinses.
Jest the other day, I met Miss C'milla down town and she say. 'Alice,
ain' this you? and I say, 'Law me, Miss C'milla', and 'she say, 'Alice,
why don' you come to see Mother? She ain' been so well--she love to see
you.
Pages:
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63