…Our clothes were made of jeans and linsey in winter. In the summer we wore cotton clothes. They gave us shoes at Christmas time. We were measured with sticks. Once I was warming my shoes on a back log on the big fireplace, they fell over behind the logs and burnt up. I didn’t marry while on the plantation…
On Christmas and New Years day we would go up to the house and they would give us candy and fruit and fire-crackers. We were given some of all the food that the white folks had, even turkey. Would have heaps of corn-shuckings, the neighbors would come in and then we’d have big dances and old Master would always have a “jug of liquor”…
The interviewer recorded the interview as a first person narrative by Bert Mayfield. In the excerpt, Bert Mayfield describes his living conditions as an enslaved person: clothing, living conditions, food, and his work tapping trees for syrup.
…On Christmas, each of us stood in line to get our clothes; we were measured with a string that was made by a cobbler. The material had been woven by the slaves in a plantation shop…
Our cabins were usually one room with a loft above which we reached by a ladder. Our beds were trundle beds with wheels on them to push them under the big beds. We slept on straw ticks [mattress made of straw] covered with Lindsey quilts, which were made from the cast-off clothes, cut into squares and strips.
(I) would feed pigs; pulled parsley out of the garden for them and the pigs loved it mighty well. No money was paid for work… Possum and coon hunts were big events, they would hunt all night. The possums were baked in the ovens and usually with sweet potatoes in their mouths. The little boys would fish, bringing home their fish to be scaled by rubbing them between their hands, rolled in meal and cooked in a big skillet. We would eat these fish with pone corn bread and we sure had big eatin’s!
Master Stone had a big sugar camp with 300 trees. We would be woken up at sunup by a big horn and called to get our buckets and go to the sugar camps and bring water from the maple trees. These trees had been tapped and … the water dripped to the wooden troughs below. We carried this water to the big poplar troughs which were about 10 feet long and 3 feet high. The water was then dipped out and placed in different kettles to boil until it became the desired thickness for “Tree Molasses”. Old Miss Polly would always take out enough of the water to boil down to make sugar cakes for us boys. We had great times at these “stirring offs” which usually took place at night.
Interviewee Formerly enslaved person
Birth Year (Age)
Interviewer WPA Volunteer
Enslaver’s Name
Bert Mayfield
1852 (Unknown)
Eliza Ison
Smith Stone
Interview Location
Residence State
Birth Location
Garrard County, KY
KY
Bryantsville, KY
Themes & Keywords
Additional Tags:
Garrard County, Food, Daily Life, Work, Christmas
Mayfield_B_3
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