Bedsole - NCGenWeb

They were never given anything more than food and water, but were always kept penned or tied up when not
working. They were never allowed to roam free because of the inability of their owners to control and recover
them. Sometimes they broke out of their pens during the night, causing a major uproar when they were found
to be missing. If they wandered off and were captured by someone else, the rightful owner had the problem
of proving ownership and resulting arguments over this, frequently erupted into fights, killings and feuds
between, by, and among, the parties involved, because the livelihood and very survival of the owner and his
family depended to a very great extent, if not totally, on these animals.
I remember one case in my own life, back in the 1930’s, when a fifteen year old neighbor of our’s was riding
their mule from the field to the barn one late afternoon, when the mule suddenly went into a fit of rage,
bucking and kicking and threw the boy head over heels up in the air. He landed on his back on top of a stump
about thirty inches high. It broke his back in several places and there was nothing at all the doctors could do
for that kind of injury in the 1930's. He was bedridden and his parents had the difficult job of turning him
every few hours, all day and all night, until he finaly died, almost two weeks later. I can still hear him
screaming every time they tried to move him. I cannot imagine the suffering and torture he and his parents
had to live through, during that time.
Planting Time
In early spring, the cleared land had to be plowed under with a plow pulled by two mules, or oxen which were
more plentiful than mules. These plows had a kind of steel “wing” on them, which turned a strip of dirt about 6
inches wide, upside down and when a field was finished, it was ready for planting. Imagine plowing a field of
200 acres, 6 inches at a time, taking about 20 minutes for one pass, or from one end of the field to the other.
The amount of time and the walking and handling of the plow and team was very demanding, difficult and
time-consuming.
Once the field was prepared for planting, if not already on hand, the corn, cotton or other seeds had to be
somehow acquired, either through purchase or some kind of trade. Corn was planted with two kernels every
30 inches. An extra kernel, in case the first didn’t sprout. We now know that corn planters in modern day
Nebraska and Kansas, successfully plant 90 or more seeds in the same 30 inch strip, producing 30 to 50
times as much corn on the same piece of land. Nevertheless, the old way of planting persisted until about
1950.
So the harvest back then was pitifully small for all crops, due to the ignorance of the settlers, further
worsening their already pathetically deprived lives, due to small crop yields. Low production also meant they
had less to eat and to trade, for things they desperately needed all year long. The reason they planted so few
seeds was the belief that they would “overplant” and “Burn out” the land. At a time when their very survival
depended upon their ability to produce, their actual knowledge, beliefs and actions in such production was
vastly inadequate and contrary to their needs for production, survival consumption, and prosperity.
Bedding Cane
This was a long, hard job done in the fall, when everybody cut down the stalks of cane, dug a hole about four
feet deep and sixty feet long, piled the stalks in it and covered them with about three feet of dirt.
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This was to preserve the cane through the winter and keep it from freezing and bursting, thereby becoming
useless. However, during the coldest part of winter, some cane would be uncovered and the leaves stripped
from each stalk, the stalks chopped into one-foot lengths and each piece planted in the field in preparation