Slave Life in Georgia - African American History

Slave Life in Georgia 4
24.03.2006
We all lived together with our mother, in a log cabin, containing two rooms, one
of which we occupied; the other being inhabited by my mother's niece, Annikie,
and her children. It had a mud floor; the sides were of wattle and daub, and the
roof was thatched over. Our sleeping place was made by driving a forked stake
into the floor, which served to support a cross piece of wood, one end of it
resting in the crotch, the other against the shingle that formed the wall. A plank
or two across, over the top, completed the bed-room arrangements,
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with the exception of another plank on which we laid straw or cotton-pickings,
and over that a blanket.
Our mistress Betty Moore was an old, big woman, about seventy, who wore
spectacles and took snuff. I remember her very well, for she used to call us
children up to the big house every morning, and give us a dose of garlic and rue
to keep us "wholesome," as she said, and make us "grow likely for market."
After swallowing our dose, she would make us run round a great sycamore tree
in the yard, and if we did not run fast enough to please her, she used to make us
nimbler by laying about us with a cow-hide. She always carried this instrument
dangling at her side, like ladies in this country wear their scissors. It was painted
blue, and we used to call it the "blue lizard." She used to like to see her people
constantly employed, and would make us all set to work at night, after our day's
labour was over, picking the seed out of cotton. We had a hard time of it with
the old lady.
At this period, my principal occupation was to nurse my little brother whilst my
mother worked in the field. Almost all slave children have to do the nursing; the
big taking care of the small,
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who often come poorly off in consequence. I know this was my little brother's
case. I used to lay him in the shade, under a tree, sometimes, and go to play, or
curl myself up under a hedge, and take a sleep. He would wake me by his
screaming, when I would find him covered with ants, or musquitos,or blistered
from the heat of the sun, which having moved round whilst I was asleep, would
throw the shadow of the branches in another direction, leaving the poor child
quite exposed.
The children of both sexes usually run about quite naked, until they are from ten