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Recollections of Slavery Times BY ALLEN PARKER (Worcester, Mass.: Chas. W. Burbank & Co., 1895, 96 pp) CHAPTER 1   RECOLLECTIONS OF SLAVERY TIMES. CHAPTER I. I WAS born in the town of Chowan on the Chowan River, in the northeastern part of North Carolina, only a short distance south of the Virginia line. My mother, whose name was Millie, was a slave formerly owned by one Peter Parker; and as children born in slavery followed the condition of their mother, I was of course claimed as Peter Parker's property, and have always gone by the name of Allen Parker. My father's name was Jeff, and being owned by one William Ellick, he went by the name of Jeff Ellick, but as he had the misfortune to have been born without ears, he was often called "no-eared Jeff." He did not live with my mother, as his master's plantation was some ten miles from the Parker plantation, but he generally came home Saturday nights and now and then would come to us in the night during the week, as a slave did not mind a walk of ten miles after his day's work if he could have a chance to see his loved ones. I do not know exactly when I was born, for slaves keep no family records, and if any records of the ages of the slaves was kept by the Parker family I never knew of it. I suppose however that I must have been born sometime between 1835 and 1840. I do not remember my old master as his death occured when I was only a few months old. While he lived my mother was what was known as a field hand. About two weeks after my birth, my mistress gave birth to a little girl whom she named Annie, and I have been told that my mistress often nursed me at her breast, in order that my mother might not be kept from her work in the field. When Mr. Parker died both my mother and myself became the property of the daughter Annie, in accordance with his last will and testement. In his will my master provided that none of the slaves left by him should be sold but might be hired out, that is let to some person by the year. Annie and her property were under the guardianship of Parker's brother who was named James Skinner. It was customary in those days for those having slaves to let, to take them to some prominent place, such as a point where two roads crossed, on the first day of the New Year, and at a given hour of the day the slaves would be put up at auction, and let to the highest bidders for one year; there was generally quite a gathering on these occasions, both of slaves and of white people. It was always understood that a person hiring a slave must furnish board and clothes in addition to paying a certain sum of money per year, and also agreeing not to misuse the slave in any way that would injure his or her value. It was also understood that if a slave was not treated properly the person owning or having charge of the slave could take it away, in which case the money paid for the slave's hire for the year would be forfeited. In acordance with this custom my mother was let out to a poor white, that is a farmer who did not own any slaves, and I being only a baby, went with her, and it was upon this farm which was near the Parker Plantation that my first experience of slave life began. The country around Chowan was not very thickly settled, the land being devided up into farms or plantations, upon which was raised wheat, indian corn, rye, oats, peanuts, sweet-potatoes and sometimes rice. Vegatables enough for home use were also raised. Most of the farmers owned hogs which were allowed to run wild in the woods where they fed upon acorns, nuts and roots. There were also horses, mules and some horned cattle all of which received full as good care as the slaves did. The farm work was done by slaves, women working in the field as well as the men. Boys and girls were required to work as soon as they were able to do anything. The slaves lived in log cabins. Single slaves who did not belong to slave families, lived in common with others and were fed from the main kitchen. Those who had families generally lived in small one-story log cabins. The walls of these cabins were made of rough logs, the spaces between the logs being filled with clay; the roof was made of thin strips of wood split from clear, straight grained logs; these strips extended from the eaves to the ridge pole, and were laid over each other in such a manner as to make a fairly tight roof. If the roof did leak a little there was no danger of spoiling any nice furniture for the very good reason the slaves did not have any. The fireplace was made of logs and was large enough to take in a log five or six feet long. On the fireplace was built a wooden chimney, made of sticks piled up cob-house fashion, and extending out through the roof some two or three feet. The sides of the chimney tapered inward as they went up, so that the hole was somewhat smaller at the top than at the bottom. When the woodwork of the fireplace was done, and the chimney built up as high as needed, the whole affair was plastered outside and in with wet clay, which finished the fireplace and chimney. The heat of the fire soon hardened the clay and a chimney of this kind would last a long time. This kind of masonry not only has the advantage of being cheap but it could be repaired without difficulty at any time, as the material cost nothing and was always at hand. The door of the cabin was made of rough boards nailed together and was hung on heavy iron hinges like a barn-door. As the slaves had little to loose, the door are seldom fastened on the the inside, but was kept shut by a latch that could be raised from the outside by means of a string; if those inside happened to want to fasten it they pull in the latch string. The windows had only wooden shutters which could be closed when desired, but this would of course leave the cabin in darkness. When a fire was needed a few bricks, or stones were placed on the hearth to take the place of firedogs, on these was placed a huge back log, in front of which was built a fire of small wood. At this fire all the family cooking was done. The cooking utensils were few and all of the simplist kind. A long handled shallow iron skillet with long legs did duty as a spider in which to fry our salt pork, bacon and other meat, whenever we could get it. It was also sometimes used to bake "hoe cake" in. These hoe cakes, which formed a large part of the slave's bill of fare, were made of Indian meal, and water with a little salt and sometimes a quantity of pork fat was added. When the skillet was not at hand or was wanted for some other purpose, a "nigger hoe" that is a hoe used by the slave in the field, was placed handle down upon the floor, so that the under side of the hoe would be next to the fire. The angle that the iron part of the hoe made with the handle was such that when the handle was placed upon the floor the iron part would slant back from the fire, thereby making a resting place for the cake. When one side of the cake was baked the other side was turned to the fire. From this style of cooking, the cake came to be called "hoe cake." The common allowance of a slave was four quarts of Indian meal and five pounds of salt pork, Sometimes one quart of molasses, per week, and all the sweet potatoes that they wanted. Whatever else they had, had to be earned by over work, or by selling a part of their allowance, or as it often happened by selling such supplies as could be stolen from the fields or storehouses upon the plantations. There could always be found a market among the poor whites, for whatever a slave had to sell, though the price paid was often very low, for the slave was in a measure at the mercy of the buyer. Generally the buyer knew or had reasons to suspect that the goods were stolen, and he also knew it was against the law for him to buy goods of a slave without knowing that everything was all right. But he knew that the slave could not complain of him without getting into trouble himself, and feeling safe along that line he had only to suggest to the slave that he thought it would be well to consult the master in relation to the trade, this was of course the last thing the slave wanted to have done; for if his master found that he was selling stolen goods, a severe punishment was sure to follow, that is if the goods were stolen from the master's plantation, and of course the slave knew best as to the proper owner of the goods. Men and women who were not married lived in the common quarters as I have said, but the men and women lived in separate cabins. On some plantations each slave had to do his or her own cooking, but on the others there was a cookhouse called the kitchen where not only the food for the master's family was cooked, but also the food of such slaves as did not live in families. The kitchen was generally under the control of female slaves who did the cooking with the help of one or two more slaves and perhaps a boy to run errands. The woman in charge would most likely be called Aunt Dina, or Aunt somebody else, and was quite a personage upon the plantation, as she not only did the cooking but also looked out for the laundry work, and had the general charge of such of the slave children as did not live with their mothers, in separate cabins. These children did not have any regular allowances but went to the kitchen for their meals. The food being most commonly thick sour milk and hoe cake. The milk would be poured into a trough something like a pig's trough. Then each child would be given a piece of hoe cake and an iron spoon and allowed to go to the trough and eat as much as they wanted. Meat was sometimes given them, but not very often, and then it was only what would be called waste in most families. Good masters sometimes gave the children meat, generally pork, three times in a week. Fat pork was thought to improve the looks of the children, by giving the skin an oily look. Sometimes when the master had company, he would have the children all sent up to the mansion house so that he might show them off. When this was to be done he would send word to Aunt Dina to have the children washed and put into clean shirts. When this was done Aunt Dina would take each child separately and grease its mouth so that the child would look as if they had been eating meat. When they were all fixed according to Aunt Dina's idea of smartness they would be sent to the house, and told to stand in a row before the master, who would point to them with about the same kind of pride that he would have in showing a flock of good sheep, or a lot of good hogs. As to clothing a slave's outfit was far from being expensive. Until I was quite a large boy say 10 or 12 years old my only garment was a long shirt, made of heavy cotton cloth and reaching from my neck to just below my knees, no hat upon my head or shoes upon my feet. After I was thought to be old enough to take part in the field work, I had a regular allowance of clothing in common with the other slaves. This allowance consisted of two shirts, two pairs of pants, two pair of shoes, one straw hat and two blankets per year. The shirts and pants being made of cotton ducking. This allowance would be considered rather small for a society young man in the North at the present time. The outfit of the women, like that of the men, was very simple and inexpensive, consisting of two sheets, two blankets, two dresses, two pairs of shoes and now and then a cheap hat. It must not be understood however that slaves did not sometimes have other clothes, for the love of dress was just as strong with them as with those more fortunate with funds. They would often spend for dress the money they earned by overwork, and sometimes favorite slaves would have clothes given to them. In one way or another most of the slaves managed to have at least one suit that was a little better than the clothes that they wore every day, and some of them could dress very well when they went to meeting, or to the gatherings upon the plantations. During the evenings in the Fall of the year until about Christmas the women would be required to spin cotton yarn, which one of the hands would weave into a course kind of cloth, which was made into shirts, pants, dresses and so forth for the slaves. When the slaves wanted to comb their hair they did not always go to wash as a fashionable young lady of today does, but would get a card such as some farmers use in carding cattle, and would card their hair with it. It should be remembered that the negro does not have long hair like white people, but short curly hair commonly called wool. 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