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"My mammy's fus' husban' was taken by de spec'lators," said Maggie Williams, "she say she wait seven years 'fore she marry my father, thinkin' he come back, but freedom declared, and he never come back from dat Nigger Drove."
Maggie's bare feet were flat to the porch floor, but her brown gingham dress was clean. Lengths of faded material hanging from the porch roof kept the sun from her paralyzed body.
"I ain't got shoes," she said, "but I hopes de Welfare will gi' me some befo' cold weather come."
Asked about plantation life, Maggie said:
"My mammy's marster had right smart of slaves, and dey lived in log houses and slep' on reg'lar beds. At Christmas time on de plantation dey give 'em ev'ything dey wanted. For holidays dey had big barbecues and dinners. Mammy's people never did whip 'em, Mistis and Marster treated 'em good. Nobuddy but de Marster was overseer.
"Dey cocked on a stove. De smokehouse was wheah dey kep' all de rations and dey didn't 'lowance de slaves, dey jus' let 'em go dere to de smokehouse and git what dey needed. Dey made soap outter grease and lye in a big ole pot. Dey put de meat and bones in dere, and boil it till it get done, den it look like ropes of candy. Dey let it set in de pot until it git cold, and when it git cold dey take it out in big hunks and put it out in de sun to dry.
"Dey had hog killin' onc't a year, and dey kill enough to las' de whole year out."
"What kind of work did your mother do, Maggie?" she was asked.
"Mammy say on de plantation she work in de fiel' by day, and at night dey had to spin so many hours, jus' like we-all crochet now. When dey had chillun, de wimmin rested a month and if dey had a nursin' baby dey was give light work around de house until it was a little older. When dey went back to de fiel's dey would come home twic't or three times a day to nurse de baby, come home 'bout 11 o'clock, stay till dinnertime, go back to work after dinner, come home 4 o'clock and nurse 'em again."
As to recreation, Maggie was vague.
"Yessum, dey could go to frolics, dat was dances, you know, but my mammy never teach me no games. She used to sing church songs all de time, regular hymns. De cullud folkses had some old houses, and dey had meetings in dem houses, jus' de cullud folkses togedder wid cullud preachers."
Regarding freedom, Maggie said:
"When dey said dey was free it was three years befo' dey knowed it. When dey tole 'em dey was free, some stayed on wid de white people and some went where dey could git work. Mammy's new husban' come to Augusta. He was a brick mason, and got good work here. Mammy said she sho' like freedom better, 'cause after she got free she learned how to read some."
