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Susannah claims to be 103 years old. She says she was born May 15, 1833. Her grandson, who works on the W.P.A., with whom she lives, thinks she is 95. The house is a detached Negro tenant house, the interior is clean, and the chairs are rockers. The bed was covered with a bright pink cotton quilt. Oil lamps were on the mantel. Susannah was dressed in a dress composed of strips of chambray and calico sewed together. Her apron was soiled, but her head cloth was clean. She has no teeth. Her skin is wrinkled, and her throat works convulsively as she talks. She is palsied, but confiding, innocent-eyed and gentle. She does not seem to have any suspicions of white people. The grandson was doing the family washing, as it was his off day on WPA work, and his wife was out on a day's job. Susannah had in her hands the patches of a quilt, but she did not seem to be doing much sewing.
"My min' ain't as good as it have been," she said. "Yas, honey, I 'longed on the Starling Freenen place at Troy, S. C. It wusn't in Troy exactly, you unnerstan' -' jus side of it." She chuckled. "Dere's so much I kain't tell yo! Honey, I spun, and I work in de fiel'. I spun de warp and fillin' for men's pants, and young ez I was, I spun many a card o' cotton."
She fell silent for a moment, but her mind was busy.
"Lawd, honey! A good portion of de slaves was dere - it wuzn't a hundred, not dat many. Mos' of dem's daid. Our folks had a good many. Well, our people, dey plowed and hoed and raise de farms jus' like dey does now. Heap o' them play de fiddle and dance, but I never could put up to dance. Dey danced at parties whut dey calls 'hot supper dances' ("a breakdown", interpolated her grandson) dere'd be a big gathering. When de slaves wanted to go off to visit, dey had to git a pass to leave de plantation. If they went widout orders they got a whuppin'. I kain't tell you when dey whupped 'em! De owner, he whup 'em, and he tole 'em not to go. Lawd have mussy! Dey whup 'em when dey done anything displeasing! Not like it was big crimes, though. Hickory switches dey get out o' de wood in bunches, Dat was to let you know you had to lissen at whut dey said. De reason of dat was, heap o' folks might go and do somethin' displeasin' to de neighbors, and the owner didn't want his people to go off and mek trouble, he says, 'I would druther you stayed home dan to go to some place and displease other folkses.'
"De cookin' was done in a fireplace. Did not have so many stoves in dem days. Spiders and ovens and things to cook with. De food was put in a smoke-house. Dey was certain times dey had, like tomorrow or next day, to draw rations. De han' he draw his rations, and den dey does dere own cookin'. De smaller chillun eat in teams in de yard, de cook-woman take care o' dem while the mudder and fadder in de fiel' - at dinner-time de teams of chilluns eat and some good sized chaps taken care o' the chillun while the parents wukked.
"Our houses was made outter logs. We didn't have nuthin' much nohow, but my mammy, she had plenty o' room for her chillun. Us didn't sleep on de flo' - we had a bed. De people in de plantation all had beds. Hog-time come: well, our folks had to go acrost a little branch. They would kill from 15 to 16 head o' hogs and everybody had to gather 'round and help. Our mistis was named Elizabeth Robertson. You know how whiskey - folks does - things dey ain't got no business to do at all? Well, Marster tried to sell to boys, my brudder and another youngster for a pair o' young mules. Our Mistis said:
"No! You don't sell my chillun for no mules!"
And he didn't sell 'em neider. They never sold nobody off of our plantation. But people did sell women, old like I am now, or say they didun' have no chillun - the fus' speclator come along and wants to buy, he kin have you. De marster say - 'bring me hans' in. I wants hans'.'
"De houses was in rows. We went to white folks' church - de white people set up front - the cullud pussons upstairs in de gallery. Dat was 'cause if white folks sat dere, dey mought have spit down on de slaves. I ain't want to tell you no story, I kain't member whether it was Methodis' or Baptis'.
"When slaves run away from plantations sometimes de marsters hunted dem wid dogs, but din't many of our people run away. Mistis Elizabeth - she been daid so long - but she was good. I done had so much trouble, honey, it's hard to remember. Some people went off from our home, when freedom come. I never see nuthin' like no celebration. I stayed with my mother. I come to Augusta 17 years back. After freedom it was' six months fore they tell 'em dey was free. They were happy.
"I never been taught to read or write. They would have sometimes big gatherings at de home for de white peoples, set big table. When cullud people was married, white people give supper, colored man whut lives on place marries 'em. The house servants was trained to cook, clean up, de men was trained to make shoes. I don't think us had carpenters. I toted water in de fiel', hoed some, I was quite young. I spun but I didn't weave. Dere was a lady they had on the place done de weaving. I had a many a dress striped, woven on dat big loom and dey was pretty, too.
