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Aunt Anna came to Polk County when she was ten years old. She was a slave to Captain Peek, who lived in a big white house. The house stood in a grove of cedar and oak trees. He also owned a large number of slaves and they loved him dearly. Captain Peek brought Aunt Anna from Greenville, N.C.
They rode steer carts and horseback from Greenville, N.C., and they drove two hundred hogs and cattle from North Carolina to Polk County. It took them three weeks to get here. The slaves were tired. Aunt Anna said she surely was glad to see that big white house and to know that she was home. When Aunt Anna got to Cedartown she said there was only one store here owned by Mr. Calvin Philpot and two bar rooms, owned by Brigham Young and Mr. Daugherty.
The home of Dr. J. W. Pickett was the only two-story house and it was whitewashed. There were only two churches, Baptist and Methodist, where both colored and white people attended. Aunt Anna Peek is the oldest and only living negro member of the Baptist Church.
When the slaves could not use horse and buggy they would ride in steer carts to church all dressed in white.
After the slaves would do their day's work they would sit at home and spin, knit stockings, make their own shoes, etc. In those days their shoes were known as gator shoes. Everything they wore was home made. The men wore pants known as apron pants. The cloth was known as jeans and was dyed brown with green walnut hulls. The hulls were put in a big hogshead and pounded with a heavy piece of wood, shaped like a big club until all the juice was extracted. Then cloth was boiled in this, water being added to make the different shades of brown. Indigo was used for blue dye. Clothing was mostly made in blue and brown for everyday wear, and white was used for Sunday clothes.
The slaves with the mistress overseeing would weave what was known as coverlids and counterpanes. Thread spun and dyed for the coverlids were woven in colors dyed at home.
On Sunday night they would have cold supper. Aunt Anna would always cook an ash cake for her master. After supper all the slaves would go to Aunt Anna's cabin, which was the usual nightly gathering place for the negroes. They would kindle a fire of light pine wood at one side for the children to play. The old darkies would sit against doors in a comfortable position and tell stories. The old women with pipes in their mouths would sit and gossip for hours. The following is a story was told by Aunt Anna which is true and happened here:
Once there was a very light negro, almost white, which puzzled all the darkies because they were all black, and they all wanted to know why she was much lighter than they. While they were talking Uncle Jim asked this gal why she was lighter than they were and why she didn't talk like the rest of the negroes. Julia, the light colored girl, said she would tell them her life history and why she was here. Before she was brought to Polk County she used to belong to Mr. Thompson, whose wife had a little baby girl the same age and all she had to do was to play with this little girl. One day Mrs. Thompson's daughter got sick and just before her death asked her to keep
Julia as her daughter. The white girl dies and Julia was brought up well and educated. One day a friend of Mrs. Thompson came and fell madly in love with Julia. After several months they were married and lived happily for two years when Julia's husband died, leaving her with only one son. She was very poor, all they possessed was auctioned off and she was put on the slave block with her son and was sold.
When the crops were laid by, it was barbecue time; there was wild shouting and dancing for this meant that everyone could take life pretty easy from now till cotton picking time. Down by the creek you could hear sounds of sawing and nailing, and a long line of smoke and flame come pouring out of the ground where the barbecuing pits were burning.
Early the next morning the whole plantation was astir. Long before breakfast was ready the darkies began passing on their way to the pasture, hurrying faster with watering mouths as a savory odor came floating on the warm summer air. At the Big House all the servants were in full glory. Aunt Anna was wonderful in a polkadot calico, ruffled clear up to the waist, all starched and fluted till she looked like a frilled balloon as she floated across the lawn. Aunt Anna's short wool was braided with red string in tiny pigtails all over her head.
In the big spring pasture was indeed a sight, hundreds of darkies were already there, everyone dressed up within an inch of his and her life.
Near the barbecue pits vegetables were now bubbling pleasantly in iron pots. Ash cakes were baking too. (Ash cakes are hoe cakes of cornmeal wrapped in a wet cloth and hot clean ashes is poured on top of the cake until it is done). The women bustle around setting the table, spreading out fresh figs and rosy peaches in a long row down the middle, or getting more vegetables for the pots.
The little darkies and white children rolled on the ground or fell into the creek.
The slaves waited until the white folks got there. Quite a number of the relatives and friends had come over to the barbecue, but these were quickly settled and served at the tables especially for them. Then the darkies began to feast, and they kept it up till they could stuff down no more, though there was still an abundance of food left.
Everyone rested a little after the dinner, and then the sports and games began. There were races and singing contests for big ones and little ones first, then came the real dances.
Aunt Anna's cabin had one room and a shed. On the windows they had shutters. There wasn't much inside. Just two home-made bedsteads with cornshuck mattresses, covered with gay patchwork quilts; another mattress, pallet fashion on the floor; a home-made chest for their few clothes; some split bottom hickory chairs.
The deep fire place had a rough brick hearth and fire back, a hook to hang cook pots over the fire, and a chimney shelf to hold tin plates and one oil lamp. But everything was neat and clean and Aunt Anna and her family were quite contented.
How Baskets were Made in Slavery Time by Slaves:
They took a number of wide splints, lapped the ends and tied them together strongly with a thong of wood about the size of a string, so that they looked like the spokes of a big wheel. Small pieces were woven in and out till the bottom was the right size and then they bent the splints upward, adding new ones as needed to make the sides solid enough. They wove the other wide splints round and round till the basket was deep enough, then around the top they put a stronger piece of wood, tied also with a thong of wood over this they bent the up and down splints, slipping the ends back under the splints which went around. This made a strong rim. They scraped the splints with a piece of broken glass till they were smooth, then colored some brown with walnut hulls, others a purple red with pokeberry juice.
Hog killing at the Big House:
Big iron pots and heavy tables were moved out doors; darkies were everywhere because they knew when it was all over they would have a big treat. Some scrubbed wooden tables and the hand sausage mill, some were put to crushing rock salt - everyone took a hand in the hog killing time, even the smaller darkies, they trotted back to and from the rock furnace with baskets of chips and arm loads of wood.
They would take the hog, plunge it head first into the scalding water of the big iron pot, quickly swing it over, catch the front legs, dip the other end in, throw it over on a low platform. Others with a long knife or old blades from the scythe held in both hands quickly scraped off all the steaming bristles, one would split the hind leg of each hog and slipped a seasoned hickory stick under the strong sinews to hold the leg apart. Then up went the hog, to hang from a strong bar, fastened between two trees. Aunt Anna would take the pit tails and roast the tiny sweet morsels in the ashes and have a grand feast.
This old slave (Aunt Anna Peek) is still living and up till her husband died a few years ago, she still lived on the Peek home place. She later bought a home where she is now living on Marietta Street.
Her husband ran off during the war and fought with the North; after the war he returned to his "white folks" and they gave him a home as long as he lived. He drew a pension for years from the Federal Government and saved quite a sum of money, also leaving a nice insurance. The residue of his estate, Aunt Anna says: - she has provided so it will go back to her "white folks" at her death.
