Mary Ann remembered, "I helped wid de work in de 'loom room.' I had to do 'five cuts a day', but I was fast enough to make eight cuts a day. I made five cuts fo' de white folks and three fo' myself...Now, let me tell you about de cooks. Mawster Burleson had a cook fo' de big house and he had a cook fo' de slaves. Dah was a kitchen in de big house fo' de white folks, and dah was a kitchen and long table fo' de hands. We had putty good vittles. I remembah we had so much hog meat dat we'd throw de hogs' head and feet away. Mawster Burleson raised his own hogs. Everythin' dat ole mawster et, we had it too. Sometimes we et deer meat and dah was times when we had bear meat and honey. Mawster Burleson had his own bees."
Photos and quotes of former slaves used in these blog posts come from the Slave Narratives.