United States or Bhutan ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
He belonged to his white folks but he had his house and lot right next to theirs. They would give him time you know. He didn't have to work in the heat of the day. He made his crop and bought his whiskey. The white folks fed 'im. He had no expenses 'cept tending to his crop. He didn't have to give Tom Eford anything he made. He just worked his crop in his extra time.
Midway, Clayton, and Barber are all nearby towns. We used to go to all of them. "My master was Tom Eford. When he died, I fell to Polly Eford. Polly Eford was the old lady. I don't know where they is and they don't know nothing about where I is. It's been so long. Because I done lef' Alabama fifty years. I don't know whether any of them is living or not. It's been so long.
They ain't got no whiskey now old poison stuff that will kill people. My daddy was jus' drunk all the time. He had plenty of whiskey. That was what killed old Tom Eford. He kept it settin' on the dresser all the time. You couldn't walk in his house but what you would see it time you got in. Folks hide it now. I have drunk a many a glass of it. I would go and take a glass whenever I wanted to.
Old Tom Eford had three boys one named Tom, one named William, and there was the one named Giles what I told you about. William was the oldest, Tom was the second, and Giles was the youngest. "I never learnt to read and write. In slave time, they didn't let you have no books. My brother though was a good reader.
"Colored folks what would run away, old lady Eford would call them 'rottenheads' and 'bloody bones. We would hear the hounds baying after them and old lady Eford would stand out in the yard and cuss them cuss the hounds I mean. Like that would do any good. Some slaves would kill theirselves before they would be caught. They would hear them dogs. I have seen old Tom Eford. He would have them dogs.
The white folks called Eford's colored people poor white folks because he was so good to them. Old Tom Eford was the sheriff of Clayton. "His folks came back to the house at noon and et their dinner at the house. He had a cook and dinner was prepared for them just like it was for the white folks. The colored woman that cooked for them had it ready when they came there for it.
I would rather go, but he ain't called me. How the Day Went "We got up after daylight. Tom Eford didn't make his folks git up early. But after he was dead and gone, things changed up. The res' made 'em git up before daylight. He was a good man. The Lord knows. Yes Lord, way before day. You'd be in the field to work way before day and then work way into the night.
They had a great big kitchen and the hands ate there. They came back to the same place for supper. And they didn't have to work late either. Old Tom Eford never worked his hands extra. That is the reason they called his niggers poor-white folks. Folks lived at home them days and et in the same place. When my old man was living, I had plenty. Smokehouse was full of good meat.
"Their baby boy was named Giles Eford. His mother was Miami Eford and my father's name was Perry Eford. That is the name he went in. My mother went in that name too. My father died the second year of the surrender. My mother was a widow a long time. I was a grown-up woman and had children when my father died. "I married during slavery time. I don't remember just how old I was then.
Old lady Eford, she was my mistress and mammy too. If she ever slapped me, I don't know nothin' 'bout it. "My daddy made his farm jus' like colored people do now. White man would give him so much ground if he'd a mind to work it. He had a horse he used. "We lived a heap better than the people live now. They fed you then. You ate three times a day.
Word Of The Day