MARY INGRAM:

“ ’Twarn’t any mai’iage ’lowed on de plantation ’twix’ some. De marster, he tell who can git mai’ied an’ who can’t. Him select de po’tly [portly = large] and p’lific womens, an’ de po’tly man, an’ use sich fo’ de breeder an’ de father of de women’s chilluns. De womens dat am selected am not ’lowed to mai’y [marry]. De chilluns dat am bo’n dat way don’t know any father. De womens have nothin’ to says ’bout de ’rangement. If she am po’tly an’ well-formed, deys fo’ced her wid de breeder. … W’y don’ weuns refuse? Shucks, man, yous don’ know w’at yous says. De rawhide whup [whip] keeps you f’om refusin’. Ise know ’cause Ise see de young girls cryin’, an’ dey gits whupped ’cause deys stubbo’n. De ol’ women ’vise de girls dat ’twarn’t no use to refuse. Dat it jus’ makes it wo’se fo’ dem.”

HENRY KIRK MILLER:

“The children that weren’t big enough to work were fed at the white people’s house. We got milk and mush for breakfast. When they boiled cabbage, we got bread and potliquor [the liquid remaining after cabbage was cooked]. For supper, we got milk and [corn]bread. … As fast as us children got big enough to hire out, she [the mistress] leased us to anybody who would pay for our hire. I was put out with another widow woman who lived about 20 miles. She worked me on her cotton plantation. Old Mistress sold one of my sisters and took cotton for pay. I remember hearing them tell about the big price she brought because cotton was so high [expensive].”

JENNY PROCTOR:

“When he goes to sell a slave, he feed dat one good for a few days. Den when he goes to put ’em up on de auction block, he takes a meat skin and greases all ’round deir mouths to make ’em look like dey been eatin’ plenty meat and sich like, and wuz good and strong and able to work. Sometimes he sell de babes from de breas’, and den again he sell de mothers from de babes, and de husbands and de wives, and so on. He wouldn’t let ’em holler [scream or cry loudly] much when de folks be sold away. He say, “I have you whooped if you don’t hush.” Dey sho’ loved deir six chillun, though. [The slave owners surely loved their own six white children, though.] Dey wouldn’ want nobody buyin’ dem.”