Document text
Accession no.
Date received
10/10/40
Consignment no.
1
shipped from
Wash. Off.
Label
Amount
4p.
Place of origin
WPA L. C. PROJECT Writers' UNIT
F .nn -3
rplklore
Collection (or Type)
Title SOCila Customs. Mrs. Lula
Bcfwers II
S.Car,
Hampton Co., Date 6=Zalmal.
Project Facette
Project editor
Remarks
Project #-1655
Phoebe Faucette
hampton County
3711A;;;
Records of the Past
SOCIAL CUSTOMS
Mrs. Lula Bowers, IL.
"The holidays were celebrated then the same as now. Al]. had
the turkeys, geese, hogs, etc. had servants. The last act of
my grandmother's
goose. She came
and never got up
life was out overseeing the butchering of a
in, took her pipe out of her mouth, lay down,
again. On the Fourth of July they generally
had a big muster, and a big eating. That was When Uncle Jesse
Peeples was killed.
When on New lear's there was
'to dol. All sat up and watched. They celebrated
I've carried bouquets a many a time to Lawtonville
the soldiers' graves. Got OD they don't celebrate it any more.
Been about ten years since they had a celebration.
"They'd go visiting more in the old days than they do now.
But they'd always finish their work first. They'd set them-
selves a sort of task of work and when they had finished they'd
go visiting. There's a great change now. Now they hardly ever
go to see anybody.
"And children now are not raised like they used to raise
them. we were taught to say 'Aunt' and 'Uncle' to the old
Negroes. 1.)ut there was one old colored woman who said that she
didn't was us calling her 'Aunt'. Said that she wasn't old,
and that we must call her 'Botta'. But we said Aunt Lucinda,
and 'Aunt' to all the rest.
"There is a great change in the men and women, too, from
what it used to be. It used to be that the men tended to all
the business. Now most all thletifilms is tended to by the
always a big
Memorial Day.
to put on
women!
NKr
Project #-1655
Phoebe Faucet to
hAampton County
Page 2
I remember the first woman free dealer. She was Mr. Ned
Morrison's grandmother. She was the first free -dealer I ever
heard of. "er husband was an excellent man but no business
man. He had a large farm to manage after the war, with free
labor. He'd get so mad with the negroes that he'd just let
them go, and give up. So she had to take charge. She went
to the courthouse and got an appointment. She was the only
woman I knew that got an appointment to run her own farm.
Now women run their farms if they want to.
"The churches and schools Wasn't much. They got free
schools for three months then. Now they get it for nine.
"The roads weren't good either like they are now. And it
was so hard to get anybody to work on the roads. Each farmer
had to send a certain amount of hands to work the roads, and
someone had to oversee the work. My father was generally the
one.
"In slavery time we had three slave quarters ten houses
in each quarter. 'he houses were kept nice, kept clean. And
there was one special house where they kept the children and
a nurse. The houses were log -houses, and they didn't have
any windows more than ten or twelve inches square. And they
had shutters, not sash. The hinges for the shutters were
made in the blacksmith shop. They wouldn't have but two rooms.
Very often they wouldn't have lumber enough to put in the par-
tition, and would have to hang up sheets between the rooms.
Project #-1655
Phoebe Faucette
hampton County
Page 3
They'd cell them with clapboards from the woods. Their furni-
ture was just anything that they could get little stools, and
little benches, and just anything. They'd use the back of
their old dresses for quits.
"The clothes of the slaves were spun at home and made by
their mistresses. They'd weave them white, then dye the cloth.
They'd go in the woods and get bark and dye them.
"The slaves had bread and hominy, and what little meat they
could get hold of now and then. There were a lot of cattle in
this country. And they raised a lot of geese, and guineas,
and such like. most of the slaves were doctored by their own-
ers. Dr. Nathan A. Johnston was the first doctor I knew any-
thing about. They'd rake soot off the back of the chimney and
make a tea out of it for the colic.' Called it soot -tea. I've
seen my grandmother do it a many a timel The slaves didn't
have any education in that day. They'd have Sunday Schools
for the white people and for the slaves. The old people would
write down what the children had to say. They had no books
then, and paper was so scarce they sometimes had to use paste-
board. When the slaves wanted to go off on a visit they were
given tickets, and allowed to go for just so many hours.
"After the war, military rule was oppressive for a while;
but they got so they dropped that. There was much lawlessness.
There was no law at all, and they couldn't manage the negroes
at all. There was a man that came from Beaufort named Wright,
and he controlled them. Ae wa
s a northernerbut he was a
Project #-1655
Phoebe Faucette
Hampton County
Page 4
good man. He and his wife came. They stayed in three different
homes when they were here. Only three homes would take those
people inl One of them was a relative of mine. She said one
night Mrs. Wright said she would make a pudding for them all
what she called Hasty Pudding. So my aunt got out the sugar,
and eggs and seasonings for her; but the 'Pudding' proved to be
just Fried Hominy cold hominy sliced and rolled in. egg and
flour and fried. They had a son and a daughter. After a while
they came, too."
Source: Mrs. Lula Bowers, 79, Luray, S. C.
(Second interview.)