She
got out from dar and testified dat it was de devil a-holdin' her back.
"De white ladies had nice silk dresses to wear to church. Slave 'omans
had new calico dresses what dey wore wid hoopskirts dey made out of
grapevines. Dey wore poke bonnets wid ruffles on 'em and, if de weather
was sort of cool, dey wore shawls. Marster allus wore his linen duster.
Dat was his white coat, made cutaway style wid long tails. De cloth for
most all of de clothes was made at home. Marse Joe raised lots of sheep
and de wool was used to make cloth for de winter clothes. Us had a great
long loom house whar some of de slaves didn't do nothin' but weave
cloth. Some cyarded bats, some done de spinnin', and dere was more of
'em to do de sewin'. Miss Ellen, she looked atter all dat, and she cut
out most of de clothes. She seed dat us had plenty to wear. Sometimes
Marster would go to de sewin' house, and Mist'ess would tell him to git
on 'way from dar and look atter his own wuk, dat her and Aunt Julia
could run dat loom house. Marster, he jus' laughed den and told us
chillun what was hangin' round de door to jus' listen to dem 'omans
cackle. Oh, but he was a good old boss man.
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