The
first month I spent in finding accommodations for the school, and in
travelling through Alabama, examining into the actual life of the
people, especially in the court districts, and in getting the school
advertised among the glass of people that I wanted to have attend it.
The most of my travelling was done over the country roads, with a mule
and a cart or a mule and a buggy wagon for conveyance. I ate and
slept with the people, in their little cabins. I saw their farms,
their schools, their churches. Since, in the case of the most of
these visits, there had been no notice given in advance that a
stranger was expected, I had the advantage of seeing the real,
everyday life of the people.
In the plantation districts I found that, as a rule, the whole
family slept in one room, and that in addition to the immediate family
there sometimes were relatives, or others not related to the family,
who slept in the same room. On more than one occasion I went outside
the house to get ready for bed, or to wait until the family had gone
to bed. They usually contrived some kind of a place for me to sleep,
either on the floor or in a special part of another's bed. Rarely was
there any place provided in the cabin where one could bathe even the
face and hands, but usually some provision was made for this outside
the house, in the yard.
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