The breakfast over, and with practically no attention given to the
house, the whole family would, as a general thing, proceed to the
cotton-field. Every child that was large enough to carry a hoe was
put to work, and the baby -- for usually there was at least one baby
-- would be laid down at the end of the cotton row, so that its mother
could give it a certain amount of attention when she had finished
chopping her row. The noon meal and the supper were taken in much the
same way as the breakfast.
All the days of the family would be spent after much this same
routine, except Saturday and Sunday. On Saturday the whole family
would spent at least half a day, and often a whole day, in town. The
idea in going to town was, I suppose, to do shopping, but all the
shopping that the whole family had money for could have been attended
to in ten minutes by one person. Still, the whole family remained in
town for most of the day, spending the greater part of the time in
standing on the streets, the women, too often, sitting about somewhere
smoking or dipping snuff. Sunday was usually spent in going to some
big meeting. With few exceptions, I found that the crops were
mortgaged in the counties where I went, and that the most of the
coloured farmers were in debt.
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