CHAPTER IX
ANXIOUS DAYS AND SLEEPLESS NIGHTS
THE coming of Christmas, that first year of our residence in Alabama,
gave us an opportunity to get a farther insight into the real life of
the people. The first thing that reminded us that Christmas had
arrived was the "foreday" visits of scores of children rapping at our
doors, asking for "Chris'mus gifts! Chris'mus gifts!" Between the
hours of two o'clock and five o'clock in the morning I presume that we
must have had a half-hundred such calls. This custom prevails
throughout this portion of the South to-day.
During the days of slavery it was a custom quite generally
observed throughout all the Southern states to give the coloured
people a week of holiday at Christmas, or to allow the holiday to
continue as long as the "yule log" lasted. The male members of the
race, and often the female members, were expected to get drunk. We
found that for a whole week the coloured people in and around Tuskegee
dropped work the day before Christmas, and that it was difficult for
any one to perform any service from the time they stopped work until
after the New Year. Persons who at other times did not use strong
drink thought it quite the proper thing to indulge in it rather freely
during the Christmas week.
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