*Interview with Sally Murphy* —_Preston Klein, Lee County, Alabama_
When I was looking for Sally Murphy, I went into a clean, four room cabin and found a small, neat Negro woman.
"I’m sho’ is, honey, and who is you? Lawdy chile, you knows I know Mr. Pompy (my father). She laughed. "I’ll tell you anything I knows.
"I was jes’ ’bout ten years come slavery done. I was borned down on de Clayton place at Smith’s Corners. My pappy he come from South Car’lina, where his pappy was sold. He name was Calop and my mammy was Hannah Clayton. There was eight of us chillun. Fred, Silas, Calop, Mary, Dolphus, Dora, Lula and me. Us all lived down in de quarters, which was five log houses, daubed wid mud. Dem logs was big ones, hand-hewed, and de fireplaces was big, too. Us went to de fiel’s early in de morning and picked us a mess of young hick’ry and oak leaves to scald and cook in de pot wid meat. Dey made good greens and us had poke salad, too. (Made from the leaves of the pokeberry).
"When dey dried de fruit us would cook our kind of fruit cake. I don’t recollect what went in it. Dere was plenty though. Mistis had de fruit dried on tins in de yard, and at twelve o’clock every day all hands went to de house and turned de fruit.
"Our beds was homemade, scaffold bedsteads wid ropes wove acrost de top what could tighten up. Sometimes us had homewove bedspreads on de beds most every day, but in gen’ally dat was for Sunday only.
"Our menfolks used to hunt possums and wild turkeys, but dey didn’t mess 'roun’ none wid rabbits. They didn’t waste time on fishing either.
"Ev’y morning in May Mistis would call us little niggers to de house and ev’y other morning give us oil and turpentine. We made our own cloth for clothes. Our mammies wove us long drawers outen cotton. Dey bought wool and flannelet to make us pantalets. Us wore homemade homespun dresses. Some of hit was dyed and some checked. Us had shoes reg’lar in winter.
"Ole Marster Joe and Miss Rosa Clayton was good as gold. Dey had Sara, Jane, Henry, and Joe. De live in a big, two story house wid six rooms to hit and had a brick kitchen off from de house out in de yard. Ole Marster had a big plantation and his two aunties live dere, too. Dey was Miss Easter and Miss Charlotte.