I WAS A SLAVE: Book 5: The Lives of Slave Children

 
HENRY KIRK MILLER: “The children that weren’t big enough to work were fed at the white people’s house. We got milk and mush for breakfast. When they boiled cabbage, we got bread and potliquor [the liquid remaining after cabbage was cooked]. For supper, we got milk and [corn]bread. ... As fast as us children got big enough to hire out, she [the mistress] leased us to anybody who would pay for our hire. I was put out with another widow woman who lived about 20 miles. She worked me on her cotton plantation. Old Mistress sold one of my sisters and took cotton for pay. I remember hearing them tell about the big price she brought because cotton was so high [expensive].”