Excerpt from interview with former slave Fred James, age 81, of Newberry, South Carolina, “When Christmas Came”  Fred James, born into slavery, was one of thousands interviewed for the Slave Narrative Collection of the Federal Writers’ Project. 

I  ‘member when freedom come, Old Marse said, “You is all free, but you can work on and make this crop of corn and cotton; then I will divide up with you when Christmas comes.”  They all worked, and when Christmas come, Marse told us we could get on and shuffle for ourselves, and he didn’t give us anything.  We had to steal corn out of the cob.  We prized the ears out between the cracks and took then home and parched them.  We would have to eat on these for several days.

Source: reprinted in Botkin, B.A., ed. Lay My Burden Down: A Folk History of Slavery. Delta, 1989, 239. (Document 4.7.3)