Rev. Jackson vividly recalls the
croker-sacks being used around bales of the finer cotton, known as short
cotton. During this same period he made all of the shoes he wore by hand
from cow hides. The women slaves at that time wore grass shirts woven
very closely with hoops around on the inside to keep from contacting the
body.
Gleefully he told of the Saturday night baths in big wooden washtubs
with cut out holes for the fingers during his boyhood, of the castor
oil, old fashion paragoric, calomel, and burmo chops used for medicine
at that time. The herb doctors went from home to home during times of
illness. Until many years after the Civil War there were no practicing
Negro physicians. Soap was made by mixing bones and lard together,
heating and then straining into a bucket containing alum, turpentine,
and rosin. Lye soap was made by placing burnt ashes into straw with corn
shucks placed into harper, water is poured over this mixture and a
trough is used to sieze the liquid that drips into the tub and let stand
for a day. Very little moss was used for mattresses, chicken feathers
and goose feathers were the principal constituents during his boyhood.
Soot mixed with water was the best medicine one could use for the
stomach ache at that time.
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