During my childhood, I cannot remember ever sitting down with my entire family to have diner or asking for God's blessing for our food. Children where I grew up got their food like dumb animals. We got a scrap of meat here, and a piece of bread there. Some family members ate out of a skillet or a pot, often using nothing but their hands to hold the food.

When I was big enough, I was sent to the "big house" at mealtime to fan flies from the table.

I remember seeing two of the young mistresses eating some ginger cake in the yard. It was the most tempting and desirable thing I had ever seen. I swore right then and there that if I ever became free, I wanted to get to the point where I could eat ginger cakes the way I saw them doing.