Saturday, May 11, 2019
Ex-slave Lucy Thomas, about 86, Remembers the 50 gallon barrel of whiskey in 19C America
Lucy remembered, "All the hands was up and in the field by day light. Nobody laid in bed up in the morning like folks do today. Dr. Baldwin allus had a fifty gallon barrel of whiskey on the place. He kept a demijohn of whiskey on the front porch all the time for the darkies to get a drink on the way to the field in the morning. You never heard of nobody getting drunk then."
Slave Narratives: A Folk History of Slavery in the United States from Interviews with Former Slaves. Photo from 20th century.