Hi, Pat and all. What is remarkable is that someone or some group took the time and dedicated the efforts needed to put together the stories before those were lost to the centuries. Gone With the Wind was only in a most remote way characteristic of even the very wealthy !! That said, as we know, most of the lower class and what few of the middle class there were all aspired to achieve the lifestyles they imagined of the wealthy. ----- Original Message ----- From: GREENWPAT@aol.com To: pauldrake@charter.net Sent: Tuesday, October 25, 2005 9:26 AM Subject: Re: [VA-SOUTHSIDE-L] Revealing slave reminiscence In a message dated 10/22/2005 1:35:49 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time, pauldrake@charter.net writes: Here is a remarkable transcript It doesn't seem remarkable to me. My grandmother related many stories that sounded much the same. When my grandmother eloped, the black woman who had cooked for her family for many years sneaked her wedding dress out in her hat! My grandmother said she had always had her white family and her black family and she loved them both. They all did. I think that life style was much more the norm than the sensational abuses described in movies etc. But, don't get me wrong, I'm not defending slavery. I'm just saying for a great many, it was a happy arrangement that was due to change irregardless of the War. Pat Greenwood I hear ethereal voices, persuasive soft and still, Daughter, if you don't remember us, who will? ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ No virus found in this incoming message. Checked by AVG Free Edition. Version: 7.1.361 / Virus Database: 267.12.5/148 - Release Date: 10/25/2005