texas_slave_narratives_part_1
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| + | From Interviews with Former Slaves</ | ||
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| + | THE FEDERAL WRITERS' | ||
| + | 1936-1938< | ||
| + | ASSEMBLED BY<br /> | ||
| + | THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS PROJECT< | ||
| + | WORK PROJECTS ADMINISTRATION< | ||
| + | FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA< | ||
| + | SPONSORED BY THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS</ | ||
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| + | the Federal Writers' | ||
| + | the Works Progress Administration | ||
| + | for the State of Texas | ||
| + | </p> | ||
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| + | a slave of Dave Cavin, in | ||
| + | Harrison Co., Texas. He remained | ||
| + | with the Cavins until | ||
| + | 1885, then farmed for himself. | ||
| + | Will lives alone in Marshall, | ||
| + | Texas, supported by a $13.00 | ||
| + | monthly pension.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | after ' | ||
| + | Massa Dave fotches them to Texas from Alabama, along with ma's mother, | ||
| + | what we called Maria.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | say, 'Why shouldn' | ||
| + | Indians here when they settled this country and they bought and traded | ||
| + | with them without killin' | ||
| + | jus' pilfer and loaf 'round all the time. The niggers was a heap sight | ||
| + | better off than they was, 'cause we had plenty to eat and a place to stay.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | Man Dave seemed to think more of his niggers than anybody and we thunk lots | ||
| + | of our white folks. My pa was leader on the farm, and there wasn't no overseer | ||
| + | or driver. When pa whip a nigger he needn' | ||
| + | say, 'Go you way, you nigger. Freeman didn't whip you for nothin' | ||
| + | Massa Dave allus believe pa, 'cause he tells the truth.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | see 'bout his pony. Pa done feed that pony fifteen ears of corn. The | ||
| + | peddler tell massa his pony ain't been fed nothin', | ||
| + | and say, 'Be on you way iffen you gwine 'cuse my niggers of lyin' | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | walkin' | ||
| + | of bed and dress me and feed me and then play with me for hours. Him bein' | ||
| + | leader, he's gone from 'fore day till after night. The old heads got out | ||
| + | early but us young scraps slep' till eight or nine o' | ||
| + | think Massa Dave ain't comin' round to see we is fed. I ' | ||
| + | it was yest' | ||
| + | your breakfas'?' | ||
| + | wanted any more. It look like he taken a pleasure in seein' us eat. At | ||
| + | dinner, when the field hands come in, it am the same way. He was sho' that | ||
| + | potlicker was fill as long as the niggers want to eat.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | let them work them on Saturday. Then he bought the stuff and the niggers go | ||
| + | to Jefferson and buy clothes and sech like. Lots saved money and bought | ||
| + | freedom 'fore the war was over.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | larns our cullud preachers. I seed him ordain a cullud preacher and he told | ||
| + | him to allus be honest. When the white preacher laid his hand on him, all | ||
| + | the niggers git to hollerin' | ||
| + | scart mos' to death.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | party, and you ought to see them gals swingin' | ||
| + | massa have two niggers wrestle, and our sports and dances was big sport for | ||
| + | the white folks. They'd sit on the gallery and watch the niggers put it on | ||
| + | brown.< | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | they'd do it, and massa tell his neighbor, 'My nigger am comin' to you place. | ||
| + | Make him behave.' | ||
| + | and gallows and burnin' | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | and weepin' | ||
| + | they knowed nothin' | ||
| + | right on.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | that. The carpet-baggers ruint the niggers and the white men couldn' | ||
| + | thing with them, so they got up the Ku Klux and stirs up the world. Them carpet-baggers | ||
| + | come round larnin' | ||
| + | They come to pa with that talk and he told them, ' | ||
| + | gwine start a graveyard if you come round here teachin' | ||
| + | folks." | ||
| + | Niggers didn't know anythin' | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | here eighty years and still has to be showed and told by white folks. These | ||
| + | young niggers won't git told by whites or blacks either. They thinks they done | ||
| + | knowed it all and that gits them in trouble.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | leaves, I allus farms and does odd jobs round town here. I's father of ten | ||
| + | chillen by one woman. I lives by myself now and they gives me $13.00 a month. | ||
| + | I'd be proud to git it if it wasn't more'n a dollar, 'cause they ain't nothin' | ||
| + | a old man can do no more.< | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <hr style=" | ||
| + | <div class=" | ||
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| + | <br />< | ||
| + | </ | ||
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| + | slavery, with no opportunity | ||
| + | for an education, except three | ||
| + | months in a public school. He | ||
| + | has taught himself to read and | ||
| + | to write. His lifelong ambition | ||
| + | has been to become master | ||
| + | of the supernatural powers which | ||
| + | he believes to exist. He is now | ||
| + | well-known among Southwestern | ||
| + | Negroes for his faith in the | ||
| + | occult.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | I has. Well, sit down here, right there in dat chair, befo' we'uns | ||
| + | starts. I gits some ice water and den we'uns can discuss de subject. | ||
| + | I wants to ' | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | war period. Like all de other slaves I has no chance for edumacation. | ||
| + | Three months am de total time I's spent going to school. I teached | ||
| + | myself to read and write. I's anxious to larn to read so I could | ||
| + | study and find out about many things. Dat, I has done.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | we'uns believes in superstition. Well, its 'cause dey don't understand. | ||
| + | ' | ||
| + | Bible says so. There am some things de Lawd wants all folks to know, | ||
| + | some things jus' de chosen few to know, and some things no one should | ||
| + | know. Now, jus' 'cause yous don't know 'bout some of de Lawd's laws, | ||
| + | 'taint superstition if some other person understands and believes in | ||
| + | sich.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | born to know de signs. There is some born under de power of de devil< | ||
| + | and have de power to put injury and misery on people, and some born under | ||
| + | de power of de Lawd for to do good and overcome de evil power. Now, dat | ||
| + | produces two forces, like fire and water. De evil forces starts de fire | ||
| + | and I has de water force to put de fire out.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | de Lawd gives sich power to a person, it jus' comes to 'em. It am 40 years | ||
| + | ago now when I's fust fully realize' | ||
| + | int' | ||
| + | mammy and other folks used to talk about de signs. I hears dem talk about | ||
| + | what happens to folks 'cause a spell was put on 'em. De old folks in dem | ||
| + | days knows more about de signs dat de Lawd uses to reveal His laws den de | ||
| + | folks of today. It am also true of de cullud folks in Africa, dey native | ||
| + | land. Some of de folks laughs at their beliefs and says it am superstition, | ||
| + | but it am knowin' | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | be doubted. It happens when I's a young man and befo' I's realize' | ||
| + | I's one dat am chosen for to show de power. A mule had cut his leg so bad | ||
| + | dat him am bleedin' | ||
| + | live near there dat dey turns to. He comes over and passes his hand over | ||
| + | de cut. Befo' long de bleedin' | ||
| + | through dat nigger, dat's all it am.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | was caused from a tumor in de head. Dey took an ex-ray picture, but dere's | ||
| + | no tumor. Dey gives up and says its a peculiar case. Dat woman was took to | ||
| + | one with de power of de good spirit and he say its a peculiar case for dem | ||
| + | dat don't understand. Dis am a case of de evil spell. Two days after, de<span class=" | ||
| + | woman have her mind back.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | hear about. Yous hear of de case de doctors can't understand, nor will | ||
| + | dey 'spond to treatment. Dat am 'cause of de evil spell dat am on de | ||
| + | persons.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | read yous Bible. It says in de book of Mark, third chapter, 'and He | ||
| + | ordained twelve, dat dey should be with Him, dat He might send them forth | ||
| + | to preach and to have de power to heal de sick and to cast out devils.' | ||
| + | If it wasn't no evil in people, why does de Lawd say, 'cast out sich?' | ||
| + | And in de fifth chapter of James, it further say, 'If any am sick, let | ||
| + | him call de elders. Let dem pray over him. De prayers of faith shall | ||
| + | save him.' There 'tis again, Faith, dat am what counts.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | den a man with de power comes and saves sich person, den its not for | ||
| + | people to say it am superstition to believe in de power.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | Dey can put misery of every kind on people. Dey can make trouble with | ||
| + | de work and with de business, with de fam'ly and with de health. So | ||
| + | folks mus' be on de watch all de time. Folks has business trouble 'cause | ||
| + | de evil power have control of 'em. Dey has de evil power cast out and | ||
| + | save de business. There am a man in Waco dat come to see me 'bout dat. | ||
| + | He say to me everything he try to do in de las' six months turned out | ||
| + | wrong. It starts with him losin' his pocketbook with $50.00 in it. He | ||
| + | buys a carload of hay and it catch fire and he los' all of it. He spends< | ||
| + | $200.00 advertisin' | ||
| + | money. It sho' am de evil power.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | we'uns shall cause it to be cast out.' Its done and he has no more | ||
| + | trouble.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | successful in castin' | ||
| + | and no. Dey can in every case if de affected person have de faith. If | ||
| + | de party not have enough faith, den it am a failure.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | am simple. Lots of folks wears sich and dey uses mixtures dat am sprinkled | ||
| + | in de house, and sich. Dat am a question of faith. If dey has de | ||
| + | true faith in sich, it works. Otherwise, it won' | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | or de salt and pepper mixture in de little sack, tied round dey | ||
| + | neck. Some wears de silver coin tied round dey neck. All sich am for | ||
| + | to keep away de effect of de evil power. When one have de faith in sich | ||
| + | and dey acc' | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | me de ' | ||
| + | fust thing he does am drop some brick on he foot. De next thing, he | ||
| + | foot slip as him starts up de ladder and him and de bricks drap to de | ||
| + | ground. It am lucky for him it wasn't far. Jus' a sprain ankle and | ||
| + | de boss sends him home for de day. He am 'cited and gits on de street | ||
| + | car and when de conductor call for de fare, Rufus reaches for he money< | ||
| + | but he los' it or fergits it at home. De conductor say he let him pay | ||
| + | nex' time and asks where he live. Rufus tells him and he say, 'Why, | ||
| + | nigger, you is on de wrong car.' Dat cause Rufus to walk further with | ||
| + | de lame foot dan if he started walkin' | ||
| + | mus' be something wrong with he charm, and he look for it and it gone! | ||
| + | Sho' ' | ||
| + | make another move till I gits de lodestone. When de chillen comes from | ||
| + | school I sends dem to de drugstore for some of de stone and gits fixed.'</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | crossin' | ||
| + | many people can yous find dat likes to have de black cat cross in front | ||
| + | of 'em? Dat's right, no one likes dat. Let dis old cullud person inform | ||
| + | yous dat it am sho' de bad luck sign. It is sign of bad luck ahead, | ||
| + | so turn back. Stop what yous doin' | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | warnin' | ||
| + | am takin' an auto ride and de black cat cross de road and he cussed a | ||
| + | little and goes on. Den it's not long till he turns de corner and his wife | ||
| + | falls out of de car durin' de turn. When he goes back and picks her up, | ||
| + | she am dead.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | black cat cross de path, but he drives on. Well, its not long till him | ||
| + | hoss stumble and throw him off. De fall breaks his leg, so take a | ||
| + | warnin'& | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <hr style=" | ||
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| + | preacher and healer, who lives | ||
| + | at 1404 Illinois Ave., Ft. Worth, | ||
| + | Texas, was born a slave on the | ||
| + | James Davis plantation, in San | ||
| + | Jacinto Co., Texas. After the | ||
| + | war he worked in a grocery, | ||
| + | punched cattle, farmed and preached. | ||
| + | He moved to Ft. Worth in 1902.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | We didn' keep no record like folks does today. All I know is | ||
| + | I been yere a long time. My mother, she was Julia Adams and | ||
| + | my father he was James Adams. She's bo'n in Hollis Springs, | ||
| + | Mississippi and my father, now den, he was bo'n in Florida. | ||
| + | He was a Black Creek Indian. Dere was 12 of us chillen. When | ||
| + | I was 'bout seven de missus, she come and gits me for her servant. | ||
| + | I lived in de big house till she die. Her and Marster | ||
| + | Davis was powerful good to me.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | plantation. But all I do was wait on ole missus. I'd light her | ||
| + | pipe for her and I helped her wid her knittin' | ||
| + | all de time. She had a little trunk she keeped money in and lots | ||
| + | of times I'd have to pack it down wid my feets.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | more'n 100. I saw as much as 100 sold at a time. When dey tuk a | ||
| + | bunch of slaves to trade, dey put chains on ' | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | Dey had dirt floors and beds dat was made out of co'n shucks or | ||
| + | straw. At nite dey burned de lamps for 'bout an hour, den de overseers,< | ||
| + | dey come knock on de door and tell 'em put de light out. Lots | ||
| + | of overseers was mean. Sometimes dey'd whip a nigger wid a leather | ||
| + | strap 'bout a foot wide and long as your arm and wid a wooden handle | ||
| + | at de end.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | Dey didn' dance like today, dey danced de roun' dance and jig and do | ||
| + | de pigeon wing, and some of dem would jump up and see how many time he | ||
| + | could kick his feets 'fore dey hit de groun' | ||
| + | and some of 'em would take two bones in each hand and rattle 'em. Dey | ||
| + | sang songs like, 'Diana had a Wooden Leg,' and 'A Hand full of Sugar,' | ||
| + | and ' | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | kettle and turn it top down on de groun' and put logs roun' it to kill | ||
| + | de soun'. Dey'd pray to be free and sing and dance.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | and tuk 'em to build de breastworks. I saw lots of soldiers. | ||
| + | Dey'd sing a song dat go something like dis:</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p> | ||
| + | "' | ||
| + | Lincoln rode a mule;<br /> | ||
| + | Jess Davis is our President,< | ||
| + | Lincoln is a fool.'< | ||
| + | </p> | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | he had a bunch of dogs and he'd take after runaway niggers. Sometimes | ||
| + | de dogs didn' ketch de nigger. Den ole Billinger, he'd cuss and kick | ||
| + | de dogs.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | or de paddlerollers would git you and whip you. Dey was de poor white< | ||
| + | folks dat didn' have no slaves. We didn' call 'em white folks | ||
| + | dem days. No, suh, we called dem' Buskrys.'</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | says: 'Do you wan' to keep you homes whar you git all to eat, and raise | ||
| + | your chillen, or do you wan' to be free to roam roun' without a home, | ||
| + | like de wil' animals? If you wan' to keep you homes you better pray | ||
| + | for de South to win. All day wan's to pray for de South to win, raise | ||
| + | the hand.' We all raised our hands 'cause we was skeered not to, but | ||
| + | we sho' didn' wan' de South to win.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | Ole Uncle Mack, he gits up and says: 'One time over in Virginny dere | ||
| + | was two ole niggers, Uncle Bob and Uncle Tom. Dey was mad at one | ||
| + | ' | ||
| + | So day sat down, and when Uncle Bob wasn't lookin' | ||
| + | poison in Uncle Bob's food, but he saw it and when Uncle Tom wasn't | ||
| + | lookin', | ||
| + | de poison food.' Uncle Mack, he says: ' | ||
| + | gwine do, jus' turn de tray roun' and pray for de North to win.'</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | Dey was rejoicin' | ||
| + | skeered like. But dey danced and had a big jamboree.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | out. I went to work in a grocery store and he paid me $1.50 a week. | ||
| + | I give my mother de dollar and keeped de half. Den I got married | ||
| + | and farmed for awhile. Den I come to Fort Worth and I been yere since.< | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <hr style=" | ||
| + | <div class=" | ||
| + | |||
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| + | John and Sally Goodren, in the | ||
| + | Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia. | ||
| + | Before the Civil War, her owners | ||
| + | came to Texas, locating near a | ||
| + | small town then called Freedom. | ||
| + | She lives at 3322 Frutas St., | ||
| + | El Paso, Texas.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | are ashamed to tell it, but I thank God I was ' | ||
| + | times as well as now. It's a pretty hard story, how cruel some of the | ||
| + | marsters was, but I had the luck to be with good white people. But | ||
| + | some I knew were put on the block and sold. I ' | ||
| + | come to John Goodren' | ||
| + | certain days when they'd sell off the block and they took chillen 'way | ||
| + | from mothers, screamin' | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | When de white people come to Texas, de cullud people come with them. | ||
| + | Dat's been a long time.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | white man. I guess I'm about eighty some years ole.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | run away, but we didn' want to. My missus would see her people had | ||
| + | something good to eat every Sunday mornin' | ||
| + | and marster and you be treated well. I think I was about twelve when | ||
| + | dey freed us and we stayed with marster 'bout a year, then went to John | ||
| + | Ecols' place and rented some lan'. We made two bales of cotton and it | ||
| + | was the first money we ever saw.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | pullin' | ||
| + | thing, we didn' never have no schoolin' | ||
| + | went to school two weeks. My husban' | ||
| + | slave. His father bought freedom through a blacksmith shop, some way.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | ribbon. My second day dress was white with red dots. I had a beautiful | ||
| + | veil and a wreath and 'bout two, three waiters for table dat day.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | father in Virginia. I was jus' as white as de chillen I played with. | ||
| + | I used to be plum bright, but here lately I'm gettin' | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | color. I don' know where he got his learnin' | ||
| + | he's gone to Glory.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | in people to look after ole folks and now my chillen look after me. | ||
| + | I've two sons, one name James Allen, one R.M. Both live in El Paso.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | if freedom hadn' come, it would have been so miserable.< | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <hr style=" | ||
| + | <div class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <div class=" | ||
| + | slave of Jack Haley, who owned | ||
| + | a plantation in Williamson Co., | ||
| + | Texas. During the Civil War, | ||
| + | Andy was sold to W.T. House, of | ||
| + | Blanco County, who in less than | ||
| + | a year sold Andy to his brother, | ||
| + | John House. Andy now lives with | ||
| + | his third wife and eight of his | ||
| + | children at 301 Armour St., Fort | ||
| + | Worth, Texas.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | plantation in Williamson County, Texas, and Massa Haley owned my folks and | ||
| + | 'bout twelve other families of niggers. I's born in 1843 and that makes me | ||
| + | 94 year old and 18 year when de war starts. I's had ' | ||
| + | time.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | and all de folks likes him. De other white folks called we'uns de petted | ||
| + | niggers. There am 'bout 30 old and young niggers and 'bout 20 piccaninnies | ||
| + | too little <a name=' | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | It am sort of like de small town, 'cause everything we uses am made right there. | ||
| + | There am de shoemaker and he is de tanner and make de leather from de hides. | ||
| + | Den massa has 'bout a thousand sheep and he gits de wool, and de niggers cards | ||
| + | and spins and weaves it, and dat makes all de clothes. Den massa have cattle | ||
| + | and sich purvide de milk and de butter and beef meat for eatin' | ||
| + | have de turkeys and chickens and de hawgs and de bees. With all that, us never | ||
| + | was hongry.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | wheat a little, 'cause massa don't need much of dem. He never sell nothin' | ||
| + | but de cotton.< | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | like deys all in dem days. De floor am de dirt but we has de benches and | ||
| + | what is made on de place. And we has de big fireplace for to cook and we | ||
| + | has plenty to cook in dat fireplace, 'cause massa allus 'lows plenty good | ||
| + | rations, but he watch close for de wastin' | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | jines de army and hires a man call' Delbridge for overseer. After dat, de | ||
| + | hell start to pop, 'cause de first thing Delbridge do is cut de rations. | ||
| + | He weighs out de meat, three pound for de week, and he measure a peck of | ||
| + | meal. And ' | ||
| + | and he start de whippin' | ||
| + | dat Delbridge go to hell when he died, but I don't see how de debbil could | ||
| + | stand him.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | there am a whippin' | ||
| + | House, in Blanco County. I's sho' glad when I's sold, but it am short gladness, | ||
| + | 'cause here am another man what hell am too good for. He gives me | ||
| + | de whippin' | ||
| + | dem to my grave. He sends me for firewood and when I gits it loaded, de wheel | ||
| + | hits a stump and de team jerks and dat breaks de whippletree. So he ties me | ||
| + | to de stake and every half hour for four hours, dey lays ta lashes on my back. | ||
| + | For de first couple hours de pain am awful. I's never forgot it. Den I's | ||
| + | stood so much pain I not feel so much and when dey takes me loose, I's jus' | ||
| + | 'bout half dead. I lays in de bunk two days, gittin' | ||
| + | over it in de body but not de heart. No, suh, I has dat in de heart till dis | ||
| + | day.< | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | If I seed de cattle in de cornfield, I turns de back, 'stead of chasin' | ||
| + | 'em out. I guess dat de reason de massa sold me to his brother, Massa | ||
| + | John. And he am good like my first massa, he never whipped me.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | takes place, it am 'bout one hour by sun. I says to myself, 'I won't be | ||
| + | here long.' But I's not realise what I's in for till after I's started, | ||
| + | but I couldn' | ||
| + | patter rollers. Dere I was and I kep' on gwine. No nigger am sposed to | ||
| + | be off de massa' | ||
| + | durin' de daylight. I stays in de bresh and gits water from de creeks, | ||
| + | but not much to eat. Twice I's sho' dem patter rollers am passin' | ||
| + | I's hidin' | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | 'cept to de neighbors, so I's worried 'bout de right way to Massa Haley' | ||
| + | place. But de mornin' | ||
| + | and tired and scairt for fear Massa Haley not home from de army yit. So I | ||
| + | finds my pappy and he hides me in he cabin till a week and den luck comes to | ||
| + | me when Massa Haley come home. He come at night and de next mornin' | ||
| + | am shunt off de place, 'cause Massa Haley seed he niggers was all gaunt | ||
| + | and lots am ran off and de fields am not plowed right, and only half de sheep | ||
| + | and everything left. So massa say to dat Delbridge, 'Dere am no words can | ||
| + | ' | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | to see me, and he let me stay till freedom am ordered. Dat's de happies' | ||
| + | time in my life, when I gits back to Massa Haley.< | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <hr style=" | ||
| + | <div class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | Beaumont, Jefferson, Dist. # | ||
| + | |||
| + | <div class=" | ||
| + | white pajamas lying patiently in | ||
| + | a clean bed awaiting the end which | ||
| + | does not seem far away. Although | ||
| + | we protested against his talking, | ||
| + | because of his weakness, he told | ||
| + | a brief story of his life in a | ||
| + | whisper, his breath very short and | ||
| + | every word was spoken with great | ||
| + | effort. His light skin and his | ||
| + | features denote no characteristic | ||
| + | of his race, has a bald head with | ||
| + | a bit of gray hair around the crown | ||
| + | and a slight growth of gray whiskers | ||
| + | about his face, is medium in | ||
| + | height and build. WASH ANDERSON, | ||
| + | although born in Charleston, S.C., | ||
| + | has spent practically all of his | ||
| + | life in Texas [< | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | call me George. My whole name' George Washington Anderson. | ||
| + | I was bo'n in Charleston, Sou'f Ca' | ||
| + | was my ol' marster. Dey was two boy' and two gal' | ||
| + | in his family. We all lef' Charleston and come to Orange, | ||
| + | Texas, befo' freedom come. I was fo' year' ol' when dey | ||
| + | mek dat trip."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | where I was bo'n was 'bout two mile' from de city. I went | ||
| + | back one time in 1917, but I didn' stay dere long."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | Eliza. Ol' marster was pretty rough on his niggers. Dey<span class=" | ||
| + | tell me he had my gran' | ||
| + | did beat me."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | and settle' | ||
| + | Dey had a big plantation dere. I dunno if ol' marster | ||
| + | had money back in Charleston, but I t'ink he must have. He | ||
| + | had 'bout 25 or 30 slaves on de place."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | was buil' out of logs but it was a big fine house. De | ||
| + | slaves jis' had little log huts. Dere warn't no flo's to | ||
| + | 'em, nuthin' | ||
| + | room in 'em. Dey was one family to de house, ' | ||
| + | dey put two or t'ree family' | ||
| + | herd de slaves in dere like a bunch of pigs."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | sich like, but dey didn' uster raise no rice. Dey uster | ||
| + | sen' stuff to Terry on a railroad to sen' it to market. | ||
| + | Sometime dey hitch up dey teams and sen' it to Orange and | ||
| + | Beaumont in wagons. De ol' marster he had a boat, too, and | ||
| + | sometime he sen' a boatload of his stuff to Beaumont."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | atter de hosses and de harness and sich. I jis' have de | ||
| + | bes' hosses on de place to see atter."< | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | marchin' | ||
| + | battle."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | to come ' | ||
| + | I don't ' | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | uster have lots of fun playin' | ||
| + | de switch.' | ||
| + | at all dem t'ings what chillun play at."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | ol' plantation. I had to look atter some of de hosses, | ||
| + | but dem what I hatter look atter was s'pose to be de bes' | ||
| + | hosses in de bunch. Like I say, I drive de surrey and | ||
| + | dey allus have de bes' hosses to pull dat surrey. Dey had | ||
| + | a log stable. Dey kep' de harness in dere, too. Eb' | ||
| + | what de stock eat dey raise on de plantation, all | ||
| + | de co'n and fodder and sich like."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | of work. I uster work on steamboats, and on de railroad | ||
| + | and at sawmillin' | ||
| + | I work ' | ||
| + | well as in Texas. When I wasn't doin' dem kinds of work, | ||
| + | I uster work ' | ||
| + | ' | ||
| + | at Fort Townsend up dere in Arkansas."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | married twice. My fus' wife was name' Hannah and Reverend | ||
| + | George Childress was de preacher dat marry us. He | ||
| + | was a cullud preacher. Atter Hannah been dead some time | ||
| + | I marry my secon' wife. Her name was Tempie Perkins. | ||
| + | Later on, us sep' | ||
| + | matters."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | come ' | ||
| + | dis week."< | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <hr style=" | ||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>A. Coronado' | ||
| + | Pub. 1929, Austin, Tex.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>B. Leon County News& | ||
| + | May 21, 1936.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>C. Consultant& | ||
| + | resident of Centerville, | ||
| + | born April 15, 1844.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <p>An interesting character at Centerville, | ||
| + | Anderson, an ex-slave, born April 15, 1844, 6 miles west of Centerville on the | ||
| + | old McDaniels plantation near what is now known as Hopewell Settlement. It | ||
| + | is generally said that "Uncle Willis" | ||
| + | the County, black or white. He is referred to generally for information concerning | ||
| + | days gone by and for the history of that County, especially in the immediate | ||
| + | vicinity of Centerville.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | on the porches of the stores facing Federal Highway No. 75, nodding or conversing | ||
| + | with small groups of white or colored people that gather around him | ||
| + | telling of the days gone by. He also likes to watch the busses and automobiles | ||
| + | that pass through the small town musing and commenting on the swiftness of things | ||
| + | today. Uncle Willis still cultivates a small patch five miles out from the town.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | head covered with mixed gray wooly hair. He has lost very few teeth considering | ||
| + | his age. When sitting on the porches of the stores the soles of his farm-shoes< | ||
| + | may be seen tied together with pieces of wire. He supports himself with a | ||
| + | cane made from the Elm tree. At present he wears a tall white Texas Centennial | ||
| + | hat which makes him appear more unique than ever.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | in the history of the County. He tells tales of having travelled by | ||
| + | oxen to West Texas for flour and being gone for six months at a time. He remembers | ||
| + | the Keechi and the Kickapoo Indians and also claims that he can point | ||
| + | out a tree where the Americans hung an Indian Chief. He says that he has | ||
| + | plowed up arrows, pots and flints on the Reubens Bains place and on the McDaniel | ||
| + | farms. He can tell of the early lawlessness in the County. His face | ||
| + | lights up when he recalls how the Yankee soldiers came through Centerville | ||
| + | telling the slave owners to free their slaves. He also talks very low when | ||
| + | he mentions the name of Jeff Davis because he says, " | ||
| + | the niggers houses in slavery time and if yer' sed' that Jeff Davis was a good | ||
| + | man, they barbecued a hog for you, but if yer' sed' that Abe Lincoln was a | ||
| + | good man, yer' had to fight or go to the woods."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | tale of the "Lead mine." "Uncle Willis" | ||
| + | Creek near a large hickory tree and a red oak tree, near Patrick' | ||
| + | and his master, Auss McDaniels, would dig lead out of the ground which they | ||
| + | used to make pistol and rifle balls for the old Mississippi rifles during | ||
| + | slavery time. Uncle Willis claims that they would dig slags of lead out of the | ||
| + | ground some 12 and 15 inches long, and others as large as a man's fist. They | ||
| + | would carry this ore back to the big house and melt it down to get the trash | ||
| + | out of it, then they would pour it into molds and make rifle balls and pistol< | ||
| + | balls from it. In this way they kept plenty of amunition on hand. In recent | ||
| + | years the land has changed ownership, and the present owners live in Dallas. | ||
| + | Learning of the tale of the "lead mine" on their property they went to | ||
| + | Centerville in an attempt to locate it and were referred to "Uncle Willis." | ||
| + | Uncle Willis says they offered him two hundred dollars if he could locate | ||
| + | the mine. Being so sure that he knew its exact location, said that the $200 | ||
| + | was his meat. However, Uncle Willis was unable to locate the spot where they | ||
| + | dug the lead and the mine remains a mystery.[C]</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | Joe McDaniel, Debbs Brown, W.H. Hill and Judge Lacey cross questioned Uncle | ||
| + | Willis about the lead mine. Judge Lacey did the questioning while them others | ||
| + | formed an audience. The conversation went as follows:</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | asked.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>J. Frank Dobie mentions many tales of lost lead mines throughout Texas | ||
| + | in Coronado' | ||
| + | Lead in the early days of the Republic and the State was very valuable, | ||
| + | as it was the source of protection from the Indians and also the means of supplying | ||
| + | food.[A]< | ||
| + | |||
| + | <hr style=" | ||
| + | <div class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | <div class=" | ||
| + | <img src=" | ||
| + | <br />< | ||
| + | |||
| + | </ | ||
| + | <div class=" | ||
| + | at 3326 Pierce Ave., Houston, | ||
| + | Texas. She was born | ||
| + | on a farm near St. Louis, | ||
| + | Missouri, a slave of William | ||
| + | Cleveland. Her father, | ||
| + | Sam Adams, belonged to a | ||
| + | " | ||
| + | farm adjoining the Cleveland | ||
| + | place.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | don't talk so good, 'cause I's been feelin' | ||
| + | ain't so young no more. Law me, when I think back what I used to do, | ||
| + | and now it's all I can do to hobble 'round a little. Why, Miss Olivia, | ||
| + | my mistress, used to put a glass plumb full of water on my head and | ||
| + | then have me waltz 'round the room, and I'd dance so smoothlike, I | ||
| + | don't spill nary drap.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | to old William Cleveland and old Polly Cleveland, and they was the meanest | ||
| + | two white folks what ever lived, 'cause they was allus beatin' | ||
| + | their slaves. I know, 'cause mamma told me, and I hears about it other | ||
| + | places, and besides, old Polly, she was a Polly devil if there ever was | ||
| + | one, and she whipped my little sister what was only nine months old and | ||
| + | jes' a baby to death. She come and took the diaper offen my little sister | ||
| + | and whipped till the blood jes' ran& | ||
| + | babies do, and it kilt my sister. I never forgot that, but I sot some | ||
| + | even with that old Polly devil and it's this-a-way.< | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | what was that old Polly' | ||
| + | to where Miss Olivia lives after she marries, and trys to give me a | ||
| + | lick out in the yard, and I picks up a rock 'bout as big as half your | ||
| + | fist and hits her right in the eye and busted the eyeball, and tells | ||
| + | her that's for whippin' | ||
| + | holler for five miles, but Miss Olivia, when I tells her, says, 'Well, | ||
| + | I guess mamma has larnt her lesson at last.' But that old Polly was | ||
| + | mean like her husban', | ||
| + | is burnin' | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | Miss Olivia and my mamma, her name was Siby, tells me. Course, it's | ||
| + | powerful cold in winter times and the farms was lots different from down | ||
| + | here. They calls 'em plantations down here but up at St. Louis they was | ||
| + | jes' called farms, and that's what they was, 'cause we raises wheat and | ||
| + | barley and rye and oats and corn and fruit.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | it's cold up there, and we has to wear the warm clothes and they's wove | ||
| + | on the place, and we works at it in the evenin' | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | and brings 'em to Texas to sell. You know, he wasn't sposed to do that, | ||
| + | 'cause when you's in ' | ||
| + | and you's not sposed to leave the place till he paid up. Course, old | ||
| + | Cleveland jes' tells the one he owed the money to, you had run off, or | ||
| + | squirmed out some way, he was that mean.< | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | put 'fore this with my papa, Sam Adams, but that makes no diff' | ||
| + | Cleveland. He's so mean he never would sell the man and woman and chillen to | ||
| + | the same one. He'd sell the man here and the woman there and if they's chillen, | ||
| + | he'd sell them some place else. Oh, old Satan in torment couldn' | ||
| + | than what he and Old Polly was to they slaves. He'd chain a nigger up to | ||
| + | whip 'em and rub salt and pepper on him, like he said, 'to season him up.' | ||
| + | And when he'd sell a slave, he'd grease their mouth all up to make it look | ||
| + | like they'd been fed good and was strong and healthy.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | law man cotch old Cleveland and takes 'em all back to St. Louis. Then my | ||
| + | little sister' | ||
| + | old then.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | so mean, she's kind to everyone, and they jes' love her. She marries to Mr. | ||
| + | Will Adams what was a fine man, and has 'bout five farms and 500 slaves, and he | ||
| + | buys me for her from old Cleveland and pays him $2,500.00, and gives him George | ||
| + | Henry, a nigger, to boot. Lawsy, I's sho' happy to be with Miss Olivia and | ||
| + | away from old Cleveland and Old Polly, 'cause they kilt my little sister.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | when the babies starts to come I nusses 'em and spins thread for clothes on | ||
| + | the loom. I spins six cuts of thread a week, but I has plenty of time for myself | ||
| + | and that's where I larns to dance so good. Law, I sho' jes' crazy 'bout | ||
| + | dancin' | ||
| + | and dances.< | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | Mr. Will ' | ||
| + | 'round the house by ourselves I calls them ' | ||
| + | raises me up from the little girl. I hears old Cleveland done took my mamma | ||
| + | to Texas 'gain but I couldn' | ||
| + | much truck with her folks. Once in a while old Polly comes over, but Miss | ||
| + | Olivia tells her not to touch me or the others. Old Polly trys to buy me | ||
| + | back from Miss Olivia, and if they had they'd kilt me sho'. But Miss Olivia | ||
| + | say, ' | ||
| + | jes' the very words she told ' | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | I didn't know him so well, jes' what mamma done told me, so that didn't worry | ||
| + | me like mamma being took so far away.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | the boat race?' Law me, I never won't forget that. Where we live it ain't far | ||
| + | to the Miss' | ||
| + | Eclipse, with smoke and fire jes' pourin' | ||
| + | captain on the ' | ||
| + | grease jes' comes out a-blazin' | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | 'bout 17 year old then or more. I <a name=' | ||
| + | me up two papers, one 'bout a yard long and the other some smaller, but both | ||
| + | has big, gold seals what he says is the seal of the State of Missouri. He | ||
| + | gives me money and buys my fare ticket to Texas and tells me they is still< | ||
| + | slave times down here and to put the papers in my bosom but to do whatever the | ||
| + | white folks tells me, even if they wants to sell me. But he say, 'Fore you gets | ||
| + | off the block, jes' pull out the papers, but jes' hold 'em up to let folks see and | ||
| + | don't let 'em out of your hands, and when they sees them they has to let you alone.'</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | rough in Texas. She give me a big basket what had so much to eat in it I couldn' | ||
| + | hardly heft it and ' | ||
| + | the boat where the big, old wheel what run the boat was and I goes to New Orleans, | ||
| + | and the captain puts me on ' | ||
| + | puts me on ' | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | then and I gets the stagecoach to Austin. It takes us two days to get there and I | ||
| + | thinks my back busted sho' ' | ||
| + | sho'. A man asks me where I goin' and says to come 'long and he takes me to a | ||
| + | Mr. Charley Crosby. They takes me to the block what they sells slaves on. I | ||
| + | gets right up like they tells me, 'cause I 'lects what Mr. Will done told me to | ||
| + | do, and they starts biddin' | ||
| + | comes up to get me, I jes' pulled out my papers and helt 'em up high and when he | ||
| + | sees 'em, he say, 'Let me see them.' But I says, 'You jes' look at it up here,' | ||
| + | and he squints up and say, 'This gal am free and has papers,' | ||
| + | a legislature man and takes me and lets me stay with his slaves. He is a good | ||
| + | man.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | didn't have no money left, but he pays me some for workin' | ||
| + | over I starts to hunt mamma 'gain, and finds her in Wharton County near where | ||
| + | Wharton is. Law me, talk 'bout cryin' and singin' | ||
| + | sure done it. I stays with mamma till I gets married in 1871 to John Armstrong,< | ||
| + | and then we all comes to Houston.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | the yellow fever epidemic. I 'lects in '75 people die jes' like sheep | ||
| + | with the rots. I's seen folks with the fever jump from their bed with | ||
| + | death on 'em and grab other folks. The doctor saved lots of folks, | ||
| + | white and black, 'cause he sweat it out of 'em. He mixed up hot water | ||
| + | and vinegar and mustard and some else in it.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | year old now and my mind jes' like my legs, jes' kinda hobble 'round | ||
| + | a bit.< | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <hr style=" | ||
| + | <div class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <div class=" | ||
| + | <img src=" | ||
| + | <br />< | ||
| + | </ | ||
| + | |||
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| + | slave to Albertus Arnwine, near | ||
| + | Jacksonville, | ||
| + | when Stearlin was seven or eight. | ||
| + | He was bought by John Moseley, | ||
| + | of Rusk, Texas, who made Stearlin | ||
| + | a houseboy, and was very kind to | ||
| + | him. He now lives about six miles | ||
| + | west of Jacksonville.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | town, on Gum Creek. My mammy belonged to Massa Albertus Arnwine, | ||
| + | and he wasn' ever married. He owned four women, my mammy, Ann, my | ||
| + | grandmother, | ||
| + | own any nigger men, 'cept the chillen of these women. Grandma | ||
| + | lived in de house with Massa Arnwine and the rest of us lived in | ||
| + | cabins in de ya'd. My mammy come from Memphis but I don' know | ||
| + | whar my pappy come from. He was Ike Lane. I has three half brothers, | ||
| + | and their names is Joe and Will and John Schot, and two sisters | ||
| + | called Polly and Rosie.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | it gave all he owned to the women he owned, and Jedge Jowell promised | ||
| + | massa on his deathbed he would take us to de free country, but he | ||
| + | didn'. He took us to his place to work for him for 'bout two years | ||
| + | and the women never did get that 900 acres of land Massa Arnwine willed | ||
| + | to'em. I don' know who got it, but they didn'. I knows I still has a | ||
| + | share in that land, but it takes money to git it in cou' | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | at Rusk. They brought the dogs to roun' us up from the fiel's whar we | ||
| + | was workin' | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | I mus' be his houseboy and houseboy I was. Massa was sho' good to me | ||
| + | and I did love to be with him and follow him ' | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | to the big dinin' | ||
| + | I had to fan him, and Lawsy me, I'd git so sleepy. I kin hear him now, | ||
| + | for he'd wake up and say, 'Go get me a drink outta the northeast corner | ||
| + | of de well.'</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | slep' on de sacks. I don' ' | ||
| + | was a big place and he had lots of slaves. We chillun had supper early | ||
| + | in de evenin' | ||
| + | from a big pot. I larned to spin and weave and knit and made lots of | ||
| + | socks.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | and they wen' to school at Rusk. It was my job to take 'em thar ev'ry | ||
| + | Monday mornin' | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | give me five dollars. I was so proud of it I showed it to de | ||
| + | ladies and one of 'em said, 'You don' need dat,' and she give me two | ||
| + | sticks of candy and tuk de money. But I didn' know any better then.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | ' | ||
| + | I seed the women and little chillun cryin' and beggin' | ||
| + | but it didn' do no good. They had to go.<span class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | night and have prayer meetin' | ||
| + | woods so de white folks wouldn' | ||
| + | all night on Saturday, 'cause we didn' have to work Sunday.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | miles and miles on the stick hosses. After the War Massa John have | ||
| + | his chillun a big roll of Confederate money and they give us some of it | ||
| + | to trade and buy stick hosses with.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | Miss Em, she bawled and squalled, say her prop' | ||
| + | After dat, my mammy gathers us togedder and tuk us to the Dr. Middleton | ||
| + | place, out from Jacksonville. From thar to de Ragsdale place whar I's | ||
| + | been ever since.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | 'till I was mis' | ||
| + | at home. It was what we called dog-hair cloth. Mammy made my first shoes, | ||
| + | we called 'em 'red rippers' | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <hr style=" | ||
| + | <div class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <div class=" | ||
| + | <img src=" | ||
| + | <br />< | ||
| + | </ | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <div class=" | ||
| + | Mississippi. She recalls her | ||
| + | experiences when sold on the | ||
| + | block in New Orleans, and on | ||
| + | a cotton plantation in Texas. | ||
| + | She now lives at Goodrich, | ||
| + | Texas.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | out and I stays here by myself. My daughter, Georgia Grime, she | ||
| + | used to live with me but she's been dead four year.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | and bring us here. He a spec' | ||
| + | and sells 'em. Us family was sep' | ||
| + | papa was sold to a man in Georgia. Den dey put me on a block and | ||
| + | bid me off. Dat in New Orleans and I scairt and cry, but dey put | ||
| + | me up dere anyway. First dey takes me to Georgia and dey didn't | ||
| + | sell me for a long spell. Massa Thomas he travel round and buy and | ||
| + | sell niggers. Us stay in de spec' | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | Texas, and buys us. He was buyin' up little chillen for he chillen. | ||
| + | Dat 'bout four year befo' da first war. I was 19 year old when de | ||
| + | burst of freedom come in June and I git turn loose.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | he go off and buy more niggers. He go east. He on a boat what git stove | ||
| + | up and he die and never come back no more. Us never see him no more.< | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | and tote it a mile to de cotton house. Some pick 300 to 800 pound | ||
| + | cotton and have to tote de bag de whole mile to de gin. Iffen dey | ||
| + | didn't do dey work dey git whip till dey have blister on 'em. Den | ||
| + | iffen dey didn't do it, de man on a hoss goes down de rows and whip | ||
| + | with a paddle make with holes in it and bus' de blisters. I never | ||
| + | git whip, 'cause I allus git my 300 pound. Us have to go early to do | ||
| + | dat, when de horn goes early, befo' daylight. Us have to take de | ||
| + | victuals in de bucket to de field.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | strowed in long rows. Dere wasn't no meetin' | ||
| + | and iffen dey have prayer meetin' | ||
| + | run off at night and go to camp meetin' | ||
| + | to church sometime, but dey couldn' | ||
| + | I didn' have no spirit.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | Us has to. Dey give us de peck of meal to last de week and two, three | ||
| + | pound bacon in chunk. Us never have flour or sugar, jus' cornmeal and | ||
| + | de meat and ' | ||
| + | dey kep' all de pig and chickens what dey steal, down in salt.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | kotch him and put him in de front room and he jump through de big window | ||
| + | and break de glass all up. Dey sho' whips him when dey kotches him.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | 'em till dey make blisters and bus' de blisters. Den dey take de salt< | ||
| + | and red pepper and put in de wounds. After dey wash and grease dem and put | ||
| + | somethin' | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | he give all us de bale of cotton and some corn. He ask us to stay and he'p | ||
| + | with de crop but we'uns so glad to git 'way dat nobody stays. I got 'bout | ||
| + | fifty dollars for de cotton and den I lends it to a nigger what never pays | ||
| + | me back yit. Den I got no place to go, so I cooks for a white man name' | ||
| + | Dick Cole. He sposen give me $5.00 de month but he never paid me no money. | ||
| + | He'd give me eats and clothes, 'cause he has de little store.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | and I's ready for de Lawd to call me."< | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <hr style=" | ||
| + | <div class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <div class=" | ||
| + | Ogis Guidry, near Carenco, Louisiana, | ||
| + | now lives in a cottage on | ||
| + | the property of the Blessed Sacrament | ||
| + | Church, in Beaumont, Texas. | ||
| + | She says she is at least eighty-seven | ||
| + | and probably much older.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | four chillen, Placid, Alphonse and Mary and Alexandrine, | ||
| + | big, one-story house with a gallery and brick pillars. Dey had a big | ||
| + | place. I 'spect a mile 'cross it, and fifty slaves.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | Papa was Dick Richard. He come from North Carolina. He was slave of old | ||
| + | Placid Guilbeau. He live near Old Marse. My brothers was Joe and Nicholas | ||
| + | and Oui and Albert and Maurice, and sisters was Maud and Celestine and | ||
| + | Pauline.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | floor. We have a four foot bench. We pull it to a table and set on it. | ||
| + | De bed a platform with planks and moss.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | flour den. But most holidays de white folks has company. Dat mean more work | ||
| + | for us.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | in. One time I sweep de yard. Young miss come home from college. She slap | ||
| + | my face. She want to beat me. Mama say to beat her, so dey did. She took | ||
| + | de beatin' | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | beat her some more.< | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | We dance de reel and quadrille and buck dance. De men dance dat. If we go | ||
| + | to dance on ' | ||
| + | and make us show de slip. If dey ain't no slip, we git beat.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | Young marse have blue coat. He put it on and climb a tree to see. De sojers | ||
| + | come and think he a Yankee. Dey take his gun. Dey turn him loose when dey | ||
| + | find out he ain't no Yankee.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | don't ask for nothin' | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | Some sot dem free.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | We couldn' | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | Dey don't take him but tell him to vote Democrat next day or dey will. Dey | ||
| + | kilt some niggers what wouldn' | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | dey stand him up and let him fall down. Dey tie him by de feet. Dey drag him | ||
| + | through de bresh. Dey dare his wife to cry.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | Coteau. We have dinner with wine. Den come big dance. We have twelve chillen. | ||
| + | We works in de field in Opelousas. We come here twenty-five year ago. He die | ||
| + | in 1917. Dey let's me live here. It nice to be near de church. I can go to | ||
| + | prayers when I wants to.<span class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <hr style=" | ||
| + | <div class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <div class=" | ||
| + | Brownwood, Texas was born in Komo, | ||
| + | Mississippi, | ||
| + | was born a slave at the North Slades' | ||
| + | place. Mr. and Mrs. North Slade were | ||
| + | the only owners she ever had. She | ||
| + | served as nurse-maid for her marster' | ||
| + | children and did general housework. | ||
| + | She, with her mother and father and family | ||
| + | stayed with the Slades until the end | ||
| + | of the year after the Civil War. They | ||
| + | then moved to themselves, hiring out to | ||
| + | "White Folks."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | worked for dem. But our over-seer, Jimmy Shearer, was sho' | ||
| + | mean. One day he done git mad at me for some little somethin' | ||
| + | and when I take de ashes to de garden he catches me | ||
| + | and churns me up and down on de groun' | ||
| + | at my brother and kicked him end over end, jes' like a stick | ||
| + | of wood. He would whip us 'til we was raw and then put pepper | ||
| + | and salt in de sores. If he thought we was too slow in | ||
| + | doin' anything he would kick us off de groun' and churn us | ||
| + | up and down. Our punishment depended on de mood of de over-seer. | ||
| + | I never did see no slaves sold. When we was sick dey | ||
| + | give us medicine out of drug stores. De over-seer would git | ||
| + | some coarse cotton cloth to make our work clothes out of and | ||
| + | den he would make dem so narrow we couldn' | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | got up at 5:00 o' | ||
| + | quit after sun-down. We didn' have no jails for slaves. We | ||
| + | went to church with de white folks and there was a place in de | ||
| + | back of de church for us to sit.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | de back yard and sing songs and play games and dance jigs. | ||
| + | Song I ' | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | me, so he discharged him and released me from duty for awhile.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | would dress up in our white cotton dresses and put on shoes.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | think anything about it. We had to work if there was work to be | ||
| + | done. When we got caught up den we could have time off. If any | ||
| + | of us got sick our mistress would 'tend to us herself. If she | ||
| + | thought we was sick enough she would call de white doctor.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | down and slapped our hands and shouted 'Glory to God!' Lord, | ||
| + | child dat was one happy bunch of niggers. Awhile after dat | ||
| + | some of de slaves told marster dey wanted to stay on with him | ||
| + | like dey had been but he told 'em no dey couldn' | ||
| + | was free. He said he could use some of 'em but dey would have | ||
| + | to buy what dey got and he would have to pay 'em like men.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | I's had ten chillun and four gran' | ||
| + | myself."< | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <hr style=" | ||
| + | <div class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <div class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | been assigned to this manuscript& | ||
| + | Cumby' photos are attached to the proper manuscript | ||
| + | and the five referred to above are probably | ||
| + | pictures of <span class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <div class=" | ||
| + | Cincinnati, Ohio, the property of | ||
| + | the Barker family, who moved to | ||
| + | Missouri and later to Texas. He | ||
| + | and his wife live in a neat cottage | ||
| + | in Houston, Texas.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | I ' | ||
| + | brought me to Texas later on. My mother and father was call Goodman, | ||
| + | but dey died when I was little and Missy Barker raised me | ||
| + | on de plantation down near Houston. Dey was plenty of work and | ||
| + | plenty of room.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | toads runs over de world and my grandpa would gather 'em and lay | ||
| + | 'em in de fireplace till dey dried and roll 'em with bottles till | ||
| + | dey like ashes and den rub it on de shoe bottoms. You see, when dey | ||
| + | wants to run away, dat stuff don't stick all on de shoes, it stick to | ||
| + | de track. Den dey carries some of dat powder and throws it as far as | ||
| + | dey could jump and den jump over it, and do dat again till dey use all | ||
| + | de powder. Dat throwed de common hounds off de trail altogether. But | ||
| + | dey have de bloodhounds, | ||
| + | up dat trail. Dey run my grandpa over 100 mile and three or four days | ||
| + | and nights and found him under a bridge. What dey put on him was | ||
| + | enough! I seen 'em whip runaway niggers till de blood run down dere | ||
| + | backs and den put salt in de places.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | worked and worked and didn't have no dances or church. Dances nothin!< | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | They had big fireplaces what took great big chunks of wood and kep' fire | ||
| + | all night. We lives in de back in a little bitty house like a chicken | ||
| + | house. We makes beds out of posts and slats across 'em and fills tow | ||
| + | sacks with shucks in 'em for mattress and pillows.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | pairs sometimes. Dey wasn't 'lowed to marry, 'cause they could be sold | ||
| + | and it wasn't no use, but you could live with ' | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | Sometimes we'd eat goats, too. We has plenty cornmeal and ' | ||
| + | we gets milk sometimes, but we has no fine food, 'cept on Christmas, we | ||
| + | gits some cake, maybe.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | with Massa Barker quite a while. Dey pays us for workin' | ||
| + | much pay, 'cause de war done took dere money and all. But they was good | ||
| + | to us, so we stayed.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | and I was scared de whole time. First time I ever tackled marryin' | ||
| + | Dey had a big paper sack of rice and throwed it all over her and I, enough | ||
| + | rice to last three or four days, throwed away jus' for nothin' | ||
| + | a black, alpaca suit with frock tail coat and, if I ain't mistaken, a right | ||
| + | white shirt. My wife have a great train on her dress and one dem things | ||
| + | you call a wreath. I wore de loudest shoes we could find, what you call | ||
| + | patent leather.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | to de Seminole Reservation and works for de army till we goes to work for<span class=" | ||
| + | de Pattersons, and we been here 23 years now.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | I seed something 'bout three feet high and black. I reckon I must have | ||
| + | fainted 'cause they has de doctor for me. And on dark nights I seed | ||
| + | ghosties what has no head. Dey looks like dey wild and dey is all in different | ||
| + | performance. When I goin' down de road and feel a hot steam and look | ||
| + | over my shoulder I can see 'em plain as you standin' | ||
| + | my wife was with me, but she can't see 'em, 'cause some people ain't gifted | ||
| + | to see ' | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <hr style=" | ||
| + | <div class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <div class=" | ||
| + | Tyler Co., Texas, on Jim Sapp's | ||
| + | plantation. He is very feeble, | ||
| + | but keeps his great grandchildren | ||
| + | in line while their mother works. | ||
| + | They live in Beaumont. Joe is | ||
| + | tall, slight, and has gray hair | ||
| + | and a stubby gray mustache. In | ||
| + | his kind, gentle voice he relates | ||
| + | his experiences in slavery days.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | My massa was Jim Sapp, up here in Tyler County, and missus' | ||
| + | Ann. De Sapp place was big and dey raise' a sight of cotton and corn. | ||
| + | Old massa Jim he have 'bout 25 or 30 slaves.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | pa's name Jerry Wooten, 'cause he live on de Wooten place. My steppa | ||
| + | named Barnes and I taken dat name. My parents, dey have de broomstick | ||
| + | weddin' | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | de stick hoss and de like. When I gits more bigger, us play ball, sort | ||
| + | of like baseball. One time my brudder go git de hosses and dey lots | ||
| + | of rain and de creek swoll up high. De water so fast it wash him off he | ||
| + | hoss and I ain't seed him since. Dey never find de body. He's 'bout | ||
| + | ten year old den.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | in de back. Some of dem box and some of dem log. Dey have two rooms. | ||
| + | Every day de big, old cowhorn blow for dinner and us have de little tin | ||
| + | cup what us git potlicker in and meat and cornbread and salt bacon. Us | ||
| + | gits greens, too. De chimneys 'bout four feet wide and dey cooks everything | ||
| + | in de fireplace. Dey have pots and ovens and put fire below and | ||
| + | 'bove ' | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | a shirt make out of homespun with pleats down front. Dey make dey own | ||
| + | cloth dem time.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | party but sometime us sing and play games, like de round dance.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | bacon and de other round dey wrists, so dey won't swallow or lose de | ||
| + | bacon. For de little bits of ones dey rings de bell for dey mommers | ||
| + | to come from de field and nuss ' | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | and us work in de sawmill for Mr. Jim Long. De fust money I git I give | ||
| + | to my mammy. Me and mammy and stepdaddy stays in Beaumont two years | ||
| + | den moves to Tyler and plants de crop. But de next year us move back | ||
| + | to Beaumont on de Langham place and mammy work for de Longs till she die.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | marry no more. I worked in sawmillin' | ||
| + | by pretty good. I ain't done no work much de last ten year, I's too old.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | sits 'round and hurts all de time. It am rheumatism in de feets, I reckon. | ||
| + | I got six grandchillen and three great-grandchillen and dat one you hears | ||
| + | cryin', | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | da truth am, I can't ' | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <hr style=" | ||
| + | <div class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <div class=" | ||
| + | slave of Stafford Barrett, who lived | ||
| + | in Huntsville, Texas. He is the husband | ||
| + | of Harriett Barrett. Armstead has a | ||
| + | very poor memory and can tell little | ||
| + | about early days. He and Harriet receive | ||
| + | old age pensions.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | to Massa Ben Walker and was 'lowed to keep me with her. So after we'uns | ||
| + | got free, I lives with my daddy and mammy and goes by de name of Barrett. | ||
| + | Daddy' | ||
| + | Virginny, and mammy come from Kentucky. Us all lived in Huntsville. I | ||
| + | waited on Miss Ann and mammy was cook.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | like to de fat beef, massa am good to us. Massa go to other states and git | ||
| + | men and women and chile slaves and bring dem back to sell, 'cause he spec' | ||
| + | He make dem wash up good and den sell dem.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | a-tall.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | a white man with de high-steppin' | ||
| + | out and open he knife and cut her wide 'cross de stomach. Den he put he hat | ||
| + | inside he shirt and rid off like lightnin' | ||
| + | heered no more 'bout her.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | Long time after I rents de place on halves and farms most my life. Now I's | ||
| + | too old to work and gits a pension to live on.<span class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | no ' | ||
| + | de white man, he beats de nigger out what he makes. Back in de old days, | ||
| + | de white men am hones' | ||
| + | cullud folks ought to be 'lowed more privileges in votin' now, 'cause dey | ||
| + | have de same ' | ||
| + | brighter and brighter.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | 'lieve iffen dey could git fair wages dey'd do better. Dey git beat out of | ||
| + | what dey does, anyway.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | two of dem. He'd whip dem near every day and dey does all could be did to | ||
| + | please him. So one day he come to de field and calls one dem slaves and | ||
| + | dat slave draps he hoe and goes over and grabs dat overseer. Den de other | ||
| + | slave cut dat overseer' | ||
| + | rows. De owner he fools 'round and sells dem two slaves for $800.00 each | ||
| + | and dat all de punishment dem two slaves ever got.< | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <hr style=" | ||
| + | <div class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <div class=" | ||
| + | Walker Co., Texas, in 1851, a slave | ||
| + | of Steve Glass. She now lives in | ||
| + | Palestine, Texas.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | war freed us. Pappy' | ||
| + | to Texas 'fore de war, and I's borned in Texas in 1851. I's heered my | ||
| + | grandpa was wild and dey didn't know 'bout marryin' | ||
| + | brother name Steve Glass and I dunno iffen I had sisters or not.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | Aunt Harriet am de bes' cook in Madisonville. Massa have great big garden | ||
| + | and plenty to eat. I's cook big skillet plumb full corn at de time and us | ||
| + | all have plenty meat. Massa, he step out and kill big deer and put in de | ||
| + | great big pot and cook it. Then us have cornbread and syrup.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | over it. Den us pull moss and throw over dat. I have de good massa, bless | ||
| + | he soul. Missy, she plumb good. She sick all de time and dey never have | ||
| + | white chillen. Dey live in big, log house, four rooms in it and de great | ||
| + | hall both ways through it.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | and den lock 'em up in de quarters at night to keep 'em from runnin' | ||
| + | De patterrollers come and go through de quarters to see if all de niggers | ||
| + | dere. Dey walk right over us when us sleeps.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | him thirty-nine licks with rawhide and lock dem up at night, too, and keep | ||
| + | chain on him in daytime.< | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | I'll never forgit dem. Massa 'low us have holiday Saturday night and | ||
| + | go to nigger dance if it on ' | ||
| + | pan beatin' | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | She was white angel. Den massa marry Missy Alice Long and she de bad | ||
| + | woman with us niggers. She hard on us, not like old missy.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | and honey for de li'l baby am good, and camphor for de chills and fever | ||
| + | and teeth cuttin' | ||
| + | cactus weed root tea for fever and chills and colic. De best remedy for | ||
| + | chills and fever am to git rabbit foot tie on string 'round de neck.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | dat New Orleans battle he wounded and guns roarin' | ||
| + | massa in and I's jus' as white as he am den. Dem Yankees done shoot de roof | ||
| + | off de house. I nuss de sick and wounded clean through de war and seed dem | ||
| + | dyin' on every side of me.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | and all de shoutin' | ||
| + | and was in a stir jus' as thick as flies on de dog. Massa say I's free as | ||
| + | him, but iffen I wants to cook for him and missy I gits $2.50 de month, so | ||
| + | I cooks for him till I marries Armstead Barrett, and then us farm for de | ||
| + | livin' | ||
| + | brogan shoes. Us been married 51 years now.< | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <hr style=" | ||
| + | <div class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <div class=" | ||
| + | Little Rock, Arkansas, a slave | ||
| + | of Mock Bateman. When still | ||
| + | very young, John moved with | ||
| + | his mother, a slave of Harry | ||
| + | Hogan, to Limestone Co., Texas. | ||
| + | John now lives in Corsicana, | ||
| + | supported by his children and | ||
| + | an old age pension.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | <a name=' | ||
| + | and I had four brothers and six sisters. We jes' left de last part | ||
| + | of de name off and call it Bates and dat's how I got my name. Mammy | ||
| + | ' | ||
| + | Limestone County, and I don't ' | ||
| + | never seed him since.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | hongry de fust winter in Texas. He lived in de big log house with de | ||
| + | hallway clean through and a gallery clean 'cross de front. De chimney | ||
| + | was big 'nough to burn logs in and it sho' throwed out de heat. It was | ||
| + | a good, big place and young massa come out early and holler for us to | ||
| + | git up and be in de field.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | teach me to read and write, but my head jes' too thick, I jes' couldn' | ||
| + | larn. My Uncle Ben he could read de Bible and he allus tell us some day | ||
| + | us be free and Massa Harry laugh, haw, haw, haw, and he say, 'Hell, no, | ||
| + | yous never be free, yous ain't got sense 'nough to make de livin' if yous | ||
| + | was free.' Den he takes de Bible 'way from Uncle Ben and say it put | ||
| + | de bad ideas in he head, but Uncle gits ' | ||
| + | massa never finds it out.< | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | sawmill tank and 50 is baptise' | ||
| + | didn't have no funerals for de slaves, but jes' bury dem like a cow or | ||
| + | a hoss, jes' dig de hole and roll 'em in it and cover 'em up.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | knows what gwine on, news travels purty fast, and iffen de slaves couldn' | ||
| + | git it with de pass dey slips out after dark and go in another plantation | ||
| + | by de back way. Course, iffen dem patterrollers cotch dem it jus' too | ||
| + | bad and dey gits whip.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | up like everybody else did the slaves, us has to go up and ask him 'bout it. | ||
| + | He come out on de front gallery and says we is free and turns 'round and | ||
| + | goes in de house without ' | ||
| + | the way he acts and hates to leave him, but we wants to go. We knowed he | ||
| + | wasn't able to give us nothin' | ||
| + | days Massa Harry dies. I think he jes' grieve himself to death, all he | ||
| + | trouble comin' on him to once.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | am Emma Williams and a cullud preacher marries us at her house. Us picked | ||
| + | cotton after dat and den I rents a place on de halvers for five year and | ||
| + | after sev' | ||
| + | out and done some repairs and den us sep' | ||
| + | year together. So I gives dat place to her and de six chillen and I walks | ||
| + | out ready to start all over ' | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | divorcement. All dis time I works on a farm for de day wages, den I | ||
| + | rents ' | ||
| + | year. Fin'ly I gits de job workin' | ||
| + | and stays at dat job till dey says I's too old. I done buy dis li'l home | ||
| + | here and now has a place to live. Sarah done come back to me and us has | ||
| + | seven chillen. One of de boys works at de cotton oil mill and two works | ||
| + | at de compress right here in Corsicana and one works at de beer place in | ||
| + | Dallas.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | from de farm, I mean my fust wife's chillen, and with de pension check | ||
| + | us manage to live a li'l longer. Us boys pays de taxes and de insurance | ||
| + | for us.<span class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <hr style=" | ||
| + | <div class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <div class=" | ||
| + | slave of I.D. Thomas of | ||
| + | San Augustine, Texas, now | ||
| + | lives in Beaumont. A great-grandson | ||
| + | climbed into Harrison' | ||
| + | lap during the interview, | ||
| + | and his genial face | ||
| + | lit up with a smile. He | ||
| + | chuckled as he told of his | ||
| + | own boyhood days, and | ||
| + | appeared to enjoy reminiscing. | ||
| + | At times he uses | ||
| + | big words, some of his own | ||
| + | coining.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | small yit when ' | ||
| + | have me and de other li'l niggers keep de stock out de fields. Us li'l | ||
| + | boogers have to run and keep de cows out de corn and de cotton patch. Dat | ||
| + | ought to been 'nough to keep us out of debbilment.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | and daddy' | ||
| + | find out he people and git he real name, and dat am Beckett. Dat 'bout ten | ||
| + | years after ' | ||
| + | was de Polkses, in Georgia. Mammy come in from de field at nine or ten | ||
| + | o' | ||
| + | But she have to git some food for us. We all had a tin pan and git round de | ||
| + | table and dat like a feast. But lots of times she's so tired she go to bed | ||
| + | without eatin' nothin' | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | Dey's all big 'nough to work in de field. My brudders name Matthew and Ed and | ||
| + | Henry and Harry, what am me, and de oldes' one am General Thomas.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | and 'bout a hundred fifty acres in each farm. One de farms in iron ore, what< | ||
| + | am red land, and de other in gray land, half sand and half black dirt.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | with two rooms, one for to sleep in and one for to cook in. Day ain't no | ||
| + | glass windows, jus' holes in de walls. Dere was jack beds to sleep on, | ||
| + | made out of poles. Dey has four legs and ain't nail to de walls.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | In ginnin' | ||
| + | mattresses and quilts. He make some cloth and buy some. A woman weave all | ||
| + | de time and when de shickle jump out on de floor I picks it up. I used to | ||
| + | could knit socks and I was jes' a li'l boy then, but I keep everything in | ||
| + | ' | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | manners and behaviour, too. Sometime dey git de broke-down white man to be | ||
| + | teacher. But us didn't know much and it taken ten years or more after freedom | ||
| + | to git de black men de qualification way he could handle things.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | or drap 'em to break 'em open. Dere come massa and cotch us not workin', | ||
| + | eatin' he watermillions. He tell my daddy to whip me. But lots of times when | ||
| + | us sposed to mind de calves, us am out eatin' watermillions in de bresh. Den | ||
| + | de calves git out and massa see dem run and cotch us.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | and wouldn' | ||
| + | and it didn't bruise de back, but sho' did sting. When he git real mad, he | ||
| + | pull up you shirt and whip on de bare hide. One time he whippin' | ||
| + | busts de button off my shirt what he holdin' | ||
| + | to outrun him, and dat tickle him. I sho' give de ground fits with my feets. | ||
| + | But dem whippin' | ||
| + | of me.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | come way down 'tween de knees and ankles. When de weather am too cold, dey | ||
| + | sometimes give us pants.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | like a arbor and cullud folks come from all round to hear de Gospel ' | ||
| + | Most every farm have de cullud man larnin' | ||
| + | Methodists but now I 'longs to de Church of Christ.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | A big box of freight goods fall on him, a box 'bout a yard square on de end | ||
| + | and six yards long. He's carryin' | ||
| + | and dey pullin' | ||
| + | Orleans folks say it am de accidentment, | ||
| + | One of massa' | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | war. Li'l Ide, he go up in Arkansas and dey say when dat first cannon busts | ||
| + | at Li'l Rock, he starts runnin' | ||
| + | don't see how he could do dat, 'cause Li'l Rock am way far off, but dat what | ||
| + | dey say. Den de men comes to git ' | ||
| + | back. Mr. Jimmie, he didn't break de ranks. He stood he ground.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | de slaves up in de bunch and tells 'em, ' | ||
| + | if you wants. You don't have to stay no further, you's free today.' | ||
| + | June 19th, and all of 'em stays. Massa say, 'Go 'head and finish de crop and | ||
| + | I feed you and pay you.' Dey all knowed when he kilt de hawgs us git plenty | ||
| + | of meat. Dat young massa say all dat, 'cause old massa done git kilt.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | dem White Caps den. Dey move over in Panola County and ranges at de place call | ||
| + | Big Creek Merval by McFaddin Creek. Dey's purty rough. De landowners tell | ||
| + | dey niggers not to kill de White Caps but to scare dem 'way. At night dey | ||
| + | come knock and if you don't open it dey pry it open and run you out in de field. | ||
| + | Dey run de niggers from Merryville round Longview. Dey some good men in de | ||
| + | Klux and some bad men. But us work hard and go home and dey ain't bother us | ||
| + | none.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | at Nacogdoches fin' | ||
| + | was Massa Lee and he say dey ought let Bandy Joe live, so dey could larn he art. | ||
| + | Dey done try cotch him de long time, and maybe be holdin' | ||
| + | they know he gone and dey left holdin' | ||
| + | him. He tell he wife dey ain't no kind bullet can hurt him but de silver bullet.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | want you to see him you jus' couldn' | ||
| + | jedge say he wish he could' | ||
| + | he gifts. De jedge knowed Bandy Joe could dis' | ||
| + | like to hear he quotation how he git out he skin. I'd like to know dat myself.< | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | nighttime. I rides through a old slavery field and de folks tell me, ' | ||
| + | you better be careful gwine 'cross dat old field. They's things dere what makes | ||
| + | mules run 'way. One night it am late and my mule run 'way. I make my mind I | ||
| + | go back and see what he run from and somethin' | ||
| + | up straight. It stand dere 'bout fifteen minutes while I draws my best ' | ||
| + | of it. I didn't get any nearer dan to see it. A man down de road tell me | ||
| + | de place am hanted and he dunno how many wagons and mules git pull by dat thing | ||
| + | at dat place.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | I had a li'l boy 'hind me and I seed a big sow with no head comin' over de | ||
| + | fence. My ma, she allus say what I see might be ' | ||
| + | head and look 'gain and I does dat. But it still dere. Den I seed a hoss | ||
| + | goin' down de road and he drag a chain, and cross de bridge and turn down de | ||
| + | side road. But when I git to de side road I ain't seed no hoss or nothin' | ||
| + | I didn't say nothin' | ||
| + | den asks him did he see anythin' | ||
| + | 'cause I 'fraid he light out and outrun me and I didn't want to be by myself | ||
| + | with dem things. When I gits home and tell everybody, dey say dat a man name | ||
| + | McCoy, what was kilt dere and I seed he spirit.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | and a world of grandchillen. I travels all over Louisiana and Texas in my time, | ||
| + | and come here three year ago. My son he work in de box fact' | ||
| + | git a bodily injurement while he workin' | ||
| + | and I been here ever since.< | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <hr style=" | ||
| + | <div class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <div class=" | ||
| + | of Johnson Bell, who ran a | ||
| + | saloon in New Orleans. Frank | ||
| + | lives in Madisonville, | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | ' | ||
| + | was a Frenchman and was real mean to me. He run saloon and kept bad women. | ||
| + | I don't know nothing 'bout my folks, if I even had any, 'cept mama. They | ||
| + | done tell me she was a bad woman and a French Creole.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | they'd have all night drinkin' | ||
| + | to tip off where to go, so's they could sow wild oats. I buried the nickels | ||
| + | under rocks. If master done cotch me with money, he'd take it and beat me | ||
| + | nearly to death. All I had to eat was old stuff those people left, all | ||
| + | scraps what was left.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | scrape and they was two men kilt. I sho' did run. But master cotch me and | ||
| + | make me take them men to the river and tie a weight on them, so they'd sink | ||
| + | and the law wouldn' | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | in them. Master he stay drunk nearly all time and was mean to his slave. I'm | ||
| + | the only one he had, and didn't cost him nothing. He have bill of sale made, | ||
| + | 'cause the law say he done stole me when I'm small child. Master kept me in | ||
| + | chains sometimes. He shot several men.< | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | sack down and lay there and sleep. I'm 'fraid to run, 'cause master say he'd | ||
| + | hunt me and kill nigger.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | Master he run her off, and I slips off at night to see her, but he finds it out. | ||
| + | He takes a big, long knife and cuts her head plumb off, and ties a great, heavy | ||
| + | weight to her and makes me throw her in the river. Then he puts me in chains | ||
| + | and every night he come give me a whippin', | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | captures New Orleans and throws master in a pen and guards him. He gets a | ||
| + | chance and ' | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | trade. He say, ' | ||
| + | a week and iffen you runs off I'll kill you.' So he makes me do like befo' | ||
| + | the war, but give me 'bout a dollar a month, 'stead week.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | know why I didn't die befo' I'm growed, sleepin' | ||
| + | summer, rain and snow. But not much snow there.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | told them I stay 'cause I wants to stay, but told me if I left he'd kill him | ||
| + | ' | ||
| + | and women and they gits to shootin' | ||
| + | left to live or die, so I wanders from place to place. I nearly starved to | ||
| + | death befo' I'd leave New Orleans, 'cause I couldn' | ||
| + | I'm ' | ||
| + | in white man's barn. I never slep'. Every time I hears something, I jumps up | ||
| + | and master be standin' | ||
| + | Next night I slep' out in a hay field, and master he git right top of a tree | ||
| + | and start hollerin at me. I never stays in that place. I gits gone from that | ||
| + | place. I gits back to town fast as my legs carry me.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | One the men says to me to come with him and takes me to the woods and gives me | ||
| + | an ax. I cuts rails till I nearly falls, all with chain locked 'round feet, so | ||
| + | I couldn' | ||
| + | Works for men long 'nough to git fifty, sixty cents, then starts roamin' | ||
| + | like a stray dog like.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | a white preacher marry us. We has one boy and he farms and I lives with him. | ||
| + | I worked at sawmill and farms all my life, but never could make much money.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | of the nigger. He done ed' | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <hr style=" | ||
| + | <div class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <div class=" | ||
| + | Houston, was born a slave near Opelousas, | ||
| + | Louisiana, on the plantation | ||
| + | of Thomas Lewis. Although she remembers | ||
| + | being told she was born on Christmas | ||
| + | Day, she does not know the year, | ||
| + | but says she guesses she is about 88 | ||
| + | years old.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | I is, I don' know ' | ||
| + | The young folks can tell you their 'zact age and everything, | ||
| + | but in those days we didn' pay much ' | ||
| + | I knows I was bo'n in slavery times and my pappy tol' me I was bo'n | ||
| + | on a Christmas Day, but didn' ' | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | he was a United States lawyer. I ain't gwineter talk ' | ||
| + | white folks like some cullud folks do, 'cause Massa Lewis was a | ||
| + | mighty fine man and so was Miss Mary, and they treated us mighty | ||
| + | good.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | there. I ' | ||
| + | the gin on his farm for ginnin' | ||
| + | Della. That was all, jus' Della. My pappy' | ||
| + | Both of them was from Virginny, but from diff' | ||
| + | brought to Louisiana by nigger traders and sold to Massa Lewis. I | ||
| + | know my pappy was lots older than my mother and he had a wife and | ||
| + | five chillen back in Virginny and had been sold away from them out | ||
| + | here.< | ||
| + | Then he and my mother started a family out here. I don' know what | ||
| + | become of his family back in Virginny, 'cause when we was freed he | ||
| + | stayed with us.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | notes for Miss Mary to the neighbors and bring back answers. Miss | ||
| + | Mary would say, 'Now, Virginny, you take this note to sech and sech | ||
| + | place and be sure and be back in sech and sech time,' and I allus | ||
| + | was.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | used to have some fun after work and us young folks would skip rope | ||
| + | and play ring games. Durin' week days the field hands would work | ||
| + | till the sun was jus' goin' down and then the overseer would holler | ||
| + | 'all right' and that was the signal to quit. All hands knocked off | ||
| + | Sat' | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | folks had them, but sometimes on Sundays we'd go up to the house and | ||
| + | listen to the white folks singin' | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | Lewis would git them up to the house after supper time, have the man | ||
| + | and woman jine hands and then read to them outen a book. I guess it | ||
| + | was the Scriptures. Then he'd tell 'em they was married but to be | ||
| + | ready for work in the mornin' | ||
| + | Gospel.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | Iffen we got took sick, we had doctor treatment, too. Iffen a hand | ||
| + | took sick in the field with a misery, they was carried to their | ||
| + | quarters and Massa or Miss Mary would give them a dose of epecac and | ||
| + | make them vomit and would sen' for the doctor. They wouldn' | ||
| + | none iffen one of us took sick, but would clean us out and take care | ||
| + | of us till we was well.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | Massa Lewis and Miss Mary treated us good. They wasn't no overseer | ||
| + | goin' to whip, 'cause Massa wouldn' | ||
| + | rec' | ||
| + | has been so long ago I don' rec' | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | heerd this and that, but we didn' know much what it was about. Then | ||
| + | one day Massa Lewis had all the wagons loaded with food and chairs and | ||
| + | beds and other things from the house and our quarters, and I heerd him | ||
| + | say we was movin' to Polk County, way over in Texas. I know it took | ||
| + | us a long time to git there, and when we did I never see so much woods. | ||
| + | It sho' was diff' | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | there three years and made three crops of cotton, but not so much as | ||
| + | on our old place, 'cause there wasn't so much clearin' | ||
| + | Massa Lewis tol' us we was free, jus' as free as he was& | ||
| + | you take the bridle offen a hoss and turn him loose. We jus' looked< | ||
| + | 'roun as iffen we hadn' good sense. We didn' have nothin' | ||
| + | to go, and Massa Lewis say iffen we finish makin' de crop, he | ||
| + | would take us back to Opelousas and give us a place to stay and feed | ||
| + | us. So after pickin' | ||
| + | where those rascal Yankees ' | ||
| + | kettles broke up. It looked mighty bad.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | stay and give us what he could to eat, but things was mighty hard for | ||
| + | a while. I know pappy used to catch rabbits and take them to town | ||
| + | and sell them or trade them for somethin' | ||
| + | wasn't much, 'cause you can't git much for a little ol' rabbit.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | for things to put in a crop with and to live till we made the crop. | ||
| + | ' | ||
| + | knew we was Massa Lewis' folks and didn' bother us none.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | weddin', | ||
| + | ever since. We had thirteen chillen, but they is all dead now 'cept | ||
| + | four, but they was raised up right and they is mighty good to they | ||
| + | ol' mammy.< | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <hr style=" | ||
| + | <div class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <div class=" | ||
| + | <img src=" | ||
| + | <br />< | ||
| + | </ | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <div class=" | ||
| + | the slave of Henry Bendy, of | ||
| + | Woodville, Texas, has to make | ||
| + | an effort to remember and is | ||
| + | forced to seek aid from his | ||
| + | wife, Minerva, at certain points | ||
| + | in his story. Edgar has lived | ||
| + | in Woodville all his life.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | come right here in Woodville. A big bunch of dem come through and dey | ||
| + | have cannons with dem. My marster he didn't go to war, 'cause he too old, | ||
| + | I guess.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | man Henry Bendy, he my marster and he run de store here in Woodville and | ||
| + | have de farm, too. I didn't do nothin' | ||
| + | dem up and down and de old marster hire me out to nuss other white folks | ||
| + | chillen, big and little.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | dem worked on de farm and I never seed dem much. I didn't have no house | ||
| + | of my own, 'cause de marster, he give me de room in he house. He have | ||
| + | lots of slaves and 'bout 100 acres in cult' | ||
| + | to eat and good homespun clothes to wear. He was mighty good.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | De cook was a old cullud woman and I eat at de kitchen table and | ||
| + | have de same what de white folks eats. Us has lots of meat, deer meat | ||
| + | and possum and coon and sich, and us sets traps for birds.< | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | possum. Dey git fat on black haws and acorns and chinquapin and sich. | ||
| + | Chinquapin is good for people to eat and to roast. I used to be | ||
| + | plumb give up to be de best hunter in Tyler and in de whole country. | ||
| + | I kilt more deer dan any other man in de county and I been guide for | ||
| + | all de big men what comes here to hunt. My wife, Minerva, she used to | ||
| + | go huntin' | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | after me. Dat a light you sees all 'round you. Dey follow all 'long | ||
| + | and dey stop you still. Den one time it git all over me. Come like | ||
| + | de wind, blow, blow, and come jes' like fire all on my arm and my | ||
| + | clothes and things. When dat git after me I quit huntin' | ||
| + | and ain't been huntin' | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | I look up and dere a big, wild cat. He never pay me no mind, no more | ||
| + | dan nothin', | ||
| + | dat creek!</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | pay my jews, I git unfinancial and I ain't a member no more.< | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <hr style=" | ||
| + | <div class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <div class=" | ||
| + | slave to Lazarus Goolsby, Henry | ||
| + | Co. Alabama, who brought her | ||
| + | to Texas when she was five. They | ||
| + | settled near Woodville, where | ||
| + | Minerva still lives.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | lead 'way from de house. It was clean and white and us chillen love | ||
| + | to walk in de soft, hot sand. Dat in Henry County, Alabama, where | ||
| + | I's born and my old marster was Lazarus Goolsby and he have de big | ||
| + | plantation with lots of nigger folks. I ' | ||
| + | yesterday wigglin' | ||
| + | grits mill where dey grind de meal. Dat have de big water wheel dat | ||
| + | sing and squeak as it go ' | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | heat of de day under de big, spreadin' | ||
| + | mama have 17 chillen. Her name Dollie and my daddy name Herd.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | house with de white folks. Dey raise me a pet in de family. Missus | ||
| + | Goolsby, she have two gals and dey give me to de oldest. When she die | ||
| + | dey put me in de bed with her but iffen I knowed she dyin' dey wouldn' | ||
| + | been able to cotch me. She rub my head and tell her papa and mama, ' | ||
| + | gwine 'way but I wants you promise you ain't never whip my little nigger.' | ||
| + | Dey never did.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | Us come right near Woodville and make de plantation. It a big place | ||
| + | and dey raise corn and cotton and cane. We makes our own sugar and has<span class=" | ||
| + | many as six kettle on de furnace at one time. Dey raise dey tobacco, too. | ||
| + | I's sick and a old man he say he make me tobacco medicine and dey dry de | ||
| + | leafs and make dem sweet like sugar and feed me like candy.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | was a-drillin' | ||
| + | watch dem drill. Dey was lots of dem, but I couldn' | ||
| + | shebang from de town go watch dem.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | Ziby and Zabud and Addison. Zabud, he git wounded, no he git kilt, and | ||
| + | Addison he git wounded. I worry den, 'cause I ain't see no reason for | ||
| + | dem to have to die.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | 'cause most us didn't know where to turn. I wasn't raise to do nothin' | ||
| + | and I didn't know how. Dey didn't even give us a hoecake or a slice of | ||
| + | bacon.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | Baptist preacher name Blacksheer put me and dat nigger over dere, Edgar | ||
| + | Bendy, togedder and us been togedder ever since. Us never have chick or | ||
| + | chile. I's such a good nuss I guess de Lawd didn't want me to have | ||
| + | none of my own, so's I could nuss all de others and I 'spect I's nussed | ||
| + | most de white chillen and cullud, too, here in Woodville.< | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <hr style=" | ||
| + | <div class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <div class=" | ||
| + | a slave of the Gilbert family, | ||
| + | in Clavin Parish, Louisiana. | ||
| + | In 1867 she married Cal Benjamin | ||
| + | and they settled in Corsicana, | ||
| + | Texas, where Sarah now | ||
| + | lives.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | me I's born in 1855 in Clavin Parish in Louisiana. Her name was | ||
| + | Fannie and my pappy' | ||
| + | three of us chillen and I's de oldest.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | to eat. He had a smokehouse big as a church and it was full, and in | ||
| + | de big kitchen we all et, chillen and all. De grown folks et first | ||
| + | and den de chillen. Did we have plenty of possums and fish by de | ||
| + | barrels full! All dis was cooked in de racks over de fireplace and | ||
| + | it were good.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | Old marse wanted all us to go to church and if dey didn't have shoes | ||
| + | dey have something like de moccasin.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | 60 or 70. Dey worked hard every day 'cept Sunday. Iffen they was bad | ||
| + | they might git whuppin' | ||
| + | dey was still bad, dey puts chains on dem and puts dem in de stocks, | ||
| + | 'cause there wasn't no jail there.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | puts me on de block, but he wouldn' | ||
| + | $350.00 and he say no, 'cause I was good and fat.< | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | you better keep it to yourse' | ||
| + | cut off for larnin' | ||
| + | didn't larn nothin', | ||
| + | and dey could work in de tobacco patch. De marster give each one de little | ||
| + | tobacco patch and iffen he raised more'n he could use he could sell it.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | We allus have de gran' dinner on dat day, and no whuppin' | ||
| + | leave de plantation without de pass, even on Christmas.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | Dey fed de old gin from baskets and my mammy fed from dose baskets all day | ||
| + | with de high fever and died dat night. She wouldn' | ||
| + | fer fear she have to take de quinine.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | Missy Gilbert says I wasn't no slave no more but I had to stay and he'p her | ||
| + | for my board 'till I's grown. I stayed 'till I was 'bout 16, den I runs | ||
| + | away and marries Cal Benjamin, and we comes to Texas. Cal and me has six | ||
| + | chillen, but he died 'fore dey was grown.< | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <hr style=" | ||
| + | <div class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | <div class=" | ||
| + | <img src=" | ||
| + | <br />< | ||
| + | </ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <div class=" | ||
| + | <img src=" | ||
| + | <br />< | ||
| + | </ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <div class=" | ||
| + | in 1854, a slave of Steve Bess who was | ||
| + | a rancher. He worked with stock as a | ||
| + | very young boy and this was his duty | ||
| + | during and after the Civil War, as he | ||
| + | remained with his boss for three years | ||
| + | after emancipation. He then came to | ||
| + | old Ben Ficklin four miles south of | ||
| + | the present San Angelo, Texas, when | ||
| + | it was the county seat of Tom Green | ||
| + | County and before there was a San Angelo. | ||
| + | He continued his work on ranches | ||
| + | here and has never done any other kind | ||
| + | of work. For the past several years | ||
| + | he has been very feeble and has made | ||
| + | his home with a daughter in San Angelo, | ||
| + | Texas.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | grandson, hobbled in on his cane and said, "I was jes' a | ||
| + | small boy workin' | ||
| + | de men for de war what was agoin' to set de slaves | ||
| + | free. We didn' know hardly what dey was a talkin' | ||
| + | we knowed dat would be too good to be true. I jes' keeps on | ||
| + | workin' | ||
| + | jes' like dere wasn't no war, 'cause dat was all I ever knowed | ||
| + | how to do.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | he whips us once and awhile but dat wasn't like de slave | ||
| + | holders what had dem colored drivers. Dey sho' was rough on | ||
| + | de slaves. I's been told lots 'bout de chains and de diffe' | ||
| + | punishments but our treatment wasn't so bad. Our beds was | ||
| + | pretty good when we uses dem. Lots of de time we jes' sleeps | ||
| + | on de groun', | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | floors in all of dem. Some was plank and some was poles | ||
| + | but dat was better den de dirt floors some cabins have.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | vegetables and de like; ' | ||
| + | all cooked good. Our clothes was jes' home spun like all de | ||
| + | others.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | but we all gits along. We learns a little 'bout readin' | ||
| + | and writin' | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | We had a few den and on Christmas times we jes' tears up | ||
| + | de country. Lawdy! Lawd! Dat fiddlin' | ||
| + | and we dance awhile den lay down and sleeps, den gits up and | ||
| + | dances some mo'e. We would have big cakes and everything< | ||
| + | good to eat.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | mostly made from weeds. Mos' of de time we gits well.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | 'You free now.' Course we was glad but we didn' know nothin' | ||
| + | to do but jes' stay on dere, and we did 'bout three years and | ||
| + | de boss pays us a little by de month for our work.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | work on a ranch. Dat was before dere was any San Angelo, Texas. | ||
| + | I's been here ever since, jes' a workin' | ||
| + | to another long as I was able. Now I's jes' stayin' | ||
| + | wid my chillun and dey takes good care of me."< | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <hr style=" | ||
| + | <div class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <div class=" | ||
| + | St., Houston, Texas, is 84. | ||
| + | All of her people and their | ||
| + | masters came from Virginia | ||
| + | and settled in Louisiana | ||
| + | about 1853. Her grandparents | ||
| + | belonged to the Green family | ||
| + | and her parents, Charity and | ||
| + | William Green, belonged to | ||
| + | Tolas Parsons. Ellen lives | ||
| + | with friends who support her. | ||
| + | Her sole belonging is an old | ||
| + | trunk and she carries the key | ||
| + | on a string around her neck.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | St. Mary's Parish, in Louisiana, and I belonged to Tolas Parsons, what | ||
| + | had 'bout 500 slaves, countin' | ||
| + | he had God know what else. When my eyes jes' barely fresh open, Marse | ||
| + | Tolas die and will de hull lot of us to he brother, William Tolas. And | ||
| + | I tells you dat Marse William am de greates' | ||
| + | earth. Dat's de truth. I can't lie on him when de pore man's in he | ||
| + | grave.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | don't 'low no overseer to throw he gals down and pull up dere dress and | ||
| + | whup on dere bottoms like I hear tell some of 'em do. Was he still | ||
| + | livin' I 'spect one part of he hands be with him today. I knows I would.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | Don't hit one dem niggers for God's sake, or Parsons sho' eat your jacket | ||
| + | up.'</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | young' | ||
| + | have to stoop to Aunt Rachel jes' like dey curtsy to Missy. I mind de<span class=" | ||
| + | time her husband, Uncle Jim, git mad and hit her over de head with de poker. | ||
| + | A big knot raise up on Aunt Rachel' | ||
| + | say she done bump de head. She dassn' | ||
| + | him. Marse sho' proud dem black, slick chillen of Rachels. You couldn' | ||
| + | find a yaller chile on he place. He sho' got no use for mixin' black and | ||
| + | white.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | fine house and fine trees and sech. From where we live it's five mile to | ||
| + | Centerville one way and five mile to Patterson t' | ||
| + | from one place or t' | ||
| + | buy de furniture and sometime de carpenter make it.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | he marry de widow Cornelius and she give him four boys. With ten chillen | ||
| + | springin' | ||
| + | pig litters, I don't do nothin' | ||
| + | so many chillen it done went and stunted my growth and dat's why I ain't | ||
| + | nothin' | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | after, I has to nuss de babies for dem and tend de white chillen, too. Some dem | ||
| + | babies so fat and big I had to tote de feet while ' | ||
| + | I was sech a li'l one, 'bout seven or eight year old. De big folks leave | ||
| + | some toddy for colic and cryin' and sech and I done drink de toddy and let de | ||
| + | chillen have de milk. I don't know no better. Lawsy me, it a wonder I ain't | ||
| + | de bigges' | ||
| + | my young belly!< | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | up a screech and out-screech dem till dey shut dere mouth. De louder day | ||
| + | bawl de louder I bawl. Sometime when Marse hear de babies cry, he come down | ||
| + | and say, 'Why de chillen cry like dat, Ellen?' | ||
| + | and tired I done drink de milk up.' When I talk sassy like dat, Marse jes' | ||
| + | shake he finger at me, 'cause he knowed I's a good one and don't let no little | ||
| + | mite starve.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | make dem mean when dey grows up and nobody gwineter buy a mean nigger. Marse | ||
| + | don't even let de chillen go to de big cane patch. He plant little bitty patches | ||
| + | close to de house and each li'l nigger have a patch and he work it till it got | ||
| + | growed. Marse have de house girls make popcorn for 'em and candy.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | sometime Dr. Fawcett leave rhubarb and ipicac and calomel and castor oil and | ||
| + | sech. Two year after de war, I git marry and git chillen of my own and den I | ||
| + | turn into de wet nuss. I wet nuss de white chillen and black chillen, like dey | ||
| + | all de same color. Sometime I have a white' | ||
| + | one de other.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | no time for larnin' | ||
| + | whop you. He don't 'low no bright niggers ' | ||
| + | say, 'Book larnin' | ||
| + | when dey larn de cullud chillen de Methodist catechism. De only writin' | ||
| + | ever git, am when he git born or marry or die, den Marse put de name in de | ||
| + | big book.< | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | mail boat and brung her from New Orleans. She de pretties' | ||
| + | almost, ' | ||
| + | up to de house and all de niggers and boys and girls and cats and dogs and sech | ||
| + | come and salute her. Dere she stand on de gallery, with a purty white dress on | ||
| + | with red stripes runnin' | ||
| + | black folks, dey 'longs to you now.' She wave to us and smile on us and nex' | ||
| + | day she give her weddin' | ||
| + | was purple and green silk and all de nigger gals wear dat dress when dey git | ||
| + | marry. My sister Sidney wore it and Sary and Mary.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | done put a bucket of dimes on de front gallery and stand dere and throw dimes to | ||
| + | de nigger chillen jes' like feedin' | ||
| + | 'cause I's right dere helpin' | ||
| + | on de back gallery and us chillen bring us gourds and dip up dat good, old | ||
| + | buttermilk till it all git drunk up. Sometime she fotch bread and butter to | ||
| + | de back gallery and pass it out when it don't even come mealtime.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | give all de women a bolt or linsey to make clothes and ma cut de pattern. Us all | ||
| + | have de fine drawers down to de ankle, buttoned with pretty white buttons on de | ||
| + | bottom. Lawsy, ma sho' cut a mite of drawers, with sewin' for her eleven gals | ||
| + | and four boys, too. In de summertime we all git a bolt of blue cloth and white | ||
| + | tape for trimmin', | ||
| + | homespun what you make jumpers out of. I 'lect how Marse say, ' | ||
| + | field dirty Monday mornin' | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | dey git done makin' sugar, he give a drink call 'Peach 'n Honey' to de women | ||
| + | folk and whiskey and brandy to de men. And of all de dancin' | ||
| + | you ever seen! My pa was fiddler and we'd cut de pigeon wing and cut de buck | ||
| + | and every other kind of dance. Sometime pa git tired and say he ain't gwineter | ||
| + | play no more and us gals git busy and pop him corn and make candy, so to 'tice | ||
| + | him to play more.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | Dem black boys don't care. I seen 'em pull rats out de sugar barrel and dey | ||
| + | taste de sugar and say, ' | ||
| + | One day a pert one pull a dead scorpion out de syrup kettle and he jes' laugh | ||
| + | and say, 'Marse don't want waste none dis syrup,' | ||
| + | off dat scorpion' | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | syrup in my day. Lawd knows how much cane old Marse have. To dem cuttin' | ||
| + | cane it don't seem so much, but to dem what work hour in, hour out, dem sugar | ||
| + | cane fields sho' stretch from one end de earth to de other. Marse ship hogs | ||
| + | and hogs of sugar down de bayou. I seen de river boats go down with big signs | ||
| + | what say, 'Buy dis here ' | ||
| + | ' | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | sech. We git all day to barbecue meat down on de bayou and de white folks come | ||
| + | down and eat long side de cullud.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | He marry 'em Saturday, so dey git Sunday off, too. One time de river boat come< | ||
| + | bearin' | ||
| + | say, ' | ||
| + | marry 'em, dey marry as good as if de Lawd God hisself marry 'em and it don't | ||
| + | take no paper to bind de tie.' Marse don't stand no messin' | ||
| + | A gal have to be of age and ask her pa and ma and Marse and Missy, and if dey | ||
| + | 'gree, dey go ahead and git marry. Marse have de marry book to put de name | ||
| + | down.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | write up to Virginny for to buy fresh hands. Dey a old man dat hobble 'long de | ||
| + | road and de chillen start to throw rocks and de old man turn 'round to one | ||
| + | prissy one and say, 'Go on, young' | ||
| + | tomorrow. Nex' mornin' | ||
| + | jes' crumple up dead on de floor. Law, we's scairt. Nobody ever bother dat | ||
| + | old man no more, for he sho' lay de evil finger on you.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | plantation and he had a li'l gal 'bout eight year old. One day she in de plum | ||
| + | orchard playin' | ||
| + | won't let nobody hurt dat snake and she play with him. He won't bite her. | ||
| + | She keeps him 'bout three year, and she'd rub and grease him. One day he got | ||
| + | sick and dey give him some brandy, but he die and old Doc pickle him in de | ||
| + | bottle of brandy. Dat gal git so full of grief dey take her to de infirm' | ||
| + | in New Orleans and den one day she up and die.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | birth to a baby gal what have two faces with a strip of hair runnin' | ||
| + | Old Doc Fawcett pickle it in de jar of brandy. Old doc start to court Miss< | ||
| + | Cornelia when Marse die, but she don't have none of him and he done went | ||
| + | straight 'way and kill hisself.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | couldn' | ||
| + | 'gun whoop and holler, too. Den first thing you know de Yanks and de | ||
| + | Democrats 'gun to fight right dere. Dey a high old mountain front Marse' | ||
| + | house and de Yanks 'gun pepper cannon ball down from de top dat hill. De | ||
| + | war met right dere and dem Yanks and Democrats fit for twenty-four hours | ||
| + | straight runnin' | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | back into de woods, where it so black and deep. Next day, when de fight over, | ||
| + | Marse come out with great big wagons piles full of mess-poke for us to eat. | ||
| + | Dat what us call hog meat. Us sho' glad to 'scape from de Yankees.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | de things I can tell. Dem Yanks have kilt men and women. I seed babies pick | ||
| + | up from de road with dere brains bust right out. One old man am drawin' | ||
| + | and a cannon ball shoots him right in de well. Dey draws him up with de fishin' | ||
| + | line. Dey's a old sugar boat out on de bayou with blood and sugar runnin' | ||
| + | side de busted barrels. ' | ||
| + | Marse have de great big orchard on de road and it wipe clean as de whistle. | ||
| + | Bullets wipe up everythin' | ||
| + | far back and 'scape de bullets, but, law, de time dey have!</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | and a pound of coffee cost five dollars and a pint cup flour cost six bits.< | ||
| + | De Yanks 'round all de time and one day they comes right in de house where | ||
| + | Miss Cornelia eatin' her dinner. Dey march 'round de table, jes' scoopin' | ||
| + | up meat and ' | ||
| + | don't say a word, jes' smile sweet as honey-cake. I reckon dem sojers might | ||
| + | a took de silver and sech only she charm 'em by bein' so quiet and ladylike. | ||
| + | First thing you know dem sojers curtsy to Missy and take dereself right out | ||
| + | de door and don't come back.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | Ned, die in de war and William, what name for he pa, drink bad all de time. | ||
| + | And after de war dem Ku Kluxers what wear de false faces try to tinker with | ||
| + | Marse' | ||
| + | am he pass. Dat Kluxer clout him but Uncle Dave outrun him in de cane. Marse | ||
| + | grab de hoss and go 'rest dat man and Marse a jedge and he make dat man pay | ||
| + | de fine for hittin' | ||
| + | sho' scairt of old Marse and dey git out from Opelousas and stays out. When | ||
| + | me and my husband, John, come to Texas de folks say dat Louisiana masters de | ||
| + | meanes' | ||
| + | every spot of de earth. What more, de Louisiana masters free dere niggers | ||
| + | a year befo' any Texas nigger git free.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | 'You all is as free as I is, standin' | ||
| + | with me, you can, and I'll pay you for de work.' All de niggers cheer and | ||
| + | say dey want to stay, but Marse die not long after and all us niggers scatter.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | there. He keep sayin', | ||
| + | ma from de cane patch and she hold Marse' | ||
| + | went to de graveyard and us sho' cry over old Marse.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | country to turn 'em loose. He say de free country am de ones what's yellin' | ||
| + | 'bout slave times, so dey could jes' take care of de niggers. Marse Goldham | ||
| + | so big dat when he stand in de door you couldn' | ||
| + | sideways.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | is dead and my old man gone, and now I reckon my time 'bout 'rive. All I got | ||
| + | to do now am pray de Lawd to keep me straight, den when de great day come, | ||
| + | I can march de road to glory.< | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <hr style=" | ||
| + | <div class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
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| + | <img src=" | ||
| + | <br />< | ||
| + | </ | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <div class=" | ||
| + | slave to Captain Pankey' | ||
| + | in Montgomery County, Texas. | ||
| + | She has lived most of her life | ||
| + | within a radius of 60 miles | ||
| + | from Houston, and now lives | ||
| + | with one of her children in a | ||
| + | little house on the highway | ||
| + | between Cleveland and Shepherd, | ||
| + | Texas. She does not know her | ||
| + | age, but appears to be about | ||
| + | ninety.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | chillen, four gals and seven boys. My grandma come from Alabama | ||
| + | and my daddy was Strawder Green and he belong to Col. Hughes. My | ||
| + | maw named Phyllis and she belong to Capt. Pankey.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | plantation. Lawd, they was good to us. Us didn' know nothin' | ||
| + | bad times and cutting and whipping and slashing. I had to work in | ||
| + | the house and I ' | ||
| + | snuffbox twict a week. She kep' sweet, Scotch snuff and sometimes | ||
| + | I takes a pinch out.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | in we'd stand round by the door and sing. Mistus wouldn' | ||
| + | dance on the place but they give us pass to go to dance on nex' plantation, | ||
| + | where my daddy live.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | and allus feed us good. Us have Christmas party and sing songs. That | ||
| + | was sweet music.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | a log house but it was make all beautiful inside with mirrors and on | ||
| + | the board was lots of silver and china and silver spoons with the gol' | ||
| + | linin' | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | She make ' | ||
| + | with butter and pour sweet milk and flour in it. That make good ' | ||
| + | bread. We has skillets what was flat and deep and set on three legs.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | beds was make three-legged. They make augur hole in side of the house and | ||
| + | put in pieces of wood to make the bed frame, and they put straw and cotton | ||
| + | mattress on them bed.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | and they work it by the moonlight. They could sell that cotton and | ||
| + | have the money for theyselves.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | used to shout, jus' sit and clap her hands and say, ' | ||
| + | seed her shout in church and I thinks something ail her and I run down the | ||
| + | aisle and goes to fannin' | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | him to preach to the niggers, but he have to preach with a tub over his | ||
| + | head, 'cause he git so happy he talk too loud. Somebody from the big | ||
| + | house liable to come down and make him quit 'cause he makin' ' | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | and they was little tubs with two handles. Mistus wouldn' | ||
| + | do any heavy work.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | was married by a Yankee sojer. I was dress in white Tarleyton weddin' | ||
| + | dress and I didn' wear no hoop skirt. I had a pretty wreath of little | ||
| + | white flowers, little bitty, little dainty ones, the pretties' | ||
| + | things. When I marry, my sister marry too and our husban' | ||
| + | My husban' | ||
| + | give me a gol' ring and a cup and saucer for weddin' | ||
| + | in Huntsville and us didn' go no weddin' | ||
| + | couldn' | ||
| + | I don' know jus' how old. We has a big dance that night and the white folks | ||
| + | come, 'cause they likes to see the niggers dance.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | they's as many as fifty cradle with little nigger babies in 'em and | ||
| + | the mistus, she look after them and take care of them, too. She turn them | ||
| + | and dry them herself. She had a little gal git water and help. She never | ||
| + | had no chillen of her own. I'd blow the horn for the mudders of the little | ||
| + | babies to come in from the fields and nurse 'em, in mornin' | ||
| + | Mistus feed them what was old enough to eat victuals. Sometimes, they | ||
| + | mammies take them to the field and fix pallet on ground for them to lay | ||
| + | on.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | care of Charlette.'< | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <hr style=" | ||
| + | <div class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <div class=" | ||
| + | <img src=" | ||
| + | <br />< | ||
| + | </ | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <div class=" | ||
| + | Grand Bluff, Mississippi, | ||
| + | 1850, on the Jim Carlton plantation. | ||
| + | When five years old, | ||
| + | she was stolen and taken to the | ||
| + | slave market in New Orleans. | ||
| + | Failing to sell her there, the | ||
| + | slave traders took her to Jefferson, | ||
| + | Texas, and sold her to | ||
| + | Bill Tumlin. Francis stayed | ||
| + | with him five years after she | ||
| + | was freed, then married and | ||
| + | moved to Cass County, Texas. | ||
| + | She became blind a year ago, | ||
| + | and now lives at the Bagland Old | ||
| + | Folks Home, 313 Elm St., Texarkana, | ||
| + | Texas.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | but ' | ||
| + | ironin', | ||
| + | my eighties.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | plantation, and I was stole from my folks when I was a li'l gal and | ||
| + | never seed them no more. Us kids played in the big road there in Mississippi, | ||
| + | and one day me and ' | ||
| + | road and three white men come 'long in a wagon. They grabs us up and | ||
| + | puts us in the wagon and covers us with quilts. I hollers and yells and | ||
| + | one the men say, 'Shet up, you nigger, or I'll kill you.' I told him, | ||
| + | 'Kill me if you wants to& | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | long hair and they cut it off like a boy and tried to sell me, but I | ||
| + | told them men what looks at me, the men cut my hair off and stole me. | ||
| + | The man what cut my hair off cursed me and said if I didn't hush he'd | ||
| + | kill me, but he couldn' | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | Marse Bill Tumlin, what run a big livery stable in Jefferson, and I ' | ||
| + | to him till surrender. I lived in the house with them, 'cause they had a boy | ||
| + | and gal and I did for them. They bought me clothes and took good care of me | ||
| + | but I never seed no money till surrender. I et what they et, after they got | ||
| + | through. Missy say she didn't 'lieve in feedin' | ||
| + | some folks.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | small I'd git in a chair to reach the dishes out of the safe. I had to pull | ||
| + | a long flybrush over the table whilst the white folks et.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | and I seed him buckle the niggers crost a log and whip them. Marse lived | ||
| + | in Jefferson, heself, and when he'd go to the farm he allus took his boy | ||
| + | with him. We'd be playin' | ||
| + | 'Come on, Jimmie, we're gwine to the farm.' Jimmie allus say to me, 'Come | ||
| + | on, nigger, let's ride round the farm.' I'd say, 'I ain't no nigger.' | ||
| + | He'd say, 'Yes, you is, my pa paid $200 for you. He bought you for to play | ||
| + | with me.'</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | fire what looked like the whole town gwineter burn up. Marse Bill lost | ||
| + | his livery stable in the fire.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | after the war. Marse Tumlin done told me I'm free, but I stays on till | ||
| + | I'm most growed. Then I works round town and marries Dave Black, and we | ||
| + | moved to Cass County. I raises six chillun but my old man done git so triflin' | ||
| + | and mean I quit him and worked for myself. I come to Texarkana to work, and | ||
| + | allus could earn my own livin' till 'bout a year ago I lost my seein', | ||
| + | Albert Ragland done took me in his home for the old folks. They gives me a | ||
| + | $10 a month pension now. They is good to me here and feeds us good.< | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <hr style=" | ||
| + | <div class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
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| + | was a slave of Clairville La San, | ||
| + | who owned a large plantation in | ||
| + | Martinville Parish, Louisiana. | ||
| + | His father was a Frenchman and | ||
| + | Olivier speaks rather haltingly, | ||
| + | as though it is difficult for | ||
| + | him to express his thoughts in | ||
| + | English, for he has talked a | ||
| + | species of French all his life. | ||
| + | He lives in Beaumont, Texas.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | of the French 'cause I comes from St. Martinville Parish. I was born | ||
| + | there in Louisiana and my mama was Angeline Jean Pierre and she was | ||
| + | slave born. My papa was Olivier Blanchard and he white man carpenter | ||
| + | on old plantation. We belong to Clairville <a name=' | ||
| + | that place. My papa just plain carpenter but could draw patterns for | ||
| + | houses. I don't know where he larn that work.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | alive. When freedom come my mama and papa split up and mama get marry.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | last plain clabber. Mama cook lots of gaspergou and carp and | ||
| + | the poisson ami fish, with the long snout& | ||
| + | I think it eel fish they strip the skin off and wrap round the hair | ||
| + | and make it curly.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | clothes with a big paddle with holes in it to clean them in the bayou. | ||
| + | They paddle them clean on the rocks and then wash them in the water.< | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | arm off. She my sister in law. But they keep on washing the clothes | ||
| + | in the bayou just the same.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | 'cause there right smart woods and swamp there. We play in the woods | ||
| + | and most time in the bayou on boats with planks what would float. We | ||
| + | had the good time and had a little pet coon. You know, the coon like | ||
| + | sweet things and he steal our syrup and when we chase him with the | ||
| + | switch he hide under the bed.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | and make the first communion. That not registered, 'cause it before the | ||
| + | freedom, but it were in old St. Martin' | ||
| + | stand now. There was a statue of Pere Jean, the old priest, in front | ||
| + | the church and one of St. Martin, too.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | DeBlieu, he go to Virginia and fight. The first one to pass our place | ||
| + | was John Well Banks and he was a Yankee going up the Red River.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | the big plantation have the graveyard for the cullud people. That fever | ||
| + | so bad they get the coffin ready before they dead and they so scared | ||
| + | that some weren' | ||
| + | a white girl call Colene Sonnier what was to marry Sunday and she take | ||
| + | sick Friday before. She say not to bury her in the ground but they put | ||
| + | her there while they got the tomb ready. When they open the ground grave | ||
| + | to put her in the tomb they find she buried alive and she eat all her own | ||
| + | shoulder and hand away. Her sweetheart, Gart Berrild, he see that corpse,< | ||
| + | and he go home and get took with yellow fever and die.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | time after she die I go to get water out of her rain barrel and I had | ||
| + | a lamp in one hand. That old lady's ghost blowed out the lamp and slapped | ||
| + | the pitcher out my hand. After she first die her husband put black | ||
| + | dress on her and tie up the jaw with a rag and my girl look in the room | ||
| + | and there that old lady, Liza Lee, sittin' | ||
| + | her mama and after three day she go back, and Liza Lee buried but my | ||
| + | wife see her sittin' | ||
| + | sayin' she saw Liza Lee. That old lady, Liza Lee, was a tart and she | ||
| + | stay a tart for a long time.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | My wife call Adeline Chretien and she dead 37 year. We have seven | ||
| + | children but four live now. Frank my only boy live now, in Iowa, in | ||
| + | Louisiana, and my two girls live, Enziede De Querive and Rose Baptiste.< | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <hr style=" | ||
| + | <div class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <div class=" | ||
| + | mother and a three-quarter Indian | ||
| + | father, in San Antonio, in the | ||
| + | second year of the Civil War. Her | ||
| + | mother, part French and part Negro, | ||
| + | was owned by Mrs. John G. Wilcox, | ||
| + | formerly a Miss Donaldson, who had | ||
| + | lived at the White House, and who | ||
| + | gave Julia to her daughter. After | ||
| + | the slaves were freed, Julia continued | ||
| + | to live with her mother in San | ||
| + | Antonio until, at fifteen, she married | ||
| + | Henry Hall. Five years later | ||
| + | her second marriage took place, at | ||
| + | Leon Springs, Texas, where she lived | ||
| + | until moving to the Adams ranch, on | ||
| + | the Frio River. Here she raised her | ||
| + | family. After leaving the Adams ranch, | ||
| + | Julia and Henry bought two sections of | ||
| + | state land, but after four years they | ||
| + | let it go back because of Henry' | ||
| + | health, and moved to Uvalde.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | was Rachael Miller. I don't know if she was born in Tennessee | ||
| + | or Mississippi. I heard her talk of both places. I don't know | ||
| + | nothing about my father, because he run off when I was about | ||
| + | three months old. He was three-quarter Cherokee Indian. They | ||
| + | were lots of Indians then, and my husband' | ||
| + | Savannah, Georgia, and he said they was lots of Indians there. | ||
| + | I had two sisters and one brother and the sisters are dead but | ||
| + | my brother lives somewhere in Arizona. My mother' | ||
| + | name was John. G. Wilcox.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | not me. My grandfather bought my grandmother' | ||
| + | a laundry house. They hired my mother out, too.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | and sold her to Miss Donaldson. She was half French. She looked< | ||
| + | jes' like a French woman. She wasn't a slave, but she and her | ||
| + | brother were stolen and sold. She said the stage coach used to | ||
| + | pass her aunt's house, and one day she and her brother went down | ||
| + | to town to buy some buns, and when they were comin' back, the | ||
| + | stage stopped and asked 'em to ride. She wanted to ride, but her | ||
| + | brother didn' | ||
| + | They set her down between the two women that was in there and | ||
| + | set her brother between two men, and when they got close to the | ||
| + | house, they threw cloaks over their heads and told the driver to | ||
| + | drive as fast as he could, and he sure drove. They taken 'em to | ||
| + | Washin' | ||
| + | Wilcox (Miss Donaldson) and her brother to somebody else. Then | ||
| + | this woman married John C. Wilcox and they come to Texas.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | she knew, after that, he had somethin' | ||
| + | brother bein' stolen. One day she found a piece of yellow money | ||
| + | and took it to her cousin and he told her it wasn't no good and | ||
| + | gave her a dime to go get her some candy. After that, she saw | ||
| + | gold money and knew what it was.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | up. They were pretty good to her, but after they came to San | ||
| + | Antonio, Mrs. Wilcox began bein' mean. She kep' my mother hired | ||
| + | out all the time and gave me to her daughter and my sister to | ||
| + | her son. My mother was kep' hired out all the time, cooking; | ||
| + | and after freedom, she just took to washin' | ||
| + | grandfather bought his time and my grandmother' | ||
| + | didn't stay with her.< | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | and made coffee. She says, out on the plantation, they would | ||
| + | take bran and put it in a tub and have 'em stir it up with water | ||
| + | in it and let all the white go to the bottom and dip it off and | ||
| + | strain it and make starch. I have made starch out of flour over | ||
| + | and often, myself. I had four or five little girls; and I had | ||
| + | to keep 'em like pins. In them days they wore little calico | ||
| + | dresses, wide and full and standin' | ||
| + | every dress.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | they used to have. They would go from one plantation to another | ||
| + | and have quiltin' | ||
| + | didn't have dances then like they do now. The white people would | ||
| + | give them things to eat. They would have to hoof it five or six | ||
| + | miles and didn't mind it.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | a pass they would whip you and put you in jail. Old Man Burns | ||
| + | was hired at the courthouse, and if the marsters had slaves that | ||
| + | they didn't want to whip, they would send them to the courthouse | ||
| + | to be whipped. Some of the marsters was good and some wasn' | ||
| + | There was a woman, oh, she was the meanest thing! I don't know | ||
| + | if she had a husband& | ||
| + | When she would get mad at one of her slave women, she would make | ||
| + | the men tie her down, and she had what they called cat-o' | ||
| + | and after she got the blood to come, she would dip it in | ||
| + | salt and pepper and whip her again. Oh, she was mean! My<span class=" | ||
| + | mother' | ||
| + | But his wife wasn't good. If she got mad at the women, when he | ||
| + | would come home she would say: 'John, I want you to whip Liza.' | ||
| + | Or Martha. And he would say, 'Them are your slaves. You whip | ||
| + | them.' He was good and she was mean.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | would turn all the pictures in the house but one, the meanest | ||
| + | looking one& | ||
| + | watching you everywhere you go& | ||
| + | she touched a thing or left a bit of dirt or if she didn't do | ||
| + | it good, this picture would tell. And she believed it.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | time they had an old woman to cook for the chillen. One day | ||
| + | they were going to have company. This woman that was the boss | ||
| + | of the place where the chillen was kept told the old cullud | ||
| + | woman to take a piece of bacon and grease the mouths of all the | ||
| + | chillen. Then she told a boy to bring them up to these people, | ||
| + | and the woman said: 'Oh, you must feed these chillen good, just | ||
| + | look at their mouths!' | ||
| + | they eat.' They didn't get meat often. That was just to make | ||
| + | them believe they had lots to eat.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | got his learning was a cullud blacksmith would teach | ||
| + | school at night, and us chillen taught our mother. She didn't | ||
| + | know how to spell or read or nothin' | ||
| + | bull's foot. Some of them were allowed to have church and some | ||
| + | didn' | ||
| + | my mother used to say, they were raised up as green as cucumbers. | ||
| + | That old blacksmith was the onlyist man that knew how to read | ||
| + | and write in slavery time that I knew of. My grandmother or none | ||
| + | of them knew how to read; they could count, but that was all. | ||
| + | That's what makes me mad. I tell my grandchillen they ought to | ||
| + | learn all they can 'cause the old people never had a chance. My | ||
| + | husband never did have any schooling, but he sure could figger. | ||
| + | Now, if you want me to get tangled up, just give me a pencil and | ||
| + | paper and I don't know nothing." | ||
| + | figger in my head! The chillen, today, ought to appreciate an | ||
| + | education.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | They would have the doctor come out and wait on them. Most | ||
| + | plantations had what they called an old granny cullud woman that | ||
| + | treated the chillen with herbs and such things.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | would get switches and whip one another. You know, after you was | ||
| + | hit several times it didn't hurt much. I've played a many time. | ||
| + | In slave time the men used to go huntin' | ||
| + | ' | ||
| + | used to go six or seven miles afoot to corn huskin' | ||
| + | And those off the other plantations would come over and join in | ||
| + | the work. And they would nearly always have a good dinner. | ||
| + | Sometimes some of the owners would give 'em a hog or somethin' | ||
| + | nice to eat, but some of 'em didn' | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | some of them runned off and stayed in the swamps, and they was | ||
| + | mean. They called them runaways. If they saw you, they would | ||
| + | tell you to bring them something to eat. And if you didn't do | ||
| + | it, if they ever got you they sure would fix you.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | marster' | ||
| + | the time was living close to Boerne. My husband' | ||
| + | killed in the war. When my husband was about ten years old, his | ||
| + | marster hadn't told them they was free. You know some of them | ||
| + | didn't tell the slaves they was free until they had to. After | ||
| + | freedom was declared, lots of people didn't tell the slaves they | ||
| + | were free. One morning, my husband said, he happended to look | ||
| + | out and he saw a big bunch of men coming down the road, and he | ||
| + | thought he never saw such pretty men in his life on them horses. | ||
| + | They had so many brass buttons on their clothes it looked like | ||
| + | gold. So he run and told his mama, and she looked and saw it | ||
| + | was soldiers, and some of 'em told the boss, and he looked and | ||
| + | saw them soldiers comin' in the big gate and he called 'em in | ||
| + | quick, and told them they were free. So when the soldiers come, | ||
| + | they asked him if he had told his slaves they were free, and he | ||
| + | said yes. They asked the Negroes if they lived there, and they | ||
| + | said yes. One said, 'He just told us we was free.' The soldiers | ||
| + | asked him why he had just told them, and he said they wasn't all | ||
| + | there and he was waiting for them all to be there.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | of men he ever saw, and the prettiest horses. Of course, he<span class=" | ||
| + | hadn't never saw any soldiers before. I know it looked pretty | ||
| + | to me when I used to see the soldiers at the barracks and hear | ||
| + | the band playin' | ||
| + | we lived on a little cross-street right back of St. Mary's Church | ||
| + | in San Antonio, I don't know how that place is now. Where the | ||
| + | post office is now, there used to be a blacksmith shop and my | ||
| + | father worked there. I went back to San Antonio about fifteen | ||
| + | years ago and jes' took it afoot and looked at the changes.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | almost a run-a-way marriage. I was married in San Antonio. My | ||
| + | first husband' | ||
| + | as wide as a wagon sheet. It was white lawn, full of tucks, and | ||
| + | had a big ruffle at the bottom. I had a wreath and a veil, too. | ||
| + | The veil had lace all around it. We danced and had a supper. | ||
| + | We danced all the dances they danced then; the waltz, square, | ||
| + | quadrille, polka, and the gallopade& | ||
| + | all right; you shore galloped. You'd start from one end of the | ||
| + | hall and run clear to the other end. In those days, the women | ||
| + | with all them long trains& | ||
| + | No, Lord! Honeymoons wasn't thought of then. No'm, I never | ||
| + | worked out a day in my life." Jokingly, "I guess they thought | ||
| + | I was too good looking. I was about twenty years old when I | ||
| + | married the second time. I was married in Leon Springs the | ||
| + | second time.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | they was wild grapes, dewberries, plums and agaritas, black haws,< | ||
| + | red haws. M-m-m! Them dewberries, I dearly love 'em! I never | ||
| + | did see wild cherries out here. I didn't like the cherries much, | ||
| + | but they make fine wine. We used to gather mustang grapes and | ||
| + | make a barrel of wine.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | ranch on the Frio and stayed on that ranch fifteen years. We | ||
| + | raised all our chillen right on that ranch. I am taken for a | ||
| + | Mexkin very often. I jes' talk Mexkin back to 'em. I learned | ||
| + | to talk it on the ranch. As long as I have lived at this place, | ||
| + | I have never had a cross word about the chillen. All my neighbors | ||
| + | here is Mexkins. They used to laugh at me when I tried to talk | ||
| + | to the hands on the ranch, but I learned to talk like ' | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | They had fences then. The neighbors would all come over and get | ||
| + | out and gather the cattle and bring 'em in. Up at Leon Springs | ||
| + | at that time they didn't have any fences, and they would have | ||
| + | big round-ups there. But after we come out here, it was different. | ||
| + | He would notify his neighbors they were goin' to gather | ||
| + | cattle on a certain day. The chuck wagon was right there at the | ||
| + | ranch, that is, <span class=" | ||
| + | to take the cattle off, they would have a chuck wagon. They | ||
| + | would round up a pasture at a time and come in to the ranch for | ||
| + | their meals. Now on the Wallace ranch, they would always take | ||
| + | a chuck wagon. When they were gettin' | ||
| + | at the ranch, my husband always kep' his brandin' | ||
| + | the house, hangin' | ||
| + | Whenever they would go off to other ranches to gather cattle, | ||
| + | you would see ever' man with his beddin' | ||
| + | his horse. He'd have jes' a small roll. They would always have | ||
| + | a slicker if nothin' | ||
| + | sometimes. My husband slep' many a night with his saddle under | ||
| + | his head.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | That was the town they used to call Lodi (Lodo), but I | ||
| + | don't know how to spell it, and don't know what it means. It | ||
| + | was a pretty tough town. The jail house was made out of 'dobe | ||
| + | and pickets. They had a big picket fence all around it. They | ||
| + | had a ferry that went right across the San Antonio River from | ||
| + | Floresville to Dog Town. I know he told me he come to a place | ||
| + | and they had a big sign that said, ' | ||
| + | down on you here.' They was awful bad down in there. He would | ||
| + | leave Dog Town in the evenin' | ||
| + | up toward San Antonio to camp, and once he stopped before he got | ||
| + | to the place he always camped at. He said he didn't know what | ||
| + | made 'im stop there that time, but he stopped and took the saddle | ||
| + | off his horse and let 'im graze while he lay down. After a | ||
| + | while, he saw two cigarette fires in the dark right up the road | ||
| + | a little piece, and he heard a Mexkin say, 'I don't see why he's | ||
| + | so late tonight. He always gets here before night and camps right | ||
| + | there.' | ||
| + | up right easy and carried it fu' | ||
| + | brush and then come got his horse and took him out there and | ||
| + | saddled 'im up and went away 'round them Mexkins. He went on in<span class=" | ||
| + | to San Antonio and didn't go back any more. A white man took the | ||
| + | mail to carry then and the first trip he made, he never come back. | ||
| + | He went down with the mail and they found the mail scattered | ||
| + | somewhere on the road, but they never found the man, or the horse, | ||
| + | either.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | pack water up the bank. You might not believe it, but one of | ||
| + | these sixty-pound lard cans full of water, I've a-carried it on | ||
| + | my head many a time. We had steps cut into the bank, and it was | ||
| + | a good ways down to the water, and I'd pack that can up to the | ||
| + | first level and go back and get a couple a buckets of water, and | ||
| + | carry a bucket in each hand and the can on my head up the next | ||
| + | little slantin' | ||
| + | water that way till my chillen got big enough to carry water, | ||
| + | then they took it up. When I was carryin' | ||
| + | my head would sound like new leather& | ||
| + | and that was the way it sounded in my head. But, it never did | ||
| + | hurt me. You see, the Mexkins carry loads on their heads, but | ||
| + | they fix a rag around their heads some way to help balance it. | ||
| + | But I never did. I jes' set it up on my head and carried it | ||
| + | that way. Oh, we used to carry water! My goodness! My mother | ||
| + | said it was the Indian in me& | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | we used to come here to Uvalde to dances. They had square dances | ||
| + | then. They hadn't commenced all these frolicky dances they have | ||
| + | now. They would have a supper, but they had it to sell. Every | ||
| + | fellow would have to treat his girl he danced with.< | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | a dirt floor, and they had a fireplace. And I can remember just | ||
| + | as well how he used to bake hoecakes for us kids. He would rake | ||
| + | back the coals and ashes real smooth and put a wet paper down on | ||
| + | that and then lay his hoecake down on the paper and put another | ||
| + | paper on top of that and the ashes on top. I used to think that | ||
| + | was the best bread I ever ate. I tried it a few times, but I | ||
| + | made such a mess I didn't try it any more. One thing I have seen | ||
| + | 'em make, especially on the ranch. You take and clean a stick | ||
| + | and you put on a piece of meat and piece of fat till you take and | ||
| + | use up the heart and liver and sweetbread and other meat and put | ||
| + | it on the stick and wrap it around with leaf fat and then put the | ||
| + | milk gut, or marrow gut, around the whole thing. They call that | ||
| + | <span class=" | ||
| + | goat and sheep, mostly.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | cooked great pans of steak and mountain orshters. Generally, at | ||
| + | the brandin' | ||
| + | orshters. I wish I had a nickel for ever' one I've cooked, and | ||
| + | ate too! People from up North have come down there, and, when | ||
| + | they were brandin' | ||
| + | and enjoy that dinner.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | trout, or bass, they call 'em now; and we'd take big buckets of | ||
| + | butter& | ||
| + | butter up there in buckets, for we sure had plenty of it& | ||
| + | we'd take lard too, and cook our fish up there, and had corn | ||
| + | bread or hoe cakes and plenty of butter for ever' | ||
| + | sure was good. I tell you& | ||
| + | was livin' ten days in the week, then.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | and then new meat, salted down and then smoked, put in there, | ||
| + | and we would cook the old bacon for the dogs. We always kep' some | ||
| + | good dogs there, and anybody' | ||
| + | had lots of wild turkeys and I raised turkeys, too, till I got | ||
| + | sick of cookin' | ||
| + | wasn't then like it is now. You could go kill venison any time | ||
| + | you wanted to. But I don't blame 'em for passin' | ||
| + | people used to go kill 'em and jes' take out the hams and tenderloin | ||
| + | and leave the other layin' there. I have saved many a sack | ||
| + | of dried meat to keep it from spoilin' | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | mile from the house and a ninety-acre field right in the house. | ||
| + | We used to go get loads of melons for the hogs and they got to | ||
| + | where they didn't eat anything but the heart.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | girl and go out horseback with my husband. My oldest girl used | ||
| + | to take the place of a cowboy, and put her hair up in her hat. | ||
| + | And ride! My goodness, she loved to ride! They thought she was | ||
| + | a boy. She wore pants and leggin' | ||
| + | couldn' | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | couldn' | ||
| + | and 640 in another place; it was a good big place. After my | ||
| + | husband got sick, we had to let it go back. We couldn' | ||
| + | out. We only lived on it about four years.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | full and a half of chillen. I have four livin' chillen, two girls | ||
| + | and two boys. I have a girl, Carrie, in California, workin' | ||
| + | the fruit all the time; one boy, George, in Arizona, workin' | ||
| + | the mines; and a girl in Arizona, Lavinia, washes and irons and | ||
| + | cooks and ever' | ||
| + | I have ten grandchillen and I've got five great grandchillen.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | years ago. My husband joined with me. But here, of late | ||
| + | years, when I go to church, it makes me mad to see how the people | ||
| + | do the preacher up there trying to do all the good he can do and | ||
| + | them settin' | ||
| + | There was about five or six of us baptized in the Leona down here.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | the Mexkins here and ever' | ||
| + | we had that farm down there they think I come out with money. But | ||
| + | what in the world would I want with money if I didn't use it? I | ||
| + | can't take it with me when I die and I could be gettin' | ||
| + | it now while I need it. I could have what I want to eat, anyway. | ||
| + | I'm gettin' | ||
| + | I've got these two grandchillen here, and things is so high, too, | ||
| + | so I don't have enough of anything without skimpin' | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <hr style=" | ||
| + | <div class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <div class=" | ||
| + | of her ten children. She lives at | ||
| + | 3109 Manzana St., El Paso, Texas, | ||
| + | with her daughter, Minnie. She was | ||
| + | born a slave of the Levi Ray family | ||
| + | near Lexington, Mississippi, | ||
| + | sold as a child to Elihn Boles, a | ||
| + | neighboring plantation owner. During | ||
| + | the last year of the Civil War she | ||
| + | was brought to Texas, with other refugee | ||
| + | slaves.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | want me there. I'se a child of the marster. Dey didn' tell me | ||
| + | how old I was when dey sold me to Boles. My missus sold me to | ||
| + | Boles. Dey tuk us to where dere was a heap of white folks down | ||
| + | by the court house and we'd be there in lots and den de whites | ||
| + | 'ud bid for us. I don' know how old I was, but I washed dishes | ||
| + | and den dey put me to work in de fields. We don' git a nickel in | ||
| + | slavery.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | in brickyard. I toted brick back and put 'em down where dey had | ||
| + | to be. Six bricks each load all day. That's de reason I ain't | ||
| + | no ' | ||
| + | years. Stan' | ||
| + | God was wid me. We'd work 'till dark, quit awhile after sundown. | ||
| + | Marster was good to slaves, didn' believe in jus' lashin' | ||
| + | not be brutal but he'd kill 'em dead right on the spot. Overseers | ||
| + | 'ud git after 'em and whop 'em down.< | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | Married on Saturday night. Dey give me a dress and dey had things to eat, | ||
| + | let me have something like what you call a party. We just had common | ||
| + | clothes on. And then I had to work every day. I'd leave my baby cryin' | ||
| + | in de yard and he'd be cryin', | ||
| + | split rails. I've cut timber and ploughed. Done everything a man could | ||
| + | do. I couldn' | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | worked late and made pretty quilts. Sometimes dey'd let us have a party. | ||
| + | Saturday nights, de white people give us meat and stuff. Give us syrup | ||
| + | and we'd make candy, out in de yard. We'd ask our frien' | ||
| + | night. Den go to work next day. We'd clean off de yard and dance out | ||
| + | dere. Christmas come, dey give us a big eggnog and give us cake. Our | ||
| + | white folks did. White folks chillen had bought candy. We didn' git any, | ||
| + | but dey let us play wid de white chillen. We'd play smut. Whoever beat | ||
| + | wid de cards, he'd git to smut you. Take de smut from fireplace and rub | ||
| + | on your face.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | git us to work.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | of 'em, and my oldest child, he boy by Boles, almost white.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | and crawl home on de belly. Once overseers heered us prayin', | ||
| + | one day each 100 lashes.< | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | to keep 'em from tellin' | ||
| + | slaves didn' know it 'till June 19. We'se refugees. Boles, our marster, | ||
| + | sent us out and we come from Holmes County to Cherokee County in a wagon. | ||
| + | We was a dodgin' | ||
| + | was runnin' | ||
| + | it. I lost my baby, its buried somewhere on dat road. Died at Red River | ||
| + | and we left it. De white folks go out and buy food 'long de road and hide | ||
| + | us. Dey say we'd never be free iffen dey could git to Texas wid us, but | ||
| + | de people in Texas tol' us we's free. Den marster turn us loose in de | ||
| + | world, without a penny. Oh, dey was awful times. We jus' worked from | ||
| + | place to place after freedom.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | kill us iffen dey foun' us, and dey say, 'You ain't got no time to take | ||
| + | nothin' | ||
| + | in your house.' | ||
| + | on. Dat's de way all de cullud people was after freedom, never had nothin' | ||
| + | but what had on de back. Some of dem had right smart in dere cabins, but | ||
| + | they was skeered and dey lef' everything. Bed clothes and all you had was | ||
| + | lef'. We didn' know any better den."< | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <hr style=" | ||
| + | <div class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <div class=" | ||
| + | <img src=" | ||
| + | <br />< | ||
| + | </ | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <div class=" | ||
| + | Col. M.T. Johnson, who farmed at Johnson | ||
| + | Station in Tarrant County. He | ||
| + | owned Betty' | ||
| + | and four brothers, in addition to | ||
| + | about 75 other slaves. After the | ||
| + | family was freed, they moved with | ||
| + | the other slaves to a piece of land | ||
| + | Col. Johnson allowed them the use of | ||
| + | until his death. Betty lives in a | ||
| + | negro settlement at Stop Six, a suburb | ||
| + | of Fort Worth.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | named after my marster. He had a big farm, I'se don' know how | ||
| + | many acres. He had seven chillen; three boys, Ben, Tom and Mart, | ||
| + | and four girls, Elizabeth, Sally, Roddy and Veanna.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | good. He kep' lots of hawgs, dat makes de meat. In de smokehouse | ||
| + | am hung up meat enough for to feed de army, it looks like. We'uns | ||
| + | have all de clothes we need and dey was made on de place. My mammy | ||
| + | am de sewing woman and my pappy am de shoemaker. My work, for to | ||
| + | nuss de small chillen of de marster.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | to Fort Worth wid de marster and he gives us a nickel or a dime for | ||
| + | to buy candy.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | de nigger gits de devilment in de head, like folks do, sometimes, and | ||
| + | de marster have to larn 'em better. He done dat hisself and he have | ||
| + | no overseer. No nigger tried run away, 'cause each family have a cabin< | ||
| + | wid bunks for to sleep on and we'uns all live in de quarters. Sich | ||
| + | nigger as wants to larn read and write, de marster' | ||
| + | larns 'em. De girls larned my auntie how to play de piano.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | piano. Singin', | ||
| + | ' | ||
| + | house and clears de dinin' room for de dance. Dat am big time, on | ||
| + | special occasion. Dey not calls it ' | ||
| + | ' | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | Jack Ditto.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | soldiers come dere and dey driv' off over de hill some of de cattle | ||
| + | for to kill for to eat. Once dey took some hosses and I hears marster | ||
| + | say dem was de Quantrell mens. Dey comes several times and de marster | ||
| + | don' like it, but he cain't help it.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | house. He am standin' | ||
| + | says, 'You is now free and can go whar you pleases.' | ||
| + | he have larned us not to steal and to be good and we'uns should ' | ||
| + | dat and if we'uns gets in trouble to come to him and he will help us. | ||
| + | He sho' do dat, too, 'cause de niggers goes to him lots of times and | ||
| + | he always helps.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | he'd pay 'em for de work. Lots of dem stayed, but some left. To dem<span class=" | ||
| + | dat leaves, marster gives a mule, or cow and sich for de start. To | ||
| + | my folks, marster gives some land. He doesn' | ||
| + | de right to stay till he dies.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | wid 'em. My uncle, he gits whipped by 'em, what for I don' know | ||
| + | ' | ||
| + | 'cause my uncle weren' | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | Some climb up de chimney or jump out de winder and hide in de | ||
| + | dugout and sich.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | sorry den. I never seen such a fun' | ||
| + | Austin comes. He was de blessed man!</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | Fort Worth, to Sam Jones and he work on de Burk Burnett stock ranch. | ||
| + | I'se divorseted from him after five years and den after 12 more years | ||
| + | I marries Rubbin Felps. My las' husban' | ||
| + | never married to the father of my only chile. His name am George Pace.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | doin' de nussin' | ||
| + | pension, and gits it every month so now I'se sho' of somethin' | ||
| + | and dat makes me happy.< | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <hr style=" | ||
| + | <div class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <div class=" | ||
| + | in Rusk County, Texas, a slave | ||
| + | of Wash Trammel. Boyd remained | ||
| + | with his master for four years | ||
| + | after emancipation, | ||
| + | to Harrison County, where he | ||
| + | now lives. His memory is poor, | ||
| + | but he managed to recall a few | ||
| + | incidents.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | Old Missy done give me when the war stopped. She had all us niggers' | ||
| + | in a book, and told me I was born near Henderson. My Old Marse was Wash | ||
| + | Trammel and he brunged me and my mama and papa from Alabama. Mama was | ||
| + | named Juliet and papa, Amos. Marse Trammel owned my grandpa and grandma, | ||
| + | too, and they was named Jeanette and Josh.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | a hundred slaves to work it. Marse lived in a hewed log house, weather-boarded | ||
| + | out and in, and the quarters was good, log houses with bed railin' | ||
| + | hewed out of logs. We raised everything we et, 'cept sugar, and Marse | ||
| + | bought that in big hogsheads. We got our week's rations every Sunday, and | ||
| + | when we went to eat, everybody' | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | fields in corn. First we'd gather peas and cushaws and pumpkins out the | ||
| + | corn field, then get the corn and pile it front the cribs. They was two | ||
| + | big cribs for the corn we kep' to use and five big cribs for sale corn. | ||
| + | My uncle stayed round the sale corn cribs all spring, till ginnin' | ||
| + | 'cause folks come for miles after corn. Marse had five wheat cribs and | ||
| + | one rye crib. We went ten mile to Tatum to git our meal and flour ground.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | Marse Wash allus say, ' | ||
| + | us and only once a overseer beat a woman up a trifle, and Marse Trammel fired | ||
| + | him that same day.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | in Rusk County piled corn up in a big heap and made me go mind it till the | ||
| + | rest the sojers got there. I was settin' | ||
| + | bulldog, and the General rode up. My dog growled and I made him hush. The | ||
| + | General man say to me, 'Boy, you is ' | ||
| + | and looked back, and that General was hewin' him a hoss trough out a log. The | ||
| + | sojers come in droves and set up they camp. I sot on a stump and watched them | ||
| + | pass. They stayed three, four days till the corn was all fed up.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | pole and line and hook. They'd put a grain of corn on the hook and ride on | ||
| + | they hoss and pitch the hook out 'mong the chickens. When a chicken swallowed | ||
| + | the corn they'd jerk up the line with that chicken and ride off.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | was over. He got word them Yankees done take it on a boat. He got his brother | ||
| + | to take him to Shreveport and say, ' | ||
| + | He followed his cotton to Alabama and got it back, but he died and was buried | ||
| + | there in Alabama 'fore Old Missy knowed it.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | with my folks, for $10.00 a month. After a year or two I went to railroadin', | ||
| + | helping cut the right-of-way for the T.& P. Railroad, from Marshall to Longview. | ||
| + | They paid us $1.50 the day and three drinks of whiskey a day.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | ' | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | |||
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| + | slave of Gus Wood, in Richmond, | ||
| + | Va., who moved to Texas | ||
| + | by boat before the Civil War. | ||
| + | Isabella still lives in Beaumont.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | Gus Wood was my owner and I kin recollect my white folks. I's born | ||
| + | in dat country and dey brought me over to Richmond and my papa and | ||
| + | mama, too. I was jus' 'bout big 'nough to begin to ' | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | sometime de big boat. When we left New Orleans dat evenin' | ||
| + | a big storm. Us git on dat boat in Richmond and went floatin' | ||
| + | to de big boat dat mornin' | ||
| + | time we look back and think 'bout home it make us sad.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | for he servants, a purty good house. And dey had a place for de Sunday | ||
| + | School. Dem was good times. De mistus cook dinner and send it down | ||
| + | for de old folks and <a name=' | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | I could sew so fast I git my task over 'fore de others git started | ||
| + | good.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | make de dresses. I ' | ||
| + | have tucks from de waist to de hem and had diamonds cut all in de | ||
| + | skirt.< | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | was well took care of. He brung us to Beaumont when it was de plumb | ||
| + | mud hole, and he settle down and try to build up and make it a go.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | up da long time and do dey readin' | ||
| + | she say, 'Well, dey have de big war, and lots of dem wounded.' | ||
| + | long us has to take care of some dem wounded soldiers, and dey has de | ||
| + | camp place near us. Dey all camp 'round dere and I don't know which | ||
| + | was de Yankees and de ' | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | Dey wants to git through with de corn and de cotton befo' dey let's | ||
| + | de hands loose. Dey was people from other plantations say. ' | ||
| + | you's free and yere you workin' | ||
| + | we's free.' We workin' | ||
| + | come by and tell us we's free, and us stop workin' | ||
| + | on workin' | ||
| + | de fence if we don't go to work. Mistus come out and say, ' | ||
| + | gwine make dem niggers go to work?' He send her back in de house and | ||
| + | he call for de carriage and say he goin' to town for to see what de | ||
| + | gov' | ||
| + | as free as I is.'</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | five dollar a month and a house to stay in and all I kin eat. I stays | ||
| + | de month to do dere work.< | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | I likes to be free, but I wasn't used to it and it was hard to know how | ||
| + | to do. I ' | ||
| + | music with banjo and other things. Some de good massas 'lowed de niggers | ||
| + | dance in de back yard and if we goes over dere without de pass de patterroles | ||
| + | gits us maybe. One time my papa he runnin' | ||
| + | he run slap into de young massa and he say, 'Oh, you ain't no nigger, I | ||
| + | kin tell by de smell.'</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | what live in de big bridge down in de hollow. De niggers day say dat | ||
| + | ghostie make too much noise, with all he hollerin' | ||
| + | chain. So dat night one us niggers what dey call Charlie, he say he ain't | ||
| + | 'fraid and he gwineter git him a ghostie, sho' ' | ||
| + | him but purty soon us hears right smart wrastlin' | ||
| + | down by de bridge and after 'while he come and say he git de best | ||
| + | of dat ghostie, 'cause he ain't got strength like de man.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | husban' | ||
| + | joke him 'bout it. I allus say Virginny de best, 'cause I come from dere.< | ||
| + | |||
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| + | </ | ||
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| + | Indian Territory, in an Indian hut. | ||
| + | A man named Sanford Wooldrige stole him | ||
| + | and brought him to Texas, somewhere | ||
| + | near Waco. James does not know his | ||
| + | age, but thinks he is a hundred years | ||
| + | or more old. He now lives in Itasca, | ||
| + | Texas.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | am now call Oklahoma. Us live in a Indian hut. My pappy Blue Bull Bird | ||
| + | and mammy Nancy Will. She come to de Indian Territory with Santa Anna, | ||
| + | from Mississippi, | ||
| + | 'bout my folks, 'cause I stole from dem when I a real li'l feller. I's | ||
| + | a-fishin' | ||
| + | You see, de white folks and de Indians have de fight 'bout dat day. I's | ||
| + | on de river and I heared yellin' | ||
| + | slips into some bresh right near. Den come de white man and he say, | ||
| + | ' | ||
| + | you. Come with me and I ain't 'low dem hurt you.' So I goes with him.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | didn't know nothin' | ||
| + | out for he missus, she sho' tough on niggers. Dere 'bout 1,600 acres | ||
| + | in de plantation and de big house am nice. When de niggers wouldn' | ||
| + | work dey whup 'em. Us work all week and sometime Sunday, iffen de crops | ||
| + | in a rush. Massa not much on presents or money but us have warm clothes | ||
| + | and plenty to eat and de dry place to live, and dat more'n lots of | ||
| + | niggers has now.< | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | what shuck de mos' corn. Us have de big dance 'bout twict a year, on | ||
| + | Christmas and sometime in de summer. When de white folks have dere big | ||
| + | balls us niggers cook and watch dem dance. Us have fun den.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | or jus' lazed 'round when de crops am laid by. I likes to shet de eyes | ||
| + | and be back in old times and hear 'em sing, " | ||
| + | I can't sing, now you knows can't no old man sing what ain't got no teef | ||
| + | or hair. I used to like to swing dat 'Ginia Reel and I's spry and young | ||
| + | den.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | de res' of me, but I ' | ||
| + | holler. Old massa say, 'How you gwine eat and git clothes and sech?' | ||
| + | Den us sho' scairt and stays with us white folks long as us can. But 'bout | ||
| + | a year after dat I gits de job punchin' | ||
| + | I druv cattle into Kansas, over what de white folks calls de Chissum Trail. | ||
| + | I worked lots of cattle and is what dey call a top hand. I's workin' | ||
| + | Massa Boyd den, and he gits me to drive some cattle to Mexico. He say | ||
| + | he ain't well no more and for me to sell de cattle and send him de money | ||
| + | and git de job down dere. I goes on down to Mexico and do what he say. | ||
| + | I marries a gal name Martina in 1869, down in Matamoras. Us have four | ||
| + | chillen and she die. Dat break me up and I drifts back to Huntsville.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | and make it James Boyd, 'cause I done work for Massa Boyd. I's gwine be | ||
| + | 'bout 108 year old in next January, iffen de Lawd spare me dat long.< | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | only stay together 'bout a year and a half. Wasn't no chillen. Den I | ||
| + | drifts to Fort Bend County and dere I marries Mary McDowd and us have | ||
| + | two chillen. She die with de yellow fever and off I goes for Burleson | ||
| + | County. Dere I marries Sally McDave and she quits me after us have three | ||
| + | chillen. Down in old Washington County I marries Frances Williams and | ||
| + | us lived together till 1900. Dere am no chillen dere. Den I goes to | ||
| + | Austin after she die and marries Eliza Bunton in 1903. Us have eight | ||
| + | chillen and she die in 1911. Den I comes to Hill County and marries | ||
| + | Mittie Cahee in 1916. She quit me. In 1924 I marries Hegar Price clost | ||
| + | to Milford. Us live together now, in Itasca. Us didn't have no chillen, | ||
| + | but dat don't matter, 'cause I's de daddy of 'bout twenty already.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | more dressed up like. Some my wives wear white and some colors, didn't | ||
| + | make much diff' | ||
| + | am a preacher and sometime it am Jestice of Peace, but de fust time it | ||
| + | am Catholic and priest and all.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | scar. I fit in dat freedom war 'long side Massa Sanford and got shot. | ||
| + | Dat bullet go through de breast and out de back and keep me six months | ||
| + | in de bed. De fust battle I's in am at Halifax, in North Car' | ||
| + | Us git de news of freedom when us at Vicksburg, in Mississippi. Mos' | ||
| + | us niggers 'fraid say much. De new niggers 'spect de gov' | ||
| + | dem de span of mules and dey be rich and not work. But dey done larn< | ||
| + | a lot dese past years. Us am sho' slaves now to hard work, and lucky iffen | ||
| + | us git work. Lots dem niggers figgers dey'd git dere massa' | ||
| + | dey didn' | ||
| + | divided I knowed of, but some de massas give de oldest slaves a li'l piece | ||
| + | land.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | twelve year for Massa Claude Wakefield, right near Milford, too. De old | ||
| + | man ain't due to live nowhere long and I's gittin' | ||
| + | de river. I's seed a heap of dis here earth and de people in it, but I | ||
| + | tells you it am sho' hard time now. Us is old and cripple' | ||
| + | de white folks don't holp us I don't know what us gwine do.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | cars and truckin' | ||
| + | white folks and teach and be real helpful. But talk 'bout workin' | ||
| + | slave time& | ||
| + | now you fuss 'cause dere ain't no work. But den us have somethin' | ||
| + | eat and wear and a place to sleep, and now us don't know one day what | ||
| + | gwine fill us tomorrow, or nothin' | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | come singin' | ||
| + | git dere and it mighty good to see him. De slaves allus say, ' | ||
| + | 'way tomorrow,' | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
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| + | the age of 92, lived with his aged | ||
| + | wife in their own cabin at 1015 | ||
| + | Plum St., Abilene, Texas. He was | ||
| + | born a slave to John Thomas Boykin, | ||
| + | Troupe Co., Georgia, 80 miles from | ||
| + | Lagrange, Ga. His master was a very | ||
| + | wealthy plantation owner, working | ||
| + | 1,000 slaves.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | young I lived right in de big house with my marster. I was houseboy. | ||
| + | My mother' | ||
| + | My grandpa was blacksmith. I slept on a pallet in de kitchen and in | ||
| + | winter time on cold nights I ' | ||
| + | up and slip in by marsters bed and den I'd say, ' | ||
| + | about to freeze.' | ||
| + | devil. What you standin' | ||
| + | jes' let me crawl in by your feet.' He'd say, 'Well, I will dis one | ||
| + | time,' and dat's de way I'd do every cold night.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | jus' to see de stableboy git a lickin' | ||
| + | white man named Cocoanut Harper kep' tryin' to sell me for $7.50. I | ||
| + | didn' never have any money, 'cept a little the missie give me, so I kep' | ||
| + | teasin' | ||
| + | tol' me to take some co'n from de crib and trade in for de fiddle. In | ||
| + | de night I slips out and hitch up de mules and fetched de co'n to old | ||
| + | Harper' | ||
| + | so's marster wouldn' | ||
| + | outta me. When de missie try to whip me, I jes' wrop up in her big | ||
| + | skirts and she never could hurt me much.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | dey done et. Iffen I couldn' | ||
| + | like a toad.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | killed on de plantation for whippin' | ||
| + | dey body.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | all my life. When I was younger I was such an old scratch I'd meet 'em | ||
| + | right in de road, some without heads. I'd take to my heels and then I'd | ||
| + | stop and look 'round and they'd be gone.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | and dey was homemade, too. The women gathered womack leaves to dye de | ||
| + | goods black.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | de kitchen and telled us he had to go over dere and whip those sons-of-bitches | ||
| + | and would be back 'fore breakfast. He didn' return for two years. | ||
| + | I says, ' | ||
| + | He said, 'Yes; deys de hardes' | ||
| + | with.'</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | He said, 'Now, I'm goin' to give you a big day and after that you can stay | ||
| + | and work for pay or you can go.' So he rolled out two barrels of whiskey | ||
| + | and killed hogs and spread a big day.< | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | We digged a deep pit in de groun' and heated big rocks red hot and | ||
| + | filled up de pit with water and dropped dem hot rocks in and got de | ||
| + | water hot; den we stuck de hogs and rolled 'em in dat pit.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | to hire me as foreman in his cotton mule barn. So I went there and | ||
| + | I worked in Kentucky for 18 year. Fifty-one years ago I married my | ||
| + | ol' woman, Rachel Taylor, at Corsicana, Texas, and I think she's jes' | ||
| + | as fine as the day I married her. We has six chillen and all works | ||
| + | hard for a livin' and we got one lil' grandbaby 10 years ol'. She | ||
| + | lives here at our house and we're educatin' | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | my marster done tol' me so."< | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
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| + | Mississippi, | ||
| + | of George Reedes. He was brought | ||
| + | to Medina County, Texas, when two years | ||
| + | old. Monroe learned to snare and break | ||
| + | mustangs and became a cowpuncher. He | ||
| + | lives in Hondo, Texas. He has an air | ||
| + | of pride and self-respect, | ||
| + | that he used little dialect because he | ||
| + | learned to talk from the "white folks" | ||
| + | as he was growing up.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | My master, George Reedes, brought me, my father and mother | ||
| + | and my two sisters to Texas when I was two years old. My father | ||
| + | was Nelson Brackins and my mother was Rosanna.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | River. He went into the stock business. Our house there was | ||
| + | a little, old picket house with a grass roof over it out of the | ||
| + | sage grass. The bed was made with a tick of shucks and the | ||
| + | children slept on the floor. The boss had just a little lumber | ||
| + | house. Later on he taken us about 20 miles fu' | ||
| + | Hondo, the Old Adams Ranch, and he had a rock house.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | thorns outa my feet, and I had rawhide leggin' | ||
| + | such clothes as we could get, old patched-up clothes. They just | ||
| + | had that jeans cloth, homemade clothes.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | trainin' | ||
| + | tol' | ||
| + | hired man that whipped me once, with a quirt. I've heard my father | ||
| + | and mother tell how they whipped 'em. They'd tie 'em down on a log | ||
| + | or up to a post and whip 'em till the blisters rose, then take a paddle | ||
| + | and open 'em up and pour salt in 'em. Yes'm, they whipped the | ||
| + | women. The most I remember about that, my father and sister was in | ||
| + | the barn shuckin' | ||
| + | sister with a cowhide whip. My father caught a lick in the face and | ||
| + | he told the master to keep his whip offen him. So the master started | ||
| + | on my father and he run away. When he finally come in he was so wild | ||
| + | his master had to call him to get orders for work, and finally the | ||
| + | boss shot at him, but they didn't whip him any more. Of course, some | ||
| + | of 'em whipped with more mercy. They had a whippin' | ||
| + | they strapped 'em down on a log they called it a ' | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | to bring in so many pounds in the evenin' | ||
| + | got a whippin' | ||
| + | a day. Well, cotton was heavier there. Most any of 'em could pick | ||
| + | 900 pounds. It was heavier and fluffier. We left the cotton country | ||
| + | in Mississippi, | ||
| + | knew of.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | great lot of slaves, they would speculate with 'em and would have a | ||
| + | chain that run from the front ones to the back ones. Sometimes they | ||
| + | would have 15 or 20 miles to make to get them to the sale place, but | ||
| + | they couldn' | ||
| + | kept 'em in corrals and they had a block there to put 'em up on and bid | ||
| + | 'em off. The average price was about $500, but some that had good practice, | ||
| + | like a blacksmith, brought a good price, as high as $1, | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | walkin', | ||
| + | The slaves would go off when they had no permission and them that would | ||
| + | ketch 'em and whip 'em was the ' | ||
| + | an awful race.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | little print, they would get rid of him right now. He would ruin the niggers, | ||
| + | they would get too smart. The' was no such thing as school here for | ||
| + | culluds in early days. The white folks we was raised up with had pretty | ||
| + | good education. That's why I don't talk like most cullud folks. I was | ||
| + | about grown and the' was an English family settled close, about half a mile, | ||
| + | I guess. They had a little boy, his name was Arthur Ederle, and he come | ||
| + | over and learned me how to spell ' | ||
| + | I was right around about 20 years old. I couldn' | ||
| + | 18 years old.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | ' | ||
| + | the' wasn't a billygoat round there near, nor no other kinds of goats. | ||
| + | It was in the daytime and I was out in a horse pasture, I was jes' walkin' | ||
| + | along, huntin', | ||
| + | it, then I turned around and got away. I never did think much about a | ||
| + | ghost, but I think it could be possible.< | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | and times was so different; the country wasn't settled up and everything | ||
| + | was wild, no people, hardly. Of course, my life was in the woods, you | ||
| + | might say, didn't hardly know when Sunday come.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | once, when they was enlisting men to go to battle a whole lot of 'em didn't | ||
| + | want to fight and would run away and dodge out, and they would follow 'em | ||
| + | and try to make 'em fight. They had a battle up here on the Nueces once | ||
| + | and killed some of 'em. I know my boss was in the bunch that followed 'em | ||
| + | and he got scared for fear this old case would be brought up after the war. | ||
| + | The company that followed these men was called Old Duff Company. I think | ||
| + | somewhere around 40 was in the bunch that they followed, but I don't know | ||
| + | how many was killed. They was a big bluff and a big water hole and they | ||
| + | said they was throwed in that big water hole.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | the ' | ||
| + | wouldn' | ||
| + | had potatoes they cooked 'em with 'em. I remember one time they had just | ||
| + | a little patch of blackhead sugar cane. After the freedom, my mother had | ||
| + | a kind of garden and she planted snap beans and watermelons pretty much | ||
| + | every year.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | had to bring one in and kill it. Once in awhile, of a Sunday mornin', | ||
| + | biscuit flour bread to eat. It was a treat to us. They measured the flour out | ||
| + | and it had to pan out just like they measured. He give us a little somethin'< | ||
| + | ever' Christmas and somethin' | ||
| + | high, at times, and I know we didn't get no flour, only Sunday mornin' | ||
| + | lived on co' | ||
| + | the war and after the war, too.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | Reedes awhile, then drifted on down to the Frio river and stayed there about a | ||
| + | year, then we come to Medina County and settled here close to where I was raised. | ||
| + | We didn't think it hard times at all right after the war. The country was wild | ||
| + | and unsettled, with ranches 15 or 20 miles apart. You never did see anybody | ||
| + | and we didn't know really what was goin' on in the rest of the country. Sometimes | ||
| + | something could happen in 5 miles of us and we didn't know it for a month.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | were as free as he was. He said we could stay on and work or could go if we | ||
| + | wanted to. He gave my mother and father 50 cents apiece and 25 cents for the | ||
| + | children. We stayed awhile and then went west to the Frio.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | mighty fine man. I worked for the people that was gathering stock together | ||
| + | there. Big Foot raised nice horses, old reg' | ||
| + | than the reg' | ||
| + | San Miguel. He lived in one part and his chickens in the rest of his house. | ||
| + | His friends liked to hear him talk about his travels. He used to run stock | ||
| + | horses and had a figger 7 on the left shoulder for his brand and the tip of each | ||
| + | ear split was his earmark.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | He raised just cavi-yard& | ||
| + | thing as a <span class=" | ||
| + | We would get up in a tree with our loop till the horse come under and drop | ||
| + | it down on him. When they were so spoilt, we got 'em in a sort of cavi-yard | ||
| + | and drove 'em under trees and caught 'em in a snare. We had lots of | ||
| + | wild horses, just this side of Pearsall. 'Bout the only way I'd get throwed | ||
| + | was to get careless. We'd ketch 'im up, hackamore 'im up, saddle 'im up | ||
| + | and get on 'im and let 'im go. Sometimes he'd be too wild to pitch, he'd | ||
| + | break and run and you had to let 'im run himself down. I used to rather | ||
| + | ketch up a wild horse and break 'im than to eat breakfast.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | down on Black Creek, in Medina County. I stayed there ten or twelve years. | ||
| + | Cotton hadn't got in this country and I raised some corn, sugar cane and | ||
| + | watermelons. I commenced with horses, but 'long 'way down the line I used | ||
| + | oxen some, too. I used one of those old walking plows.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | I come up to church and met my wife then. Her name was Ida Bradley and I | ||
| + | was 38 years old. We lived down on the Tywaukney right about 23 years and | ||
| + | raised our children there. We jes' had a little home weddin' | ||
| + | suit, dark suit. We got married about 8 o' | ||
| + | barbecue, cake and ice cream. You see, in them times I wasn't taught anything | ||
| + | about years and dates, but I judge it was about 25 years after the | ||
| + | war before I settled on the Tywaukney."< | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <hr style=" | ||
| + | <div class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <div class=" | ||
| + | 1845, at Keecheye, Alabama, | ||
| + | a slave of David Cavin. He | ||
| + | recalls being brought to Texas | ||
| + | in the 1850' | ||
| + | family settled near old Port | ||
| + | Caddo. Gus remained with his | ||
| + | master for ten years after | ||
| + | emancipation. He now lives | ||
| + | alone on a fifty acre farm | ||
| + | seven miles northeast of Marshall, | ||
| + | which he bought in | ||
| + | 1877. Gus receives an $11.00 | ||
| + | per month pension.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | Cavin. The only statement I can make 'bout my age is I knows I was 'bout | ||
| + | twenty years old when us slaves was freed. I never knowed my daddy, but | ||
| + | my mammy was Amelia Cavin. I's heard her say she's born in Alabama more | ||
| + | times than I got fingers and toes. Our old master brung us to Texas when | ||
| + | I's a good sized kid. I ' | ||
| + | a week in New Orleans. I seed 'em sell niggers off the block there jus' like | ||
| + | they was cattle. Then we came to old Port Caddo on Caddo Lake and master | ||
| + | settles a big farm close to where the boats run. Port Caddo was a big shipping | ||
| + | place then, and Dud and John Perry run the first store there. The | ||
| + | folks hauled cotton there from miles away.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | with the Cavins. My grandma say to me, 'Gus, don't run you mouth too much | ||
| + | and allus have manners to whites and blacks.' | ||
| + | but now they come up any way. I seed young niggers turn the dipper up and | ||
| + | drink 'fore old folks. I wouldn' | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | She tell me they fell like a sheet and spread over the ground. Ike Hood, the<span class=" | ||
| + | old blacksmith on our place, he told me, too. I says, 'Ike, how old was you when | ||
| + | the stars fell?' He say, ' | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | They use to go round and pick up old hawg or cow bones to bile with greens and cabbage. | ||
| + | They was plenty of wild game, and deer and wolves howlin' | ||
| + | country, but you can't even find the track of one now.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | pickin' | ||
| + | drivers. But at night you could hear us laughin' | ||
| + | prayin', | ||
| + | more better then than now. Some folks says niggers oughtn' | ||
| + | says they ought, 'cause they jus' won't do right onless they is made to do it.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | We had all day to eat and drink and sing and dance. We didn't git no presents, | ||
| + | but we had a good time.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | and say to Grandma Maria, 'They is surrender, Maria, you is free.' She say to | ||
| + | him, 'I don't care, I gwine stay with my white folks.'</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | Dr. Taylor' | ||
| + | to whip 'em, but Dr. Taylor wouldn' | ||
| + | the Klux leaders, and he was a sight. He told me once, 'Gus, they done send me | ||
| + | to the pen for Kluxing.' | ||
| + | you?' He say, 'Hell, no!'< | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | chief, name McIntosh. He broke a treaty with his people and had to hide out in | ||
| + | a cave a long time, and his wife brung food to him. One time when she went to the | ||
| + | cave he was gone. She knowed then the Indians done git him and kilt him for | ||
| + | vi' | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | folks done say they'd whip me if I voted for it, but Mr. Joe Strickland done told | ||
| + | me they jus' tryin' scare me, so I voted for it. I don't think niggers ought to | ||
| + | vote. If some niggers had things in hand 'stead of white folks, I couldn' | ||
| + | here. These eddicated niggers am causin' | ||
| + | got no 'spect for old age.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | lived on it sixty years. I lived with my wife fifty years 'fore she died and | ||
| + | done raise two chillen. These young niggers don't stay married fifty days, sometimes. | ||
| + | I don't mess with 'em, but if I needs help I goes to the white folks. | ||
| + | If you 'have youself, they allus help you if you needs it.<span class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <hr style=" | ||
| + | <div class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <div class=" | ||
| + | <img src=" | ||
| + | <br />< | ||
| + | </ | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <div class=" | ||
| + | slave of John Jeems, who | ||
| + | had a farm five miles north | ||
| + | of Marshall. Wes has farmed | ||
| + | in Harrison County all his | ||
| + | life. He now lives with | ||
| + | friends on the Long's Camp | ||
| + | Road, and draws a $11.00 | ||
| + | monthly pension.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | years old this July past and has wore myself out here in this county. | ||
| + | I was born on Massa John Jeem's place, on the old Jefferson Road, and my | ||
| + | father was Peter Calloway, and he was born in Alabama and his whole fam'ly | ||
| + | brought to Texas by nigger traders. My mother was Harriet Ellis and I | ||
| + | had two brothers named George and Andrew, and four sisters, Lula and Judy | ||
| + | and Mary and Sallie. My old Grandpa Phil told me how he helped run the | ||
| + | Indians off the land.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | three or four places and grandpa hadn't seed him and he went to one of the | ||
| + | other farms and meets a man goin' down the road. The man say, 'Who you | ||
| + | belong to?' Grandpa Phil say, 'Massa Jeems.' | ||
| + | man?' Grandpa say, 'I don't know him, but they say he's purty tight.' | ||
| + | was Massa Jeems talkin' | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | lowell covers, and et fat pork and cornbread and ' | ||
| + | garden stuff. If we et flour bread, our women folks had to slip the flour | ||
| + | siftin' | ||
| + | We wore one riggin' | ||
| + | after surrender come. I run all over the place till I was a big chap< | ||
| + | in jes' a long shirt with a string tied round the bottom for a belt. | ||
| + | I went with my young massa that way when he hunted in the woods, and toted | ||
| + | squirrels for him.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | we was used in slavery time, but you asks me for the truth. The overseer was | ||
| + | ' | ||
| + | off to the field. He got them all lined up and then come back to the house | ||
| + | for breakfas' | ||
| + | them, if you leaves one sprig on your row they beats you nearly to death. | ||
| + | Lots of times they weighed cotton by candlelight. All the hands took dinner | ||
| + | to the field in buckets and the overseer give them fifteen minutes to git | ||
| + | dinner. He'd start cuffin' | ||
| + | stop eatin' and go back to work. He'd go to the house and eat his dinner | ||
| + | and then he'd come back and look in all the buckets and if a piece of anything | ||
| + | that was there when he left was et, he'd say you was losin' time and | ||
| + | had to be whipped. He'd drive four stakes in the ground and tie a nigger | ||
| + | down and beat him till he's raw. Then he'd take a brick and grind it up in | ||
| + | a powder and mix it with lard and put it all over him and roll him in a sheet. | ||
| + | It'd be two days or more 'fore that nigger could work 'gain. I seed one nigger | ||
| + | done that way for stealin' | ||
| + | fifteen hundred lashes. The li'l chaps would pick up egg shells and play with | ||
| + | them and if the overseer seed them he'd say you was stealin' | ||
| + | a beatin' | ||
| + | on a hoss, down the Jefferson road.< | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | and sheep herder. All us house chaps had to shell a half bushel corn every | ||
| + | night for to feed the sheep. Many times I has walked through the quarters | ||
| + | when I was a little chap, cryin' for my mother. We mos'ly only saw her on | ||
| + | Sunday. Us chillen was in bed when the folks went to the field and come back. | ||
| + | I ' | ||
| + | mush on the coals in the fireplace, but she allus made sho' that overseer | ||
| + | was asleep 'fore she done that.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | old man and jumps on him and breaks his neck. When he seed the old man dead, | ||
| + | he run off to the woods, but massa sent some nigger after him and say for | ||
| + | him to come back, the old man jus' got overhet and died.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | preachin' | ||
| + | meat, but nary a word 'bout havin' a soul to save.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | new steps. He allus had a extra job for us on Sunday, but he gave us Christmas | ||
| + | Day and all the meat we wanted. But if you had money you'd better hide it, | ||
| + | 'cause he'd git it.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | Josh Calloway. My father never come back. Massa Jeems cussed and 'bused us | ||
| + | niggers more'n ever, but he took sick and died and stepped off to Hell 'bout | ||
| + | six months 'fore we got free. When we was free, they beat drums in Marshall. | ||
| + | I stayed on 'bout seven months and then my mother and me went to farmin' | ||
| + | ourselves.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | These folks I lives with takes good care of me and the gov' | ||
| + | $11.00 a month what I is proud to git.< | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <hr style=" | ||
| + | <div class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <div class=" | ||
| + | of the Van Loos family, in Louisiana, | ||
| + | who sold him when a baby to Elisha | ||
| + | Stevenson, of Double Bayou, Texas. | ||
| + | Jacob helps his son, Enrichs, farm, | ||
| + | and is unusually agile for his age. | ||
| + | They live in the Double Bayou settlement, | ||
| + | near Beaumont, Texas.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | three year old. I and my half-brother, | ||
| + | born in Louisiana on de Van Loos place, but I go by de name of Branch, | ||
| + | 'cause my daddy name Branch. My mama name Renee. Dey split up us | ||
| + | family and Elisha Stevenson buy my mama and de two chillen. I ain't | ||
| + | never see my daddy no more and don't ' | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | sometime 500 hawgs at one time. He take he dogs and drive dem hawgs 'cross | ||
| + | de Neches River all by hisself, to sell dem. Dat how he git money to buy | ||
| + | de niggers, sellin' | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | Her name Miss 'Liza. She could be terrible mean. But sometime she take | ||
| + | her old morrel& | ||
| + | and come back with plenty joints of sugar cane. She take a knife and | ||
| + | sit on de gallary and peel dat cane and give a joint to every one de | ||
| + | li'l chillen.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | Old massa go buy a cullud man name Uncle Charley Fenner. He a good | ||
| + | old cullud man. Massa brung him to de quarters and say, ' | ||
| + | you husband,' | ||
| + | Den dey consider marry. Dat de way dey marry den, by de massa' | ||
| + | Charley, he good step-pa to us.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | de good, snug li'l house with flue and oven. Dey didn't bother to have | ||
| + | much furn' | ||
| + | and ' | ||
| + | de kitchen de big house. Us have plenty to eat, too. De smokehouse allus | ||
| + | full white ' | ||
| + | time us want, jes' so long us didn't waste nothin' | ||
| + | buttermilk and 'low us drink all us want.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | make de clothes for everybody. Dey spin and weave and make all us clothes. | ||
| + | Us all wear shirt tail till us 'bout twelve or fourteen, boys and gals, too. | ||
| + | You couldn' | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | firewood. Iffen it freezin' | ||
| + | git li'l bigger us tend de cattle and feed hosses and hawgs. By time us good | ||
| + | sprouts us pickin' | ||
| + | us git far out in de field and lay down in de corn row and nap. But, Lawdy, | ||
| + | iffen dey cotch you, dey sho' wore you out! Sunday de onliest rest day and | ||
| + | den de white folks 'low us play.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | It make missy mad and one time when massa gone she go down in de field. Uncle | ||
| + | Charley hoein' corn jes' like massa done told him, jes' singin' | ||
| + | Old missy she say, ' | ||
| + | whup me. I doin' every bit what old massa done tell me.' But missy think | ||
| + | he gittin' | ||
| + | de fence and start down de row with de cowhide. Uncle Charley, he ain't | ||
| + | even raise he voice, but he cut de las' weed outen dat corn and commence | ||
| + | to wave he hoe in de air, and he say, ' | ||
| + | step closeter.' | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | and she tell dis Charley iffen he ain't finish grindin' | ||
| + | by Monday she gwineter give him a t' | ||
| + | able make dat much meal, so come Monday he runned off in de bayou. Dat | ||
| + | night come de big freeze and he down dere with water up to he knees and | ||
| + | when massa come home and go git him, he so froze he couldn' | ||
| + | brung him in de kitchen and old missy cuss him out. Soon's he thaw out, | ||
| + | he done die right dere on de spot.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | couldn' | ||
| + | soon in de mornin', | ||
| + | say, ' | ||
| + | de cowhide. Look like she cut my mama in two. Many's de time I edges up | ||
| + | and tries take some dem licks off my mama.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | to answer for itself.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | songs, dey comes through visions. Dat's why cullud folks can make dem better< | ||
| + | dan white folks. I knowed one song what start out& | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p> | ||
| + | "' | ||
| + | And bury him in de sepulchur;< | ||
| + | De grave wouldn' | ||
| + | Dey place guards all 'round him,<br /> | ||
| + | But de angels move de stone,< | ||
| + | De Jews done kill pore Jesus,< | ||
| + | But de grave it wouldn' | ||
| + | </p> | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p> | ||
| + | "' | ||
| + | Gawd is a-callin' | ||
| + | Run, sinner, run,<br /> | ||
| + | De fire' | ||
| + | </p> | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | de cotton with de hand crank. It built on a bench like. I gin de cotton by | ||
| + | turnin' | ||
| + | take it to Miss Susan to make de twine with it. I warm and damp de cotton | ||
| + | 'fore de fireplace 'fore I start ginnin' | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | de chillen comin' home and dey stop longside de way and teach me my ABC. Dey | ||
| + | done carry me as far as Baker in de book when old missy find it out and make | ||
| + | dem stop. De war comin' on den and us daren' | ||
| + | De white folks didn't want us to larn to read for fear us find out things.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | Pine Island to make dat Welborn house. Old man Hamshire and old man Remington | ||
| + | builded dat Welborn house. It 'cross de bayou, left hand side Smith' | ||
| + | Dat house still standin' | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | come a shock what shake de earth. De big fish jump clean out de bay and turtles< | ||
| + | and alligators run out dere ponds. Dey plumb ruint Galveston! Us runned in | ||
| + | de house and all de dishes and things done jump out de shelf. Dat de first | ||
| + | bombardment of Galveston. De sojers put powder under people' | ||
| + | blowin' | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | Virginny. Young massa Tucker Stevenson, he ain't 'lieve in war and he say | ||
| + | he never gwine fight. He hide in de woods so de conscrip' | ||
| + | him. Old man LaCour come 'round and say he have orders for find Tucker | ||
| + | and bring him in dead or 'live. But 'cause he old massa' | ||
| + | 'Why don't you buy de boy's services off?' So old massa take de boat, ' | ||
| + | us calls it, and loads it with corn and sich and us pole it down to | ||
| + | Galveston. De people need dat food so much, dat load supplies done buy | ||
| + | off Massa Tucker from fightin' | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | All dem in dis part heads for de Rio Grande river. De Mexicans rig up flat-boats | ||
| + | out in de middle de river, tied to stakes with rope. When de cullud | ||
| + | people gits to de rope dey can pull deyself 'cross de rest de way on dem | ||
| + | boats. De white folks rid de ' | ||
| + | slaves git through, anyway.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | salt water to bath dem in. Dat help de rheumatism. Dem sojers have rheumatism | ||
| + | so bad for standin' | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | de muscles in he arms, bleed him and give him plenty bacon and cornbread, | ||
| + | and he git so strong he could lift a log. Dey didn't go in for cuttin',< | ||
| + | like dey do now. Dey git herbs out de woods, blue mass and quinine and calomel. | ||
| + | I think people jes' die under pills, now. Old lady Field she make medicine | ||
| + | with snakeroot and larkspur and marshroot and redroot.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | He say us all am free as Hell. Old man Charley so happy he jes' roll on de | ||
| + | floor like a hoss and kick he heels. De nex' mornin' | ||
| + | and missy cuss her out. I runned to missy and say, 'Us free as de bird.' She sho' | ||
| + | whup me for dat, but no more, 'cause she so mean us all leave.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | he de first to help us niggers after freedom. He loan us he ox team and pay | ||
| + | Uncle Charley a dollar de day for work and a dollar every time my mama wash for | ||
| + | he wife.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | show dan she done us. Old massa gittin' | ||
| + | him with de buggy whip. He git on he hoss and say, 'Liz, you's gittin' | ||
| + | as de beef. You too big for me.' She so mad she spit fire. Lightenin' | ||
| + | kill her, she upstairs and de big streak hits her. It knock her under de bed.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | a hunnerd. 'Bout two bits de most us could make in one day. I work two days | ||
| + | to buy mama de turkey hen for Christmas. Anything mama want I think she got to | ||
| + | have. I's growed 'fore I gits much as four bits a day. I's done earn as much | ||
| + | as $1.50 in my time, though.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | Patterson he marry us. Us has four chillen livin' | ||
| + | and Enrichs and Milton, dat my boys. Milton work in Houston and Enrich help me | ||
| + | farm. I's a Mason 30 year. De lodge split up now, but it answer.< | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <hr style=" | ||
| + | <div class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <div class=" | ||
| + | <img src=" | ||
| + | <br />< | ||
| + | </ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <div class=" | ||
| + | <img src=" | ||
| + | <br />< | ||
| + | </ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <div class=" | ||
| + | St., San Antonio, Texas. Eyesight | ||
| + | is so poor someone must lead him to | ||
| + | the store or to church. William | ||
| + | kneels at his bedside each evening | ||
| + | at five and says his prayers. In | ||
| + | this ceremony he spends a half hour | ||
| + | or more chanting one Negro spiritual | ||
| + | after another.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | the place of Lawyer Woodson in Lunenburg County, Virginia. It | ||
| + | was 'bout 75 miles southwest of Richmond. They was two big plantations, | ||
| + | one on one side the road, yother the yother. My marster | ||
| + | owned 75 slaves. He raised tobacco and cotton. I wukked tobacco | ||
| + | sometime, sometime cotton. Dere wasn't no whippin' | ||
| + | We had to wuk hard. Marster Woodson was a rich man. He live in a | ||
| + | great big house, a lumber house painted white. And it had a great | ||
| + | big garden.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | floors and shingle roofs. Marster Woodson' | ||
| + | too. We had home cured bacon and veg' | ||
| + | beans and dey give us hoe cakes baked in hot ashes. Dere always was | ||
| + | lots of fresh milk.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | women spin it on a spinnin' | ||
| + | togeddah on a sewin' machine. Yahsur, we's got sewin' machine, wid | ||
| + | a big wheel and a handle. One woman tu'n de handle and de yuther | ||
| + | woman do de sewin' | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | We makes dem for de whole fam' | ||
| + | makes de clothes. Over nigh Richmond a fren' of Marster Woodson has 300 | ||
| + | slaves. Dey makes all de clothes for dem.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | De sergeant of de Yankees takes me up on his hoss and I goes to Washington | ||
| + | wid de Yankees. I got to stay dere 'cause I'd run away from my marster.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | driver. I was his houseboy. I stay dere twel de year 1870, den I goes to | ||
| + | Baltimore and jines de United States Army. We's sent to Texas 'count of de | ||
| + | Indians bein' so bad. Dey put us on a boat at Baltimore and we landed at | ||
| + | Galveston.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | whole time. We ties our bedclothes and rolls dem in a bundle wid a strap. | ||
| + | We walks wid our guns and bedclothes on our backs, and de wagons wid de | ||
| + | rations follows us. Dey is pulled by mules. We goes 15 miles ev'ry day. | ||
| + | We got no tents, night come, we unrolls de blankets and sleeps under de | ||
| + | trees, sometime under de brush.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | is 3 or 4 in a box, we wets 'em in water and cooks 'em in a skillet. We gits | ||
| + | meat purty often. When we camps for de night de captain say, ' | ||
| + | go huntin' | ||
| + | ain't no fences. Often in de dark we sees a big animal and we shoots. When | ||
| + | we bring 'im to camp, de captain say, 'Iffen de cow got iron burns de rancher | ||
| + | gwineter shoot hisself a nigger scout.' | ||
| + | de name of de cow what ain't feel de iron? Mavrick, yahsur. We eats lots< | ||
| + | of dem Mavricks. We's goin' 'long de river bottom, and before we comes to | ||
| + | Fort Duncan we sees de cactus and muskeet. Dere ain't much cattle, but one | ||
| + | colored scout shoots hisself a bear. Den we eats high. Fort Duncan were | ||
| + | made of slab lumber and de roof was gravel and grass.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | climb all day, and de Indians give us a fit ev'ry day. We kills some Indians, | ||
| + | dey kills a few soldiers. We was at Fort Clark a while. At Fort Davis I jines | ||
| + | de colored Indian Scouts, I was in Capt. George L. Andrew' | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | Sill in Indian Territory. Before we gits to Fort Concho (San Angelo) de Comanches | ||
| + | and de Apaches give us a fit. We fitten' | ||
| + | from de Comanches and Apaches we fitten de Cheyennes. Dey's seven feet tall. | ||
| + | Dey couldn' | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | and he say, 'You boys is got to git dem back. Iffen you kill 'em, dey | ||
| + | can't git back to de reservation.' | ||
| + | dey is scoutin' | ||
| + | and we got 75 colored Indian Scouts. Den Red Foot, de Chief of de Cheyennes, | ||
| + | he come to see Capt. Lawson and say he want rations for his Indians. De captain | ||
| + | say he cain't give no rations to Indians off de reservation. Red Foot say he | ||
| + | don't care 'bout no reservation and he say he take what we got. Capt. Lawson | ||
| + | 'low we gotter git reinforcements. We got a guide in de scout troop, he call | ||
| + | hisself Jack Kilmartin. De captain say, 'Jack, I'se in trouble, how kin I git | ||
| + | a dispatch to Gen. Davidson?' | ||
| + | crawl on his belly and through de brush and he lead a pony, and when he gits< | ||
| + | clear he rides de pony bareback twel he git to Fort Sill. Den Gen. Davidson, | ||
| + | he soun' de gin' | ||
| + | But de Cheyennes give 'em a fit all de way, dey's gotter cut dere way through | ||
| + | de Cheyennes.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | jus' like you's sittin' | ||
| + | de colonel don't care, and he say, ' | ||
| + | kill de Cheyennes? You kill 'em all from de cradle to de Cross.'</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | and repeaters from de government. Yahsur, de government give 'em de guns dey | ||
| + | used to shoot us. We got de ole fashion muzzle loaders. You puts one ball in | ||
| + | de muzzle and shove de powder down wid de ramrod. Den we went in and fit 'em, | ||
| + | and 'twas like fightin' | ||
| + | wipes 'em out. Den we disarms de Cheyennes we captures, and turns dere guns in | ||
| + | to de regiment.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | Bell Jewelry Company and stays dere twel I cain't work no more. Did I like de | ||
| + | army? Yahsur, I'd ruthuh be in de army dan a plantation slave."< | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <hr style=" | ||
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| + | <div class=" | ||
| + | Lyons of Branch, Louisiana, | ||
| + | now lives in Beaumont, Texas. | ||
| + | The town of Branch was known | ||
| + | in slave days as Plaquemine | ||
| + | Bouley. Clara estimates her | ||
| + | age to be 100 or 102, and from | ||
| + | various facts known to her and | ||
| + | her family, this would seem to | ||
| + | be correct.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | 'cause he was a bachelor. He had a big plantation. I don't know how <a name=' | ||
| + | but dey somethin' | ||
| + | had plenty in dem. My ma was Becky Brim and pa, he name Louis Brim. She | ||
| + | come from Old Virginny. Dey work in de field. I had two sister name Cass | ||
| + | and Donnie and a brudder name Washington. He went off to de war. When it | ||
| + | break out dey come and take him off to work in de army. He lost in dat war. | ||
| + | He didn't come back. Nobody ever know what happen to him.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | well built and had brick chimneys. Dey houses what de wind didn't blow in. | ||
| + | Us had beds, too, not dem built in de wall. Us sho' treat good in slavery | ||
| + | times, yes, suh. Old massa give us plenty clothes to keep us good and | ||
| + | warm. He sho' did.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | He didn't work dem in de heat of de day. 'Bout eleven o' | ||
| + | sun git hot, he call dem out de field. He give dem till it git kind of | ||
| + | cool befo' he make dem go back in de field. He didn't have no overseer. | ||
| + | He seed 'bout de plantation hisself. He raise cotton and corn and sweet | ||
| + | ' | ||
| + | oats, neither.< | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | could ride hoss-back or walk. Us go to de white folks church. Dey sot in front | ||
| + | and us sot in back. Us had prayer meetin', | ||
| + | cullud man a sort of preacher. He de leader in ' | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | many rows cotton to chop or corn to hoe. When dey git through dey can do what | ||
| + | dey want. He task dem on Monday. Some dem git through Thursday night. Den | ||
| + | dey can hire out to somebody and git pay for it.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | die, he git de preacher and have Bible readin' | ||
| + | didn't do dat-a-way.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | de men done. I plow and pull fodder and pick cotton. But de hardes' | ||
| + | ever done am since I free. Old Massa, he didn't work us hard, noway.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | six men on hoss-back, ridin' de roads to cotch niggers what out without de pass. | ||
| + | Iffen dey cotch him it am de whippin' | ||
| + | civ' | ||
| + | and dey can raise things to eat and sell. Sometime dey have some pig and chickens.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | with Old Massa long time after freedom. In 1913 I come live with my youngest girl | ||
| + | here in Beaumont. You see, I can't ' | ||
| + | ' | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
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| + | </ | ||
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| + | <div class=" | ||
| + | in Green County, Alabama, a slave | ||
| + | of Josiah Collier. The old Negro' | ||
| + | memory is poor, but he managed to | ||
| + | recall a few incidents of slave | ||
| + | days. He lives in Mart, Texas.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | a plantation own by Marse Josiah Collier. My folks was Henderson and Martha | ||
| + | Brooks and I's de only child den.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | dey quarters 'bout a mile from de big house. When freedom come Marse Collier | ||
| + | sent for all de slaves and lines us up in a row, two deep, and helt up he | ||
| + | hands and say, 'Boys, you is free as I is. All of you what wants to can go, | ||
| + | and all of you what wants to can work for me on wages dis year. Next year | ||
| + | I'll give you a crop or work for wages.' | ||
| + | dem two my daddy, and he lef' mammy and six chillen and never come back.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | with he oldes' gal, and didn't go 'way till we's growed and has fam' | ||
| + | our own.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | for dem and us and we plays games and goes swimmin' | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | dey cotches me without my pass. Dat de way dey make us stay home at night, | ||
| + | and it made good niggers out of us, 'cause we couldn' | ||
| + | no meanness.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | and growed dark all a sudden and de chickens goes to roost. Den some stars with< | ||
| + | long tails 'gins to shoot, den it look like all de stars had come out of Heaven, | ||
| + | and did dey fall! De stars not all what fell. De white folks and de niggers | ||
| + | fell on dere knees, prayin' | ||
| + | and de women folks all run down in de cellar and stayed till mornin' | ||
| + | say it was in 1833, and he say dem stars fall awhile and quit awhile, like de | ||
| + | showers when it rains.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | and dis was de school, too. De preacher' | ||
| + | de reason I ' | ||
| + | De niggers has de blueback spellers and larns ' | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | gives a ser' | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p> | ||
| + | "' | ||
| + | <span style=" | ||
| + | <span style=" | ||
| + | <span style=" | ||
| + | <br /> | ||
| + | "' | ||
| + | <span style=" | ||
| + | <span style=" | ||
| + | <span style=" | ||
| + | </p> | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | or whatever dey has, and we does dis on Christmas, too.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p> | ||
| + | "' | ||
| + | <span style=" | ||
| + | <span style=" | ||
| + | <span style=" | ||
| + | <span style=" | ||
| + | <span style=" | ||
| + | </p> | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | it ain't no use goin' dere no more.< | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <hr style=" | ||
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| + | </ | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <div class=" | ||
| + | gentleman of his race, was the son | ||
| + | of a mulatto slave of Emilier Caramouche. | ||
| + | He was born in 1850, but | ||
| + | appears vigorous. Light skinned, | ||
| + | with blue eyes and a genial expression, | ||
| + | he gave the story of his life | ||
| + | in the French patois spoken by Louisiana | ||
| + | French Negroes, which has been | ||
| + | translated into English.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | M' | ||
| + | was house servant for the family and I worked around the house. I | ||
| + | remember my Madame brought me the little basket and it had a strap | ||
| + | on it. I put the strap over the shoulder and went round with the | ||
| + | sharp stick and picked up the leaves on the ground with the stick.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | all clean and pretty. I never worked hard. The ladies and my mama, | ||
| + | too, petted me as if I was the white child.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | We were glad to go where she was for she always had something good | ||
| + | in her bag for us. I never saw the baptizing. In those days all | ||
| + | the slaves had the religion of the master and the Catholics didn't | ||
| + | have no baptizing. They didn't have to half-drown when they got | ||
| + | their religion. The church was 15 or 20 miles off. The priest came | ||
| + | and held Mass for the white folks sometimes.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | Caramouche killed a big pig. The white folks ate in the house. The<span class=" | ||
| + | slaves sat under the trees and ate in the yard. At four o' | ||
| + | justice of the peace came. He was the friend of M' | ||
| + | He made my aunt and the man hold hands and jump over the broom handle. | ||
| + | When the priest came he made M' | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | the women slaves marry who they wanted. He didn't loose by that. He was | ||
| + | so good the men would come to his plantation.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | made the cloth on the place and the women sewed it up. We didn't wear | ||
| + | the shoes. We didn't like them when we had them.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | and had a couple of beehives for the honey.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | don't know of any slaves that left. Old M' | ||
| + | the second year of the war. His wife died before he did. No children. | ||
| + | They sold us, the house and everything. M' | ||
| + | Lafayette bought me and Madame Arvillien Bernard of St. Pierre bought | ||
| + | the mama. They used to call it St. Pierre. They call it Carenero now. | ||
| + | When war was finished I left M' | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | and us three farmed the little farm. My steppapa didn't like me. I was | ||
| + | light. He and me couldn' | ||
| + | there and hired myself out. I saved till I bought a little piece of | ||
| + | land for myself. Then I married and raised the family. Me and my wife | ||
| + | and the children farmed that place up to ten years ago and then she died. | ||
| + | My son farms the place now and I came to Beaumont. I live with my girl.< | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | and danced La Boulangere in time of war. De song go:</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p> | ||
| + | "' | ||
| + | Et nous, qui sont en guerre,< | ||
| + | Voici le jour que je dois partir.< | ||
| + | <br /> | ||
| + | "' | ||
| + | Tu me laisses un enfant dans les bras<br /> | ||
| + | <span style=" | ||
| + | Et moi, je vais dans le moment< | ||
| + | <span style=" | ||
| + | <br /> | ||
| + | "' | ||
| + | Tu serais de garnison,< | ||
| + | Et tu m' | ||
| + | Qui serai en les haillons.< | ||
| + | <br /> | ||
| + | "' | ||
| + | <span style=" | ||
| + | Mon cher Armande, si tu m' | ||
| + | Tu penserais à moi, quand tu serais,< | ||
| + | <span style=" | ||
| + | Moi& | ||
| + | </p> | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | There was the battle. Lots of fighting. Lots of killing. The Yankees came | ||
| + | right inside the house. I stayed hid.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | one has his miseries. We managed to get along on the farm. But now I have | ||
| + | nothing. Oh, I don't mean slavery was better than to be free. I mean times | ||
| + | were better.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | Neville Broussard and he was all white.< | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
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| + | Waco, Texas, does not know her age. | ||
| + | She was born near Richmond, Virginia, | ||
| + | a slave of the Koonce family. They | ||
| + | sold her to Mrs. Margaret Taylor, | ||
| + | of Belton, Texas, when Fannie was | ||
| + | only five years old, and she never | ||
| + | saw her mother again.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | sold me. When I was five year old he brung me to Belton and sold me to | ||
| + | Missy Margaret Taylor, and she kep' me till she died. I was growed den | ||
| + | and sold to Massa Jim Fletcher and dere I stayed till I was freed.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | water out de well, what dey call de sweep well. Dey cut down a young | ||
| + | saplin' | ||
| + | on de other end and brace de pole over de well.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | cook over a fireplace make out of rock what us niggers pick up in de | ||
| + | woods. Us cook lots of good eatin' out on dat fireplace, dem wild | ||
| + | turkeys and wild meat sho' tasted good.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | de Indians for some skins and take de skins to Austin and traded dem | ||
| + | fer de spinnin' | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | a whuppin' | ||
| + | me cookin' | ||
| + | good old pound cake. De li'l chillen stand round when I bake, so as to | ||
| + | git to lick de spoons and pans, and how dey pop dere lips when dey | ||
| + | lickin' | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | would grow, so he kep' it several months, but den he plants it and up it come, | ||
| + | jus' like in de old states. Us used dem tomatoes for flowers, 'cause us | ||
| + | thunk dem pretty red things would kill us or put de spell on us. But de | ||
| + | white folks et dem and us larn to.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | have no special husban' | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | days. On de moonlight nights, us dance by de light of de moon under a big | ||
| + | oak tree, till most time to go to work next mornin' | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | lightnin' | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | endurin' | ||
| + | I couldn' | ||
| + | dem days better dan I do dese times now, but I'm too old to ' | ||
| + | |||
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| + | |||
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| + | <div class=" | ||
| + | St., Fort Worth, Texas, was | ||
| + | born a slave to Mr. John | ||
| + | Brown, who owned a plantation | ||
| + | along the Mississippi River, | ||
| + | in Baton Rouge Parish, Louisiana. | ||
| + | Fred was eight years old | ||
| + | when the Civil War started. | ||
| + | During the War, he and a number | ||
| + | of other slaves were taken to | ||
| + | Kaufman Co., Texas, as refugees, | ||
| + | by Henry Bidder, an overseer. | ||
| + | He worked five years as a laborer | ||
| + | after he was freed, then | ||
| + | worked as a cook until 1933.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | I can't work any more and I has nothin' | ||
| + | in de leg, it ketch me dat way, from de hip to de knee,& | ||
| + | pain goes!</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | 16th of November, in 1853. I knows, 'cause massa give dis nigger a | ||
| + | statement. You see, dey don' larn de niggers to read in dem days, | ||
| + | nor figger, but I can read figgers. See dem on dat car? Dat am 713. | ||
| + | Dat am bad figgers, I never has any truck with sich numbers as de 7 | ||
| + | or de 13.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | de Mississippi River. De slaves him own am from 40 to 50 sometimes. | ||
| + | In our family am pappy, mammy and three brudders and one sister, Julia, | ||
| + | and six cousins. Dat am 13 and dat's why massa had so much trouble | ||
| + | with niggers runnin' | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | am de family cook and she he'p at de loom, makin' de cloth. My daddy< | ||
| + | am de blacksmith and shoemaker and de tanner. I ' | ||
| + | He puts de hides in de water with black-oak bark and purty soon de hair come | ||
| + | off and den he rolls and poun's de hides for to make dem soft.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | de yard and as I grows older I he'ps in de fields. Massa, him raises cane | ||
| + | and co'n mostly, no cotton.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | for de niggers. Dey am built from logs and de quarters has no floors | ||
| + | and no windows, jus' square holes whar de windows ought to be. Dey have | ||
| + | bunks for sleepin' | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | heavy, brown sugar. We gits flour bread once de week, but lots of butter | ||
| + | and milk. For de coffee, we roasts meal bran and for de tea, de sassafras. | ||
| + | Den we has veg' | ||
| + | am de wil' game, deer and de turkey, but sometimes hawg meat.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | wo'k and de overlooker am in charge of de cullud women. De overseer give | ||
| + | all de whippin' | ||
| + | home and takin' de whippin' | ||
| + | and jus' comes in night time for food. When dey do dat, de dawgs is put | ||
| + | after dem and den it am de fight 'tween de nigger and de dawg. Jus' once | ||
| + | a nigger kills de dawg with de knife, dat was close to freedom and it come | ||
| + | 'fore dey ketches him. When dey whips for runnin' | ||
| + | down over a barrel and whipped ha'd, till dey draws blood, sometimes.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | for to watch, one is not to be ketched by de overseer and de other am<span class=" | ||
| + | de patter-rollers. De nigger sho' am skeert of de patters. One time my | ||
| + | pappy and my mammy goes out without de pass and de patters takes after dem. | ||
| + | I'se home, 'cause I's too young to be pesterin' | ||
| + | and you couldn' | ||
| + | runnin' | ||
| + | come out. You's seen de dawg quaver when him's col'? Well, dat nigger | ||
| + | have de quaverment jus' like dat. De patters hits him five or six licks | ||
| + | and lets him go. Dat nigger have lots of power& | ||
| + | ahead of his shadow.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | and de dance and we has for music, sich as de banjo and de jew's harp and | ||
| + | a ' | ||
| + | jiggin' | ||
| + | den see who can dance de longes' | ||
| + | log-rollin' | ||
| + | which can roll de log de fastes' | ||
| + | git married and dere am extry fixed for supper. De couple steps over de | ||
| + | broom laid en de floor, dey's married den.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | it dis way. He am used for to father de chillun. Him picks de portly, | ||
| + | and de healthy women dat am to rear de portly chillen. De overlooker, | ||
| + | he am portly man. Dem dat him picks he overlooks, and not 'low dem to | ||
| + | marry or to go round with other nigger men. If dey do, its whippin' | ||
| + | De massa raises some fine, portly chillen, and dey sel' some, after dey's | ||
| + | half-grown, for $500 and sometimes more.< | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | one overseer jines de army. Massa come back, but de overseer am captured | ||
| + | by de Yankees, so massa says, and we never hears 'bout him after dat. De | ||
| + | soldiers passes by lots of times, both de ' | ||
| + | but we's never bothered with dem. De fightin' | ||
| + | make trouble. Jus' 'fore freedom come, de new overseer am ' | ||
| + | take us to Texas and takes us to Kaufman County and we is refugees dere. | ||
| + | De Yankee mans tells us we am free and can do sich as we pleases. Dat lef' | ||
| + | us in charge of no one and we' | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | we hears from him. Mammy and I goes to Henderson and I works at dis and | ||
| + | dat and cares for my mammy ten years, till she dies. Den I gits jobs as | ||
| + | cook in Dallas and Houston and lots of other places.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | years ago, till I gits de rhumatis' | ||
| + | ole days.< | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
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| + | </ | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <div class=" | ||
| + | last 12 years and now living | ||
| + | alone in a shack at 408 W. Belknap, | ||
| + | Fort Worth, Texas, was born | ||
| + | a slave of Mr. Berney in Bell Co., | ||
| + | Texas, in 1853. While still an | ||
| + | infant, he and his mother were | ||
| + | sold to Mr. John Blair, who farmed | ||
| + | four miles south of Waco, Texas. | ||
| + | JAMES has no known living relatives | ||
| + | and a pension of $14.00 a | ||
| + | month is his sole support.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | ' | ||
| + | nothin' | ||
| + | was John Brown.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | We'uns lived in de cabins and have de fiddle and de banjoes. | ||
| + | We'uns sing and have music on Sundays. Marster never whups | ||
| + | we'uns and him was allus good to us. Him gives us plenty to | ||
| + | eat, and meat, too. Hims keeps 'bout 20 hawgs dere all de time. | ||
| + | De women makes de clothes and we'uns have all we need.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | Marster have fine hosses. Marster have hims office in Waco and | ||
| + | we drive dere every day. I'se stays all day ready to drive him | ||
| + | home. Mos' every day hims give me five cents or maybe de dime. | ||
| + | Hims was a big law man and went to de legislature down in Austin. | ||
| + | His picture am in Austin, 'cause I'se down dere years ago and seen | ||
| + | his picture in a case wid Gov' | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | de niggers. He buys and sells 'em all de time. You see, dere was | ||
| + | traders dat traveled from place to place dem days and dey takes sometimes | ||
| + | as much as 100 niggers for to trade. Dere was sheds outside of | ||
| + | town, whar dey keeps de niggers when dey comes to town.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | ' | ||
| + | ' | ||
| + | makes de trade and maybe dey don' | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | de auction I'se seen dem sell a family. Maybe one man buy de mammy, | ||
| + | anudder buy de pappy and anudder buy all de chillens or maybe jus' | ||
| + | one, like dat. I'se see dem cry like dey at de funeral when dey am | ||
| + | parted. Dey has to drag 'em away.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | ole, he never ' | ||
| + | and de big shoulders. He's worth a thousan' | ||
| + | much am I offered?' | ||
| + | I'se hear, does I'se hear $250, does I hear $300.' Den de nigger | ||
| + | takes hims clothes& | ||
| + | buys him.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | ' | ||
| + | mornin!' | ||
| + | paper in hims han' and readin' | ||
| + | drap on de paper. I'se have tears in my eyes, too; mos' of 'em have. | ||
| + | When hims done readin', | ||
| + | You can go or you can stay. Those dat stay till de crops laid by, | ||
| + | I'se will give $5.00 a month.'</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | who I'se have sold dere mammies will stay wid me till dey am 21 years | ||
| + | ole. You little fellows, I'se know you's age and I'se give yous de | ||
| + | statement.'</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | den tudder. I'se stays on wid him for many years and works as coachman. | ||
| + | When I lef' de Marster, 'twas to work for a farmer for one year, | ||
| + | den I'se comes to Fort Worth. I'se works in lumberya' | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | dat till de las' year but I'se gits de pension each month, dat am a heap | ||
| + | of help. Dis nigger am thankful for what de Lawd have blessed me wid.< | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
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| + | 1859, in Victoria, Texas. | ||
| + | She belonged to George Heard. | ||
| + | Her mother was born free, a | ||
| + | member of the Choctaw Nation, | ||
| + | but she was stolen and sold | ||
| + | as a slave. Josie now lives | ||
| + | in Woodville, Texas.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | time for de eggnog! Dat 'bout 1859, 'cause I's six year ole de | ||
| + | Christmas 'fore freedom. My mudder was a free bo'n Injun woman. | ||
| + | Jus' like any ole, demmed Choctaw down in de woods. She was stole | ||
| + | and sol' by a spec' | ||
| + | ole.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | chillun and ole mistus seven. Bob, my brudder, he go to Mansfiel' | ||
| + | and we never hear of him no more. He wen' with young marster, | ||
| + | Wesley Heard. I ' | ||
| + | him, 'cause he'd been out seein' his gal.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | was ' | ||
| + | Woodville pass close by. I ' | ||
| + | de stage go by. Dat was a fine sight! De stage was big, rough | ||
| + | carriage and dey was four or five hosses on de line. De bugle blow | ||
| + | when dey go by, with de dus' behin' dem. Dey was comin' from | ||
| + | Jasper, in Louisian', | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | bald eagle pick up chillen jus' like de hawk pick up chicken. Dey | ||
| + | was lots of catamoun' | ||
| + | ' | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | ' | ||
| + | clothes jus' cut out straight down and dyed with all kinds of bark. | ||
| + | I hab to keep de head comb and grease with lard. De lil' white chillun | ||
| + | play with me but not de udder nigger chilluns much. Us pull de long, | ||
| + | leaf grass and plait it and us make rag doll and playhouse and grapevine | ||
| + | swing. Dere's plenty grapes, scudlong, sour blue grape and sweet, white | ||
| + | grape. Dey make jelly and wine outta dem. Dey squeeze de grapes and put | ||
| + | de juice in a jimmijohn(demijohn) to fo' | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | I ' | ||
| + | Polk County and he wore earring in he ears and beads and everyt' | ||
| + | a Injun. He dead now, many year.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | have fiel's of it. Dey put it in de crack of de fence to press, den dey | ||
| + | dry it on de barn roof. Dat was smokin' | ||
| + | dey soak it in sugar and honey. Us never see snuff den.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | have it in de ya'd, so de white folks could see de kin' of religion ' | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | I seed chillun too lil' to walk from dey mammies sol' right off de block | ||
| + | in Woodville. Dey was sol' jus' like calfs. I seed niggers in han' locks.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | finally come and make de white folks tu'n us loose. I stay on for years, | ||
| + | 'till ole mistus die. She larn me to knit and spin and sich like.< | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | dey hosses on de da'k nights. Us allus put hossshoes over de door | ||
| + | to keep de witch out. Iffen us go out at night, us go roun' de house | ||
| + | three time so de witch not come in while us gone.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | Wes'. He was de fus' husban' | ||
| + | veil. My weddin' | ||
| + | silver. Dey hab big dance and eat supper.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | chillun. 'Sides dat, I raises six or seven day I pick up on de street | ||
| + | 'cause dey orfums and hab nobody to care for dem. Some dem chillun | ||
| + | drif' 'bout now and I wouldn' | ||
| + | |||
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| + | |||
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| + | <div class=" | ||
| + | of Green Brown, owner of six | ||
| + | slave families, in Warren County, | ||
| + | Tennessee. Zek came to Texas in | ||
| + | 1868, with Sam Bragg. Zek now | ||
| + | lives at 407 W. Bluff St., in | ||
| + | Fort Worth, Texas.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | a plantation in Tennessee and own all my folks, what was my pappy and mammy | ||
| + | and two sisters. I never seed any of dem since I ran 'way from there, when | ||
| + | I's ten years old.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | of dere and massa am awful good. Each fam'ly have dere own cabin and it | ||
| + | warn't so much for niceness but we lives comfor' | ||
| + | and wear. My mammy work de loom, makin' cloth, and us chillen wears linsey | ||
| + | cloth shirts till dey gives us pants. Massa buy he fam'ly nice clothes but | ||
| + | dey wears linsey clothes everyday. Same with shoes, dey am made on de | ||
| + | plantation and de first store shoes I has am after surrender. My mammy | ||
| + | buys me a pair with brass tips on de toe, and am I dress up den!</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | all but de salt and sich. You wouldn' | ||
| + | and bacon, 'cause dey raises all de hawgs. It am cornmeal and some white | ||
| + | flour and fruit and honey and ' | ||
| + | as I is and dat am some black. I wishes I was dere and mammy call me, and | ||
| + | I can smell dat ham fryin' right now.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | even. Jus' so de work am done we does as we pleases, long as us reas' | ||
| + | Us have parties and dancin' | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | massa call all us together and tell us we's no more slaves. Him talk lots | ||
| + | 'bout what it mean and how it am diff' | ||
| + | way and can't 'pend on him like. He say if us stay dere' | ||
| + | we can share crop and everybody stay. My folks stays one year and den moves | ||
| + | to ' | ||
| + | done larnt her to read and sich from time she a young' | ||
| + | so good dey puts her to teachin' | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | me and my sister am home, and I 'cides she need de haircut. She want it, too. | ||
| + | So I gits de shears and goes to work and after I works a while de job don't | ||
| + | look so good, so I cuts some more and den it look worse and I tries to fix it | ||
| + | and first thing I knows dere ain't no hair left to cut. When mammy come home | ||
| + | she pays me for de work with de rawhide whip and dat hurts my feelin' | ||
| + | I 'cides to git even by runnin' | ||
| + | starts to go and comes to Massa Sam Bragg' | ||
| + | strong 'bout de idea and 'cides to rest. I walks into he yard and dere am | ||
| + | a covered wagon standin' | ||
| + | I finds de soft place in de back and goes to sleep, and when I wakes up it am | ||
| + | jus' gittin' | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | so's I can crawl out. I jus' sits and sits and when it stop I crawls out and | ||
| + | Massa Bragg say, 'Good gosh, look what am crawlin' | ||
| + | me a while and den he say, ' | ||
| + | and you'll git lost if you tries to walk home. I guesses I'll have to take you | ||
| + | with me.' I thinks him am goin' some place and comin' back, but it am to Texas | ||
| + | him come and stop at Birdville. Dat am how dis nigger come to Texas.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | place, 'cause from den on I has mighty hard times. I stays with Massa Bragg | ||
| + | four years and then I hunts for a job where I can git some wages. I gits it | ||
| + | with Massa Joe Henderson, workin' | ||
| + | ever since and farmed most my life.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | I's not done a thing, jus' walkin' | ||
| + | claim he stole somethin' | ||
| + | a-loose? Dey turn me loose after six months on de chain gang. I works on de | ||
| + | road three months with a ball and chain on de legs. After dat trouble, I sho' | ||
| + | picks my comp' | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | dead with de heart mis' | ||
| + | all right long as I could work, but five years ago dis right arm gits to shakin' | ||
| + | so bad I can' work no more. For a year now dey pays me $9.00 pension. It am | ||
| + | hard to live on dat for a whole month, but I's glad to git it.<span class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <hr style=" | ||
| + | <div class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <div class=" | ||
| + | his early days as a slave on | ||
| + | the Curtis farm in the blue | ||
| + | grass region of Kentucky, where | ||
| + | he had some experience with | ||
| + | some of the fine horses for | ||
| + | which the state is famous. | ||
| + | Here, too, he had certain contacts | ||
| + | with soldiers of John | ||
| + | Morgan, of Confederate fame. | ||
| + | His eyes are keen and his voice | ||
| + | mellow and low. His years have | ||
| + | not taken a heavy toll of his | ||
| + | vitality.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | five miles from Lexington, right where dere lots of fine hosses. My old | ||
| + | massa was name Jack Curtis and de old missus was Miss Addie. My mother | ||
| + | name Mary and she die in 1863 and never did see freedom. I don't ' | ||
| + | my daddy a-tall.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | 'bout plantations up dere in Kentucky. Dey raise corn and wheat and garlic | ||
| + | and fast hosses. Dey used to have big hoss races and dey had big tracks | ||
| + | and I's stood in de middle of dat big track in Lexington and watch dem | ||
| + | ex' | ||
| + | and dat was de big day for me. I don't ' | ||
| + | but I knowed one big bay hoss what won de race nearly every time.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | and after my daddy die, my mother marries a man name Paris and I had one | ||
| + | half-brother call Alfred Paris.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | beat us hard. He had a son what jis' one month older' | ||
| + | and play lots. Old massa, he whip me and he own son jis' de same when we<span class=" | ||
| + | bad. He didn't whip us no more'n he ought to, though. Dey was good massas | ||
| + | and some mean ones, and some worthless cullud folks, too.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | scairt dey gwine cotch it. Dey say it start with de hurtin' | ||
| + | and every time us hurt in de stomach, missus make us come quick to de big | ||
| + | house. Dat suit us jis' right and when dey sends Will and me to hoe or do | ||
| + | somethin' | ||
| + | stomach ' | ||
| + | Den him say, 'Us better go to de big house like ma say,' and with dat, us | ||
| + | quit workin' | ||
| + | cholera yit.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | left two and Willie and me took dem to hide in de plum thicket, but us jis' | ||
| + | git out de gate when de sojers come 'gain and dey head us off and take de | ||
| + | last two hosses.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | when de ' | ||
| + | When dey hears de ' | ||
| + | gold and de silver spoons out in de garden. Old massa, he in de Yankee | ||
| + | army, 'cause dey ' | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | and missus fussin' | ||
| + | him and dey have de time keepin' | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>Us boys have good time playin' | ||
| + | one side and some de other. Den one sing out<span class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p> | ||
| + | "' | ||
| + | <span style=" | ||
| + | <span style=" | ||
| + | <span style=" | ||
| + | </p> | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | and dem on one side try to cotch dem on de other side.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | fust, but dey make me larn anyhow. Course, dat white boy and me, us like | ||
| + | most anything what not too much work. Us go down to de watermelon patch | ||
| + | and plug dem melons, den us run hide in de woods and eat watermelon. Course, | ||
| + | dey lots of time dey 'low us to play jis' by ourselves. Us play one game | ||
| + | where us choose sides and den sing:</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p> | ||
| + | "' | ||
| + | <span style=" | ||
| + | <span style=" | ||
| + | <span style=" | ||
| + | </p> | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | what us find in de woods. Us heered de cannons shootin' | ||
| + | lots of dem shells drap in de woods.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | too. I didn't care what side, I jis' wants a gun and a hoss and be a sojer. | ||
| + | John Morgan, he used to own de hemp factory in Lexington. When young massa | ||
| + | jine Woolford' | ||
| + | big house in de turnpike. Dey have shotguns and blind bridles on dere hosses, | ||
| + | not open bridle like on de race hosses. Dey jis' in reg' | ||
| + | time dey come through dey in blue uniforms. All my white folks come back | ||
| + | from de war and didn't git kilt. Nobody ever telt me I's free. I's happy | ||
| + | dere and never left dem till 1872. All de others gone befo' dat, but I<span class=" | ||
| + | gits all I wants and I didn't need no money. I didn't know what paper money | ||
| + | was and one time massa' | ||
| + | didn't know what money was and I burned it up.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | had plenty of everything and dey had a big, wooden tray, or trough and dey | ||
| + | put potlicker and cornbread in dat trough and set it under de big locust | ||
| + | tree and all us li'l niggers jis' set 'round and eat and eat. Jis' eat all | ||
| + | us wants. Den when us git full us fall over and go to sleep. Us jis' git | ||
| + | fat and lazy. When us see dat bowl comin', | ||
| + | runnin' | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | leave it in de kitchen or de pantry so old missus git a big tin box and hide | ||
| + | de gingerbread under her bed and kept de switch on us to keep us 'way from it. | ||
| + | But sometime us sneak up in de bedroom and git some, even den.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | sends me to school to larn readin' | ||
| + | run off and jine de army. Dat in 1876 and dey sends me to Arizona. After | ||
| + | dat I's at Fort Sill in what used to be Indian Territory and den at Fort | ||
| + | Clark and Fort Davis, dat in Garfield' | ||
| + | on de Rio Grande. I's in skirmishes with de Indians on Devil' | ||
| + | in de Brazos Canyon, and in de Rattlesnake Range and in de Guadalupe Mountains. | ||
| + | De troops was de Eighth Cavalry and de Tenth Infantry. De white and de cullud | ||
| + | folks was altogether and I have three hosses in de cavalry. De fust one plays | ||
| + | out, de next one shot down on campaign and one was condemn. On dat campaign | ||
| + | us have de White Mountain ' | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | de S.P. Railroad and I been in Texas ever since, and when I's in Dallas | ||
| + | I got ' | ||
| + | much work in ten year.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | Dolly Gross and dat her right dere. Us have de nice weddin', | ||
| + | and drink. Us have only one chile, a gal, and she dead, but us 'dopt sev' | ||
| + | chillen.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | I works for de gas people and de waterworks people. I's been a carpenter | ||
| + | and done lots of common work wherever I could find it.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | old lady's in good health and us manage to git 'long fairly well. Dat's | ||
| + | 'bout all I can ' | ||
| + | |||
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| + | <div class=" | ||
| + | born a slave, Jan. 1, 1856, on | ||
| + | the John Bell plantation, in | ||
| + | Murphfreesboro, | ||
| + | Bell sold Martha, her mother | ||
| + | and four sisters to Joseph | ||
| + | Spence, who brought them to | ||
| + | Texas. Martha married Andy | ||
| + | Bunton in 1880, and they had | ||
| + | nine children. Martha now | ||
| + | lives with her sister, Susan, | ||
| + | on twelve acres of land which | ||
| + | their father bought for $25.00 | ||
| + | an acre. The farm is picturesquely | ||
| + | located on a thickly | ||
| + | wooded hill about six miles | ||
| + | east of Austin, Texas.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | Bell's plantation over in Tennessee. De name of de town was Murphreesboro, | ||
| + | and my mammy and my four sisters and me all ' | ||
| + | but he done sold us to Massa Joseph Spence, and dat how I come by my name.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | way we knowed when we hit Texas am 'cause massa 'gin to talk 'bout a | ||
| + | norther. When dat norther done strike, all de weeds and leaves jus' | ||
| + | starts rollin' | ||
| + | 'cause we'd never seed a rabbit den. Massa Spence rid his hoss and Missie | ||
| + | Spence come 'long in de richer way, in a coach. De chillen walked mornin' | ||
| + | and de older folks walked afternoons.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | down. I helped carry dinner pails to de field workers, and dey was full of | ||
| + | meat and cabbage and biscuit. Pappy wasn't dere then, 'cause he was own | ||
| + | by Massa Burrows, over in Tennessee. But when his massa died, my massa | ||
| + | bought pappy and he come out to Texas. Befo' I's a sizeable child, mammy | ||
| + | took sick with diphtheria and died and pappy had to be mammy and pappy to us.<span class=" | ||
| + | Pappy was a big-bodied man and on Sunday mornin' | ||
| + | a big fire and say, ' | ||
| + | de biscuits.' | ||
| + | what was so big we called dem ' | ||
| + | but dey was good. We never did git no butter, though, and sometimes we'd ask | ||
| + | the white chillen to give us a piece of biscuit with butter on it. We got plenty | ||
| + | other eats& | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | I can read and write. I went to de sixth grade and quit. Pappy was drinkin' | ||
| + | lot then. He'd take alcohol and mix it with ' | ||
| + | to us. Sometimes a Texas norther come up and we'd be on the way home and we'd | ||
| + | see something comin' what look like a elephant and it was pappy, with a bundle | ||
| + | of coats.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | farms here and yonder. We had a big weddin' | ||
| + | Lucy Hubbard, what weighed three hundred pounds, done de cookin' | ||
| + | such a good time nobody knowed when one de guests stole a whole turkey.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | purty good livin till he had a paral' | ||
| + | took care of him and had to work like I was young again. I cut wood and carried | ||
| + | water and washed and cooked. I had to feed him.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | $25.00 de acre. My sister lives here too, and my son, Howard, comes home sometimes, | ||
| + | but he's got eight houn' dogs he can't feed. I sho' can't feed dem on dat $11.00 | ||
| + | pension what I gits.< | ||
| + | |||
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| + | |||
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| + | <div class=" | ||
| + | slave to Richmond Butler, | ||
| + | near Whiska Chitto, in the | ||
| + | northern part of Calcasieu | ||
| + | Parish (now a part of Beauregard | ||
| + | Parish), in Louisiana. | ||
| + | Ellen is about 78 years old. | ||
| + | She now lives in Beaumont, | ||
| + | Texas.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | big plantation over on Whiska Chitto, in Louisiana, and that's where | ||
| + | I was born. They used to call the place Bagdad. I was his slave till | ||
| + | I six year old and then freedom come.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | I have seven sister and three brudder, and they was Anderson and | ||
| + | Charlie and Willie, and the girls was Laura and Rosa and Rachel and Fannie | ||
| + | and Adeline and Sottie and Nora.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | dirt and the house was make jus' like they used to make 'tater house. | ||
| + | They was a little window in the back. When I was a baby they wrop me | ||
| + | up in cotton and put me in a coffee pot& | ||
| + | grows to be more sizable.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | head of niggers. When I gets big enough they start me to totin' water | ||
| + | to the field. I gits the water out the spring and totes it in gourds. | ||
| + | They cut the gourds so that a strip was left round and cross the top | ||
| + | and that the handle. They was about a foot 'cross and a foot deep. | ||
| + | Us used to have one good gourd us kep' lard in and li'l gourds to | ||
| + | drink out of.<span class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | holes in the fields they gits down in and prays. They done that way | ||
| + | 'cause the white folks didn't want them to pray. They used to pray | ||
| + | for freedom.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | with they fingers. That the way they know if us steal meal. Sometime | ||
| + | they take a stick and write in front of the door so if anybody go out | ||
| + | they step on that writin' | ||
| + | to write.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | of the field they goes work for other folks for something to eat.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | or nothin' | ||
| + | to keep from freezin' | ||
| + | li'l folks. They have a li'l trough us used to eat out of with a li'l | ||
| + | wooden paddle. Us didn't know nothin' | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | sometime when the white folks gone us go up to the big house and she give | ||
| + | us somethin' | ||
| + | they won't be no crumbs in our mouth.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | sometime he git hongry and gwine have to come ask de niggers for somethin' | ||
| + | to eat. He say he never do that, but he did, 'cause after freedom he go | ||
| + | to West Texas and some niggers with him and he los' everything and, sho' | ||
| + | ' | ||
| + | shelter to sleep under. Then he say if he had it to do over, he wouldn' | ||
| + | treat the hands so bad.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | beat him to death. He told 'em he had to do somethin' | ||
| + | to eat. They used to put 'em 'cross a log or barrel to beat 'em. My | ||
| + | mammy had a strop 'bout eight inch wide they used to beat 'em with.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | folks and lives close by. They folks lives in DeRidder, in Louisiana, | ||
| + | I hears. They treated the slaves like white folks.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | I don't ' | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | roots and make tea and medicine. We used to git Blackhaw root and | ||
| + | cherry bark and dogwood and chinquapin bark, what make good tonic. | ||
| + | Black snakeroot and swamproot make good medicine, too.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | walks to Sugartown, 'bout 8 mile away. I ' | ||
| + | a pool totin' me.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | in DeRidder.< | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <hr style=" | ||
| + | <div class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <div class=" | ||
| + | graduate of Washburn College, Topeka, | ||
| + | Kansas, and ex-school teacher, was | ||
| + | born a slave to Mr. George Sullivan | ||
| + | on his 300 acre plantation in Farquier | ||
| + | Co., Virginia. Henry and | ||
| + | a number of other slaves were transported | ||
| + | to Arkansas in 1863, and Henry | ||
| + | escaped and joined the Union Army. | ||
| + | He now lives at 1308 E. Bessie St., | ||
| + | Fort Worth, Texas.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | That figure may not be accurate, but you must realize that there were | ||
| + | no authentic records made of slave births. I estimate my age on the | ||
| + | work I was doing at the commencement of the Civil War and the fact | ||
| + | that I was large enough to be accepted as a soldier in the Union Army, | ||
| + | in the year of 1864.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | Virginia. The plantation was situated in the valley at the base of Bull | ||
| + | Mountain, and presented a beautiful picture. The plantation consisted | ||
| + | of about 30 acres, with about 30 slaves, though this number varied and | ||
| + | sometimes reached 50. Mr. Sullivan owned my mother and her children, | ||
| + | but my father was owned by Mr. John Rector, whose place was adjacent to | ||
| + | ours.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | with no flooring, and very crude furnishings. There were bunks and | ||
| + | benches and a table and the fireplace provided the means for cooking | ||
| + | and heating.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | about all the food was produced and processed on the plantation, which | ||
| + | eliminated any reason for failure to provide ample food. The meat< | ||
| + | was home cured and the ham and bacon had a superior flavor.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | but on the Rector place neither the master nor the overseer seemed to understand | ||
| + | that slaves were human beings. One old slave called Jim, on the Rector | ||
| + | place, disobeyed some rule and early one morning they ordered him to strip. | ||
| + | They tied him to the whipping post and from morning until noon, at intervals, | ||
| + | the lash was applied to his back. I, myself, saw and heard many of the lashes | ||
| + | and his cries for mercy.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | Rector place. The overseer said, 'This row must be laid to the Branch and | ||
| + | left in time to roll those logs out in the back woods.' | ||
| + | we laid the last rail but the overseer put us to rolling logs without any | ||
| + | supper and it was eleven when we completed the task. Old Pete, the ox driver, | ||
| + | became so exhausted that he fell asleep without unyoking the oxen. For that, | ||
| + | he was given 100 lashes.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | permission from the master. The main factor involved in securing the master' | ||
| + | consent was his desire to rear negroes with perfect physiques. On neither | ||
| + | plantation was there any thought or compassion when a sale or trade was in | ||
| + | question. I have seen the separation of husband and wife, child and mother, | ||
| + | and the extreme grief of those involved, and the lash administered to a grieving | ||
| + | slave for neglecting their work. All this made the marriages a farce.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | locating us on a farm near Pine Bluff, so we would not be taken by the Federal | ||
| + | soldiers. The general faithfulness of the slave was noticeable then, as they | ||
| + | had a chance to desert and go to free states. But I think I was the only one<span class=" | ||
| + | who deserted Mr. Sullivan. I went to Federal Headquarters at Fort Smith, | ||
| + | Arkansas, and was received into the army. We campaigned in Arkansas and | ||
| + | nearby territory. The major battle I fought in was that of Pine Bluff, | ||
| + | which lasted one day and part of one night.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | and entered a grade school at Pine Bluff. I worked after school at | ||
| + | any job I could secure and managed to enter Washburn College, in Topeka, | ||
| + | Kansas. After I graduated I followed steam engineering for four years, | ||
| + | but later I went to Fort Worth and spent 22 years in educational work | ||
| + | among my people. I exerted my best efforts to advance my race.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | whom are dead. There is just my wife and me left of the family, and we | ||
| + | have a $75.00 per month Union soldier' | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <hr style=" | ||
| + | <div class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <div class=" | ||
| + | slave of Sam Byrd, near Madisonville, | ||
| + | Texas. William | ||
| + | was with his master during | ||
| + | the Civil War. The old Negro | ||
| + | is very feeble, but enjoyed | ||
| + | talking about old times. He | ||
| + | lives in Madisonville.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | ninety-seven years old, and I's owned by Marse Sam Byrd. My mother' | ||
| + | name was Fannie and I dunno pappy' | ||
| + | she found me a stray in the woods. I allus ' | ||
| + | pappy, but I never did know for sho' | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | cracks and cowhide stretched over, and we'd gather moss 'bout once a | ||
| + | month and make it soft. When it was real cold we'd git close together | ||
| + | and I don't care how cold it got, we'd sleep jes' as warm as these here | ||
| + | feather beds.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | druv Marse Byrd lots, 'cause he was a trader, slave trade most the time. | ||
| + | He was good to us and give us lots to eat. He had a big garden and plenty | ||
| + | sugar cane, and brown sugar. We'd press the juice out the cane 'tween two | ||
| + | logs and cook it in the big washpot.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | no shoes less'n we wropped our feet in fur hides. But them clothes was | ||
| + | warmer than these here cotton overalls. They' | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | a nice home of that day, made out split logs and four rooms and a hall | ||
| + | two ways through it.<span class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | at 3:30 every mornin' | ||
| + | and let us have it, and we knowed what that bell was for nex' mornin' | ||
| + | Sometimes when Marse Sam was gone, we'd have a overseer. He'd let us go swimmin' | ||
| + | in the creek when the work was done.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | time and seventy-five licks the second time and 'bout that time he most gen' | ||
| + | had a good nigger. If they was real mean and he couldn' | ||
| + | put them in the jail with a chain on the feets for three days, and fed 'em through | ||
| + | a crack in the wall.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | fireworks, and the nigger, he know Christmas was come. We had plenty to eat and | ||
| + | eggnog and did 'bout what we pleased that day and New Year' | ||
| + | allus said what we'd do on them days we'd do all year. That's all foolishment, | ||
| + | but some still believes in it.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | Sam, he carries me for waterboy and cook and to tend his hosses. He had two, | ||
| + | and rid one this day and the other nex' day. He was 'fraid one git kilt and | ||
| + | then he wouldn' | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | in a brush top. Then marse goes and gits shot and I has to be his nuss. But, | ||
| + | Lawd-a-me, one them Yankee gals, she falls in love with marse whilst he lays | ||
| + | nearly dead, and she say, ' | ||
| + | him.' And him with a plumb good wife back home!< | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | He was with General Lee when that old war was over and that there Yankee General | ||
| + | Grant takes General Lee prisoner, and Marse Sam won't leave his general, and he say | ||
| + | to me, ' | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | I travels day and night at first. I buys some things to eat but every time I | ||
| + | goes by a farmhouse I steals a chicken. Sometimes I sho' gits hongry. When I | ||
| + | git to the house, Missus Josie faints, 'cause she thunk Marse Sam ain't with me | ||
| + | and he mus' be dead. I tells her he's in prison and she say she'll give me $2.00 | ||
| + | a month to stay till he gits back. I's plumb crazy 'bout a little gal called | ||
| + | ' | ||
| + | and that's all to our weddin' | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | offen his body and he ain't shaved in three months and he's mos' starved to death. | ||
| + | Missus Josie she don't even rec' | ||
| + | her dat am Marse Sam, all right. He stays sick a whole year.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | dey oughtn' | ||
| + | what they is, us niggers been lots worser off than we was. In slavery time when | ||
| + | the nigger am sick, his master pay de bills, but when nigger sick now, that's his | ||
| + | own lookout.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | only my las' wife am livin' now. My four boys and two gals is all farmin' | ||
| + | here in the county and they helps us out. We gits by somehow.< | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <hr style=" | ||
| + | <div class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <div class=" | ||
| + | Carolina, a slave of Samuel Cain. | ||
| + | After Louis was freed, he came to | ||
| + | Texas, and has farmed near Madisonville | ||
| + | over sixty years.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | that. My master traded me to Massa Joe Cutt for a hundred acres of land. | ||
| + | That's in 1861, and I ' | ||
| + | old Massa Cain, and mammy was Josie Jones, 'cause she owned by ' | ||
| + | Mammy was birthed in North Carolina, but daddy allus say he come from Africy. | ||
| + | He say they didn't work hard over there, 'cause all they et come out the | ||
| + | jungle, and they had all the wives they wanted. That was the ' | ||
| + | there.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | cowsheds or chicken houses, and one door to each room. The bed was a hole | ||
| + | dug in a corner and poles around and shucks and straw. We'd sleep warm all | ||
| + | night long, but it wouldn' | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | bread and cooked in the ashes. We didn't have no stove. Massa was a great | ||
| + | hunter and allus had venison and game. They was plenty fish, too.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | behave. Missy was a good woman. They lived in a two-story rock house with | ||
| + | plenty trees all ' | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | them milked twenty cows and fed the work stock. They was fifty acres and | ||
| + | not 'nough niggers to work it easy.< | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | feet and tied them to a tree and hit 'bout twenty-five or fifty licks with | ||
| + | a rawhide belt. Hide and blood flew then. Next mornin' | ||
| + | and they'd have to work all day without nothin' | ||
| + | jail for the nigger women, and chain them in with cornbread and one glass of | ||
| + | water.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | with the dogs and took a hot iron and brands him. Then he put a bell on him, | ||
| + | in a wooden frame what slip over the shoulders and under the arms. He made | ||
| + | that nigger wear the bell a year and took it off on Christmas for a present to | ||
| + | him. It sho' did make a good nigger out of him.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | folks first while the old nigger mammies shouts, and then the niggers.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | women washed massa' | ||
| + | all night long, and Sunday the men went to see they wives or sweethearts and | ||
| + | us young' | ||
| + | go to bed at nine o' | ||
| + | was time to put out the torches and pile in.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | they'd throw nuts and candy to me. That night all the slaves what could | ||
| + | brung they banjoes and fiddles and played for the white folks to dance all | ||
| + | night. Them great old days are done gone. Most the men be full that good, | ||
| + | old eggnog.< | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | nothin' | ||
| + | him home and buried him under a big shade tree in the yard. That the saddes' | ||
| + | time I ever seen, nobody there to do anythin' | ||
| + | and some real young niggers like me. She was cryin' and all us slaves takin' | ||
| + | on. It's a wonder we ever did git massa buried. We carried him on our backs | ||
| + | to the grave.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | everything, house and sheds and all, was burnt, and all her stock kilt by | ||
| + | sojers and outlaws. When she come out of hidin' she didn't have a thing, not | ||
| + | even a bed.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | quarters for you.' She went to work to rebuild the place. She said, 'You | ||
| + | niggers is free, but I need you and I'll pay you $2.00 a month.' | ||
| + | She cut some logs and builded her one room and then we all build us a room | ||
| + | and that was the best we could do. I 'lieve the Lawd blessed that woman. | ||
| + | After freedom, that's how I lived the first year, and she paid me every cent | ||
| + | she promised. I stayed with her three years.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | big weddin' | ||
| + | cents a day and it never lasted more'n a year, so I goes to farmin' | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | Texas. I has more'n a hundred grandchillun. Josie, she done die twenty years | ||
| + | ago.< | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | but they was plenty of land for everybody, and missy allus treated us right. | ||
| + | Wages was terrible small for a long time after I married and sometimes they | ||
| + | wouldn' | ||
| + | nothin' | ||
| + | the niggers would have went on the warpath for starvin' | ||
| + | wouldn' | ||
| + | and hit them with rawhide, but never say a word. That was got the niggers& | ||
| + | was so silent, not a sound out of them, and the nigger he can't stand | ||
| + | that.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | niggers is purty sorry, they's had so much and don't ' | ||
| + | I's glad for what I can git, 'cause I ' | ||
| + | war when it was worse' | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <hr style=" | ||
| + | <div class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <div class=" | ||
| + | born a slave of the Calhoun | ||
| + | family, in Alton, Alabama. | ||
| + | After his master died, a son-in-law, | ||
| + | Jim Robinson, brought | ||
| + | Jeff and 200 other slaves to | ||
| + | Austin, Texas. Jeff was 22 | ||
| + | when the Civil War began. | ||
| + | He stayed with his old master, | ||
| + | who had moved to Stewart Mills | ||
| + | Texas, after he was freed, and | ||
| + | raised 23 children. He says, | ||
| + | "I 'spect I has near a thous- children, grandchildren and | ||
| + | great grandchildren." | ||
| + | his home among them, drifting | ||
| + | over five states when and as | ||
| + | he wishes.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | about 1838, 'cause I's told by my massa. Dat makes me 'bout 98 year | ||
| + | old now. My father was Henry Robinson and my mammy, she Mary Robinson. | ||
| + | She was born in Maryland, in Virginia, but didn't know much 'bout her | ||
| + | folks, 'cause she was sold off young. Dere was four of us brothers | ||
| + | and ten sisters, but dey all dead now but me.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | 'cause de floors was dirt. We sets de pole in dat ground and it run | ||
| + | to de top of de cabin and we makes one bed down low and one bed above. | ||
| + | De big folks sleeps in de low beds and de chillun above, 'cause dey | ||
| + | can climb.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | dem, 'cause his wife was no good to give milk.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | woods and git deer and turkey and buffalo and some bear. I have eat | ||
| + | hoss and skunk and crow and hawk.< | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | we put one leaf down and put batter on dat and put another leaf over | ||
| + | it and cover with hot ashes and by noon it was done. Same thing for | ||
| + | supper. We never have biscuits 'cept on Sunday or Christmas.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | britches, and we raises indigo on de place and makes dye of it. | ||
| + | We never wore no shoes in de summer and some winters neither. We has | ||
| + | a good pair of pants and shirt we wears Sundays and holidays and was | ||
| + | married in.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | and tell your boss. If she was from another plantation you had to | ||
| + | git her bosses ' | ||
| + | git hitched up. They says to de girl, ' | ||
| + | to de man, 'You loves dis girl?' If you say you don't know, it's all | ||
| + | off, but if you say yes, dey brings in de broom and holds it 'bout a | ||
| + | foot off de floor and say to you to jump over. Den he says you's married. | ||
| + | If either of you stumps you toe on de broom, dat mean you got trouble | ||
| + | comin' 'tween you, so you sho' jumps high.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | and was all fixed up with pretty furniture and mirrors and silver on | ||
| + | de table. De missus was little and frail, but she was good to us and | ||
| + | so was de massa. He wasn't no hand to whip like some of he neighbors. | ||
| + | Dey would tied de slaves' | ||
| + | Dey was whipped for runnin' | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | auction block and his massa chained him hand and foot and started for | ||
| + | Texas. Dey got to de Red River and was crossin' | ||
| + | down and he never came up. And I have a uncle what run off and dey took | ||
| + | a pack of hounds& | ||
| + | heared dem runnin' | ||
| + | gun loaded with buck shot but was sposed not to shoot above de legs. | ||
| + | Dey come back and said he got away, but some boys was out huntin' | ||
| + | finds him and he been shot four times with buck shot.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | and Christmas, and one day Thanksgiving. We got de big dinners on holidays. | ||
| + | After supper was have corn shuckings, or on rainy days, and sometimes | ||
| + | we shucks 500 bushels. We allus picked de cotton in big baskets, | ||
| + | and when we gits it all picked we spreads on big and has a celebration.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | times to de gin where was de soldier camp, and I helped cook awhile and | ||
| + | would have been in de battle of Vicksburg only dey takes another man | ||
| + | 'stead of me and he gits kilt. I's glad I's a sorry cook, or I'd got | ||
| + | kilt 'stead of him.< | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <hr style=" | ||
| + | <div class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <div class=" | ||
| + | <img src=" | ||
| + | <br />< | ||
| + | </ | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <div class=" | ||
| + | 1860, in Harrison County, Texas, | ||
| + | He belonged to W.L. Sloan and | ||
| + | stayed with him until 1883, when | ||
| + | Simp married and moved to Marshall. | ||
| + | He and his wife live in Gregg Addition, | ||
| + | Marshall, Texas, and Simp | ||
| + | works as porter for a loan company.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | me Simp. I's born right here in Harrison County, on Bill Sloan' | ||
| + | nine miles northwest of Marshall. I got in on the last five years of slavery.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | to Marse Sloan and fotched to Texas, but he allus kep' the Campbell name. | ||
| + | Mammy was Mariah and the Sloans brung her out of South Carolina. She raised | ||
| + | a passel of chillen. Besides me there was Flint, Albert and Clinton of the | ||
| + | boys, and& | ||
| + | and Millie of the girls.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | fixed 'bout as good as anybody in the county and driv as good hosses and rigs | ||
| + | as anybody. They wasn't a mean streak in the whole Sloan family.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | house. They had beds made to the wall, and all the cookin' | ||
| + | We raised all our meat and corn and garden truck right there on the | ||
| + | place and Marse Sloan brung wheat and other rations from Shreveport. The | ||
| + | nigger women spinned all the cloth and pappy made shoes by hand, when they | ||
| + | kilt a beef. The beef was dried and jetted and hung in the smokehouse.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | slaves, with a overseer, Johnson, and a nigger driver. Us niggers was | ||
| + | treated well but the overseer had order to whip us for fightin' | ||
| + | nigger driver hit too many licks, the overseer sold him off the place.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | round and talked till nine and then had to go to bed. On Saturday night | ||
| + | you'd hear them fiddles and banjoes playin' | ||
| + | them music gadgets was homemade. The banjoes was made of round pieces of | ||
| + | wood, civered with sheepskin and strung with catgut strings.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | and writin' | ||
| + | They was a church on the Sloan place and white preachers done most the ' | ||
| + | Mammy allus say the cullud preachers had to preach what they's told& | ||
| + | master and missus.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | sot us free right after surrender, but my folks stayed on with him till he died, | ||
| + | in 1906. I lef when I's twenty-three and marries and made a livin' from public | ||
| + | work in Marshall all my life. I worked as day laborer and raised two boys and | ||
| + | two girls and the boys is farmin' | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | a " | ||
| + | They told us niggers if we'd vote that ticket we'd be rec' | ||
| + | but I didn't 'lieve a word of it. Old Man Sloan told all his niggers that and | ||
| + | they all voted that ticket but two& | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | priv' | ||
| + | holds them back.< | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <hr style=" | ||
| + | <div class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <div class=" | ||
| + | <img src=" | ||
| + | <br />< | ||
| + | </ | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <div class=" | ||
| + | in a dilapidated little shack | ||
| + | in the rear of the stockyards in | ||
| + | Fort Worth, Texas, was born a slave | ||
| + | to Mr. Bob Houston, who owned a | ||
| + | large ranch in southeast Texas. | ||
| + | James' parents came direct from | ||
| + | Africa into slavery. James spent | ||
| + | his youth as a cowboy, fought in | ||
| + | the Confederate army, was wounded | ||
| + | and has an ugly shoulder scar. | ||
| + | After the war, James unknowingly | ||
| + | took a job with the outlaw, Jesse | ||
| + | James, for whom he worked three | ||
| + | years, in Missouri. He then came | ||
| + | back to Texas, and worked in the | ||
| + | stockyards until 1928. Documentary | ||
| + | proof of James' age is lacking, | ||
| + | but various facts told him by his | ||
| + | parents and others lead him to | ||
| + | think he must be over 100 years old.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | month or de year for sho', but 'twas more dan 100 years ago. My | ||
| + | mammy and pappy was bo'n in Africa, dats what dey's tol' me. Dey | ||
| + | was owned by Marster Bob Houston and him had de ranch down dere, | ||
| + | whar dey have cattle and hosses.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | ride, tendin' | ||
| + | de time gwine after hosses. I goes with dem to Mexico. We crosses | ||
| + | de river lots of times. I ' | ||
| + | 200 hosses north' | ||
| + | of de herd and dat herd turns and starts de other way. Dere was five | ||
| + | of us riders and we had to keep dem hosses from scatterment. I was | ||
| + | de leader and do you know what happens to dis nigger if my hoss stumbles? | ||
| + | Right dere's whar I'd still be! Marster give me a new saddle for savin' | ||
| + | de hosses.< | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | like to jine de army?' You see, de war had started. I says to him, | ||
| + | 'What does I have to do?' And he says, 'Tend hosses and ride ' | ||
| + | I was young den and thought it would be lots of fun, so I says I'd go. | ||
| + | So de first thing I knows, I's in de army away off east from here, | ||
| + | somewhar dis side of St. Louis and in Tennessee and Arkansas and other | ||
| + | places. I goes in de army 'stead of Dr. Carroll.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | hosses and ridin' wasn' all I does. No, sar, I has to do shootin' | ||
| + | git shooted at! One time we stops de train, takes Yankee money and lots | ||
| + | of other things off dat train. Dat was way up de other side of Tennessee.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | three days and nights. I's not tendin' | ||
| + | rifle and sends me up front fightin', | ||
| + | heap of runnin' | ||
| + | When de order comes to ' | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | gits killed and we loses our supply, jus' leaves it and runs. ' | ||
| + | we fights two days and nights and de Yankees was bad dat time, too, and we | ||
| + | had to run through de river. I sho' thought I's gwine git drowned den. | ||
| + | Dat's de time we tries to git in St. Louis, but de Yankee mans stop us.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | and gits a job doin' cowboy work for Marster Ross herdin' | ||
| + | right dere's whar I's lucky for not gittin' | ||
| + | way: I's in town and dat man, Ross, says to me, 'I unnerstan' | ||
| + | good cowhand,' | ||
| + | 'fore we comes to de ranch with cattle and I goes to work. After I's | ||
| + | workin' | ||
| + | often and I says to myself, ' | ||
| + | to buy all dem steers.' | ||
| + | jus' brings 'em in and drives dem ' | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | comes back, one of 'em was missin' | ||
| + | talks 'bout gittin' | ||
| + | myself, 'What for was dey chased and shot at?' Den I ' | ||
| + | Bob Houston done tol' me 'bout rustlers and how dey's hanged when dey's | ||
| + | caught, and I knows den dat's how come all dem fine steers is driv in | ||
| + | and out all de time. But how to git 'way, dere's de puzzlement. I not | ||
| + | know which way to go and dere's no houses anywhere near. I keeps gittin' | ||
| + | scarter, and ever' time somebody comes, I thinks its de law. But Marster | ||
| + | Ross drives de cattle north and I says to him, ' | ||
| + | drive. Kin I go with you nex' <a name=' | ||
| + | dat we starts and we gits to Kansas City. After Marster Ross gets shut of | ||
| + | de critters, he says. ' | ||
| + | says to me, 'Not dis nigger.'</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | man and he's tall, had dark hair and was fine lookin' | ||
| + | you a cowhand?' | ||
| + | farm in Missouri and he says, 'Come with me.' He tells me his name was<span class=" | ||
| + | James and takes me to his farm whar I tends cattle and hosses for | ||
| + | three years and he pays me well. He gives me more'n I earns. After | ||
| + | three years I leaves, but not 'cause I larned he was outlaw, 'cause | ||
| + | I larned dat long time afterwa' | ||
| + | how I comes to Fort Worth and here's whar I's stayed ever' since.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | We sep' | ||
| + | but not de army.< | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <hr style=" | ||
| + | <div class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <div class=" | ||
| + | old ex-slave, was born in Memphis, | ||
| + | Tennessee. Mr. Billy Coats bought | ||
| + | him and his mother and brought them | ||
| + | to Bastrop Co., Texas. He came to | ||
| + | Houston 20 years ago and lives in | ||
| + | a negro settlement known as Acres | ||
| + | Home, about 8 miles northeast of | ||
| + | Houston. It is a wooded section, | ||
| + | with a clearing here and there for | ||
| + | a Negro shack and plots of ground | ||
| + | for growing " | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | Melia Carruthers and my papa's name was Max. My papa's papa's | ||
| + | name was Carruthers, too. My brothers names was Charlie and Frank | ||
| + | and Willie and John and Tom and Adam.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | and us and with about 500 of his slaves we set out to come to Texas. | ||
| + | We goes to Bastrop County and starts to work. My old missy& | ||
| + | name was Missy Myra& | ||
| + | egg and had wens on it as big as eggs, too.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | had log cabins and they burned down oftentimes. The chimney would | ||
| + | cotch fire, 'cause it was made out of sticks and clay and moss. Many | ||
| + | the time we have to git up at midnight and push the chimney 'way from | ||
| + | the house to keep the house from burnin' | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | just rough, and the beds was built like scaffoldin' | ||
| + | of mattress out of corn shucks or moss.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | born of the debbil, himse' | ||
| + | ' | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | jump quick enough when he holler and he stake us out like you stake out | ||
| + | a hide and whup till we bleed. Many the time I set down and made a eight-plait | ||
| + | whup, so he could whup from the heels to the back of the head 'til | ||
| + | he figger he get the proper ret' | ||
| + | on the nigger so he smart and burn proper and suffer mis' | ||
| + | a caliboose right on the plantation, what look like a ice-house, and it | ||
| + | was sho' bad to git locked up in it.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | you had two in the family, they ' | ||
| + | and 12 to 15 pounds bacon and a peck of meal. We have to take the meal | ||
| + | and parch it and make coffee out of it. We had our flours. One of them | ||
| + | we called biscuit flour and we called it ' | ||
| + | and buck grain.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | and git a chicken. That easy ' | ||
| + | problem. You have to cotch him by the snoot so he won't squeal, and clomp | ||
| + | him tight while you knife him. That ain't stealin', | ||
| + | right on workin' | ||
| + | like to work with his belly groanin' | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | claim he gittin the text right out from the good Book and he preach: 'The | ||
| + | Lord say, don't you niggers steal chickens from your missus. Don't you steal | ||
| + | YOUR MARSTER' | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | sometime we come out of the field, between 11 and 12 at night, scorchin' | ||
| + | and burnin' | ||
| + | have mercy. We puts grease in a snuff pan or bottle and make a lamp. We | ||
| + | takes a pine torch, too, and goes down in the hollow to pray. Some gits | ||
| + | so joyous they starts to holler loud and we has to stop up they mouth. I | ||
| + | see niggers git so full of the Lawd and so happy they draps unconscious.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | lazy 'round and if I see the overseer comin' from the big house I sings a | ||
| + | song to warn 'em, so they not git whupped, and it go like this:</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p> | ||
| + | "' | ||
| + | Hold up, hold up, H-O-O-O-O-O-O-O!'< | ||
| + | </p> | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | and coons. We have bear dawgs, fox dawg and rabbit dawg that mostly jus' | ||
| + | go by the name of houn' dawg. Then they have a dawg to run niggers.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | and thimbles and needles and mix them up in a conjure bag. But I knows one | ||
| + | thing. They was a old gin between Wilbarger and Colorado and it was hanted | ||
| + | with spirits of kilt niggers. Us used to hear that old mill hummin' | ||
| + | dark come and we slip up easy, but it stop, then when you slip away it start up.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | it jedgment day. It sure dumb old Debbil Hill, them stars was over his | ||
| + | power.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | was so hard and stiff they go 'tump, tump, tump,' when we walk. That's | ||
| + | the only day we got 'cept Christmas and we jus' got somethin'< | ||
| + | extry to eat. All them women sho' knowed how to cook! I often tell my | ||
| + | wife how glad I was one mornin' | ||
| + | I goes down and shows it to all the other boys. We didn't git them hot, | ||
| + | butter biscuits in them days.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | Was them womenfolks knock-kneed? | ||
| + | swung 'em ' | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | Durin' slave time I been so cold I mos' turn white and they sot me 'fore | ||
| + | the fire and poultice me with sliced turnips. Come a norther and it | ||
| + | blow with snow and sleet and I didn't have 'nough clothes to keep me warm.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | brass-toed shoes, then the preacher marry him out of the Bible. My pappy | ||
| + | have a pass to visit my mammy and if he don't have one, the paddle roller | ||
| + | conk him on the head. My grandma and grandpa come here in a steamboat. | ||
| + | The man come to Africa and say, 'Man and woman, does you want a job?' So | ||
| + | they gits on the boat and then he has the ' | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | free man. That the day I shouted. We niggers scattered like partridges. | ||
| + | I had a fiddle and I'd play for the white folks wherever I went, when they | ||
| + | has the balls. I marries after ' | ||
| + | we never done paid no ' | ||
| + | time, I think 'bout 34 year and I married another and she died this | ||
| + | very year. Jus' three months later I marries my housekeeper, | ||
| + | Luvena Dixon, cause I allus lived a upright life and I knowed the | ||
| + | Lawd wouldn' | ||
| + | without we was married. She is 52 year old, and we is happy.< | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <hr style=" | ||
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| + | |||
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| + | <img src=" | ||
| + | <br />< | ||
| + | </ | ||
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| + | <br />< | ||
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| + | |||
| + | <div class=" | ||
| + | or 1837, near Pineapple, Wilcox | ||
| + | County, Alabama, a slave | ||
| + | of the Carter family. He and | ||
| + | his wife live at 3429 Booth St., | ||
| + | Dallas, Texas.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | 'round to hunt for him. I been goin' every day on the truck to the cotton | ||
| + | patches. I don't pick no more, 'count my hands git too tired and begin to | ||
| + | cramp on me. But I go and set in the field and watch the lunches for the | ||
| + | other hands.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | twenty-nine, | ||
| + | my folks live that way. My old, black mammy, Zenie Carter, lived to be | ||
| + | a hunerd twenty-five, | ||
| + | of my daddy& | ||
| + | Carter, my own daddy, lived to be very ageable, but I don't know when he | ||
| + | died.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | creepin' | ||
| + | built on the big house, where I stayed, and they was allus good to me, 'cause | ||
| + | I's one of their blood. They never hit me a lick or slapped me once, and told | ||
| + | me they'd never sell me away from them. They was the bes' quality white folks | ||
| + | and lived in a big, two-story house with a big hall what run all the way | ||
| + | through the house. They wasn't rough as some white folks on their niggers.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | a long row of cabins, some bigger than t' | ||
| + | massa had over eighty head of slaves. Them li'l, old cabins was cozy, ' | ||
| + | we chinked 'em with mud and they had stick chimneys daubed with mud, mixed | ||
| + | with hawg-hair.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | bedsteads helt together with ropes drawed tight, to hold them. We scalded | ||
| + | moss and buried it awhile and stuffed it into tickin' | ||
| + | Them beds slep' good, better' | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | us niggers a pint of flour and a chicken, for to cook a mess of victuals. | ||
| + | Then there was plenty game to find. Many a time I've kilt seventy-five or | ||
| + | eighty squirrels out of one big beech. There was lots of deer and bears and | ||
| + | quails and every other kind of game, but when they ran the Indians out of | ||
| + | the country, the game jus' followed the Indians. I've seed the bigges' | ||
| + | of deer followin' | ||
| + | game all lef' with them, for some reason I dunno.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | all places. Some of the plantations half starved their niggers and ' | ||
| + | out their eatin' till they wasn't fittin' | ||
| + | to niggers on other places to piece out their meals. They had field calls and | ||
| + | other kinds of whoops and hollers, what had a meanin' | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | of cotton and corn and rice and ribbon cane we raised in the bottoms, we had | ||
| + | veg' | ||
| + | used to tend it. But bes' of anythin' | ||
| + | allus liked honey. Some the niggers had li'l garden patches they tended for | ||
| + | themselves.< | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | you. I heard plenty things from my mammy and grandpappy. He was a fine diver | ||
| + | and used to dive in the Alabama river for things what was wrecked out of boats, | ||
| + | and the white folks would git him to go down for things they wanted. They'd | ||
| + | let him down by a rope to find things on the bottom of the riverbed. He used | ||
| + | to git a piece of money for doin' it.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | a Choctaw Indian. That's what makes me so mixed up with Indian and African and | ||
| + | white blood. Sometimes it mattered to me, sometimes it didn' | ||
| + | more, 'cause I'm not too far from the end of my days.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | The Carters told me never to worry 'bout them, though, 'cause my mammy was of | ||
| + | their blood and all of us in our fam'ly would never be sold, and sometime they'd | ||
| + | make free man and women of us. My brother and sister lived with the niggers, | ||
| + | though.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | then, a ' | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | bought fine clothes. In the summer when I was a li'l one, I wore lowerin' | ||
| + | the rest of the niggers. That was things made from cotton sackin' | ||
| + | boys wore shirttails till they was big yearlin' | ||
| + | from the town, I cried and cried. I didn't want to wear no rawhide shoes. So | ||
| + | they took 'em back. They had a weakness for my cryin' | ||
| + | clothes, good woolen suits they spinned on the place, and doeskins and fine< | ||
| + | linens. I druv in the car' | ||
| + | dudish nigger in them parts.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | was when the mammies was confined with babies havin' to suck, they had to spin. | ||
| + | I'd take them the thread and bring it back to the house when it was spinned. | ||
| + | If they didn't spin seven or eight cuts a day, they'd git a whuppin' | ||
| + | consid' | ||
| + | them babies had to be took to the big house, so the white folks could see | ||
| + | if they's dressed right. They was money tied up in li'l nigger young' | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | some in the tan'ry and we made the whips. They'd tie them down to a stob, | ||
| + | and give 'em the whuppin' | ||
| + | but they got it. The nigger driver was meaner than the white folks. They'd | ||
| + | better not leave a blade of grass in the rows. I seed 'em beat a nigger | ||
| + | half a day to make him 'fess up to stealin' | ||
| + | whup 'em for runnin' | ||
| + | ' | ||
| + | to run 'em down with the nigger dogs, they'd git in bad trouble.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | of 'em plenty on other places. When they was real ' | ||
| + | folks said they was like mad dogs and didn't mind to kill them so much as | ||
| + | killin' | ||
| + | bury 'em face downward, with their shoes on. I never seed it done, but they | ||
| + | made some the niggers go for a lesson to them that they could git the same.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | the other niggers. I had a cap with a sign on it: ' | ||
| + | or there will be Hell to pay.' I went after the mail, in the town. It come | ||
| + | in coaches and they put on fresh hosses at Pineapple. The coachman run the | ||
| + | hosses into Pineapple with a big to-do and blowin' | ||
| + | hosses ready. I got the mail. I was a trusty all my days and never been | ||
| + | ' | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | syrup makin' time, 'cause when they had to work till midnight makin' syrup, | ||
| + | its four o' | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | on it. They shucked it in the fiel' and shocked the fodder. They did it by | ||
| + | sides and all hands out. A beef was kilt and they'd have a reg' | ||
| + | feastin' | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | the bakin' and preparin' | ||
| + | were glad, ' | ||
| + | Oll Carter got the bes' whiskey for his niggers.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | reels, and niggers love to dance and sing and eat.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | and had a li'l log chapel for worship. But I went to the white folks church. | ||
| + | In the chapel some nigger mens preached from the Bible, but couldn' | ||
| + | line no more than a sheep could. The Carters didn't mind their niggers prayin' | ||
| + | and singin' | ||
| + | they had to put their heads in pots to sing or pray.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | after the breakin' | ||
| + | married on the places, mostly they jus' jumped over a broom and that made 'em | ||
| + | married. Sometimes one the white folks read a li'l out of the Scriptures to | ||
| + | 'em and they felt more married.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | sick. There was jaundice in them bottoms. First off they'd give some castor oil, | ||
| + | and if that didn't cure they'd give blue mass. Then if he was still sick they'd | ||
| + | git a doctor.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | didn't think no diff' | ||
| + | them somethin' | ||
| + | a clown and made funny talk and kep' everybody laughin' | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | me and said, 'Cato, you's allus been a ' | ||
| + | after the women and the place. If I don't come back, I want you to allus stay by | ||
| + | Missie Adeline! I said, 'Fore Gawd, I will, Massa Oll.' He said, 'Then I can | ||
| + | go away peaceable.'</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | but there was plenty bad times to go through. I carried a gun and guarded the | ||
| + | place at nighttime. The paddyrollers was bad. I cotched one and took him to the | ||
| + | house more'n once. They wore black caps and put black rags over their faces and | ||
| + | was allus skullduggerying 'round at night. We didn't use torches any more when | ||
| + | we went 'round at night, 'cause we was afeared. We put out all the fires 'round | ||
| + | the house at nighttime.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | big road. Their clothes was good and we used to feed them the best we had on the<span class=" | ||
| + | place. Missie Adeline would say, 'Cato, they is our boys and give them the best this | ||
| + | place ' | ||
| + | was at first.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | lookin' | ||
| + | boys and we got to feed them, too.' We had a pavilion built in the yard, like they | ||
| + | had at picnics, and we fed the Fed' | ||
| + | and says to the Yankees, ' | ||
| + | If you take Cato, I just don't know what I'll do.' I tells them sojers I got to stay | ||
| + | by Missie Adeline so long as I live. The Yankee mens say to her, ' | ||
| + | we ain't gwine to take Cato or harm nothin' | ||
| + | right by us, was 'cause we prepared for them, but with some folks they was rough | ||
| + | somethin' | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | of cannon balls. There was springs not too far from our place and the sojers used | ||
| + | to camp there and build a fire and cook a mule, 'cause they'd got down to starvation. | ||
| + | When some of the guerillas seed the fire they'd aim to it, and many a time they | ||
| + | spoiled that dinner for them sojers. The Yankees did it and our boys did it, too. | ||
| + | There was killin' | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | the niggers to the front yard and says, 'Mens and womens, you are today as free as | ||
| + | I am. You are free to do as you like, 'cause the damned Yankees done 'creed you are. | ||
| + | They ain't a nigger on my place what was born here or ever lived here who can't stay | ||
| + | here and work and eat to the end of his days, as long as this old place will raise | ||
| + | peas and goobers. Go if you wants, and stay if you wants.'< | ||
| + | Some of the niggers stayed and some went, and some what had run away to the North | ||
| + | come back. They allus called, real humble like, at the back gate to Missie Adeline, | ||
| + | and she allus fixed it up with Massa Oll they could have a place.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | if the Fed' | ||
| + | started driftin' | ||
| + | the wagons and the mens on foot. Some took slaves to Texas after the Fed' | ||
| + | done 'creed the breakin' | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | They was a nigger workin' | ||
| + | Oll got mad, and he give me a gun and said, 'Go out there and kill that man.' | ||
| + | I said, 'Massa Oll, please don't tell me that. I ain't never kilt nobody and | ||
| + | I don't want to.' He said, 'Cato, you do what I tell you.' He meant it. I | ||
| + | went out to the nigger and said, 'You has got to leave this minute, and I is, too, | ||
| + | 'cause I is 'spose to kill you, only I ain't and Massa Oll will kill me.' He | ||
| + | drops the hanes and we run and crawled through the fence and ran away.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | barrel, and pickled pork for $15.00 a barrel. You couldn' | ||
| + | with gold. I had plenty of ' | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | I is allus been glad I didn't kill that man.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | for $500.00. But the Yankees give me a mule and I farmed a year for a white man | ||
| + | and watched a herd of mules, too. I stayed with them mules till four o' | ||
| + | even Sundays. So many scoundrels was goin' 'bout, stealin' | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | $360.00. The bureau come by that year lookin' | ||
| + | they didn't git skunt out their rightful wages. Missie Adeline and Massa Oll | ||
| + | didn't stay mad at me and every Sunday they come by to see me, and brung me | ||
| + | li'l del' | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | read or write, and they said my daddy done put up $500.00 for me to go to the | ||
| + | New Allison school for cullud folks. Miss Benson, a Yankee, was the teacher. | ||
| + | I was twenty-nine years old and jus' startin' | ||
| + | went to school a while, but one mornin' | ||
| + | by and called me out. She told me she got put out, 'cause she too old to work | ||
| + | in the fiel'. I told her not to worry, that I'm the family man now, and she | ||
| + | didn't never need to git any more three-quarter hand wages no more.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | I never had no trouble findin' | ||
| + | a good nigger. I lef' my mammy with some fine white folks and she raised a whole | ||
| + | family of chillen for them. Their name was Bryan and they lived on a li'l bayou. | ||
| + | Them young' | ||
| + | her, 'cause she'd have the bes' of care and when she died they'd tend to her | ||
| + | buryin' | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | out here. I got a job splittin' | ||
| + | mostly. I married a woman and lived with her forty-seven years, rain or shine. | ||
| + | We had thirteen chillen and eight of them is livin' today.< | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | wanted to go back home and see her and the old places. I went, and she was | ||
| + | shriveled up to not much of anything. That's the last time I saw her. But | ||
| + | for forty-four years I didn't forget to send her things I thought she'd want. | ||
| + | I saw Massa Oll and he done married after I left and raised a family of chillen. | ||
| + | I saw Missie Adeline and she was a old <a name=' | ||
| + | tombstones and the rock markers in the graveyard on the old place, and some of | ||
| + | them done near melted away. I looked good at lots of things, 'cause I knowed | ||
| + | I wouldn' | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | but she's old and done lost her voice, and has to be in Terrell most the time. | ||
| + | But I git 'long all right, 'cept my hands cramps some.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | time, but this is the first time I ever had my picture took. If I'd knowed | ||
| + | you wanted to do that, I'd have tidied up and put on my best.< | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <hr style=" | ||
| + | <div class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <div class=" | ||
| + | near Austin, Texas. Dick Townes | ||
| + | owned Jack and his parents. | ||
| + | After they were freed, the family | ||
| + | stayed on the plantation, | ||
| + | but Jack went to San Angelo, | ||
| + | because "times was too dull in | ||
| + | Travis County."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | He <a name=' | ||
| + | slaves. We had the best master in the whole county, and everybody called | ||
| + | us " | ||
| + | him, raisin' | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | in the quarters, but I lived in master' | ||
| + | There was a tall fence 'tween the yard and the quarters and the other | ||
| + | nigger boys was so jealous of me they wouldn' | ||
| + | into the quarters. They told me I thinked I was white, jes' for livin' in | ||
| + | master' | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | steal chickens from Old Miss and go down in the orchard and barbecue 'em. One | ||
| + | time she cotched us and sho' wore us out! She'd send us to pick peas, but | ||
| + | few peas we picked!</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | in the night she'd put on boots and take her lantern and go see about it. | ||
| + | If we needed a doctor she'd send for old Dr. Rector and when I had the | ||
| + | measles he give me some pills big as the end of my finger.< | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | and fotched all us chillen to the house and read the Bible to us. She was kind | ||
| + | of a old maid and that was her pleasure. We had baptisin' | ||
| + | man was a preacher. Lawd, Lawd, we had shoutin' | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | managin' | ||
| + | paper. The old slaves knowed what it meant, but us young ones didn' | ||
| + | everybody they could stay and work on shares and most of 'em did, but some went | ||
| + | back to they old homes in Alabama.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | times was dull in Travis County and I done hear so much talk 'bout this town I | ||
| + | said I was comin' and see for myself. That was in 1900 and it was jes' a forest | ||
| + | here then. I worked eighteen years in McCloskey' | ||
| + | dollars every Christmas 'sides my pay and a suit every year. I wish he was | ||
| + | livin' now. My wife and I was together fifty-two years and then she died. | ||
| + | After a long time I married again, and my wife is out pickin' | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | it was any better in slavery days. It seems mighty hard though, since I'm old | ||
| + | and can't work.< | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <hr style=" | ||
| + | <div class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <div class=" | ||
| + | Ben Chambers of Liberty, does | ||
| + | not know her age. She was born | ||
| + | a slave of Jim Moore, in Oakland, | ||
| + | Louisiana. Sally has been married | ||
| + | three times and has had | ||
| + | seven children, about 54 grandchildren | ||
| + | and 13 great-grandchildren. | ||
| + | Heavy gold earrings | ||
| + | hang from her ears and she dresses, | ||
| + | even in midsummer, in a long-sleeved | ||
| + | calico shirt, heavy socks | ||
| + | and shoes, and a sweeping skirt | ||
| + | many yards wide.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | borned in de old states, over in Louisiana, round Oakland. I ain't ' | ||
| + | nothin' | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | place on he head, and he am good to de slaves. Not even as stric' as old | ||
| + | missus, what was de big, stout woman. She am terrible stric', | ||
| + | de li'l white chillen too, so dey be good.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | Louisiana. My grandpa was Lewis Moore and grandma name Polly, but dey wasn't | ||
| + | reg' | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | mule wagon with a cover over de top, and he rent de house clost to Liberty. | ||
| + | But de nex' year he find a place on de river bottom near Grand Cane and it | ||
| + | jes' suit him for de slaves he have, so he brung all de rest over from Louisiana.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | eleven more after freedom. When war broke out she have six, but she multiply | ||
| + | after dat. She de milker and washwoman and spinner, and make de good, strong | ||
| + | clothes.< | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | folks house was one dese big, old double-pen house, with de hall down de middle. | ||
| + | Dey have right nice things in it.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | last de week. All de cullud folks cook for deyself ' | ||
| + | dey eats up in de big kitchen. Us have syrup and cornbread and lots of sweet | ||
| + | ' | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | 'cause she Christian. Dey 'low us Saturday and Sunday off, and de women do dey | ||
| + | own washin den'. De menfolks tend to de gardens round dey own house. Dey raise | ||
| + | some cotton and sell it to massa and git li'l money dat way. Us don't never | ||
| + | have no presents, but dey give eatments mostly.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | De oldes' goes crazy, kind of shellshock like. As far as I knowed, he ain't | ||
| + | never git no more better. Young William and de old man comes back without no | ||
| + | scratch, but dey ain't serve long. All dey three 'lists by deyselfs, 'cause | ||
| + | dey didn't have no truck with dem conscrip' | ||
| + | he go to war to wait on de massas, and he struck with de fever at Sabine Pass | ||
| + | and die right dere.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | folks and tell dem dey's free. A heap left, dey jes' broke ranks and left. | ||
| + | My daddy and mama both stay. Dey de fav' | ||
| + | my mama of a heap of things she need. But de white folks was jus' rentin' | ||
| + | and when dey have no slaves no more dey give it up and move to Tarkington | ||
| + | Prairie. Us lost track of dem and ain't never seed dem no more.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | larn me to work and cook and sich and hire me out to nuss a white baby. | ||
| + | I ain't knowed how much dey pay, 'cause mama she collec' | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | dead men, dat Dick Owens and Nero Williams, both of Liberty. I has two | ||
| + | gals, Alice and Airy, for Dick, and five chillen for Nero. Dey all dead | ||
| + | but Adlowyer and Mamie, and dey lives right here. I been marry some thirty | ||
| + | odd year to Ben Chambers but us ain't never have no chillen.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | 54 in all and 13 great ones.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | old to do much. I can't take it but a li'l at a time, but I gits by somehow.< | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <hr style=" | ||
| + | <div class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <div class=" | ||
| + | St., Houston, Texas, was born | ||
| + | in slavery, on the plantation | ||
| + | of Jezro Choice, about 6 miles | ||
| + | south of Henderson, Texas. | ||
| + | Jeptha was sent to school with | ||
| + | the white children, and after | ||
| + | he was freed, he was sent to | ||
| + | school for several years, and | ||
| + | became a teacher. He moved to | ||
| + | Houston in 1888 and opened a | ||
| + | barber shop. Jeptha claims to | ||
| + | have been born on Oct. 17, 1835, | ||
| + | which would make him 101 years | ||
| + | old. He has the appearance of | ||
| + | extreme age, but has a retentive | ||
| + | memory, and his manner of speaking | ||
| + | varies from fairly good English | ||
| + | to typical Negro dialect | ||
| + | and idiom.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | born on Oct. 17, 1835, and besides, I was about 30 years old at the end | ||
| + | of the Civil War. We belonged to the Choices and I was born on their | ||
| + | plantation. My mother' | ||
| + | from Serbia. My father' | ||
| + | They was brought to this country in a slave boat owned by Captain Adair | ||
| + | and sold to someone at New Orleans before Master Jezro Choice bought | ||
| + | them. I had five sisters and one brother but they are all dead, ' | ||
| + | one brother who lives near Henderson.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | mill and tannery besides the plantation. My white folks sort of picked | ||
| + | me out and I went to school with the white children. I went to the | ||
| + | fields when I was about 20, but I didn't do much field works, 'cause they | ||
| + | was keepin' | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | and made a preacher out of him. We niggers had our band, too, and I was<span class=" | ||
| + | one of the players.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | and used us strong, healthy young bucks to stand the healthy nigger | ||
| + | gals. When I was young they took care not to strain me and I was as handsome | ||
| + | as a speckled pup and was in demand for breedin' | ||
| + | was 'lowed to marry and the master and missus would fix the nigger and gal | ||
| + | up and have the doin's in the big house. The white folks would gather | ||
| + | round in a circle with the nigger and gal in the center and then master | ||
| + | laid a broom on the floor and they held hands and jumped over it. That | ||
| + | married 'em for good.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | until they was about three years old they wasn't 'lowed round the quarters, | ||
| + | but was wet nursed by women who didn't work in the field and kept in separate | ||
| + | quarters and in the evenin' | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | Possum and sweet yams is mighty good. You parboil the possum about half done | ||
| + | and put him in a skewer pan and put him in a hot oven and just 'fore he is | ||
| + | done you puts the yams in the pan and sugar on 'em. That's a feast.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | 'bout some ash cakes?' | ||
| + | out of the open hearth and bake the ash cakes.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | I stayed all summer. It was pretty tough on us niggers for a while, 'cause | ||
| + | the womenfolks what was left after the war didn't have money. But Colonel | ||
| + | Jones, the master' | ||
| + | cents a week for more schoolin' | ||
| + | Then I got me a job teachin' | ||
| + | times I'd farm. I did lots of different kinds of work, on the narrow | ||
| + | gauge railroad out of Longview and I learned to be a barber, too. But | ||
| + | I had to give it up a few years back 'cause I can't stand up so long any | ||
| + | more and now I'm tryin' to help my people by divine healing.< | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <hr style=" | ||
| + | <div class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <div class=" | ||
| + | <img src=" | ||
| + | <br />< | ||
| + | </ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <div class=" | ||
| + | <img src=" | ||
| + | <br />< | ||
| + | </ | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <div class=" | ||
| + | slave of Robert Clark, in | ||
| + | Washington County, Texas. | ||
| + | After Amos was freed, he | ||
| + | farmed near Belton, Texas. | ||
| + | Amos now lives in Waco.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | de year, 'cause Marse Bob's brother, Tom, done go tradin' | ||
| + | lot of trouble with de Indians, and come back with scars all over he | ||
| + | arms. It warn't all dey fault, 'cause Marse Tom allus gittin' | ||
| + | trouble with somebody.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | Roseborough, | ||
| + | with beddin' | ||
| + | special horsehair trunk, what de hide still had hair on. It had brass | ||
| + | tacks all trimmin' | ||
| + | 'Amos, you black rascal, keep you eye on dat trunk, and don't git it | ||
| + | wet crossin' | ||
| + | drove of cattle and some sheep and pigs and chickens and ducks.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | axes out and in a few days dere am a nice log house with two big rooms | ||
| + | and a hall 'tween dem, mos' as big as de rooms. Us been on de road | ||
| + | 'bout six weeks and Missis sho' proud of her new house. Den us makes | ||
| + | logs into houses for us and a big kitchen close to de big house. Den | ||
| + | us builds a office for Old Marse and makes chairs and beds and tables | ||
| + | for everybody. Old Miss brung her bed and a spindly, li'l table, and | ||
| + | us make all de rest.< | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | and wild turkeys and sometimes a lot of wild eggs or honey, when dey chops a | ||
| + | bee tree down. A old Indian come to holp us hunt. He'd work a week if Marse | ||
| + | Ed give him some red calico or a hatchet. Old Miss done bring a dozen hens and | ||
| + | a bag of seeds, and folks come ridin' twenty miles to swap things.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | out a log and gits some smooth, hard rocks and us grind de corn like it was a | ||
| + | morter. Old Man Stubblefield builded a watermill on de creek 'bout eight miles | ||
| + | from us, and den us tooken de corn dere.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | work, clearin' | ||
| + | for two years. Jes' quick as dey could, de men gits out clapboards for de | ||
| + | walls and split puncheon slabs for floors and palin' | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | come spring. Somehow she git herself roses and posies and vegetables.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | and see to things. Us didn't know nothin 'bout de war much, 'cause none us could | ||
| + | read or write.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | de big barbecue for folks come from miles round, and coffee and chicken and turkey | ||
| + | and dancin' | ||
| + | dance back de quarters, and call</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p> | ||
| + | "' | ||
| + | All left allemond and right hand grand,< | ||
| + | Meet your partner and prom' | ||
| + | <span class=" | ||
| + | <br /> | ||
| + | "' | ||
| + | Swing Mr. Adam and swing Miss Eve,<br /> | ||
| + | Swing Old Adam befo' you leave,< | ||
| + | Don't forgit your own& | ||
| + | </p> | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | and all dead 'cept John, and he lives out west.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | dance. De young ones he told to scatter out and hunt work, not to steal and | ||
| + | work hard. Some de oldes' ones he give a cabin and a patch of land. He say | ||
| + | de niggers what want to stay on and work for him can, iffen he make enough to | ||
| + | feed dem. I stays with Marse Ed, but he give me a patch of twenty acres and a | ||
| + | sorghum mill to make a livin' on. Dat how I gits on my way after freedom.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | and my patch, and raises corn and cotton and wheat. I was plumb good at farmin' | ||
| + | I allus had a piece or two of money in my pocket since I can ' | ||
| + | de old man's too old. De gov' | ||
| + | I has a few chickens and gits by, and de good white folks nigh by sees dat dis | ||
| + | old boy don't git cold.< | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <hr style=" | ||
| + | <div class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <div class=" | ||
| + | <img src=" | ||
| + | <br />< | ||
| + | </ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <div class=" | ||
| + | <img src=" | ||
| + | <br />< | ||
| + | </ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <div class=" | ||
| + | lives at 3602 Alameda Ave., El Paso, | ||
| + | Texas. She is too crippled to walk, | ||
| + | but a smile lights up the tired old | ||
| + | eyes that still see to sew without | ||
| + | glasses. One tooth of a third set | ||
| + | is in her upper gum. She is deaf, | ||
| + | but can hear if you speak close to | ||
| + | her ear. She says, "Lemma git my | ||
| + | ears open, bofe of ' | ||
| + | finger, then pulls so hard on the | ||
| + | ear lobes it seems they would be | ||
| + | injured.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | Bo'n in Mississippi. I had two marsters, but I've been free | ||
| + | nearly 80 years. I was freed in Memphis.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | made a slave outta me. But he had to go to war. He got in | ||
| + | a quarrel one day and grabbed two six-shooters, | ||
| + | white man got him down and nearly kilt him. Our men got him | ||
| + | and gave him to the Yankees.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | he couldn' | ||
| + | seen! I don' wanna see no more war. Why, we made the United | ||
| + | States rich but the Yankees come and tuk it. They buried money | ||
| + | and when you bury money it goes fu' | ||
| + | then you cain't fin' it.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | in the world. I ploughed, hoed, split rails. I done the hardest | ||
| + | work ever a man ever did. I was so strong, iffen he needed me | ||
| + | I'd pull the men down so the marster could handcuff ' | ||
| + | They'd whop us with a bullwhip. We got up at 3 o' | ||
| + | et and hitched up the mules and went to the fiel' | ||
| + | pullin' | ||
| + | dat fiel' today, and if you don' do it I'll put you in de stocks.' | ||
| + | he'd whop me iffen I didn' know he was talkin' | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | helped the marster, but one day the marster says, 'Si, you got to have a | ||
| + | whoppin', | ||
| + | me.' An' the marster says, 'But I kin kill you,' an' he shot my poppa | ||
| + | down. My mama tuk him in the cabin and put him on a pallet. He died.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | on her head and a bucket of water in her hand. My mama had two white | ||
| + | chillen by marster and they were sold as slaves. I had two chillen, too. | ||
| + | I never married. They allus said we'd steal, but I didn' take a thing. | ||
| + | Why, they'd put me on a hoss with money to take into town and I'd take | ||
| + | it to the store in town, and when I'd git back, marster' | ||
| + | you didn' take a thing.'</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | their stomach in the hole, and then beat 'em. They'd allus whop us."</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | wan' some candy. I'm lookin' | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <hr style=" | ||
| + | <div class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <div class=" | ||
| + | Co., Alabama, on the 8th | ||
| + | of August, 1845, a slave of | ||
| + | Robert Cole. He ran away in | ||
| + | 1861 to join the Union Army. | ||
| + | He fought at Chickamauga, | ||
| + | Gen. Rosecran and at Chattanooga, | ||
| + | Look Out Mt. and Orchard Knob, | ||
| + | under Gen. Thomas. After the | ||
| + | war he worked as switchman in | ||
| + | Chattanooga until his health | ||
| + | failed due to old age. He then | ||
| + | came to Texas and lives with his | ||
| + | daughter, in Corsicana. Thomas | ||
| + | is blind.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | about myself. I was born over in Jackson County, in Alabama, on August | ||
| + | 8, 1845. My mother was Elizabeth Cole, her bein' a slave of Robert Cole, | ||
| + | and my father was Alex Gerrand, 'cause he was John Gerrand' | ||
| + | was sposed to take my father' | ||
| + | sech a human, I jes' taken my old massa' | ||
| + | brung from Virginny by Massa Dr. Cole, and she nussed all his six chillen. | ||
| + | My sister' | ||
| + | one room of the big house, and allus had a good bed to sleep in and good | ||
| + | things to eat at the same table, after de white folks gits through.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | older he started me workin' | ||
| + | de hawgs. Us chillen had to pick cotton every fall. De big baskets weigh | ||
| + | about seventy-five to a hundred pounds, but us chillen put our pickin' | ||
| + | in some growed slave' | ||
| + | He work for grub and clothes, and some of dem didn't have as easier a time | ||
| + | as a mule, for mules was fed good and slaves was sometimes half starved.< | ||
| + | But Massa Cole was a smart man and a good man with it. He had 'spect for | ||
| + | the slaves' | ||
| + | more privileges dan any other slaveholder round dere. He was one of de | ||
| + | best men I ever knows in my whole life and his wife was jes' like him. Dey | ||
| + | had a <a name=' | ||
| + | De logs was all peeled and de chinkin' | ||
| + | covered with beads. De kitchen am a one-room house behin' de big house with | ||
| + | de big chimney to cook on. Dat where all de meals cooked and carry to de house.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | two killin' | ||
| + | and scrape, and some dress dem and cut dem up and render de lard. Dey haul | ||
| + | plenty hick' | ||
| + | smoke fire goin' sev' | ||
| + | all de chitlin' | ||
| + | den 'long come de spareribs, den de middlin' | ||
| + | he kill de second time and dis was to go all over 'gain. Each fam'ly git de | ||
| + | same kind of meat each week. Iffen one git a ham, dey all git a ham. All de | ||
| + | ears and feet was pickle and we eats dem, too. If de meat run out 'fore killin' | ||
| + | time, us git wild turkeys or kill a beef or a goat, or git a deer.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | iffen us work dem on Saturday evenin' | ||
| + | acres peaches and apples and he 'low us to have biscuits once a week. Yes, we | ||
| + | had good eatin' and plenty of it den.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | inches tall, what he pay $3,000 for. He bought six slaves I knows of and give< | ||
| + | from $400 up for dem. He never sold a slave 'less he git onruly.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | 'cause he raised cotton and sheep. Den each fam'ly have some chickens and | ||
| + | sell dem and de eggs and maybe go huntin' | ||
| + | money. Den us buy what am Sunday clothes with dat money, sech as hats and | ||
| + | pants and shoes and dresses.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | cold. A slave blowed de horn and dere no danger of you not wakin' up when dat | ||
| + | blowed long and loud. He climb up on a platform 'bout ten feet tall to blow | ||
| + | dat bugle. We'd work till noon and eat in de shade and rest 'bout a hour or | ||
| + | a little more iffen it hot, but only a hour if it cold. You is allus tired | ||
| + | when you makes de day like dat on de plantation and you can't play all night | ||
| + | like de young folks does now. But us lucky, 'cause Massa Cole don't whip us. | ||
| + | De man what have a place next ours, he sho' whip he slaves. He have de cat-o-nine | ||
| + | tails of rawhide leather platted round a piece of wood for a handle. | ||
| + | De wood 'bout ten inches long and de leather braided on past de stock quite | ||
| + | a piece, and 'bout a foot from dat all de strips tied in a knot and sprangle | ||
| + | out, and makes de tassle. Dis am call de cracker and it am what split de hide. | ||
| + | Some folks call dem bullwhips, 'stead of cat-o-nine tails. De first thing dat | ||
| + | man do when he buy a slave, am give him de whippin' | ||
| + | fear of Gawd in him.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | de slaveowners wouldn' | ||
| + | we could go to church. De preacher baptize de slaves in de river. Dat de<span class=" | ||
| + | good, old-time ' | ||
| + | gen' | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | People come from all over and dey all singin' | ||
| + | lunch and have de good time. Massa Cole went one time and den he git sick, | ||
| + | and next summer he die. Missy Cole, she moves to Huntsville, in Alabama. | ||
| + | But she leave me on de plantation, 'cause I'm big and stout den. She takes | ||
| + | my mother to cook and dat de last time I ever seed my mother. Missy Cole | ||
| + | buys de fine house in Huntsville my mother tells me to be good and do all | ||
| + | de overseer tells me. I told her goodbye and she never did git to come back | ||
| + | to see me, and I never seed her and my brother and sister 'gain. I don't | ||
| + | know whether dey am sold or not.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | dat cat-o-nine tails de first chance he gits, but makes up my mind he won't | ||
| + | git de chance, 'cause I's gwine run off de first chance I gits. I didn't | ||
| + | know how to git out of dere, but I's gwine north where dere ain't no slaveowners. | ||
| + | In a year or so dere am ' | ||
| + | house and de gal to do my cookin' | ||
| + | gwine to de field earlier and stayin' | ||
| + | off, hawgs and cattle am rounded up and haul off and things 'gins lookin' | ||
| + | De war am on, but us don't see none of it. But 'stead of eatin' cornbread, | ||
| + | us eats bread out of kaffir corn and maize. "<a name=' | ||
| + | say it gwine be parch and grind to make coffee for white folks. Dat didn't | ||
| + | look good either. Dat winter, 'stead of killin' | ||
| + | like we allus done befo', we only done one killin' | ||
| + | dey not all big ones, neither. When de meat supply runs low, Mr. Sandson sends some | ||
| + | slaves to kill a deer or wild hawgs or jes' any kind of game. He never sends me | ||
| + | in any dem bunches but I hoped he would and one day he calls me to go and says not | ||
| + | to go off de plantation too far, but be sho' bring home some meat. Dis de chance | ||
| + | I been wantin', | ||
| + | and I tells him me and ' | ||
| + | and meet 'bout sundown. I crosses de river and goes north. I's gwine to de free | ||
| + | country, where dey ain't no slaves. I travels all dat day and night up de river | ||
| + | and follows de north star. Sev' | ||
| + | and I gits in de big hurry. I's so tired I couldn' | ||
| + | trot.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | She de cullud women what takes slaves to Canada. She allus travels de underground | ||
| + | railroad, dey calls it, travels at night and hides out in de day. She sho' sneaks | ||
| + | dem out de South and I thinks she's de brave woman.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | I builds de fire and goes off 'bout half a mile and hides in de thicket till it | ||
| + | burns down to de coals, den bakes me some fish and rabbit. I's shakin' | ||
| + | 'fraid I'd git cotched, but I's nearly starve to death. I puts de rest de fish in | ||
| + | my cap and travels on dat night by de north star and hides in a big thicket de nex' | ||
| + | day and along evenin' | ||
| + | I's scart to come in and scart to go out, and while I's standin' | ||
| + | men say, 'Stick you hands up, boy. What you doin?' I says, ' | ||
| + | You ain't gwine take me back to de plantation, is you?' Dey says, 'No. Does | ||
| + | you want to fight for de North?' | ||
| + | men. Us walk night and day and gits in Gen. Rosecran' | ||
| + | de spy from de South. Dey asks me all sorts of questions and says dey'll whip me | ||
| + | if I didn't tell dem what I's spyin' 'bout. Fin'ly dey ' | ||
| + | work helpin' | ||
| + | in front of me, or I ' | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | to go with a man and wait on him and dat cannon. First thing I knows, bang, bang, | ||
| + | boom, things has started, and guns am shootin' | ||
| + | round for de way to run. But dem guns am shootin' | ||
| + | at me, and over me and on both sides of me. I tries to dig me a hole and | ||
| + | git in it. All dis happen right now, and first thing I knows, de man am kickin' | ||
| + | and wantin' | ||
| + | but I has to help anyway. We fit till dark and de Rebels got more men dan us, so | ||
| + | Gen. Rosecran sends de message to Gen. Woods to come help us out. When de messenger | ||
| + | slips off, I sho' wish it am me slippin' | ||
| + | I jes' wants to git back to dat old plantation and pick more cotton. I'd been willin' | ||
| + | to do mos' anything to git out that mess, but I done told Gen. Rosecran I wants to | ||
| + | fight de Rebels and he sho' was lettin' | ||
| + | he was makin' me do it. I done got in dere and he wouldn' | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | runnin' | ||
| + | jes' promises de good Lawd if he jes' let me git out dat mess, I wouldn' | ||
| + | no more, but I didn't know den he wasn't gwine let me out with jes' dat battle.< | ||
| + | He gwine give me plenty more, but dat battle ain't over yet, for nex' mornin' | ||
| + | Rebels 'gins shootin' | ||
| + | so Gen. Rosecran orders us to ' | ||
| + | neither. De Rebels comes after us, shootin', | ||
| + | cannon what I was with settin' | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | stops. Here comes one dem Rebel generals with de big bunch of men and gits right | ||
| + | on top of Look Out Mountain, right clost to Chattanooga, | ||
| + | I don't know jes' how long, but a long time. Lots our hosses and mules starves | ||
| + | to death and we eats some de hosses. We all like to starve to death ourselves. | ||
| + | Chattanooga is in de bend de Tennessee River and on Look Out Mountain, on de east, | ||
| + | am dem Rebels and could keep up with everything we done. After a long time a Gen. | ||
| + | Thomas gits in some way. He finds de rough trail or wagon road round de mountain | ||
| + | 'long de river and supplies and men comes by boat up de river to dis place and | ||
| + | comes on into Chattanooga. More Union men kep' comin' and I guess maybe six or | ||
| + | eight generals and dey gits ready to fight. It am long late in Fall or early winter.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | way up it am foggy and you couldn' | ||
| + | slick and dey 'gins fightin' | ||
| + | see nothin', | ||
| + | gits on Look Out Mountain and takes it.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | to Missionary Ridge. Dis ridge ' | ||
| + | name, meanin' | ||
| + | wasn't in dat, but I's in de Missionary Ridge battle. We has to come out de timber< | ||
| + | and run 'cross a strip or openin' | ||
| + | runs 'cross dat openin' | ||
| + | could. De Rebels turns and runs off and our soldiers turns de cannons round what | ||
| + | we's capture, and kilt some de Rebels with dere own guns.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | Dis de last one I's in and I's sho' glad, for I never seed de like of dead and | ||
| + | wounded men. We picks dem up, de Rebels like de Unions, and doctors dem de bes' | ||
| + | we could. When I seed all dat sufferin', | ||
| + | war. Dey say de World War am worse but I's too old to go.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | de General not to send me on any more battles, and he says I's de coward and | ||
| + | sympathizes with de South. But I tells him I jes' couldn' | ||
| + | men layin' dere dyin' and hollerin' | ||
| + | blood everywhere you looks. Killin' | ||
| + | none, but dis am diff' | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | in camp dere and take care de wounded soldiers and prisoners. A bunch of men | ||
| + | is with me and we has all we can do. We gits de orders to send supplies to some | ||
| + | general and it my job to help load de wagons or box cars or boats. A train of wagons | ||
| + | leaves sometimes. We gits all dem supplies by boat, and Chattanooga am de ' | ||
| + | center. When winter comes, everybody rests awhile and waits for Spring to open. | ||
| + | De Union general sends in some more cullud soldiers. Dere ain't been many cullud | ||
| + | men but de las' year de war dere am lots. De North and de South am takin' anything | ||
| + | dey can git to win de war.< | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | out and everything 'gins to look purty and peaceable-like, | ||
| + | to be plowin' | ||
| + | men and burnin' | ||
| + | clear roads and build temp' | ||
| + | rivers, wadin' water up to our chins. We builds rafts and pole bridges to git de | ||
| + | mules and hosses and cannons ' | ||
| + | timber.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | de supplies. He calls me a coward, and I sho' glad he thunk I was. I wasn't no | ||
| + | coward, I jes' couldn' | ||
| + | de battle in a thick forest and de trees big as my body jes' shot down. I seed | ||
| + | dat in de Missionary Ridge battle, too.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | bet durin' my time I handles 'nough ammunition to kill everybody in de whole United | ||
| + | States. I seed mos' de mainest generals in de Union Army and some in de Rebel Army.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | I couldn' | ||
| + | fit for de North. I does any little job I can git for 'bout a year and fin'ly gits | ||
| + | work on de railroad, in Stevenson, in Alabama. I gits transfer to Chattanooga | ||
| + | and works layin' new tracks and turn tables and sich.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | payday I dresses up and takes her to a dance. We sparks 'bout two months and den | ||
| + | we's married at her uncles. Her name am Nancy. We buys a piece of land and I | ||
| + | has a two-room house built on it. We has two chillen and I's livin' with de baby | ||
| + | gal now.< | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | after ' | ||
| + | hard to git ' | ||
| + | and dat de old slaves life, but dey didn't know nothin' | ||
| + | on demselves for de livin' | ||
| + | wild game in dem days. De south was broke and I didn't hear of no slaves | ||
| + | gittin' | ||
| + | want nothin' | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | out I run off from de South and jined de North. Some de brakemen try to git | ||
| + | my job. I fin'ly quits when one of dem opens a switch I jus' closed. I seed | ||
| + | him and goes back and fixes de switch, but I quits de job. I goes up north | ||
| + | but dey ain't int' | ||
| + | team and wagon. I loads it with my wife and chillen and a few things and starts | ||
| + | for Texas. We's on de road 'bout six weeks or two months. We fishes and hunts | ||
| + | every day and de trip didn't cost much. I buys ninety acres in timber in Cass | ||
| + | County and cuts logs for a house and builds a two-room house and log crib. My | ||
| + | wife built a stomp lot for de team and cow and a rail fence.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | builds de barn and sheds outselves. We lived there till de chillen am growed. | ||
| + | My wife died of chills and fever and den my boy and I built a four-room house | ||
| + | of planks from our timber. Den I gits lonesome, 'cause de chillen gone, and | ||
| + | sells de place. I bought it for fifty cents de acre and sold it for $12.00 | ||
| + | de acre.< | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | de second time. I didn't care for her like Nancy. All she think 'bout | ||
| + | am raisin' | ||
| + | have broke me down befo' I gits rid of her. I stayed and farmed sev' | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | gits he crop 'fore de flood gits it. We has some hawgs to kill ev'ry winter | ||
| + | and we has our cornmeal and milk and eggs and chickens, so de ' | ||
| + | starved us yit. We all got might' nigh naked durin' de ' | ||
| + | de hawgs and chickens night and mornin' | ||
| + | to dem eatin' and cackle. People don't know how dey's blessed with good eyes, | ||
| + | till dey loses dem. Everybody ought to be more thankful dan they is.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | know much 'bout politics, though.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | doctors, but I gits a small pension and I spends it mos' careful.< | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <hr style=" | ||
| + | <div class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <div class=" | ||
| + | slave of George Brady, in | ||
| + | Kentucky. Eli's memory is | ||
| + | poor and his story is somewhat | ||
| + | sketchy. He now lives | ||
| + | in Madisonville, | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | my massa am George Brady. I know my pappy' | ||
| + | and mammy was Ella, and I had one brother named Sam, and my sisters | ||
| + | was Sadie and Rosa and Viola. They's all dead now.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | Brady. Pappy could only see mammy once a week when he's courtin' | ||
| + | her. I heard pappy tell 'bout his pappy, over in Africy, and he had | ||
| + | near a hundred wives and over three hundred chillen.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | thing and ' | ||
| + | fruit and game out of the woods them days, and there was lots of fish.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | long, like a cowbarn or chicken house, and my room was third. We had one | ||
| + | door to each room, covered over with hides. We dug out one corner for the | ||
| + | bed and fenced it up and gathered straw and moss and tore-up corn shucks, | ||
| + | and put in the corner to sleep on. What I mean, it was a warm bed.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | rock, and work in the tobacco field. We'd cut that tobacco and hang it in | ||
| + | the shed to dry. It had to be hanged by the stubble end.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | hand and cooked in ashes, and no salt or soda or fancy things like they put | ||
| + | in bread now.< | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | A great big, old pot hung over the old rock fireplace. Food cooked that way | ||
| + | still eats good. Massa Brady allus give us lots out of the garden. He fed | ||
| + | us reg' | ||
| + | had a real good one.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | good to his black folks. Missy, she was plumb angel. They lived in a old stone | ||
| + | house with four big rooms. It was the best house in the whole county and lots | ||
| + | of shade trees by it.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | 'fore daylight and worked long as we could see, and fed ane stock and got to | ||
| + | bed 'bout nine o' | ||
| + | whopped one so hard that slave said he'd kill him. So Massa done put a chain | ||
| + | round his legs, so he jus' hardly walk, and he has to work in the field that | ||
| + | way. At night he put ' | ||
| + | After three weeks massa turnt him loose and that the proudes' | ||
| + | world, and the hardes' | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | Through the week we'd fall into our quarters and them patterrollers come walk | ||
| + | all over us, and we'd be plumb still, but after they done gone some niggers | ||
| + | gits up and out.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | wants with a big dinner. He kilt a yearlin' | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | and gun. Them guns, you couldn' | ||
| + | had to go all over and pick up them what got kilt. Them what was hurt we carried | ||
| + | back. Them what was too bad hurt we had to carry to the burying place | ||
| + | and the white man'd finish killin' | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | no place to go and asked massa could we stay, but he say no. But he did let | ||
| + | some stay and furnished teams and something to eat and work on the halves. | ||
| + | I stayed and was sharecropper, | ||
| + | got our cop made it done take every bit of it to pay our debts and we had | ||
| + | nothing left to buy winter clothes or pay doctor bills.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | I asks her to come live with me as my wife and she 'greed and she jus' moved | ||
| + | her clothes to my room and we lived together a long time. One mornin' | ||
| + | jus' died, and there warn't no chillen, so I sets out for Texas. I done hear | ||
| + | the railroad is buildin' | ||
| + | from massa and rolls up a few clothes and gits my gun.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | It was 'bout fifty mile to a train and I didn't have no money, but I found a | ||
| + | white man what wants wood cut and I works near a month for him and gits $2.00. | ||
| + | I gits on a train and comes a hundred mile from where that railroad was goin' | ||
| + | 'cross the country, and I has to walk near all that hundred miles. Once and | ||
| + | now a white man comin' or goin' lets me ride. But I got there and the job pays | ||
| + | me sixty cents a day. That was lots of money them days. Near as I ' | ||
| + | was 1867 or 1868 when I comes to Texas.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | and a big supper for two or three weeks. Her pappy kilt game and we et barbecue | ||
| + | all the time. We had eleven chillen, one a year for a long time, five boys and | ||
| + | six gals. One made a school teacher and I ain't seen her nearly forty-five | ||
| + | years, 'cause she done took a notion to go north and they won't let her back in | ||
| + | Texas 'cause she married a white man in New York. I don't like that. She don't | ||
| + | have no sense or she wouldn' | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | advance some ways, but he's still a servant and will be, long as Gawd's curse still | ||
| + | stay on the Negro race. We was turnt loose without nothin' | ||
| + | the white man rule so long we couldn' | ||
| + | years on that railroad and the rest my life I farms. Now I gits a little pension | ||
| + | from the gov' | ||
| + | ain't good for work no more.< | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <hr style=" | ||
| + | <div class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <div class=" | ||
| + | <img src=" | ||
| + | <br />< | ||
| + | </ | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <div class=" | ||
| + | on the Souba farm, near New Berry, | ||
| + | South Carolina, but he and his | ||
| + | mother were sold and brought to | ||
| + | Texas when Preely was a month old. | ||
| + | They settled near Alto, Texas. | ||
| + | Preely now lives in Tyler.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | ma'am, it am Juneteenth, but I'm home, 'cause I'm too old now to | ||
| + | go on them celerabrations. Where was I born? I knows that ' | ||
| + | 'cause my mammy tells me that a thousand times. I was born down on | ||
| + | the old Souba place, in South Carolina, 'bout ten mile from New Berry. | ||
| + | My mammy belonged to the Souba family, but its a fact one of the Souba | ||
| + | boys was my pappy and so the Soubas sells my mammy to Bob and Dan Lewis | ||
| + | and they brung us to Texas 'long with a big bunch of other slaves. | ||
| + | Mammy tells me it was a full month 'fore they gits to Alto, their new | ||
| + | home.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | plenty chillen on the plantation. We had the big races. Durin' the war | ||
| + | the sojers stops by on the way to Mansfield, in Louisiana, to git somethin' | ||
| + | to eat and stay all night, and then's when we had the races. There | ||
| + | was a mulberry tree we'd run to and we'd line up and the sojers would | ||
| + | say, 'Now the first one to slap that tree gits a quarter,' | ||
| + | allus gits there first. I made plenty quarters slappin' | ||
| + | tree!</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | all the quarters. They throws a rope over my head and started draggin | ||
| + | down the road, and down the hill, and I was nigh 'bout choked to<span class=" | ||
| + | death. My only friend was Billy and he was a-fightin', | ||
| + | loose. They was goin' to throw me in the big spring at the foot of that | ||
| + | hill, but we meets Capt. Berryman, a white man, and he took his knife and | ||
| + | cut the rope from my neck and took me by the heels and soused me up and | ||
| + | down in the spring till I come to. They never tries to kill me any more.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | cere' | ||
| + | Lewises, they loses their place and then the Selman' | ||
| + | They pays $1,500 for my mammy and I was throwed in.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | like half circle. I grows big 'nough to hoe and den to plow. We has to | ||
| + | be ready for the field by daylight and the conk was blowed, and massa | ||
| + | call out, 'All hands ready for the field.' | ||
| + | what am the mussel shell, you knows, 'gain and we eats dinner, and at | ||
| + | 12:30 we has to be back at work. But massa wouldn' | ||
| + | on Sunday.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | and stumps our feets gits sore, and they was red russet shoes. I'll never | ||
| + | forgit 'em, they was so stiff at first we could hardly stand 'em. But | ||
| + | Massa Tom was a good man, though he did love he dram. He kep' the bottle | ||
| + | in the center of the dining table all the time and every meal he'd have | ||
| + | the toddy. Us slaves et out under the trees in summer and in the kitchen | ||
| + | in winter and most gen' | ||
| + | honey.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | comes up and say, 'You all is free as I is.' There was shoutin' | ||
| + | and 'fore night us was all 'way to freedom.< | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <hr style=" | ||
| + | <div class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <div class=" | ||
| + | Houston, Texas, in 1870. Her | ||
| + | family had been slaves of | ||
| + | Richard Coke, and remained | ||
| + | with him many years after | ||
| + | they were freed. Harriet | ||
| + | recalls some incidents of | ||
| + | Reconstruction days, and | ||
| + | believes in the superstitions | ||
| + | handed down to her | ||
| + | from slave days.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | Houston, in 1870, and Gov. Richard Coke allus had owned my daddy and | ||
| + | mammy, and dey stayed with him after freedom. Mammy, what was Julia | ||
| + | Collins, didn't die till 1910, and she was most a hundred year old.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | over Marse Coke's ' | ||
| + | Marse Richard, and dere he am on de top floor with all he congressmen | ||
| + | and dat Davis man and he men on de bottom floor, tryin' to say Marse | ||
| + | Richard ain't got no right to be governor dis here State. Old Miss | ||
| + | and de folkses didn't sleep a wink dat night, 'cause dey thunk it sho' | ||
| + | be a fight. Dat in 1873, Mammy allus say.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | little, small dormer windows, dey call 'em, in upstairs, and big porches | ||
| + | everywhere. Dere was ' | ||
| + | black walnut dressers with big mirrors and little ones down de side. Old | ||
| + | Miss allus have us keep de drapes white as drifted snow, and polish de | ||
| + | furniture till it shine. Dere was sofies with dem claw foots, and lots | ||
| + | of purty chiny and silver.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | de smokehouse and washhouse and big barns and carriage house. De quarters | ||
| + | was little, whitewashed, | ||
| + | split palin' | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | went fishin' | ||
| + | devilment. De little white gals all had to wear sunbonnets, and Old Miss, she | ||
| + | sew dem bonnets on every day, so dey not git sunburnt. Us niggers weared de | ||
| + | long, duckin' | ||
| + | blue dresses. Dey had spinnin' | ||
| + | de clothes.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | and meat and sorghum it gwine take to run de plantation a year. She know jes' | ||
| + | how much thread it take for spinnin', | ||
| + | and fixin' of ' | ||
| + | like she tell you. Many a night she go round to see dat all was right. She a | ||
| + | powerful good nuss, too, and so was mammy.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | and fishin' | ||
| + | cut a big lot of wood and keep fires all night for a week or two. De house be | ||
| + | lit with candles from top to toe, and lots of company come. For dinner us have | ||
| + | turkey and beef roast and a big 'ginny ham and big bowls of eggnog and a pitcher | ||
| + | of apple cider and apple toddy. All us git somethin' | ||
| + | eggnog, but no gittin' | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | flop hat and longtail coat and allus carryin' | ||
| + | was sho' a brave man and de big men say dey likes dat flop hat, 'cause dey | ||
| + | done follow it on de battlefield. He had a big voice and dey do tell how, in | ||
| + | de war, he'd holler, 'Come on, boys,' and de bullets be like hail and men | ||
| + | fallin' | ||
| + | and plunge right on and dey'd foller he bald head where de fight was hottes' | ||
| + | He was sho' a man!</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | goes to housekeepin' | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | can see de spirits, but I can't. My mammy larned me a lots of doctorin', | ||
| + | she larnt from old folkses from Africy, and some de Indians larnt her. If you has | ||
| + | rheumatism, jes' take white sassafras root and bile it and drink de tea. You | ||
| + | makes lin' | ||
| + | Put red pepper in you shoes and keep de chills off, or string briars round de | ||
| + | neck. Make red or black snakeroot tea to cure fever and malaria, but git de | ||
| + | roots in de spring when de sap am high.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | teeth am good, too. Show de new moon money and you'll have money all month. Throw | ||
| + | her five kisses and show her money and make five wishes and you'll git dem. Eat | ||
| + | black-eyed peas on New Year and have luck all dat year:</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p> | ||
| + | "' | ||
| + | When et on New Year's Day;<br /> | ||
| + | You'll allus have sweet ' | ||
| + | And possum come you way.'< | ||
| + | </p> | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | burns a piece fat pine and drops tar from it on scorched wool and bind it on de | ||
| + | wound. For headache put a horseradish poultice on de head, or wear a nutmeg on<span class=" | ||
| + | a string round you neck.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p>If you kills de first snake you sees in spring, you enemies ain't gwine git | ||
| + | de best of you dat year. For a sprain, git a dirt dauber' | ||
| + | with vinegar and bind round de sprain. De dime on de string round my ankle keeps | ||
| + | cramps out my leg, and tea from red coon-root good, too. All dese doctorin' | ||
| + | things come clear from Africy, and dey allus worked for mammy and for me, too.< | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <hr style=" | ||
| + | <div class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <div class=" | ||
| + | in 1859 on the John J. Ellington | ||
| + | plantation, one mile south of | ||
| + | Linden, Texas. He continued in | ||
| + | the service of the Ellingtons | ||
| + | until about 1878, when he moved | ||
| + | to Jefferson, Texas. He carried | ||
| + | meals to Abe Rothchild, who was | ||
| + | in jail, charged with the murder | ||
| + | of Diamond Bessie Moore. Andrew | ||
| + | was 37 years a servant of Hon. | ||
| + | Tom Armistead, and was a porter | ||
| + | in the Capital at Austin when | ||
| + | Armistead was a senator. Andrew | ||
| + | now lives in Marshall, Texas.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | in Davis County (now Cass Co.), Texas. Master John had a big house | ||
| + | and close by was a long, double row of slave quarters. It looked | ||
| + | like a town. There was four boys and two girls in Master' | ||
| + | and one daughter, Miss Lula, married Lon Morris, that run the Lon | ||
| + | Morris School.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | niggers. He give us plenty warm clothes and good shoes, and come | ||
| + | see us and had Dr. Hume doctor us when we was sick. The niggers et | ||
| + | ham and middlin' | ||
| + | joined the Haggard place, where they was lots of wild turkey and | ||
| + | the slaves could go huntin' | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | folks helped us git book learnin' | ||
| + | to preachin' | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | wash our clothes and clean up for Sunday. There was parties and<span class=" | ||
| + | dances on Saturday night for them as wanted them. But there wasn't | ||
| + | no whiskey drinkin' | ||
| + | them. She was religious and didn't believe in dancin' | ||
| + | On Christmas Master John allus give the slaves a big dinner and it | ||
| + | didn't seem like slavery time. The niggers had a sight better time | ||
| + | than they do now.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | ever run off 'cause he was too good for them to do that. I only got | ||
| + | one whippin' | ||
| + | My pappy was carriage driver for Master. I didn't do much of the work | ||
| + | when I was a boy, jes' stayed round the house.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | hauled it to Jefferson on ox wagons. I'd allus go with him, ridin' on | ||
| + | top of the bales. I'll never forgit how scared I was when we'd cross | ||
| + | Black Cypress on Roger' | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | John calls all his slaves together and says, ' | ||
| + | can go or stay.' He told the men who wanted to leave they could have | ||
| + | a wagon and team, but most of them stayed. Pappy took a wagon and team | ||
| + | and left but mammy and us children stayed and lived with Master Ellington | ||
| + | 'bout 15 years after the war was over.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | Benton and we had three boys and two girls. While I was in Jefferson | ||
| + | Sheriff Vine goes to Cincinnati after Abe Rothchild, for killin' | ||
| + | Bessie.' | ||
| + | Vine was after him, but it didn't kill him. There was sho' some | ||
| + | stirrin' | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | food and hired me to bring his meals to him from the hotel. His | ||
| + | cell was fixed up like a hotel room, with a fine brussels rug and | ||
| + | nice tables and chairs. He kep' plenty of whiskey and beer to drink. | ||
| + | He'd allus give me a drink when I took his meals.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | Crawford and his brother defend Rothchild. Mr. Eppenstadt, he was | ||
| + | mayor of Jefferson then and acted as a go-between man in the case.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | for him. He give me lots of fine clothes. I bet I owned more fine | ||
| + | shirts than any nigger in Texas. He got me a job as porter in the | ||
| + | Capitol at Austin while he was senator. I was workin' | ||
| + | moved in the new Capitol in 1888. They was gonna put on a big party | ||
| + | and say all the porters had to wear cutaway suits. I didn't have one, | ||
| + | so the day 'fore the party I goes over to Mr. Tom's room at the Bristol | ||
| + | Hotel and git one of his. I didn't know then it was a right new | ||
| + | one he had made for the party. When I goes back to the Capitol all | ||
| + | dressed up in that cutaway suit, I meets Mr. Templeton Houston and he | ||
| + | recognises the suit and says. 'You sho' look fine in Mr. Tom's new suit,' | ||
| + | 'bout that time Mr. Tom walks up and, you know, he give me that suit | ||
| + | and had him another one made for the party! I wouldn' | ||
| + | wasn't no good white folks.< | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <hr style=" | ||
| + | <div class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <div class=" | ||
| + | <img src=" | ||
| + | <br />< | ||
| + | </ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <div class=" | ||
| + | <img src=" | ||
| + | <br />< | ||
| + | </ | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <div class=" | ||
| + | a slave of Tom Connally, grandfather | ||
| + | of United States Senator | ||
| + | Tom Connally, from Texas. The | ||
| + | family then lived in Georgia, | ||
| + | and Steve' | ||
| + | of the Georgia Legislature.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | Tom Connally, but they called him Massa " | ||
| + | of de Georgia Legislature. I stayed with Missy Mary Connally till I was | ||
| + | sixty-seven and Massa Cushi died when I was sixty-nine.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | cook. When I was born, she took de fever and couldn' | ||
| + | Mary took and kep' me in a li'l cot by her bed. After dat, I'm with her | ||
| + | nearly all de time and follows her. When she go to de garden I catches her | ||
| + | dresstail and when she go to de doctor, 'bout eighty miles away, I goes with | ||
| + | her.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | allus so many Tom Connallys in de fam' | ||
| + | tell one from de other.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | women folks preserves and cans till it ain't no use. My mammy take de prize | ||
| + | any day with her jelly and sech, and her cakes jes' nachelly walk off and | ||
| + | leave de whole county. Missy Mary sho' de master hand hersef at de fine | ||
| + | bakin' and I'd slip round and be handy to lick out de pans.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | a floor over de good, cold spring, and put flat rocks dere to keep de milk | ||
| + | and cream and butter cold. Or dey dig out de place so de crock be down in<span class=" | ||
| + | de wet dirt. Dey sho' have to make de latch up high, so de bad chillen | ||
| + | couldn' | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | many acres, but it a big one. Us make everything and tan hides and make | ||
| + | shoes, jes' like all de big places did. De big house and de weavin' | ||
| + | and de tannin' | ||
| + | Dere used to be some mighty big doin's dere. De Connally men and women am | ||
| + | allus good lookers and mighty pop' | ||
| + | to visit dem. All de ' | ||
| + | drift to our place. Dere sho' lots of big balls and dinners and de house | ||
| + | fix mighty fine dem times. De women wore de hoop skirts and de ribbons | ||
| + | and laces. My missy was de bes' lookin' | ||
| + | gem' | ||
| + | de picture books and she have mighty high ways with folks, but she's mighty | ||
| + | good to dis here li'l black boy.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | what been kilt or wounded. Massa Ned, he dead, and Massa Charles, he shot | ||
| + | in de hip, and die after he git brung home. Massa Dick hurt, too, but he | ||
| + | didn't die.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | with de Connallys, all what didn't git kilt in de war. I stays with Missy | ||
| + | Mary till she die in Georgia. Her son, Jones Connally, come to Brazos County, | ||
| + | near Bryan, and after dat removes to Eddy. I works for him two years and | ||
| + | has lived round Eddy ever since. De Connallys give me a house and lot in Eddy. | ||
| + | Some de fool niggers ' | ||
| + | was to stay near de Connallys. Mos' gen'ly all de slaves what I knowed | ||
| + | was found places for and holp git a start at jobs and places to live. All | ||
| + | de Connally slaves loved dem. Some de timber land give to Mrs. Rose Staten | ||
| + | and when she go up dere a old nigger woman name Lucy sees her. She so | ||
| + | happy to see one dem Connally chillen she laugh and cry.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | born with de lef' arm off at de elbow and she allus follow me round. When | ||
| + | I go to milk I puts her in de trough. I saved her life lots of times. One | ||
| + | time she's on de <a name=' | ||
| + | I eases up and knocks de window out and coaxes her to come to me. ' | ||
| + | time, I's diggin' | ||
| + | am dat Missy Ola leanin' | ||
| + | de loud yell and her brother-in-law come runnin' | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | like to visit his grandpa' | ||
| + | with him and take him all over de old home place and out to de old cemetary."< | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <hr style=" | ||
| + | <div class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <div class=" | ||
| + | <img src=" | ||
| + | <br />< | ||
| + | </ | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <div class=" | ||
| + | to Duplissent Dugat, a small slave-holder | ||
| + | of Lafayette, Louisiana. He | ||
| + | tells his story in a mixture of English | ||
| + | and French. As far as he knows, | ||
| + | he is nearly 90 years old. He now | ||
| + | lives with his sister, Mary Moses, | ||
| + | in the Pear Orchard Settlement, in | ||
| + | Beaumont, Texas.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | dat jes' like yesterday. He used to like to play de fiddle and make | ||
| + | me dance when I was li'l, but he went to de war and got kilt. He name | ||
| + | Duplissent Dugat. Mary, my sister, she don't ' | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | my mama, Colaste, and my uncle, and dere was us two chillen. My father | ||
| + | was a white man, a white Creole man. I never carry he name till after | ||
| + | freedom.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | De slave house was jes' a old plank house 'bout twelve feet by twenty | ||
| + | feet and have dirt floor. Us cook in de big fireplace and take a log | ||
| + | 'bout four foot long and have a big iron pot with a iron lid. Dey put | ||
| + | red hot coals under de pot and on top de lid and dey have a big iron | ||
| + | poker with a hook on it what dey took de lid off with.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | Dey'd kill de brutes and keep and save all de tallow and one day was | ||
| + | set off to make de candles. All de neighbors come and dey have kind | ||
| + | of party and eat and things. Sometime dey make three, four hunnerd | ||
| + | candles in one day and lay dem in a big box, so dey won't git break.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | cracklin' | ||
| + | and potatoes growin', | ||
| + | coosh-coosh, | ||
| + | us jes' go through de woods and pick dem up and eat dem jes' like dat. | ||
| + | Us eat plenty crawfish. De chillen git string and old piece fat meat | ||
| + | and tie on de end, and us go to de bog and drap de string down dat | ||
| + | crawfish hole. When de old man grab de meat with he pincher, den us | ||
| + | jerk us up a crawfish, and bile him in hot water, or make de gumbo.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | us couldn' | ||
| + | Dey parch dat weed in de iron oven, grind it and put it in de iron pot.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | Mary, she hide under de bed in de house. De Yankees come take de | ||
| + | cattle and went 'way with dem. I kin sho' rec' | ||
| + | come and de road was full goin' day and night. De Yankees find a lot | ||
| + | of Confed' | ||
| + | captures lots and brung dem back by dere.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | mama kep' working for old missus after freedom, 'cause old marster, | ||
| + | he kilt in dat war. Den old missus die and left three li'l chillen, | ||
| + | but I don't know what happen to them, 'cause us go to another place | ||
| + | and I plow and Mary she he'p pick cotton.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | marry by de priest in de church. Us have so many chillen us have to | ||
| + | keep a map to account for all dem, dere was 19 in all. We stays in | ||
| + | Louisiana long time, den come to Texas.< | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <hr style=" | ||
| + | <div class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <div class=" | ||
| + | the plantation of Isaiah Day, | ||
| + | near Dayton, Texas. She | ||
| + | " | ||
| + | maybe thirteen years old when | ||
| + | all de cullud folks was made | ||
| + | free." Laura' | ||
| + | but she made an effort to recall | ||
| + | slave days. She lives at | ||
| + | 2915 Nance St., Houston, Texas.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | jes' like you must be some of my white folks, 'cause dat what dey calls | ||
| + | me. I mean Papa Day's chillen and dere younguns, when dey comes to see | ||
| + | me. But it been de long time since any of dem come to see old Aunt Laura, | ||
| + | and I reckon dey most all gone now.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | was at and where I's borned. I don't know when dat am, ' | ||
| + | when all de cullud folks was made free, I reckons I's 'bout twelve or thirteen | ||
| + | years old.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | de seamstress and don't do nothin' | ||
| + | and make clothes. Daddy from Lake Providence, I heared him say, but I don't | ||
| + | know where at dat is. He do all de carpenter work. I has five sisters and | ||
| + | two brothers, but dey heaps older dan me and I don't know much 'bout dem.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | 'cause he won't 'low none he cullud folks to call him master. He say us | ||
| + | is born free as he is, only de other white folks won't tell us so, and our | ||
| + | souls is jes' as white, and de reason us am darker on de outside is 'cause | ||
| + | us is sunburnt. I don't reckon dere am anybody as good to dere cullud folks | ||
| + | as he was.< | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | hurt or scratched, she fix us up and give us a hug. I knows dey has two boys and | ||
| + | a gal, and dey comes to see me long time after I's free and brings dere own chillen. | ||
| + | But my mem'ry am sort of foggy-like and I can't ' | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | ground, and dat mostly fun, and us ride to de house on de wagon what takes de | ||
| + | pickin' | ||
| + | and dey can visit round on other plantations, | ||
| + | none, either.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | look like wild men, sho' ' | ||
| + | all bloody. Us run and tell Papa Day and he makes us take him dere and he goes in | ||
| + | de briar patch where dem men hidin' | ||
| + | not tell dere massa where dey at, 'cause dey maybe git kilt. Dey say dey am old | ||
| + | Lodge and Baldo and dey run 'way 'cause dere massa whips dem, 'cause dey so old dey | ||
| + | can't work good no more. Papa Day has tears comin' in he eyes. Dey can't hardly | ||
| + | walk, so he sends dem to de house and has Aunt Mandy, de cook, fix up somethin' | ||
| + | eat quick. I never seed sech eatin', | ||
| + | tells us not to say nothin' | ||
| + | and tells him 'bout it, and jes' dares him to come git dem. He pays de man some | ||
| + | money and Lodge and Baldo stays with Papa Day and I guess day thunk dey in Heaven.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | papers and say, 'De gov' | ||
| + | free all you days. If you wants to stay you can and if you wants to go, you can. | ||
| + | But if you go, lots of white folks ain't gwine treat you like I does.'< | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | cullud folks what left, but den first one fam'ly den ' | ||
| + | make a crop on, and den daddy gits some land and us leaves, too. Maybe he gits | ||
| + | de land from Papa Day, 'cause it an't far from his plantation. Us sho' work | ||
| + | hard on dat place, but I heared mama say lots of times she wishes we stay on | ||
| + | Papa Day's place.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | git out 'fore us starves to death, and he moves to Houston. He gits a job doin' | ||
| + | carpenter work and hires me out for de housegirl. But mama dies and daddy takes | ||
| + | sick and dies, too. Lawd have mercy, dat sho' de hard time for me when I loses | ||
| + | my mama and daddy, and I has to go to Dayton and stay with my sister, Rachel. | ||
| + | Both my husbands what I marries done been dead a long time now, and de only child | ||
| + | I ever had died when he jes' a baby. Now I's jes' alone, sittin' | ||
| + | de Lawd to call me."< | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <hr style=" | ||
| + | <div class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <div class=" | ||
| + | <img src=" | ||
| + | <br />< | ||
| + | </ | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <div class=" | ||
| + | a slave on Judge Thompson | ||
| + | Rector' | ||
| + | Texas. After emancipation, | ||
| + | John was a share-cropper. He | ||
| + | has always lived in Travis | ||
| + | County and is now cared for | ||
| + | by a daughter at Austin.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | and dat's on de old Rector plantation where Manor am now. It wasn't | ||
| + | dere den. I knowed the man it was named after.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | Alabama. She milked all the cows two times a day and I had to turn out | ||
| + | all de calves. Sometimes dey'd git purty rough and go right to dere | ||
| + | mammies.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | He was my step-pap and when I's growed I tooken my own pap's name, what | ||
| + | was Crawford. I never seed him, though, and didn't know nothin' | ||
| + | 'bout him. He's sold away 'fore I's borned.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | hossshoe nails and a good lot of furniture. He was purty good to me, | ||
| + | ' | ||
| + | had plenty bacon and side-meat and ' | ||
| + | jedge give us our rations for de week. He wasn't short with dem, neither.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | beg for somethin' | ||
| + | mean Injuns, jes' allus beggin' | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | A B C's and I didn't git no chance at school.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | woman a big, red pocket handkerchief and a bottle of liquor. He buyed dat | ||
| + | liquor by de barrel and liked it hisself. <a name=' | ||
| + | place.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | to go to de fields dat day. We all want up to de big house and de jedge | ||
| + | git up to make de speech, but am too choke up to talk. He hated to lose | ||
| + | he slaves, I reckon. So his son-in-law has to say, 'You folks am now free | ||
| + | and can go where you wants to go. You can stay here and pick cotton and git | ||
| + | fifty cents de hunerd.' | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | ahead and rented on de third or fourth. When you rent that-a-way you git | ||
| + | three bales and de boss git one. But you has to buy you own teams and | ||
| + | seed and all on dat plan.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | den, but we never did git it.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | chasin' | ||
| + | it. When dey gits free, dey gits wild. Dey won't work or do nothin' | ||
| + | thinks dey don't have to. We didn't have no trouble, 'cause we stays | ||
| + | on de farm and works and don't have no truck with dem wild niggers.< | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | sech a town, jes' a li'l place. Me and her stayed married fifty-two years and | ||
| + | four months. She died and left me eight year ago. We had seven chillen | ||
| + | and they is all livin' | ||
| + | in Ohio.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | care of me. I ain't got long to go now 'fore de Lawd gwine call me.<span class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <hr style=" | ||
| + | <div class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
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| + | <img src=" | ||
| + | <br />< | ||
| + | </ | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <div class=" | ||
| + | slave of the Robert H. Cumby | ||
| + | family, in Henderson, Texas. | ||
| + | He was about 14 at the close | ||
| + | of the Civil War. He stayed | ||
| + | with his old master four years | ||
| + | after he was freed, then married | ||
| + | and settled in Tyler, Texas, | ||
| + | where he worked for the compress | ||
| + | 30 years. He lives with his | ||
| + | daughter at 749 Mesquite St., | ||
| + | Abilene, Texas.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | Tater Cumby, was cullud overseer for forty slaves and he called us | ||
| + | at four in de mornin' | ||
| + | time we worked on Sunday, too.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | right. I seed niggers in chains lots of times, 'cause there wasn't | ||
| + | no jails and they jus' chained 'em to trees.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | place from one place to another, to auction 'em at de market places. | ||
| + | De women would be carryin' | ||
| + | bed 'em down jus' like cattle right on de ground 'side of de road. | ||
| + | Lots of l'il chillun was sold 'way from de mammy when dey seven or | ||
| + | eight, or even smaller. Dat's why us cullud folks don't know our | ||
| + | kinfolks to dis day.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | didn't have to bother with no pass to leave de plantation, and de | ||
| + | patter rolls didn't bother you. If de patter rolls cotch you without | ||
| + | de pass any other time, you better wish you dead, 'cause you | ||
| + | would have yourself some trouble.< | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | and dere black boys from plantations from miles 'round would be dere. | ||
| + | Den when we got de corn pile high as dis house, de table was spread | ||
| + | out under de shade. All de boys dat 'long to old marster would take | ||
| + | him on de packsaddle 'round de house, den dey bring him to de table and | ||
| + | sit by he side; den all de boys dat 'long to Marster Bevan from another | ||
| + | plantation take him on de packsaddle 'round and 'round de house, allus | ||
| + | singin' | ||
| + | dey all do de same till everybody at de table, den dey have de feast.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | They'd try to snatch you and hold you, so you couldn' | ||
| + | dey cotched dem runaway niggers and dey be like wild animals and | ||
| + | have to be tamed over 'gain. Dere was a white man call Henderson had | ||
| + | 60 bloodhounds and rents 'em out to run slaves. I well rec' | ||
| + | hounds run through our place one night, chasin' | ||
| + | wife by runnin' | ||
| + | de patter rolls took him to Henderson and hangs him.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | 'cause dey never cotched me. I slips off to see de gal on de nex' | ||
| + | plantation and I has no pass and they chases me and was I scairt! You | ||
| + | should have seed me run through dat bresh, 'cause I didn't dare go out | ||
| + | on de road or de path. It near tore de clothes off me, but I goes on | ||
| + | and gits home and slides under de house. But I'd go to see dat gal | ||
| + | every time, patter rolls or no patter rolls, and I gits trained so's | ||
| + | I could run 'most as fast as a rabbit.< | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | I never paid much ' | ||
| + | at night de slaves gathers round de cabins in little bunches and talks | ||
| + | till bedtime. Sometimes we'd dance and someone would knock out time for us | ||
| + | by snappin' | ||
| + | make de music on.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | We didn't have no gardens <a name=' | ||
| + | in dem. We worked all day in de fields and den was so tired we couldn' | ||
| + | do nothin' | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | a yaller lookin' | ||
| + | de fever out of us. Sometimes she put horse mint on de pallet with us to | ||
| + | make us sweat and driv de fever 'way. For breakfast she'd make us sass' | ||
| + | fras tea, to clear our blood.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | a big gen' | ||
| + | for a long time, den I heered it 'bout freedom and I felt like it be Heaven | ||
| + | here on earth to git freedom, 'spite de fac' I allus had de good marster. | ||
| + | He sho' was good to us, but you knows dat ain't de same as bein' free.< | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <hr style=" | ||
| + | <div class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <div class=" | ||
| + | <img src=" | ||
| + | <br />< | ||
| + | </ | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <div class=" | ||
| + | Brookeland, Texas, sometime | ||
| + | before the Civil War, but | ||
| + | does not know her exact age. | ||
| + | William Neyland owned Tempie | ||
| + | and her parents. She now | ||
| + | lives alone in a small, weather-beaten | ||
| + | shack in the South Quarters, | ||
| + | a section of Jasper, Tex.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | but I don' know jus' the 'xact date. My father' | ||
| + | Starkins and my mother' | ||
| + | come from Alabama. I had jus' one brudder, Bill, and four sisters | ||
| + | named Margaret and Hannah and Mary and 'Liza. Life was good when | ||
| + | I was with them and us play round. Miss Fannie Neyland, she Mis' | ||
| + | Phil Scarborough now, she raise me, 'cause I was give to them when | ||
| + | I was eight year old.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | dress onct a year at Christmas time. When company come I had | ||
| + | to run and slip on that dress. At other time I wore white chillens' | ||
| + | cast-off clothes so wore they was ready to throw away. I had to pin | ||
| + | them up with red horse thorns to hide my nakedness. My dress was | ||
| + | usually split from hem to neck and I had to wear them till they was | ||
| + | strings. <a name=' | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | in Alabama when she's 17 and they brung her to Texas and treat her | ||
| + | rough. At mealtime they hand me a piece of cornbread and tell me<span class=" | ||
| + | 'Run ' | ||
| + | onct a month. I gathered up scraps the white chillens lef' | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | together and whip 'em to a stub. Many's the time I's bled from them | ||
| + | whippin' | ||
| + | was turrible lazy. She had two of us to wait on her and then she didn' | ||
| + | treat us good.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | ' | ||
| + | up. We work from daylight till dark, and after. Marster punish them | ||
| + | what didn' work hard enough.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | didn' larn much, 'cause I allus workin' | ||
| + | house, and she cooked too. She say she used to hide in the chimney | ||
| + | corner and listen to what the white folks say. When freedom was | ||
| + | ' | ||
| + | mistus that the slaves was free but they didn' know it and he's not | ||
| + | gwineter tell 'em till he makes another crop or two. When mother | ||
| + | hear that she say she slip out the chimney corner and crack her | ||
| + | heels together four times and shouts, ' | ||
| + | she runs to the field, ' | ||
| + | slaves and they quit work. Then she run away and in the night she | ||
| + | slip into a big ravine near the house and have them bring me to her. | ||
| + | Marster, he come out with his gun and shot at mother but she run down | ||
| + | the ravine and gits away with me.<span class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | for them. I's kind of outgrowed them now. But one time me and my | ||
| + | younges' | ||
| + | vat is two big gates and when we git to them, out come a big old white | ||
| + | ox, with long legs and horns and when he git 'bout halfway, he turns | ||
| + | into a man with a Panama hat on. He follers us to Sandy Creek bridge. | ||
| + | Sometimes at night I sees that same spirit sittin' | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | pass a place where patterroles whipped slaves and had kilt some. He | ||
| + | was sittin' | ||
| + | the road and scarin' | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <hr style=" | ||
| + | <div class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
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| + | <img src=" | ||
| + | <br />< | ||
| + | </ | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <div class=" | ||
| + | born 1852, was a slave in Lavaca County, | ||
| + | 4-1/2 miles n.e. of Hallettsville. She | ||
| + | was a slave of Washington Greenlee Foley | ||
| + | and his grandson, John Woods. The Foley | ||
| + | plantation consisted of several square | ||
| + | leagues, each league containing 4,428.4 | ||
| + | acres. Adeline is tall, spare and primly | ||
| + | erect, with fiery brown eyes, which | ||
| + | snap when she recalls the | ||
| + | slave days. The house is | ||
| + | somewhat pretentious and well furnished. | ||
| + | The day was hot and the granddaughter prepared | ||
| + | ice water for her grandmother and | ||
| + | the interviewer. House and porch were | ||
| + | very clean.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | got more'n 100 slaves. He always buy slaves and he never sell. How many | ||
| + | acres of lan' he got? Lawd, dat man ain't got acres, he got leagues. Dey | ||
| + | raises cotton and co'n, and cattle and hawgs. Ole man Foley' | ||
| + | run over Lavaca and Colorado county, he got 1600 acres in one block and | ||
| + | some of it on de Navidad River. Ole man Foley live in a big log house wid | ||
| + | two double rooms and a hall, and he build a weavin' | ||
| + | and dey's anudder house wid de spinnin' | ||
| + | own cotton gin and his own grindin' | ||
| + | got a big potato patch.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | de quarter; de houses all jine close togedder but you kin walk 'tween 'em. | ||
| + | All de cabins has one room and mostly two fam' | ||
| + | room wid dirt floors. De slaves builds de cabins, de slaves got no money, | ||
| + | dey got no land.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | prays de Lawd to make us free and times one of de slaves got happy and made | ||
| + | a noise dat dey heered at de big house and den de overseer come and whip us<span class=" | ||
| + | 'cause we prayed de Lawd to set us free.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | cattle. Ev'ry year de stockman comes to ole man Foley' | ||
| + | in de yard and de stockman got a lotta slaves tied togedder and ole man Foley | ||
| + | he buys some slaves but he won't sell none. Yassuh, de stockman buys and sells | ||
| + | de slaves jes' de same as cattle.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | big trough jes' like de trough for de pigs and dey has a <a name=' | ||
| + | totes de gourd full of milk and dey breaks de bread in de milk. Den my mammy | ||
| + | takes a gourd and fills it and gives it to us chillun. How's we eat it? We | ||
| + | had oyster shells for spoons and de slaves comes in from de fields and dey hands | ||
| + | is all dirty, and dey is hungry. Dey dips de dirty hands right in de trough and | ||
| + | we can't eat none of it. De women wuks in de fields until dey has chillun and | ||
| + | when de chillun' | ||
| + | Foley' | ||
| + | cotton. Dey makes all de clothes for ole man Foley and his fam'ly and for de | ||
| + | slaves.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | men split rails and hoes wid de grubbin' | ||
| + | shop and a slave does de blacksmiffin. De slaves builds cabins wid split logs | ||
| + | and dey makes de roof tight wid co'n shucks and grass. One time a month, times | ||
| + | one time in two months, dey takes us to de white folks church.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | de preacher has a book. He's gotter keep it hid, 'cause dey's afraid iffen de | ||
| + | slaves learns to read dey learns how to run away. One of de slaves runs away | ||
| + | and dey ketches him and puts his eyes out. Dey catches anudder slave dat run<span class=" | ||
| + | away and dey hanged him up by de arm. Yassuh, I see dat wid my own eyes; | ||
| + | dey holds de slave up by one arm, dey puts a iron on his knee and a iron on | ||
| + | his feet and drag 'im down but his feet cain't reach de groun' | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | gits no money and we never gits no lan'. Ole man Foley, he wants to give us | ||
| + | sumpin for gardens but Mr. John Woods, his gran' | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | free dat I gits married. Yassuh, and I live in San Antonio 'bout 20 years."< | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <hr style=" | ||
| + | <div class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <div class=" | ||
| + | <img src=" | ||
| + | <br />< | ||
| + | </ | ||
| + | |||
| + | <div class=" | ||
| + | <img src=" | ||
| + | <br />< | ||
| + | </ | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <div class=" | ||
| + | Missouri, near the city of St. | ||
| + | Louis. He was a slave of the John | ||
| + | Daily family and served as chore | ||
| + | boy around the house, carried the | ||
| + | breakfast to the field and always | ||
| + | drove up the horses on the plantation. | ||
| + | The latter duty developed a | ||
| + | fondness for horses which led to a | ||
| + | career as a race horse rider and | ||
| + | trainer. He remained with his white | ||
| + | folks several years after freedom | ||
| + | and in Missouri many years longer in | ||
| + | this work. He came to San Angelo, | ||
| + | Texas in 1922 and took up hotel work | ||
| + | which he followed until his health | ||
| + | broke, only a few years ago. He now | ||
| + | lives in his small home, in the colored | ||
| + | district of the city and depends on | ||
| + | his old age pension for a livelihood.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | ole age pension?", | ||
| + | slavery question, but he answered readily, "Sho! sho' I<span class=" | ||
| + | was a slave an' I aint ashamed to admit dat I was. | ||
| + | Some of dese here fellers thinks dey sounds ole when | ||
| + | dey says dey was slaves and dey denies it but I's | ||
| + | proud enough of de good treatment I's got, to allus | ||
| + | tell about it. My marster had a driver but he say | ||
| + | his niggers was human, wid human feelin' | ||
| + | dat driver reports to him fer what little thrashin' | ||
| + | we gits. Course we had to do de right thing but jes' | ||
| + | some how did, mos' of de time 'cause he was good to us. | ||
| + | Soon as I was big enough, about four or five years ole, | ||
| + | ole miss, she starts trainin' | ||
| + | a doin' all sorts of chores by de time I was six years | ||
| + | old. Den ole marster he starts sendin' | ||
| + | plantation to drive up de hosses. I sho' likes dat job | ||
| + | 'cause aint nothin' | ||
| + | when I was bigger he starts me to carryin' | ||
| + | to de field whar de grown niggers had been out workin' | ||
| + | since way 'fore day. Dey all done dat. Dey say de days | ||
| + | wasn't long enough to put in enough time so dey works | ||
| + | part of de night.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | and de hogs and de cows and chickens and plenty of everything. | ||
| + | Mos' times we have biscuits and bacon and syrup | ||
| + | for breakfast and butter too if we wants it but mos' | ||
| + | niggers dey likes dat fat bacon de bes' | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | all along in a row and built out of de same kind of logs | ||
| + | what our marsters house was.< | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | was jes' a small boy when de slaves was set free.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | ' | ||
| + | it.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | big plantation.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | and de little chillun sho' would be a cryin' when dey | ||
| + | takes dere mothers away from dem.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | dat way, but I's seen other slaves in dem chains and | ||
| + | things.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | church neither and when de slaves die dey was jes' buried | ||
| + | without no singin' | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | remember he comes home on a furlough and we was all so | ||
| + | glad, den when he goes back he gits killed and we nev'r | ||
| + | see him no mo' | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | I's don't remember much 'bout what kinds of medicine we | ||
| + | took but I's know it was mostly home-made.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | necks and sometimes we carry a rabbit' | ||
| + | pockets fer good luck.< | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | old Uncle Pete, our oldest slave, comes a-walkin' | ||
| + | from de woods whar he always go to keeps from bein' | ||
| + | bothered, to read his Bible, and he had dat Bible under | ||
| + | his arm an' he say, ' | ||
| + | knows somethin'', | ||
| + | is free people now, you can go when you please and come | ||
| + | when you pleases and you can stay here or go some other | ||
| + | place' | ||
| + | I's jes' keeps on ridin' dem race hosses 'til long after | ||
| + | my marster was dead, den I's gits me some hosses of my | ||
| + | own and train other men's hosses too.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | to Texas and when I went to work in hotels dat killed | ||
| + | me up. I's done ev'r thing from makin' soap fer de | ||
| + | scrubbin', | ||
| + | I aint been no good since, though, and I had to quit | ||
| + | several years ago.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | in Missouri and we jes' jumps over de broom, and after | ||
| + | Phillis die and I comes to Texas I's gits married again | ||
| + | to Susie, here in San Angelo; we jes' jumps ov'r de | ||
| + | broom too. I's nev'r had no chillun of my own so I's | ||
| + | jes' a settin' | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <hr style=" | ||
| + | <div class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <div class=" | ||
| + | <img src=" | ||
| + | <br />< | ||
| + | </ | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <div class=" | ||
| + | 1848, in Georgia, a slave of the | ||
| + | Denman family, who moved to Texas | ||
| + | before the Civil War. Julia' | ||
| + | memory fails her when she tries | ||
| + | to recall names and dates. She | ||
| + | still tries to take part in church | ||
| + | activities and has recently started | ||
| + | to learn reading and writing. She | ||
| + | lives with a daughter at 2523 Spring | ||
| + | St. Dallas, Texas.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | year the war's over and the fightin' | ||
| + | I larned to plow and that the time I got married. That's the very year | ||
| + | they larned me to plow. I larnt all right, 'cause I wasn't one slow to | ||
| + | larn anything. Afore to that time, they ain't never had no hoe in the | ||
| + | field for me a-tall. I jes' toted water for the ones in the field.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | disremembers some they names. There was Tom and George and Marthy and | ||
| + | Mandy, and they's all name' Denman, 'cause my mammy and daddy was Lottie | ||
| + | and Boyd Denman and they come from Georgia to Cherokee County and then | ||
| + | to Houston County, near by to Crockett, with Old Man Denman. He was the | ||
| + | one owned all us till he 'vided some with Miss Lizzie when she marries | ||
| + | Mr. Cramer.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | and my Uncle Joe, he's driver. But Briscoe am overseer and he a white man. | ||
| + | He can't never whup the growed mens like he wants, 'cause they don't let | ||
| + | him unless he ask Old Man Denman. I seed him whup 'em, though. He make | ||
| + | 'em take off the shirt and whup with the strap.< | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | and Uncle Joe's family. She didn't have much time for anythin' | ||
| + | all the time. But she's the bestes' | ||
| + | and beef. Us et collard greens and pork till us got skittish of it and | ||
| + | then they quit the pork and kilt a beef. When they done that, they's jus' | ||
| + | pourin' | ||
| + | I do to this day, only I can't never git it.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | in the kitchen. The white folks et them. You ain't never seen no white | ||
| + | folks then would eat rabbit. I had a brother who hunted. Mostly on Sundays. | ||
| + | He'd leave for the swamps 'fore daybreak and we'd know when we'd hear him | ||
| + | callin', | ||
| + | make-up of he own, but we knowed they's rabbits for the pot.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | in front he house. Us look out the door and seed Uncle Joe settin' | ||
| + | benches straight and settin' | ||
| + | the leaves and us know they's gwine be meetin' | ||
| + | that ever they was. Night times, too, they'd make it 'tween 'em whether it'd | ||
| + | be at our house or Uncle Joe's. We'd ask niggers from other farms and I used | ||
| + | to say, 'I likes meetin' | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | and have play games. The reels is what I used to like but I done quit that | ||
| + | foolishness many a year ago. I used to cut a step or two. I remembers one | ||
| + | reel call the ' | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p> | ||
| + | "' | ||
| + | He drempt it on a Friday& | ||
| + | He drempt he cotch a sinner.'< | ||
| + | </p> | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | Miss Lizzie marries with Mr. Creame Cramer, which am her dead sister' | ||
| + | husband, Old Man Denman give me and two my sisters to Miss Lizzie and | ||
| + | he gives two more my sisters to he son. Us goes with Miss Lizzie to the | ||
| + | Cramer place and lives in the back yard in a little room by the back door.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | me, ' | ||
| + | I seed in the road a heap of men all in gray and ridin' hosses, comin' our | ||
| + | way. I runs back to the house and calls Miss Lizzie. She say, 'What you | ||
| + | scairt for?' I tells her 'bout them men and she say they ain't gwine hurt | ||
| + | me none, they jus' wants some water. I goes back to the well and heared 'em | ||
| + | talk 'bout a fight. I goes back to the house and some of the mens comes to | ||
| + | the gate and says to Mr. Cramer, ' | ||
| + | all right in my health but I ain't so good in my mind.' They says, 'What | ||
| + | the matter, Creame?' | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | say it am 'bout money. That all I knows. Right after that Mr. Cramer goes | ||
| + | and we don't never see him no more. Word come back from the fightin' | ||
| + | makes some the big, high mens mad and they puts chains 'round he ankles | ||
| + | and make him dig a stump in the hot sun. He ain't used to that and it give | ||
| + | him fever to the brain and he dies.< | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | back to Old Man Denman' | ||
| + | hollerin' | ||
| + | ' | ||
| + | throws at 'em till they cripples 'em up and puts 'em in they bags, for | ||
| + | cookin' | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | from the house and us keeps heerin' | ||
| + | finds me and say, 'Come git your dinner.' | ||
| + | the gate post and he say they's sojers in the woods and they has been | ||
| + | persecutin' | ||
| + | scairt I can't eat my dinner. I ain't got no heart for victuals. My brother | ||
| + | say, 'Wait for pa, he comin' with the mule and he'll hide you out.' I gits | ||
| + | on the mule front of pa and us pass through the sojers and they grabs at us | ||
| + | and says, 'Gimme the gal, gimme the gal.' Pa say I faints plumb ' | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | they fit every time they git a chance. Old Man Denman' | ||
| + | two my sisters he property and they don't know what to do, 'cause they has | ||
| + | to be somebody' | ||
| + | has to go to the auction but Old Man Denman say not to fret. At the auction | ||
| + | the man say, ' | ||
| + | Bid 'em in, bid 'em in. The sun am high, the sun am hot, us got to git home | ||
| + | tonight.' | ||
| + | Blackstone. Us all come home and my sisters too and Old Man Denman laugh big | ||
| + | and say, 'My name allus been William Blackstone Denman.'< | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | baby when I's fourteen. One day my sister call me and say, ' | ||
| + | and they's been surrenderin' | ||
| + | Man Denman call all us niggers together and stand on he steps and make he | ||
| + | speech, 'Mens and womans, you is free as I am. You is free to go where you | ||
| + | wants but I is beggin' | ||
| + | Then he say, 'Study it over 'fore you gives me you answer. I is always try | ||
| + | as my duty to be fair to you.'</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | They says us might as well stay there as go somewhere else, and us got no | ||
| + | money and no place to go.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | her to he house near by and he say he larn me to plow. Miss Lizzie say, | ||
| + | 'Now, Julia, you knows how to plow and don't make no fool of yourself and | ||
| + | act like you ain't never seed no plow afore.' | ||
| + | on 'bout same as afore.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | weddin', | ||
| + | marries me. I ain't used to wearin' | ||
| + | garment made from sacking). Unnerwear? I ain't never wore no unnerwear then.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | and that's the way us do. Us raises our own victuals. I has 17 chillen | ||
| + | through the year and they done scatter to the four winds. Some of them is | ||
| + | dead. I ain't what I used to be for workin' | ||
| + | work in my primer days.< | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <hr style=" | ||
| + | <div class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <div class=" | ||
| + | <img src=" | ||
| + | <br />< | ||
| + | </ | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <div class=" | ||
| + | born a slave on the plantation | ||
| + | of William McCarty, on the Elysian | ||
| + | Fields Road, nine miles | ||
| + | south of Marshall, Texas. Katie | ||
| + | was a nurse and housegirl in the | ||
| + | McCarty household until five years | ||
| + | after the end of the Civil War. | ||
| + | She then moved to Marshall and | ||
| + | married. Her husband and her | ||
| + | three children are dead and she | ||
| + | is supported by Griffin Williams, | ||
| + | a boy she found homeless and | ||
| + | reared. They live in a neat | ||
| + | three-room shack in Sunny South | ||
| + | addition of Marshall, Texas.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | in them bullwhip days. Miss Stella, my young missy, got all our ages | ||
| + | down in she Bible, and it say I's born in 1849. Massa Bill McCarty | ||
| + | my massa and he live east and south of Marshall, clost to the Louisiana | ||
| + | line. Me and my three brudders, Peter and Adam and Willie, all lives | ||
| + | to be growed and married, but mammy die in slavery and pappy run 'way | ||
| + | while he and Massa Bill on they way to the battle of Mansfield. Massa | ||
| + | say when he come back from the war, 'That triflin' | ||
| + | jines up with them damn Yankees.'</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | I stays in the house with 'em and slep' on a pallet on the floor, and soon | ||
| + | I's big 'nough to tote the milk pail they puts me to milkin', | ||
| + | have more'n 100 cows and most the time me and Violet do all the milkin' | ||
| + | We better be in that cowpen by five o' | ||
| + | me lettin' | ||
| + | that time, but that don't mean he allus good, 'cause them cows have more | ||
| + | feelin' | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | had better let that ham alone! We have meal coffee. They parch meal | ||
| + | in the oven and bile it and drink the liquor. Sometime we gits some | ||
| + | of the Lincoln coffee what was lef' from the nex' plantation.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | didn't skin them up very often. He'd whip the man for half doin' the | ||
| + | plowin' | ||
| + | whip them for. At night the men had to shuck corn and the women card | ||
| + | and spin. Us got two pieces of clothes for winter and two for summer, | ||
| + | but us have no shoes. We had to work Saturday all day and if that grass | ||
| + | was in the field we didn't git no Sunday, either.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | missy say, ' | ||
| + | Miss Irene bakes two cakes for the nigger families but she darsn' | ||
| + | missy know 'bout it.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | couple niggers to bury the body and say, ' | ||
| + | or prayin' | ||
| + | on back to that field.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | po'tly man and a po'tly gal and jist put 'em together. What he want am | ||
| + | the stock.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | field am all tore up with cannon holes and ever' time a cannon fire, missy | ||
| + | go off in a rage. One time when a cannon fire, she say to me, 'You li' | ||
| + | black wench, you niggers ain't gwine be free. You's made to work for white | ||
| + | folks.' | ||
| + | door with a pistol. She say, ' | ||
| + | say, 'I ain't tellin' | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | stays for weeks at a time.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | wouldn' | ||
| + | missy whip me after the war jist like she did 'fore. She has a hun' | ||
| + | lashes laid up for me now, and this how it am. My brudders done lef' | ||
| + | massa after the war and move nex' door to the Ware place, and one Saturday | ||
| + | some niggers come and tell me my brudder Peter am comin' to git me 'way | ||
| + | from old missy Sunday night. That night the cows and calves got together | ||
| + | and missy say it my fault. She say, ' | ||
| + | in the mornin', | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | Peter was waitin' | ||
| + | Ware place. I's so happy to git away from that old devil missy, I don't | ||
| + | know what to do, and I stays there sev' | ||
| + | there for money. Then I marries and moves here and me and my man farms | ||
| + | and nothin' | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <hr style=" | ||
| + | <div class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <div class=" | ||
| + | <img src=" | ||
| + | <br />< | ||
| + | </ | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <div class=" | ||
| + | minister of Anahuac, Texas, appears | ||
| + | sturdy despite his 83 years. He was | ||
| + | reared a slave of Capt. John Mann, | ||
| + | in Walker Co., Texas. His wife, who | ||
| + | has been his devoted companion for | ||
| + | 60 years, was born in slavery just | ||
| + | before emancipation. Carey is very | ||
| + | fond of fishing and spends much time | ||
| + | with hook and line. He is fairly | ||
| + | well educated and is influential | ||
| + | among his fellow Negroes.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | I was born in 1855 up in Walker County but since then they split the | ||
| + | county and the place I was born is just across the line in San Jacinto | ||
| + | County now. Jim and Janey Davenport was my father and mother and they | ||
| + | come from Richmond, Virginia. I had two sisters, Betty and Harriet, | ||
| + | and a half brother, William.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | Mann. Old missus' | ||
| + | bad and there was one thing I couldn' | ||
| + | and every Sunday mornin' | ||
| + | I never could understand his ' | ||
| + | knees and befo' we git out the house he cuss us out.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | years. Since I quit I been livin' here at Anahuac and seems like I do | ||
| + | 'bout as much preachin' | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | white Methodist circuit riders come round on horseback and preach. | ||
| + | There was a big box house for a church house and the cullud folks sit | ||
| + | off in one corner of the church.< | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | hold they own service and they used to sing songs what come a-gushin' | ||
| + | from the heart.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | slaves bought or sold and I never was sold, but I seen 'em beat& | ||
| + | yes. I seen 'em make a man put his head through the crack of the rail | ||
| + | fence and then they beat him till he was bloody. They give some of 'em | ||
| + | 300 or 400 licks.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | after him. He run away one time and it was so cold his legs git frozen | ||
| + | and they have to cut his legs off. Sometimes they put chains on runaway | ||
| + | slaves and chained 'em to the house. I never knowed of 'em puttin' | ||
| + | on the slaves on our place, but over next to us they did. They had a | ||
| + | piece what go round they shoulders and round they necks with pieces up | ||
| + | over they heads and hung up the bell on the piece over they head.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | never tackled me, 'cause they'd ruther git the sheep. They like sheep | ||
| + | meat better' | ||
| + | sheep and one day young master see a sow with nine pigs and want me to | ||
| + | catch them and I wouldn' | ||
| + | to the lot we have to go round to the big gate and he had a pine knot, | ||
| + | and he catch me in the gate and hit me with that knot. Old Captain sittin' | ||
| + | on the gallery and he seed it all. When he heered the story he whipped | ||
| + | young master and the old lady, she ain't like it.<span class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | throwed her knittin' | ||
| + | she wanter whip me and when I bring the needle she grab me and I pull away but | ||
| + | she hold on my shirt. I run round and round and she call her mother and they | ||
| + | catch and whip me. My shirt just had one button on it and I was pullin' | ||
| + | and gnawin' | ||
| + | off and I didn't have nothin' | ||
| + | at the gate and sot there till master come. He say, ' | ||
| + | up there?' | ||
| + | whip me 'cause young marse John git whip that time and not me.' He make me | ||
| + | git down and git up on his horse behin' him and ride up to the big house. | ||
| + | Old missus, she done went to the house and go to bed with her leg, 'cause | ||
| + | when she whippin' | ||
| + | I bit her.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | work in the big house and she have a purty good house to live in. It was | ||
| + | a plank house, too, but all the other houses was make out of hewed logs. | ||
| + | Then my father was a carpenter and old master let him have lumber and he make | ||
| + | he own furniture out of dressed lumber and make a box to put clothes in. We | ||
| + | never did have more'n two changes of clothes.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | the mould board out of hardwood. He make the best Carey plows in that part | ||
| + | of the country and he make horseshoes and nails and everything out of iron. | ||
| + | And he used to make spinning wheels and parts of looms. He was a very valuable | ||
| + | man and he make wheels and the hub and put the spokes in.<span class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | and peanuts and sorghum cane and some ribbon cane. The bigges' | ||
| + | cotton and corn.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | he was bodyguard to the old, old master and when he died he give my father | ||
| + | he freedom. That was over in Richmond, Virginia. But young master steal | ||
| + | him into slavery again. So he was glad when freedom come and he was free | ||
| + | again. Old master made arrangement for us to stay with him till after the | ||
| + | harvest and then we go to the old Rawls house what 'long to Mr. Chiv Rawls. | ||
| + | He and my father and mother run the place and it was a big farm.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | now. We's been married more'n 60 years and she was 17 years old then. She | ||
| + | was raised in Grant' | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | when he was on the way to preachin' | ||
| + | marry us. We's had 11 children and all has deceased but three.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | slavery days, but after I was freed I went to public schools. Most my | ||
| + | learnin' | ||
| + | teach me the biggest part of my education.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | mother and her eight children to take care of. I worked two months and | ||
| + | went to school one month and that way I made money to take care of ' | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <hr style=" | ||
| + | <div class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <div class=" | ||
| + | <img src=" | ||
| + | <br />< | ||
| + | </ | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <div class=" | ||
| + | in Harrison Co., Texas, a | ||
| + | slave of Henry Hood. He remained | ||
| + | on the Hood place about | ||
| + | three years after he was freed, | ||
| + | then farmed in Louisiana. In | ||
| + | 1873 he married and moved back | ||
| + | to Harrison Co., where he farmed | ||
| + | until old age forced him to stop. | ||
| + | He now lives with his nephew, | ||
| + | Billie Jenkins, near Karnack. | ||
| + | Campbell receives a $12.00 per | ||
| + | month old age pension.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | get up and go in the mornin', | ||
| + | howlin' | ||
| + | right on the line of Louisiana and Texas, and ' | ||
| + | Hood. My mammy and daddy was Campbell and Judy Davis and dey both come | ||
| + | from Alabama, and was brung here by de traders and sold to Massa Hood. | ||
| + | They was nine of us chillen, name Ellis and Hildaman and Henderson and | ||
| + | Henrietta and Georgia and Harriet and Patsy.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | sot off 'cross de field in de edge of a skit of woods. Dey have dirt floors | ||
| + | and a fireplace and old pole and plank bunks nail to de walls.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | us sop bread in potlicker till de world look level. Dat good eatin' and | ||
| + | all my life I ain't have no better.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | and massa blow de old conk shell long 'fore day, and if de darkies didn't | ||
| + | git goin' you'd hear dem whips crackin' | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | de clothes down to her waist and laid her down on de stomach and lash her | ||
| + | with de rawhide quirt. I's in de field when dey whips my Uncle Lewis for | ||
| + | not pickin' | ||
| + | on de groun' | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | git Saturday afternoon and mos' de man go huntin' | ||
| + | dey have parties Saturday night and couples git on de floor and have music | ||
| + | of de fiddle and banjo. I only ' | ||
| + | |||
| + | <p> | ||
| + | "Hop light, li'l lady,<br /> | ||
| + | The cakes all dough,< | ||
| + | Don't mind de weather,< | ||
| + | Jus' so de wind don't blow.<br /> | ||
| + | </p> | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | was off all day and massa give de big dinner out under de trees. He allus | ||
| + | barbecue de sheep or beef and have cakes and pies and fancy cookin' | ||
| + | one de bes' bosses round dat country. He 'lieve in makin' dem work and when | ||
| + | dey need whippin' | ||
| + | too. And on Christmas he give us clothes and shoes and nuts and things and | ||
| + | ' | ||
| + | folks.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | have our own preacher. Mos' de time us chillen play, makin' frog holes in | ||
| + | de sand and mud people and things.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | one onct. I's comin' home from de neighbors at night, in de moonlight, and | ||
| + | ' | ||
| + | it gits. I's scart but I walks up to it and it nothin' | ||
| + | on de bush. Den I says to myself, 'Dere ain't nothin' | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | him. I seed soldiers on hosses comin' and goin' de big road, and lots of | ||
| + | dem come to Port Caddo in boats. De pretties' | ||
| + | band all dress in de uniforms with brass buttons. When de soldiers come back | ||
| + | from de war dey throwed cannon balls 'long de road and us chillen play with | ||
| + | dem.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | stay on and work for de victuals and clothes. A bunch leaves and go to de | ||
| + | Progoe Marshal at Shreveport and ask him what to do. He tell dem to go back | ||
| + | and wait till dey find work some place. My mammy and me stays at de Hood | ||
| + | place 'bout three years. When I's twenty-one I marries and come back to | ||
| + | Harrison County. Mammy and me done farm in Louisiana up to dat. My wife and | ||
| + | me marries under de big oak tree front of de Leigh Church. Us jus' common | ||
| + | folks and doesn' | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | ticket de long time, but last time I pulls over and votes de Democrat ticket. | ||
| + | I 'cides I jus' as well go with de braves as stay with de scart.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | deyselves, but dey wont do it. Dey am too wild. Jus' last week, I hears de | ||
| + | young cullud preacher at Karnack say, ' | ||
| + | am what we needs today.' | ||
| + | I knows better' | ||
| + | things am ahead for us people and us trusts in de Lawd and was hones' with | ||
| + | our white folks and profits by what dey tells us. Dey wasn't no niggers | ||
| + | sent to jail when I's comin' up. It dis 'style and brightness' | ||
| + | young niggers in trouble. Dey got de dark way 'head of dem, less dey stops | ||
| + | and studies and make somethin' | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <hr style=" | ||
| + | <div class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <div class=" | ||
| + | Kingston, Tennessee, on the | ||
| + | first of April, 1845. His | ||
| + | family were the only slaves | ||
| + | owned by Jonathan Draper, | ||
| + | Baptist minister. In 1869 | ||
| + | William joined the army and | ||
| + | was stationed at Fort Stockton, | ||
| + | Texas. He has lived in | ||
| + | Houston since 1870. William | ||
| + | is active and takes a long, | ||
| + | daily walk.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | I can 'bout times back yonder. Let's see, now. I was born on de first | ||
| + | day of April in 1845. De reason I knows was 'cause Miss Lizzie, our missy, | ||
| + | told me so when we was sot free. Mammy done told me I was born den, on de | ||
| + | Tennessee river, near Kingston. I heared her say de turnpike what run past | ||
| + | Massa John's house dere goes over de mountain to Bristol, over in Virginny. | ||
| + | Mammy and pappy and all us chillen 'long to de Drapers, Massa Jonathan what | ||
| + | us call Massa John, and he wife, Miss Lizzie, and we is de only cullud folks | ||
| + | <a name=' | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | folks sot free, I'll tell de truth and say Massa John and Miss Lizzie was | ||
| + | mighty good to us. Dey have four chillen; Massa Milton, what am oldes' and | ||
| + | kill in de first battle; Massa Bob and Massa George and Massa Canero. Oh, | ||
| + | yes, dey have one gal, Missy Ann.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | pappy named Billy. Sometimes de owners give de slaves last names ' | ||
| + | to what dey do, like pappy was meat cook and mammy cook pies and cakes and | ||
| + | bread, so dey might have Cook for de last name.< | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | chillen. I ain't seen none of dem since I lef' Virginny in 1869, but I | ||
| + | ' | ||
| + | and Albert and John, and I'm de younges' | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | give to her by her pappy in Alabama when she get married. Dat de custom with | ||
| + | rich folks den, and mammy 'long to de Ames, what was Miss Lizzie' | ||
| + | she marry. I heared her say when de stars falls, I think she say in 1832, she | ||
| + | was 'bout eighteen, and dey think de world am endin' | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | Africa, and I heared him say a big storm druv de ship somewhere on de Ca' | ||
| + | coast. I ' | ||
| + | and walk straighter' | ||
| + | head and cheek what he say am tribe marks, but what dey means I don't know.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | Massa John runs de Washington College, in Washington County. I ' | ||
| + | de pupils eats at massa' | ||
| + | for laughin', | ||
| + | Dat my first job. Dey has a string fasten to de wall on one side de room, with | ||
| + | pea fowl tail feathers strung 'long it, and it runs most de length de room, | ||
| + | above de dinin' table, and round a pulley-like piece in de ceilin' | ||
| + | de string hangin' | ||
| + | and I pulls it easy like, and de feathers swishes back and forth sideways, and | ||
| + | keeps de flies from lightin' | ||
| + | is play round with Massa George and Missy Ann.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | and Massa John do de preachin' | ||
| + | wagon. De white folks sets in front de church and us in back.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | to Warm Springs to take de baths and drink de water, in Scott County. Dat | ||
| + | two, three years befo' de war, and Massa John run de hotel and preach on Sunday. | ||
| + | I think dere am three springs, one sulphur water and one lime water and one a | ||
| + | warm spring. I does a little bit of everything round de hotel, helps folks | ||
| + | off de stage when it druv up, wait on table and sich. When I hears de horn | ||
| + | blow& | ||
| + | 'way, to let you know dey comin'& | ||
| + | it, 'cause most times folks what I totes de grips for gives me something. Dat | ||
| + | de first money I ever seed. Some de folks gives me de picayune& | ||
| + | call a nickel, now, and some gives me two shillin' | ||
| + | A penny was big den, jes' like a two-bit piece, now.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | up, 'cause folks quit comin' to de Springs and de soldiers takes over de | ||
| + | place. Massa Milton go to jine de South Army and gits kill. Morgan and he men | ||
| + | make de Springs headquarters most de war, till de Yankees come marchin' | ||
| + | toward de last part. I know pappy say dem Yankees gwine win, 'cause dey allus | ||
| + | marchin' | ||
| + | say dat to de white folks, but he sho' say it to us. When de Yankees come | ||
| + | marchin' | ||
| + | no fightin' | ||
| + | den comes back and rests awhile.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | of July in 1865& | ||
| + | and de rest de family and have dem come to de porch right away.' I scurries | ||
| + | round quick like and tells dem and she comes out of de house and says, 'Now, de | ||
| + | Yankees done sot you free and you can do what you wants, but you gwineter see | ||
| + | more carpet baggers and liars dan you ever has seed, and you'll be worse off | ||
| + | den you <a name=' | ||
| + | and tells us all when us born and how old us am, so us have some record 'bout | ||
| + | ourselves. She tells me I'm jes' nineteen and one fourth years old when I'm sot | ||
| + | free.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | out he tells us Massa John done told him to take a couple wagons and de family | ||
| + | and go to de farm 'bout ten miles 'way on Possum Creek and work it and stay long | ||
| + | as he wants. Massa has us load up one wagon with ' | ||
| + | crop with jes' hoes, 'cause us didn't have no hosses or mules to plow with. Us | ||
| + | raise jes' corn and some wheat, but dey am fruit trees, peaches and apples and | ||
| + | pears and cherries. Massa John pay pappy $120 de year, 'sides us ' | ||
| + | and us stays dere till pappy dies in 1868.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | leaves de folks and gits me de job totin' water. Dey asks my name and I says | ||
| + | William Davis, 'cause I knows Mr. Jefferson Davis am President of de South durin' | ||
| + | de war, and I figgers it a good name. In 1869 I goes to Nashville and 'lists in | ||
| + | de army. I'm in de 24th Infantry, Company G, and us sent to Fort Stockton to | ||
| + | guard de line of Texas, but all us do am build 'dobe houses. Col. Wade was de<span class=" | ||
| + | commander de fort and Cap'n Johnson was captain of G. Co. Out dere I votes for | ||
| + | de first time, for Gen. Grant, when Greeley and him run for president. But I | ||
| + | gits sick at de Fort and am muster out in 1870 and comes to Houston.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | and passengers 'tween Galveston and Houston. Den I works on de Lizzie, what am | ||
| + | a bigger boat. Course, Houston jes' a little bit of place to what it am now& | ||
| + | wasn't no git buildin' | ||
| + | jes' like de swamp when it rain.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | gits marry 'gain in 1885 to Arabelle Wilson and has four girls and one boy from | ||
| + | her. She died 'bout ten years back. Course, us cullud folks marry jes' like | ||
| + | white folks do now, but I seen cullud folks marry 'fore de war and massa marry | ||
| + | dem dis way: dey goes in de parlor and each carry de broom. Dey lays de brooms | ||
| + | on de floor and de woman put her broom front de man and he put he broom front de | ||
| + | woman. Dey face one ' | ||
| + | other and takes hold of hands and dat marry dem. Dat's de way dey done, sho', | ||
| + | 'cause I seed my own sister marry dat way.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | been back and never seed dem since I left, and I guess dey am all gone 'long 'fore | ||
| + | now. I has jobbed at first one thing and ' | ||
| + | I has | ||
| + | trials and tribulations and I has good chillen what ain't never got in no trouble | ||
| + | and what all helps take care dere old pappy so I guess I ain't got no complainin' | ||
| + | 'bout things.< | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | de cherry trees and I'd give lots to see de mountains 'gain, 'cause when de | ||
| + | frost come, 'bout now, de leaves on de trees put on pretty colors and de persimmons | ||
| + | and nuts is ready for pickin' | ||
| + | de meat for de winter.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | and has all I need, but I gits to thinkin' | ||
| + | what I ain't seed since I left, and it sho' make me want to see it once more 'fore | ||
| + | I die.< | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <hr style=" | ||
| + | <div class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <div class=" | ||
| + | West Virginia, a slave of Will | ||
| + | Davison. Eli has a bill of sale | ||
| + | that states he was born in 1844. | ||
| + | His master moved to Texas in 1858, | ||
| + | and settled in Madison County. | ||
| + | Eli lives in Madisonville, | ||
| + | one of his sons.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | Everett Lee and mama was Susan, and he come to see her twict a month, | ||
| + | 'cause he was owned by ' | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | in Dunbar, but most of it ' | ||
| + | He had a great many slaves, and one mornin' | ||
| + | had and told his wife she could have half the slaves. Then we loaded two | ||
| + | wagons and he turned to his oldest son and the next son and said, ' | ||
| + | gwine with me. Crawl on.' Then he said to he wife, ' | ||
| + | everything here, but I'm takin' Eli and Alex and these here two chillen.' | ||
| + | The other two gals and two boys he left, and pulled out for Texas. It | ||
| + | taken us mos' two years to git here, and Marse Will never sot eyes on the rest | ||
| + | of his family no more, long as he lived.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | under the sun I'd let wear my name.' He never said his wife's name no more, | ||
| + | but was allus talkin' | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | and his two boys. My quarters was one them covered wagons, till he trades me | ||
| + | off. He cried like a baby, but he said, 'I hate to do this, but its the only | ||
| + | way I'll have anything to leave for my two boys.' Looks like everything done | ||
| + | go ' | ||
| + | put him away nice and loaded up and went back to Virginia, but the home | ||
| + | was nailed up and farm lying out, and it took them mos' a year to find they | ||
| + | folks. The mother and one gal was dead, so they come back and lived and died | ||
| + | here in Texas.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | or whipped a slave. He allus had plenty to eat, with 1,200 acres, but after | ||
| + | we come here all we had to eat was what we kilt in the woods and cornbread. | ||
| + | He planted seven acres in corn, but all he did was hunt deer and squirrels. | ||
| + | They was never a nigger what tried to run off in Texas, 'cause this was a | ||
| + | good country, plenty to eat by huntin' | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | all the time the South would win that war and he treated us mean. His name | ||
| + | was Thomas Greer. He kept tellin' | ||
| + | When it come, he said to us, 'Well, you black & | ||
| + | I am.' He turnt us loose with nothin' | ||
| + | he got up nex' mornin' | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | settle close by and they let me work for them, and built me a log house | ||
| + | and I farmed on halves. They stood good for all the groceries I buyed that | ||
| + | year. It took all I made that year to pay my debts and that's the way its | ||
| + | been ever since.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | as man and wife. I jus' goes by her home one day and captures her like. | ||
| + | I puts her on my saddle behind me and tells her she's my wife then.< | ||
| + | That's all they was to my weddin' | ||
| + | round here. Sarah, she dies seventeen years ago and I jus' lives round with | ||
| + | my chillen, 'cause I's too old to do any work.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | do. O, I's seed the time when I never had nothin' | ||
| + | of chillun cryin' for bread. I could go to the woods then, but you can't git | ||
| + | wild game no more. In them days it was five or ten mile to your nearest | ||
| + | neighbor, but now they's so close you can stand in your yard and talk to them.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | places for a long time after the niggers was freed. The niggers has got on | ||
| + | since them old days. They has gone from nothin' | ||
| + | We has been kind of slow, 'cause we was turnt loose without nothin', | ||
| + | couldn' | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | our president, we gits a li'l pension now and that's kep' me from plumb | ||
| + | starvin' | ||
| + | when they had that Hoover for president, but they will be straightened out | ||
| + | by and by if they' | ||
| + | kill him, 'cause he helps the poor, but it do look like we ought to have | ||
| + | a li'l bread and salt bacon without upsettin' | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <hr style=" | ||
| + | <div class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <div class=" | ||
| + | Virginia, a slave of George Davison. | ||
| + | Elige worked in the field for some | ||
| + | time before he was freed, but does | ||
| + | not know his age. He lives with one | ||
| + | of his grandsons, in Madisonville, | ||
| + | Texas.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | George Davison owned me and my pappy and mammy. I ' | ||
| + | named Felina Tucker.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | to the black folks. They had a great big rock house with pretty trees all | ||
| + | round it, but the plantation was small, not more'n a hunerd acres. Massa | ||
| + | growed tobaccy on 'bout 30 of them acres, and he had a big bunch of hawgs. | ||
| + | He waked us up 'bout four in the mornin' | ||
| + | hawgs.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | one corner, no floors and windows. Us wore old loyal clothes and our shirt, | ||
| + | it open all down the front. In winter massa gave us woolen clothes to wear. | ||
| + | Us didn't know what shoes was, though.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | too much money to let die jus' like you do a mule. He git doctor or nigger | ||
| + | mammy. She make tea out of weeds, better' | ||
| + | our neck for chills and fever, with camphor on it. That sho' keep off diseases.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | We didn't mind so much. Boss, you know how stubborn a mule am, he have to be | ||
| + | whipped. That the way slaves is.<span class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | and cows will bawl, that the way the slaves was then. They didn't know nothin' | ||
| + | 'bout they kinfolks. Mos' chillen didn't know who they pappy was and some they | ||
| + | mammy 'cause they taken 'way from the mammy when she wean them, and sell or | ||
| + | trade the chillen to someone else, so they wouldn' | ||
| + | or pappy.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | They a big church on he plantation and us go to church and larn to tell the | ||
| + | truth.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | and put 'em in jail. Us couldn' | ||
| + | would git us and they do plenty for nigger slave. I's went to my quarters and | ||
| + | be so tired I jus' fall in the door, on the ground, and a patterroller come by | ||
| + | and hit me several licks with a cat-o-nine-tails, | ||
| + | to not run 'way. Sometimes them patterrollers hit us jus' to hear us holler.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | wooden box and put the nigger in and carry him to the hole in the ground. Us | ||
| + | march round the grave three times and that all.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | some more women to see me. He wouldn' | ||
| + | fifteen and I don't know how many chillen. Some over a hunerd, I's sho' | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | Richmond. They kill everything what in the way. I heared them big guns and | ||
| + | I's scart. Everybody scart. I didn't see no fightin', | ||
| + | way and keeps out till it all over.< | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | two hosses kilt right under him. Then the Yankees, they capture that town. | ||
| + | Massa, he send me to git the buggy and hoss and carry missus to the mountain, | ||
| + | but them Yankees they capture me and say they gwine hang that nigger. But, | ||
| + | glory be, massa he saves me 'fore they hangs me. He send he wife and my wife | ||
| + | to ' | ||
| + | fences.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | them Yankees win the war. He give me $5.00 and say he'll give me that much | ||
| + | a month iffen I stays with him, but I starts to Texas. I heared I wouldn' | ||
| + | to work in Texas, 'cause everything growed on trees and the Texans wore animal | ||
| + | hides for clothes. I didn't git no land or mule or cow. They warn't no plantations | ||
| + | divided what I knowed 'bout. Mos' niggers jus' got turn loose with a | ||
| + | cuss, and not 'nough clothes to cover they bodies.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | Sometimes I git a li'l ride with farmer. Sometimes I work for folks 'long the | ||
| + | way and git fifty cents and start ' | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | couldn' | ||
| + | many year after the war. Iffen the woods wasn't full of wild game us niggers | ||
| + | all starve to death them days.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | ' | ||
| + | Parlee Breyle. No, I done forgot. 'Fore that I marries Sue Wilford, and us | ||
| + | have seven gals and six boys. They all in New York but one. He stays here. | ||
| + | Then I marries Parlee and us have two gals. Parlee die three year ago.< | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | get by. But times been hard and I ain't had much to eat the las' few years. | ||
| + | Not near so good as what old massa done give me. But I gits by somehow.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | I's growed and didn't know much, neither. The young folks, they knows | ||
| + | more, 'cause they got the chance for schoolin' | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <hr style=" | ||
| + | <div class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <div class=" | ||
| + | Dayton, Tennessee, a slave | ||
| + | of Major John Day. John | ||
| + | lives in McLennan Co., Texas.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | and it was the sixteenth of February, in 1856. Master' | ||
| + | John Day and my father' | ||
| + | blacksmith. Blacksmithin' | ||
| + | axes and hoes and plow shares and knives and even Jew's harps.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | he could work and keep the money he made. He'd work till midnight, sometimes, | ||
| + | and at de end that war he had fifteen hundred dollars in Confederate | ||
| + | money. I never seen such a worker.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | one time, 'cause why, he could git a lot of money for him. He sold him, but | ||
| + | my mama and even Old Missy, cried and took on so dat Master John went after | ||
| + | de men what bought him, to git him back. Dey already done crossed de river, | ||
| + | but master calls and dey brung my father back and he give dem de money back. | ||
| + | Dat de only time master sold one of us.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | have no overseer, but saw to all de work heself. He had twenty-five slaves | ||
| + | and raised wheat and corn and oats and vegetables and fruit. He had four | ||
| + | hundred acres and a house with twelve rooms.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | He had two slaves, Taylor and Jennie, and he whip dem every day, even if dey | ||
| + | hadn't done nothin' | ||
| + | day in February, Taylor done go to Denton for somethin', | ||
| + | his master starts beatin' | ||
| + | till my mama, her name was Mariah, gits a butcher knife and runs out dere and say, | ||
| + | 'Iffen you hits him ' | ||
| + | and backed her up. So he quit beatin' | ||
| + | man's own son say to him, 'Iffen you don't quit beatin' | ||
| + | you in de head.' Den he quit.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | done come out dat war he sho' hated anythin' | ||
| + | old Yankee cap and coat and is wearin' | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | thunder, rumblin' | ||
| + | our place to drive dem Feds out. Dere a valley 'bout two miles wide 'twixt our | ||
| + | place and Dayton and we could see de Confederate soldiers till dey go up de hill | ||
| + | on de other side. Long in evenin' | ||
| + | and they was travelin' | ||
| + | and we was gittin' | ||
| + | and white, and puts us under half a big hogshead, down in de stormhouse.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | stormhouse door and sot down on it and she wouldn' | ||
| + | So dey takes her by de arms and lifts her off it. Dey didn't hurt her any. Den dey | ||
| + | brekks de lock and comes down in dere. I didn't see whay dey hadn't found us kids, | ||
| + | 'cause my heart beatin' | ||
| + | kids skinned out dere like de Devil after us. One de Yanks hollers, 'Look what | ||
| + | we done hatch out!'< | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | look like all de Yanks in de world jumpin' | ||
| + | round and run in dat barn and dives in a stack of hay and buries myself so deep | ||
| + | de folks like to never found me. Dey hunted all over de place befo' dey done | ||
| + | found me. Us kids scart 'cause we done see dem Yanks' bayonets and thunk dey was | ||
| + | dere horns.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | meat. After dat master fixes up a place in de ceilin' | ||
| + | trap door so when it closed you couldn' | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | works round and farms and gits by, but I ain't never done nothin' | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <hr style=" | ||
| + | <div class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <div class=" | ||
| + | <img src=" | ||
| + | <br />< | ||
| + | </ | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <div class=" | ||
| + | near Hambirg, Arkansas, a | ||
| + | slave of Jim Nelson, who sold | ||
| + | Nelsen and his family to Felix | ||
| + | Grundy. Nelsen' | ||
| + | poor, but he managed to recall | ||
| + | a few incidents. He now lives | ||
| + | in Waco, Texas.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | Arkansas, up in Ashley County, and it was the twenty-second day of December | ||
| + | in 1847. My mammy was from Virginny and pappy was from old Kentucky, and | ||
| + | I was one of they eight chillen. Our owner, Marse Jim Densen, brung us to | ||
| + | Texas and settled near Marlin, but got in debt and sold as all to Marse | ||
| + | Felix Grundy, and he kep' us till freedom, and most of us worked for him | ||
| + | after that.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | was comin' to Texas and he 'cides to throw in his fortunes. It wasn't so | ||
| + | long after that war with Mexico and folks come in a crowd to 'tect theyselves | ||
| + | ' | ||
| + | and sneak into camp, but Indians come up and makes the peace sign and has | ||
| + | a pow wow with the white folks. Marse git beads or cloth and trade for leather | ||
| + | breeches and things.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | in them days the Red River was near closed up by dis timber raft and de big | ||
| + | boats couldn' | ||
| + | to guide us. Dis Red River raft dey say was centuries old. De driftwood floatin' | ||
| + | down de river stops in de still waters and makes a bunch of trees and de dirt | ||
| + | ' | ||
| + | cover de driftwood. Dis raft growed 'bout a mile a year and de oldes' timber | ||
| + | rots and breaks away, but dis not fast< | ||
| + | 'nough to keep de river clear. We found bee trees on de raft and had honey.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | channel. Dat am in 1873. 'Fore dat, a survey done been made and dey found de | ||
| + | raft am a hundred and twenty-eight miles long. When we was on dat raft it am | ||
| + | like a big swamp, with trees and thick brush and de driftwood and logs all wedge | ||
| + | up tight 'tween everything.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | and he goes to war in General Hardeman' | ||
| + | When de battle of Mansfield come I'm sixteen years old. We was camped on the | ||
| + | Sabine River, on the Texas side, and the Yanks on the other side a li'l ways. I | ||
| + | ' | ||
| + | and the whippoorwills callin' | ||
| + | to keep cheerful. The Yanks sings the ' | ||
| + | us. They come on and on and, Lawd, how they fit! I stays clost to Marse Grundy | ||
| + | and the rebels wins and takes 'bout a thousand Yanks.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | fightin' | ||
| + | free. I s'pose some was with bad white folks, but not round us. We had more to | ||
| + | eat and now I'm so old I wouldn' | ||
| + | ' | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <hr style=" | ||
| + | <div class=" | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | <div class=" | ||
| + | ago in Lafayette Parish, La., | ||
| + | a slave of the Duhon family. | ||
| + | His blue eyes and almost white | ||
| + | skin are evidence of the white | ||
| + | strain in his blood. Even after | ||
| + | many years of association with | ||
| + | English speaking persons, he | ||
| + | speaks a French patois, and his | ||
| + | story was interpreted by a | ||
| + | Beaumont French teacher.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | born over in Louisiana in Lafayette Parish, between Broussard and | ||
| + | Warville. I'm 97 years old now.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | like this, my mama was a house servant in the Duhon family. She was | ||
| + | the hairdresser. One day she barbered master' | ||
| + | He says that he'll shave her head if she won't do what he likes. After | ||
| + | that she his woman till he marries a white lady.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | years old. She died last year in April. I think I'll live long as she | ||
| + | did. There were fifteen slaves on the land what Duhon' | ||
| + | never ran around with them. I had room at the back of the big house. | ||
| + | You know, Madame Duhon was my grandmama. She was good to me. The | ||
| + | only thing I did was look to my master' | ||
| + | Madame. Master had four sons. They were Ragant and Jaques and Lucien | ||
| + | and Desire. Desire was shot at the dance.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | a slave for to hunt all the time. He didn't do other things. The<span class=" | ||
| + | partridge and the rice birds he killed were cooked for the white folks. | ||
| + | The owls and the rabbits and the coons and the possums were cooked for | ||
| + | us. They had a big room for us to eat in. Where they cook they had a | ||
| + | long oven with a piece down the middle. They cooked the white folks things | ||
| + | on one side. They cooked their own things on the other. They had each | ||
| + | ones pots and skillets.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | on my white folks.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | The priest married and baptized the slaves. They gave a feast of baptizing. | ||
| + | We all had real beef meat that day.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | she went to the Landry plantation. There was often marrying between the | ||
| + | two plantations. When they married the wife went to her man's plantation. | ||
| + | That made no difference. It wouldn' | ||
| + | place marry into the man's plantation. That kept things in balance.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | daughter. I didn't know them so much. They were half brothers and sister.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | when the slaves were set free. I wasn't bothered about freedom. Didn't | ||
| + | leave master till he died. Then I went to work for Mr. Polite Landry.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | Natale Vallean beat up a slave for stealing. He beat him so hard he lay | ||
| + | in front of the gate a whole day and the night.</ | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | 23 years ago, it was. I worked at anything. Now I'm too old. I live | ||
| + | with my daughter.</ | ||
| + | </ | ||
texas_slave_narratives_part_1.1407027690.txt.gz · Last modified: (external edit)