i:~. •~ ~
DiBt. 4
Johnson County, md.
Wiii. R. )&ys	~ ‚~
July 29, 1937	‘753 worâ~	‘J


SLLVERY DAYS OF MMflIY COOPER OF
LINCOLN COUNTY, ~ŚNTUCKX

Ref:	Frank Cooper, 735 Ott St., Franklin, End.


	Frank Cooper, an aged colored ~n of Franklin, relates some very irrLeresting conditions t1~.t existed in slavery days as handed down to him by his mother.

	1~.ndy Cooper, the mother of Frank Cooper, was 115 years old when she died; s~te was o~ied by three difforozrt familles : the Good‘s, the i3urtonts, and the Cooper‘s, all of Lincoln Co. Kentucky.

	“Well, Ah reckon Ah am one of the oldest colored men hereabowts,“ confessed aged Frank Cooper. “What did you all want to see me about?“ ~r . . • •• mISSIOn being stated, he related one of the strangest oategori~ alluding to his mother‘s slave life that I 2ave ever heard.

	“One day while mah ir~a~ was washing her back n~r sistah noticed ugly disfiguring soars on it. 1xf‘quiring about theme W~ found,irnioh to our amazemez*,

that they	were mami~‘ ‘s roltos of the now gone, if not forgotten, slave days, “This ~was her first reference to her “misery days“ that she ~d evah

n~.de in my presence. Of course we all thought she was telling us a big story

and we nude fun of her • With eyes flashin‘ ‚ she stopped bathing, dried her back and reached for the smelly oie black wlji.p that hung behind the kitchen door • Biddin‘ us to strip dovin to our waists, ~ little n~inn~r with the boney bent..‘ovah back, struck each o f us as hard as evah she could with that black-snake whip ‚ each -~ stroke of the whip drřw blood frata our backs. “Now“, she said to us, “you bave a taste of slavery days.“ With three of her children now having tas~ed of some of her “misery day&‘ sh‘ ~aS in th~ mood to tell us more of her sufferings~ still ix~delibly impressed in 1!~T ~fljfl~~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ .~ ~