SLAVE NARRATIVES A Folk History of Slavery in the United States From Interviews with Former Slaves TYPEWRITTEN RECORDS PREPARED BY THE FEDERAL WRITERS' PROJECT 1936-1938 ASSEMBLED BY THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS PROJECT WORK PROJECTS ADMINISTRATION FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA SPONSORED BY THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS Illustrated with Photographs WASHINGTON 1941 VOLUME XVI TEXAS NARRATIVES PART 3 Prepared by the Federal Writers* Project of the Works Progress Administration for the State of Texas INFORMANTS Lewis, Cinto 1 Lewis, Hagar 4 Lewis, Henry 8 Lewis, Lucy 14 Lincoln, Amos 17 Little, Annie 20 Livingston, Abe 24 Love, John 26 Love, Louis 29 McCoy, John 32 McQueen, Nap 35 McRay, Bill 38 McRay, C. B. 40 Malone, Julia 43 Marshall, Adeline 45 Martin, Isaac 48 • • - Martin, Jaines 62 Mathews, Louise 65 Mathews, William 67 Mayes, Hiram 72 Merritt, Susan 75 Miles, Josh 79 Miller, Anna 82 Miller, Mintie Maria 85 Mills, Tom 88 Mire, La San 107 Mitchell, Charley 110 Mitchell, Peter 114 Moody, Andrew 116 Moore, A. M. 118 Moore, Jerry 121 Moore, John 125 Moore, Van 128 Moore, William 132 Morrow, Mandy 138 Moses, Patsy 142 Nelson, Andy 145 Newman, Virginia 148 Nillin, Margrett 152 Ogee, John Osborne, Annie Overstreet, Horace Overton, Mary Owens, George Patterson, Mary Anna Patton, Martha Payne, Ellen Perkins, Henderson Phillips, Daniel Pierce, Lee Polk, Ellen Powers, Betty Powers, Tillie R. Price, Allen Price, John Price, Rev. Lafayette Probasco, Henry Proctor, Jenny Pruitt, A. C. Quarls, Harre Rains, Eda Randall, Millie Redmoun, Laura Reece, Elsie Reynolds, Mary Rim, ".'/alter Robinson, Ilariah Ross, Susan Row, Annie Ruffin, Gill Ruffin, Martin Ruffins, Florence Russel, Aaron Ryas, Peter Ryles, Josephine 154 157 160 162 165 171 173 177 180 183 185 188 190 193 195 197 201 205 208 218 222 225 227 229 233 236 247 252 256 258 262 265 268 270 274 278 ILLUSTRATIONS Facing page Hagar Lewis 4 Annie Little 20 Abe Livingston 24 Nap McQueen 35 Bill McRay 38 C. B. MeRay . 40 Jaraes Martin 62 Louise Mathews 65 Susan Merritt 75 Josh Miles 79 La San Mire 107 Charley Mitchell 110 Andrew Moody and Wife Tildy 116 A. M. Moore 118 Jerry Moore 121 Van Moore 128 William Moore 132 Patsy Moses 142 Virginia Newman 148 Margrett Nillin 152 John Ogee 154 Horace Overstreet 160 Mary Anna Patterson 171 Facing page Ellen Payne 177 Henderson Perkins 180 Daniel Phillips 183 Ellen Polk 188 Betty Powers 190 Tillie R. Powers 193 John Price and wife I.Iiranda 197 Jennie Proctor 208 Eda Rains 225 Millie Randall 227 Laura Redmoun 229 Elsie Reece 233 Mary Reynolds 236 Walter Himai 247 Gill Ruffin 262 Martin Ruffin 265 Aaron Russel 270 420176 EX-SLAVE STORIES (Texas) Page One Uncle Cinto Lewist ex-slave, claims to "be 111 years old. He lived in a brick cabin with his wife, Aunt Lucy, on the Huntin^ton Plantation, in Bra- zoria Co.f Texas. Miss Kate Huntington sa ~s the cabin oc- cupied by the old couple is part of the old slave quarters built by J. Greenville McNeel, who owned the plantation before Marion Euntington, Miss Kate's father, bought it. Although Uncle Cinto claims to be 111, he says he was n?jaed San Jacinto because he was born during the "San Jacinte Warw , which would make his age 101. * "Yes, suh, I1 s Cinto. That's Lucy over there, she ay wife and I calls her Bed Heifer, fcause her papa's name was Juan and he was a Mexican. She and me marry right after 'mancipation. We come long way and we gain1 to die together, "They named me San Jacint© 'cajase I's born durin1 de San Jacinte war, but they calls me Cinto. I's born in Fort Bond County, up near Richmond,and my old marster was Marse Dave Randen, and his wife, Miss Nancy, was my missus. She was sister to Marse John Mc- Neel, what with his brothers owned all de land hereabouts. *I 'members once I slips away come dark from de plantation, with seme others. We is slippin' 'long quiet like and a paddle roller U jump out from behia1 a bush and say, '^et's see your pass.' We didn't have none but I has a pieee of paper and I gives it to him and he walks t«o where it am more light, and then we run, right through eld burdock bushes with briars stickin1 us and everything. Iffen he eotehed ua we she' gits a hidin'. -1- Bx-slave Stories Page Two £ 2 (Texas) "I fast went to de field idien I 'bout 15 year eld, but they larned us to work when we was chaps,, we would he'p our mamas in de rows. My aamaa's name Maria Siaaons and ay papa, Lewis. They rared me up right. "Marse Dare wasn't mean like some. Sometimes de slaves run away to d' to Mary Martin, when she married ; / • ^ J /J" Jf^ John M» McFarland. They lived near { >^fJ/V ,/ Tyler, Smith Co,, Texas* When freed she remained with the Mcfarlands until she married A. Lewis and moved to San Antonio, Texas. Widowed early, /»• she raised two sons* One, chief electrical engineer with the U*S» government, lives in New York City, He provides for his aged mother. "I was horn Jan. 12th, 1855, My first owners was the Martins, and when their daughter, Mary, married, I was give to her. My mama lived to 112 years old. She had sixteen children. I was the haby. wMissus Mary Mcffarland, my mother's missus and mine, taught us children with her own; Learned us how to read and write. She treated us just like we were her children. We had very strict leaders, my mother and Missus Mary, She1d say, fMamiay LizeflUy mother), fyou*ll have to come and whop Oscar and Hagar, they's fightinl* Mammy lize would say, !Hof I wonH whop ^m, Ifll just punish ^m,1 And we*d have to stand with our hacks to each other. My missus never did much whoppin1. ----- ------*Ie lived in cabins made of logs and chinked with mud mort&r. We had "beds t£at had only one leg; they fit in each corner of the walls. Shey was strong* stout. We could jump on *em and have lots of fun. We dtdn1 stay in quarters much, The cabins was near a creek where willows :'$ffimA we*d make stick horses out of lem. We called it our horse lot, |§§|^ that threw water higk, and we*d go fishing in Ex-slave Stories page Two §| (Texas) a "big lake on one corner of the farm. Marster owned half a league, maybe more. HI W2-S 12 years old when freed. I can remember the way my raarster come home from the war. The oldest son, Oscar, and I was out in the yard, and I saw marster first, comin* down the road, and I hollered and screaked, '0, Oscpt, Marse John's a-cominl Marse Johnls a-comin' home I» We stayed on with them 'till they all died off hut Oscar* HWe never changed our name 'till after the Civil War* Then Marse John said, 'Maxaay iize, you gotta choose a nsiAB9t He carried us into Tyler to a "bureau or something. Mammy Lize sey, 'I'm going to keep the name Mcfarland. I ain't got no other name.' "My father was a slave from another farm. My mother was the cook. She cooked it all in the ssjnte place for white folks and us. We ate the same, when the white folks was finished. They's a "big light bread oven in the yard of the big house and in front of the quarters, under a big tree. That one baked the pies. The cabins had a big fire-* place vdder tlxan that piano there. They'd hang meat and sausage and dry them in the fireplace* Cut holes in ham and hang them there. Had big hogsheads filled up with flour, corn and wheat. MSome pore niggers were half starved. They belonged to other people. Missus Mary would call them in to feed 'em, see 'em outside the fence pickin' up scraps. They*d call out at night, fMarse John, Marse John*1 T&^y's afraid to come in daytime. Marse John*d say, 'What's the ^tter now!1 They*d say, 'Ifse hongry.' He'd say, 'Come in and git it.1 ;^^^|f^f lots of meat, for we'd hear 'em holler in' at night when they'd Ex^slam Stories Page JJJ^o (Texas) V u "beat the pore niggers for beggin' or stealin1, or some crime. MMarse John would saddle up Old Charlie and go" see. He had a big shot gun across his lap. We'd hear that ole "bull whip just apoppin*. They'd turn fem loose when Marse John got after 'em. He prosecuted some \ '¦ marsters for heat in1 the glares. He knew they was half feedin1 'em. One time he let us go see where they'd drug two niggers to death with oxen. For stealin1 or something I can't say we were treated "bad, 'cause I*d tell a story. I*ve always been treated good by whites, but many of the niggers was killed. They'd say bad words to the bosses and they'd shoot fea. We'd ask Miss Mary why did they kill old Uncle so and so, and Miss Mary would say, *I don't know. It's not right to say when you don't know.' rfm glad to see slavery over. "When I was turned loose Miss Mary was training me and mister / I to do handwork, knittin1 and such. Mama wouldn't let us dance, didn't {want any rough children. Miss M&ry'd say, when Ifd get sleepy, 'Owl / eyes, ain't you sleepy?' I'd say, 'No, aa'aa, anything you want us to I /do?' I cried to sleep in the big house with Miss Mary and the children, i 'cause my sister Belle did. Said shefs goin' to turn white * cause she \§tayed with the white folks, and I wanted to turn white, Jboo» MMiss Mary'd make our Sunday dresses. My mother put colored ^ thread in woven material and they was pretty. We had plenty of clothes* Miss Matry saw to that, fhey paid ay mother for every chUdjshe had that was hig enough to work, and Marse John saw that others did the same. "Soae whites had a dart hole in the ground, a'dungeon,* they ^|© j»at their Blares in. fhey'd eai?ry 'ea hread and water ^||||;i::::il*s«-afraid of the:hole, they'd tell me- the deril was in £&&&. v;4-:vfe' fA&;.;&&&&&^!^^ <*^ ^^t.&i^x.U^,..*. •¦&- '.' t,.^^^ii:%:i^'^l\A.^^.^.^ ~* ¦ »....:.*•» ¦: ,-:>,iV. ^>a J<-.i;l^.,^^ J^i-,liL^^i£A 1 Ex-slave Stories Page E^ee (Texas) that hole, "We set traps for •possua, coons and squirrels. We used to have oig sport ridin1 goats. One near busted me wide open. Jiise Mary's brother put me on it, and they punished hia good for it. He didn*t get to play for a longtime, jjxd we had an old buck sheep. He*d keep Oscar and I up on the oak patch fence all the tiae. HWefd watch the doodle bugs build their houses. We'd sing, fDoodlet Doodle, your house burned down.1 Those things would come up out of their holes just a^shafein1* r,0ne game I reaeaber was, fSkip frog, Skip frog, ijuswer your Mother, she's callin1 you, you, you.1 We*d stand in a circle and one would be skip frog* Wefd slap our hands m& skip frog would be hoppin1 just like frogs do. Oh, I wish I could call them tiaes back again, Ifd go back toaorrow. But Ifa tryin1 to live so I can meet *ea once again. ***************** ^^^^^^^^iilSS 420155 EX-SLAVE STORIES Page One m (Texas) m . - s HENBY LEWIS was born in 1835, at Pine Island, in Jefferson 4* Co*, Texas. He was owned by \ Bob Oade. Henry1s voice is low and somewhat indistinct and it was evidently a strain on his vocal chords and also on his memory, to tell the story of his life. He lives with one of his daughters, in Beaumont, who supports him, with the aid of his pension. " "Old Bob Cade, he my massa, and Annie Cade, she my missus. Dey had a big plantation ove^ in Louisiana and f not her in Jefferson County, out at Pine Island. I*s born a hunnerd and one year ago, on Christmas Day, out at Pine Island. If I lives to see next Christmas day 'gain, I'll be a hunerd two year old. "Jfy mammy she come from Mis'sippi and she name1 Judy Lewis. Washington Lewis, one de slaves on Massa Bob's Louisiana plantation, he my daddy. I can't •member nobody else 'cept my greatgrjamma, Patsy. She's 130 when she die. She look awful, but den she my folks. My own dear mammy was 112 year old when she die. She have ten chillen and de bigges' portion dem born in slavery time. Dey two sister older'n _me^ Mandy and Louise. I name' after my daddy brudder, Henry Lewis* MMy white folks have a plantation in Louisiana, at Caginly, and stay over dere mosf de time* I •member when old MassaBob used to come to Pine Island to stay a month or two, all us li'l chillen gather round him and he used to throw out two bitses and big one cent pieces •mongst us, jis' to see us scrammel for dem, Uhen Christmas time come round dey give us Christmas gift and a whole week for holiday. "I never been no nearer east dan Lake Charles and dat been lately, so -1- Ex^slave Stories Page Two C^ (Texas) I ainft never see de old plantation. At Pine Island us have de big woods place with a hunerd workin1 hands, without de underlies (children). All he niggers say Cade de good man* He hire he overseers and say, fTou can correct dem for dey own good and make dem work right, "but you ainft better cut dey hide or draw no blood*1 He git a-holt some mean overseers but dey donft tarry long. He find out dey beatin1 he niggers and den he beat dem and say,, fHow dat suit you?1 "Old massa. he a big, stocky Irishman with sandy hair and he ain't had no beard or mustache. When he grow old he have de gout and he put de long mat- tress out on de gallery and lay down on it. He say, fCome here, my li'l niggers,' and den he make us rub he foots so he kin git to sleep. "Dey used to have old slavery-day jedge and jury of white folks and dey hear de case and fcide how many lashes to give de darky. Dey put de lash on dem, but dey never put no jail on dem. I seed some slaves in chains and I beared of one massa what had de place in de fence with de hole cut out for de nigger's neck. Dey hist up de board and de nigge^ put he head through de hole and den dey beat him with a lash with holes bored in it and every hole raise de blister. Den he bus1 dem blisters with de handsaw and dey put salt and pepper in de bucket water and 'noint dem blisters with de mop dip in de water. Dey do dat when dey in 'ticular bad humor, if fen de nigger ain't chop 'nough cotton or corn. Sometime a overseer kilt a nigger, and dey don't do nothin' to him 'cept make him pay for de nigger. But our massa good. "Old massa 'low us praise Gawd but lots of massas didn't 'low dem to git on de knees. Us have church-house and de white folks go in de mornin1 and us go after dinner. Us used to sing: Ht My knee bones achin1 f }fy body's rackin1 with pain, I calls myself de chile of Gawd, Heaven am my aim. -2- 2x-slave Stories Page Three -«q (Texas) "'If yo.. don't 'lieve I*s a chile of Gawd, Jis1 meet me on dat other shore, Heaven is my home. I calls myself a chile of Gawd, Ifs a long time on my way, But Heaven am my home. ' M01d massa have de house make out hand-sawed planks in slavery time. It put together with homemade nailsf dem spike, square nails"dey make deyselfs. It have de long gallery on it, De slaves have li'l log cabin house with mud-cat chimney on de side and de furn'ture mostly Georgia hosses for beds and mattress make out tow sacks. Dey no floor in dem house, f cept what Gawd put in dem. "When I six or seven year old dey 'cides Ifs big 'nough to start ridin1 hosses. Dey have de big cattle ranch and I ride all over dis territory. I's too li'l to git on de boss and dey lift me up, and dey have de real saddle for me, too. I couldn't git up, but I shof could stay up when I git dere, I's jis' like a hoss-fly. "Beaumont was jis1 a briarpatch in dem time. Jis1 one lifl store and one "blacksmith, shop, and Massa John Herring he own dat. Dat de way I first see my wife, ridin1 de range. De Cade brand was a lazy EC ( ) dat done register *fore Ifs born. Us brand from de first of March to de 15th of December. "Old massa have de big fiild *vided in tracfs and each slave could have a part and raise what he want, and old massa buy de crop from de slave. He's purty good to he slaves, and us have good clothes, too, wool for winter and cotton for suiomer. Us have six suit de year, unnerwear and all, Dey a trjfak like in de cabin for Sunday clothes and de res' hang on a peg. "Us have plenty good food to eat, too. Beef and hawgs and bacon and syrup and sugar and flour was plenty. All de possums and rabbits and fish and sich was jis1 dat much more. He give us de barrel whiskey every year, too. -3- Ex-slave Stories Page 9h*ee j[j[ (Texas) 11 Dey 'low de li'l chillen lots of playtime and no hard task. Us play, stick hoss and seven-up marble game with marbles usmake and de fwell game*1 De gal or boy sot in de chair and Icnm way back and ftend like dey in de well. Dey say dey so many feet down and say, 'Who you want pull you out?' ind de one you want pull you out, dey sposed to kiss you. HDey used to be nigger traders what come through de country with de herd of niggers, jis1 like cattlemen with de herd of cattle. Dey fix camp and de pen on de ridge of town and people what want to buy more slaves go dere, Dey have a block and make de slaves git up on dat. Maybe one man say, 'I give you, $200.00, and when dey's through de slave sold to de highes' bidder, Old massa warn us look out and not let de trader cotch us, 'cause a trader jis1 soon steal a nigger and sell him. tt De patterrollers come round befo1 de war to see ifeen de massas treat dere slaves good. My wife's gramma say dey come round to her massa1 s place, but befo1 dey git dere he take a meat skin and make dem rub it round dey mouth and git dey face all greasy so it look like dey have plenty to eat and he tell dam day better tell de patterrollers dey gittin' plenty to eat. But dere one big nigger and he say, 'Hell, no, he ain't give u® 'nough to eat.1 Den dat nigger say, 'Please take me with you, 'cause if you don't massa gwineter kill me when you git gone. "Old massa he die befo' de war and den he son, John Cade, take over de place, and he brudders help. Dey name' Overton and Taylor and Bob, Junior. Us all want to git free and talk 'bout it in de Miarters 'mongst ourselfs, but we ain't say nothin' where de white folks beared us. ~4- Ex-slave Stories (Texas) Page Five 12 n m 1 "When war come on I seed sojers every day. Dey have de camp in Liberty and I watches dem. I beared de guns, too, maybe at Sabine Pass, but I didnft see no actual fightin1. Dat a long year to wait, de las1 year de war. Dey sont de papers down on March 5th, I done heared, but dey didnft turn us loose den. Dis de last state to turn de slaves free. When dey didn't let dem go in March, de Yankee sojers come in June and make dem let us go. Next mornin1 after de soje s come, de overseer reads de papers out and say we's free as he is and we can go* Some stay on de old place a long time and some go off. You know (Ley jis1 slaves and wasnft civilize1. Some ainft never git civilize1 jet. Old massa never give us nothin1, but he told us we would stay on if fen we want, but I left. "I goes down close to Anaiiuac and builds a li*l log cabin at Monroe City, and datfs where dey puttin1 in oil wells now. Yfashington Lewis, dat my daddy, he have 129 acres dere. De white folkssay to sign de paper to let dem put de well on it and dey give us $50.00 end us sign dat paper and dey have de land. MI marries in slavery time, when I*s 'bout 22 year old. My first wife name1 Eachel an she live on Double Bayou, She belong to de Mayes place. I see her when I ridin1 de range for Massa Bob. I tells massa I wants to git marry and he make me ask Massa Mayes and us have de big weddin1. She dress all in white. I have de nice hat and suit of black clothes and daddy a shoemaker and make me de good paifr of shoes to git marry in. Us stand front Massa Mayes and he read out de Bible. Us had a real big supper and some de white folks give us money. HDe first money I makes am workin1 for de govfment in Gs&veston. After de war de govfment hire fol^a to clean up de trash what de fightin1 make and Ex-slave Stories Page Six j[(J (Texas) I am hired. Dey lots of wood and stones and brick and trees and sich dem big guns knock down. f,I goes back to ridin1 de prairie and rides till I*s 94 year old. I stops de same year Mr. Joe Hebert dies. When I quits I's out working tendin1 Mr. Langhamfs chickens and I forgits it Christmas and my birthday till Mr. Langham comes ridin1 out with my money. Datfs de last work I done and dat in | 1931 and Ifs 94 year old, like I say. I bet dese nineteen hunerd niggers ain't I ( gwine live dat long. f "I didn't had no chill en-by my first wife ptA she been dead fbout i I 70 year now. My last wife name' Charlotte and she been dead 22 year and us | have 16 chillen. Dey six gals and ten boys and ten am livin* now. Mos* of I dem am too old to work now. I stays with Ada, here, and she got a gif§. She I ' ': I know what kind of herb nm good for medicine for diff'rent ailments. She born I | with a veil over de face and am wise to dem things. Dey1 s de fever weed and t de debil's shoestring, and fleaweed cures neuralgy and toothache. Spanish | mulberry root, dat good for kidneys. When anybo $r git swolled feets give dem I wild grapevine. Prickly ash bark good for dat, too. Red oak bark good for | women's troubles and puapkin head for de heart. CamDhor and asafoetida in de I | "bag round de neck good for de heart. When de chile git convulsion make dem drink li*l bluin1. Dat good for girowed-up folks, too. It good for burns, too. ***** i> 420181 EX-SIAVS STORIES (Texas) Page One i< LUCY LEWIS, wife of Cinto Lewis, does not know her age, but is very aged in appearance, about four feet tell and weighs around 65 or 70 pounds. She was born on the McNeel plantation at Pleasant Grove, land now occupied by No. 2 Camp of th* Clemens Prison Iflarm. Her maater was Johnny McNeel, broth- er of J. Greenville McNeel. His sister married Dave Randon, Cinto* s master. Cinto and Lucy's cabin is furnished with an enoraous four- poster bed and some chairs. Pots, pans, kettles and jugs hang on the walls. The fireplace has a skillet and beanpot in the ashes* The old people are almost blind. "You all white folks jus1 set a bit while I eats me a little beeakfast. I got me a little flap jack and some clabber here. Dem old flies gobble it up for me, don't I git to it fust. Me and Cinto •boat starve, old hard time 'bout git us. I sure wishes I could find some of Marse John Dickinsonfs folks, I she1 go to them. MMe and Cinto got nine head grandchillen down in Galveston, but dey don't write or nothin1. ill our own children are dead. Dey was Lottie and Louisa bxljL Alice. Dey was John, too, but he was so little and scrawny he die when he a month old. We call him after Marse John, which we all love so ^uch. "My mamafs name was Lottie Hamilton and she was bom at de Cranby Camp for Johnny McNeel. My papa was a Mexican and went by name of Juan. WI donft hardly recollec1 when w© git married. I hardly turn fifteen and dey was fat on dese here old bones den, and I had me a purty white calico dress to git married in. It was low in de neck with raf- -1- 3JX-S1AVE STORIES Pace Two (T&xas) ' 15 fles and de sleeves come to ray elbow purty like. We she1 had de finest kind of a time when Cinto and me gits marriied, we-all fishes down on de "bayou se in lawsuit and I 'spect lo die that way. But I has to stay 'way from Mauriceville for three year » ause that man say I thiefed he "barrel. "Things was bad after us come to Texas for a time. That Lizal Scizche, he sho1 rough man. Us cropped on the share and he take the crop and the money and lef! fast. Us didn»t have a mess of nothin1 left. 111 manages ,o live by croppin1 . I been here 52 year now. My first wife name Massanne Plorshann, that the French. My wife what I got now name Annie. Mnssanne she give me six chillen and Annie foar. ********* 430£22 E3USLAVE STORIES Page One ** OA (Texas) ^ ANNIE LITTLE, 81, was horn a slave of Bill Goodent in Spring- field, Missouri, Her master owned a plantation in Mississippi, and sent Annie's family there while she was a baby, Annie now lives in Martt Texas, w Ifs first a baby in Springfield. Dat in Missouri and dertf am where I's birthed in January, 1856, My daddy and mexnmy was Howard and Annie and dey * longed to MassaBill Gooden. He have de plantation in Missipp1 and send us dere while I*s still de li1! baby. Dat am what dey call de Delta nowf and de cotton so high I dumb up in de trees to reach de top of de stalks, and de corn so high a man on he mule only have de top ha hat showin1. HIf us mind mass a and missust dey good to us, but if de hands lazy and not work den da overseer whop dem. When dey run fway he sot de blood- hounds on dem and dey dumb de tree* Ifs heared dem hounds bayin1 de nigger up a tree jes1 lots of times. Massa never sold none m^ family and we stays with him till he wife die and he die, too, nIn de cold days de women spin and weave de cloth on looms. I stands by and pick up de shuttle when dey fall. Us niggers all wore de clothes aake on de spinnin1 wheel, but de white folks wore dresses from de store. Bey have to pay fifty and seventy-five cents de yard for calico dan. HDen da war come. I ^member how massa come home on de furlough and whan word coma ha on da w$rt us all git ready for da big eel1 brat ion. Day Seiit da yearlln* or hawg and all us niggers cook for da big feast. Some- gfli&a if fan ha atay & neefc, we 4es» do nothin1 hut aat and cook* **1*» ¦ ^ ' -, 7'1%<> Ex-slave Stories Page 2Nro Q,X (Texas) "Dem de good old d»vs, "but dey didn't last, for de war em over to sot de slaves free and old ra^jssa ask if we'll stay or go* My folks jes' stays till I's a growed gal and gits married and has a home of ay own. Den my ol>d man tell me how de Ymkees stoled him from de fields. Dey some cavalfy sojers and dey makehim take care of de hossee. He's 'bout twict as old as me, end he say he was in de Bull Run Battle* He's capture in one battle and run 'way and 'scape by de holp of a Southern regiment and fin'ly come "back to Mississip'. He like de war songs like 'Marchin' Through Georgia, * but bes1 of all he like dis song: 1111 ainft gwine study war no more, I gwine lay down my burden, Down by de river side, Down by de river side. wfGwine lay down m^ sword and shield Down by de riverside, Down by de riverside. ,MI ainft gwine study war no more, Gwine try on my starry crown f Down by de river side, Down by de river side.' *ffellt he done lay he burden down and quit dis world in 1916. "Do I fmember any hant stories? Well, wefd sit round de fire in de wintertime and tell ghos* stories till us chillen *fraid to go to bed at ai^kt. If fen I can §lect, Ifll tell you one. Dis story am fbout a old, N^ted house, a bigf old house with two front rooms down and two front rooms ^fe&da hall runnin1 from back to front. In back am de li1! house where Alex, l^l^^b^ what top* he hossf staar# . ^^^0^0S %!#- house faoe de river. Old Massa go to war and never come Ex-slave Stories P*ge Three OO (Texas) "back no more. Old missy jes1 wait and wait, till fin*ly dey all say she am yiesk in de head. Every day she tell de niggers to kill de pig, dat massa he home today. Svery day she fir up in de Sundiy hest and wait for him. It go on like dat for years and years, till old miss a® gone to he with olVJ massa, md de niggers all left and dere am iesf de old house left. MOne day long time after freedom Alex come hack, and he hair turned white. He go up de river to de old plantation fco tell Old Miss dat Old Massa gone to he Heavenly Home, and wonft he h ck to de old place. He come up to de old house and de front gate ^m of fen de hinges and de grass high as he head, end de blinds all hangin' sideways and rattle with de wind. Dey ainlt no lightnin1 !bag and no crickets on de fireplace, jes1 de old. house and de wind &~blowinf through de window blinds and moanin* through de trees. M01d Alex so broke up he jes1 sot down on de steps and ffore he [knowed it hefs asleep* He saw Old Massa and hisself gwine to war ^nd OV, Massa [am on he white hoss and he new gray uniform what de women make for him, and de band m playin1 Dixie, Old Alex seed hisself ridint he li*l roan pony by Old Massa*s side. Den he drejm a *fter de battle when he look for Old Massa and finds him and he hoss lyin1 side by side, done gone to where dere ainft no more war. |He buries him, and -*-den de thunder andlightnin' m*ke .Alex wake up and he look [in Old Miss1 room and dere she am, Jes1 sittin1 in her chair, waitin1 for Old *sa* Old Alex go t> talk with her and she fade *way. Alex stay in he li'l old |cabin waitin1 to tell Old Miss, and every time it come rain and lightnin1 she Llus sot in her chair and go "way 'fore he git in her room. So Oh Alex finUy £oes to sleep forever, but he never left he place of watchin' for Old Miss. Ex-alaveStories Page Pour 23 (Texas) "De white folks and niggers what live in dem days wouldn't live in dat big, old house, so it am call de fhanted house by de river.1 It stands all •lone for years and years, till ne new folks from up North come and tore it down." (See picture of house at end of story.) "I well flect ayr old man seyin' how de steamboat come whistlin1 up de river and all de darkies go to singin', •Steamboat Comin1 .Rounc5 de 3end,' | Dis am in de cotton patch jesf fyond de hanted house and de steamboat whistle mean time to go to dinner. Dat am de Little Bed River up in Arkansas, where my old man, Dolphus Little, am birthed, ri£ht near de hanted house. "Dolphus and ne marries in iiissipp' but come to Texas and lives at Hillsboro on iiassa J0hn filloughby1 s farm. We has ten chillen and I'm livin1 with my baby boy right now. Ifll tell you de song I gits all dera chillen to sleep with: "Mammy went 'way - she tell me to stay, And take good care of de baby. She tell me to stay and sing disaway, 0, go to sleepy, lifl baby. HOf shut you eye and donft you cry, Go to sleepy, li'l baby, fCause mammy's bcun1 to come bime-by, 0 , go to sleepy, li'l baby. ^We'll stop up de cr^cksand sew up de seams, De booger man never shall cotch vou. 0, go to sleep and dreaw sweet dreams, De booger man never shall cotch you, "De river ran wide, de river run deep, 0, bye-o, s'weet li'l babv, Dat boat rock slow, she'll rock you to sleep, 0, bve-o, sweet li*l baby. Chorus H0, go to sleepy, sleepy, li'l baby» 'Cause when you wake, :/<*i'll git some cake, And ride a lifl white hossy. 0, de li'l butterfly, he stole some pie, Go to sleepy, li'l baby. And flew so high till he put out his eye, ;< | 0f go to sleepy* 11 fl baby. 420095 E3USLAVE STORIES page One £4 (Texas) JIBE LIVINGSTON, 83 years old, was born a slave to Mr. Luke Kadnot, Jasp«r Co., Texas, the owner of about 70 slaves. Ho now lives in Beaumont, Texas, I #' 1 v* 1^ HI done well in slavery, 'cause I belonged to Kassa Luke Hadnot w& he had some bovs <-skin iigger, with old blue duckin!s on. ******** ,1.--^- m)i52 CV EX-SLAV1 STORIES Page One (Texas) LOUIS LOVE, 911 was "born in Franklin, Louisiana, & slave of Donaltron Cafrey, whom Louis describes as a "leadin1 lawyer fA and once United States Senator.11 At the ^ * start of the Civil War, Louis was sent to Texas with about 300 other slaves to escape the "Yankee invaders." Louis now lives in Orange, Texas, and says he spends most of his time sitting on the gallery. One hand shades constantly aJid his reedy voice is tremulous. »W Well, I guess I's •bout 91 year old. I 'member when freedom come. I goes up to reg'stration de year I gits free. I walks up to old Doc Young and say, »I come reg'ster for de vote.1 He say, 'You too young to vote. You ask your missus,'Missus git de big book 'bout six inch thick where she got all de births and deaths on dat place since she been missus and she give me a letter sayin1 I nineteen year old. X kep1 dat letter till not so long ago and our^s it "by mistake, 'cause I can't read. "Dave Love he was my daddy and Tildy Love was my mama. My grandmama raise me, though. My massa's npme Donaltron Oafrey and he statue stand in de court house square now# He was a leadin' lawyer and a United States senator. When Senator Gibson die massa he serve out he term. Young massa name Donaltron Cafrey, junior, and he keep de oig bank in New Orleans now. MI never was sold to nobody. I he^ared folks say my folks come from Kentucky, but my mama born on Massa Cafrey1 s place. He have de big house, fine old house with galleries all 'round and big lawns. It's far back from de road, pushin' clost to a mile, I guess. He have seven sugar plantation and after freedom come dey rents it out at -1- W8M&M&:. Ex-Slave Stories Page Two 30 (Texas) $3.00 a acre to raise Haters in, 'Us live in shacks 'bout like dese 'roun- here. Dese times aw better'n slavery times, 'cause den you couLn't go nowheres 'thout de pass or de patterrollers git you. Dat mean 25 lashes and more when you gits home. "My missus took us chillen to de Baptis1 church and de white preacher he preach. De cullud folks could have church demselves iff en dey have de manager of 'ligion to kinder preach. Course he cpuldnft read, he jus1 talk what he done heared de white preachers say. 111 git ship one time, Dat time de overseer give me de breahin'. Dey have stoc^J* dey put a man in. Dey put de man leg through de holes and shut it ctown. De man jus1 lay dere and bawl. 11 De clothes as wore was shirts and us didn't git no britches till us big. I's wear in1 britches a good many year 'fore freedom, though* Dey &ive us two suit de year and us have beef hide shoes what us call raoc'sins. "Dey wasn't no oette people dan my wnite folks. Dey didn't 'low us to be brutalize1, but dey didn't: 'low us to be sassy, neither. I help my grandma milk de cows. "When de Yankees come to New Orleans dey go on io Port Hudson and have de big fight dere. Massa order everybody be ready to travel nex1 morn in '. Dey 'bout 300 peoples in dat travel wagon and dey camps dat night at Camp Fusilier, where de 'federates have de camp. Dey make only five mile dat day. Dey stops one night at Pin Hook, in Vermilionville. My brudder die dere. Dey kep1 on dat way till dey come to Trinity River, I at&y dare five year. "De overseer on de new plantation name Smoot. I wait on de table and grandma she cook for Smoot. Dey raise sugar cane and corn and peas and sich like. Dey have lots of pork meat. Dey have stock and one time -2~ Ex-slave Stories Page Three (Texas) a calf git eat by a panther. Massa hunt dat panther and shoot him in a tree. M0ne day Smoot tell me to bring all de hands to de house when dey blows de xiorn at noon. When dey gits dere old massa say deyfs free as he was. If dey stays he say he give fera -half de crop, but didn't one stay. Six or seven what wants go back to de old home massa done give teams to and*it take cem 'bout six week comin' irome. Ifs glad to git dere. I couldn't see free meant no better. Missus plantation seem mighty pleasant. HI been marry twict. Fust time a gal name Celeste, but she ffuse to come to Texas with me and dat !solve de marriage. I marry dis wife, Sarah, 'bout a few year ago. Us been marry 'bout 22 year. 31 ********** 420273 E3U3LAVE STORIES Page One QO (Texas) °^ JOHN MCCOY, ex-slave, who lives in a small shack in . the rear of 2310 State St., Houston, Texa3, claims to have been "born Jan. 1,1838. Although his memory is hazy, John is certain that "folks had a heap more sense in slave times den dey has now.11 ,htfellt suh, my white folks done larn me to start de cotton row right aid point for de stake at de far end of de fi*ld, and dat way a nigger don't git off de line- and go dis-a~way and dat-a-way* He start right and end right, yes, suhl Dat de way to live ~ you start right and go dft straight way to de end and vou comes out nil right. "I15 been here a mighty long time, I sho has, and done for git a heap, 'cause my head ain't so good no more, but when I first knowed myself I 'longs to old Marse John McCoy. Old Kiss Mary was he wife and dey de only white folks what I ever 'longs to. Dat how cone Ifs a McCoy, 'cause all de niggers what old marse have goes by his nnme. !,My pappy1 s name was Hector nnd mammy's name Ann, and dey dies when I*s jes' a young buck and dat been a long tine 'fore freedom, iin't got no brudders and sisters what I knows fbout. All a slave have to go by am what de white folks tells him fbout his kinfolks. "Old Marse John have a big place round Houston and raises cotton and corn and kawgs and cows* Dere was lots of wilderness den, full of varmints and wildcats and bears. Old Marse done larn me 'bedience and not to lie or steal, and he larn me with de whip. Dat all de ~1~ Ex~slave Stories page Two ^ (Texas) 33 larnin1 we gits. Does he cotch you with de book or paper, he whip you hand down* He don't whip de old folks nonet jes1 de young bucks, * cause dey wild and mean and dat de onlies1 way dey larns right from wrong. "I tells you jesf like I tells everyone - folks had heap more sense in slave times dan dey has now. Long as a nigger do right, old marse pertect him. Old Marse feed he niggers good, too, and we has plenty clothes. Course, dey homemade on de spinnin1 wheel, but dey good. De shoes jes1 like pen'tentiary shoes, only not fix up so good. Old Marse kill a cow for meat and take de hide to de tanner *nd Uncle Jim make dat hide into shoes. Dey hard and heavy and hurt de feets, but dey wear like you has iron shoes. "Old Marse donU woik heniggers Sunday like some white folks do. Dat de dqy we has church meet in1 under trees. De spirit jes1 cone down out de sky and you forgits all you troubles. "Slave times was de best, fcause cullud folks am ig'rant and ain't got no" sense and in slave times white folks show dem de right way. Now dey is free, dey gits uppfty and sassy. Some dese young bucks ought to git dere heads whipped down. Dat lam dem manners. "Freedom wasnH no diff'rence I knows of. I works for Marse John jesf de same for a long time. He say one morninf 'John, you can go out in defield iffen you wants tof or you can git out iffen you wants to, fcause de gov*ment te have he revengence*" ****** p98 EX-SLAVE STORIES (Texas) Page One 38 BIU, McRAT was born in Milam, fifteen miles nortn of San iugustine, Texas, in 1851. He is a brother of C.B. McHay# Col, McRay was his owner(the name may have been spelled McCray, Bill says)* Bill now lives in Jasper, Texas .He is said \iO oe en expert cook, wav- ing cooked for hot els f boats and military camps 40 years. n I was born in Milam in 1851 and. dat makes me 86 year ole. My mother and fatner was slaves and dey Drung me to Jasper in 1854. Colenel McRay, he was oar marster and die1 our doss. He nave 40 head of niggers, bat he never iiit one of •em a lick in his life. He own a big farm and have a foreman named Bill Cummins* I stay with de Colonel till after Ifs free. "Us nave good marster, but some of de neignbors treat dere slaves rough. Ole Dr. Neyland of Jasper, ne nave 75 or 30 slaves and ne was rich and nard on de slaves. One day two run away, Tom and Ike, and Dr. Neyland takes de bloodhounfs and ketch dose two niggers and brung fem in. One of de niggers takes a club and knock one of de nounfs in de head and kilt him. Dey cook dat dog and make dem niggers eat part of him. Den dey give both of fen a be at in*. *De ole log jail in Jasper, it useter stan* whar de Fish Store is now. Dey have a place tf other side de jail whar dey whip diggers. De whippin1 pos1 was a big log. Dey make de niggers lie down on it and strap 'em to it* I was a lil* boy den and me and two white boys, Ooley McRay and Henry Mann, we useter slip 'round -1- Ex-slave Stories Page Two On (Texas) °^ and watch fea« Coley and Henry ootn grow up and go to war hut neitner one come back, "Sam Swanf he was sneriff,and ne keten two runaw^ niggers ona day. Dey was hrudders and dey was name Safe and John Grant, Well, he takes *e» and puts dem in Jail and some of de men gits ?em out and takes •em down to ae wnippin1 pos* ana den strep *em down nndgire fem one terrible lashin1 and den throw sail* in dere wounds and you could hear clem niggers holler for a mile. Den dey took fem back to de fsrm to wofk» HDey hanged good many niggers 'round Jasper, In slavery times dey hangs a nigger name Jim Henderson, at Maynew Pond, Us boys wen1 dere and mark de tree. Two cullud men, Tom Jefferson and Sam Powell, dey kill anudder nigger and dey hang dea to de ole white oak tree what is south of Jasper Court House, "After Va free I cooks for Cap'n Kelly in his milHary camps for 21 year. Den I cook for boats what run up and down de Weches and Angelina rivers. I wants to say, too, dat I wofks for every sherii fin Jasper County fceptinf de las1 one. Guess Ifs too young to wo'k for hiAJ ********* 420100 3X-SLA.VE STORIES Page Ore /in (Texas) *U C. B. Mc ;RAT was horn in Jasper, Texas, in 1861, a A^ slave to John H. McKay, a >§? slave trader, C. B. is rather unapproachable, and ' has a secretive manner, as though he believes the human race will bear a little watch- ihg. He told of only one wife, but his present wife eaqolained, confidentiSLy, that he has had six. He lives in Jasper. wMy name is C. B. McKay, better kaow*ias * Co9 as talk, •cause Ifs long and thin. Also knowed as •Racer, fcause I useter be fleet on the feet, Tfhen Ifs ten year ole I often caught a rabbit what jump !fore me, jus1 by runnin1 him down. Don1 see why my boys can't do the same. HIfs bofn in Jasper, on Main street, right where Lanier's Store Stan189 on the 12th of April, in 1861. My father1 c name was Calvin Bell McKay, de same as mine, and motherfs name was Harriet McBay. Father was bo*n in Virginny and mother in Sabine County* in Texas. My brudders1 names was Bill McBay and Robert and Duckin Dacus. Father and mother was slaves right here in Jasper, and so was my graafparemts, who was bo'n in Africy. f,John McKay was us marster. He was call a f nigger trader1, and was sich a easy marster dat other people call he slaves, 'McKay1 s free niggersf. He make trips to New Orleans to buy slaves and brung fem back and sol1 fem to de farmers. Missus was de bestes1 white woman to cullud folks dat ever live. -1- Ex-slave Stories Page Two /% . (Texas) <*1 "Ps too lil1 to wo*k much hut I fmember lotsa things. TJs have a big dinin^room with a big, long table for de cullud folks and us git jus1 the same kin1 of food dat the white folks have on dere table* If fen a nigger sass marster and he couldn1 control himf he was de fus1 one to be sol1 and git rid of. He sol1 my uncle dat way. But marster was good to us when we done right. "The nigger women spinned and weaved cloth. I 'spec1 datfs the onlies1 place in Jasper whar you could go any time of day and see a parlor fall of nigger women, sittin1 up dere fat as dey could be and with lil1 to do, Marster have no plantation for de men to wofk but he rented Ian1 for tnem to cultfvate# "Marster fs niggers all got Sunday clothes and shoes. Every one of dem have to dress and come to the parlor so he could look dem over •fore dey goes to church, MUs have a fore»anf name Charlie. It was nis duty to keep de place stock1 witn wood. He take slaves and wofk de wood patches when it needed, but onet marster come home from Hew Orleans and toun1 dem all suiferin1 tor want oi fire. He call ole Cnarlie and ask hi» why he not git up plenty wood. ffelltf ola Cnarlie say, 'wood was snort and ffore I could git more dis col1 spell come and it too awful col1 to git wood*1 Marster say, fTou keep plenty wood or I gwinter sell yoa to a iseaft marster. * Charlie git hetter for a while, then he let wood git low again. So he was sol1 to Ballard Adams, who had the name of heia1 hard on his slaves* Cnarlie couldn1 do enou^kx wofk to suit Marster Adams, so he put him in whatfs knowed as the 'touisiana shirt.1 Ex-slare Stories Page Three (Texas) Dat was a "barrel with a hole cut In tne bottom jus1 "big enough for Cnarlie to slip he head through. Dey pull dis on to nim every mornin1 and then ha couldn1 sit down or use ne armst coxil1 jus1 walk ^oun1 all day, de brunt of other slaves jokes. At night dey took it off and chain him to he bed. After he have wofn dis Louisiana shirt a month ae marster task he again. He fail and run off to the woods. So Marster Adams, he come to Marster McRay and want to sell Charlie back again, but he couldn1f * cause freedom jus* come and they couldn1 sell slaves no more, but Marster McKay say Charlie coul1 come bade and stay on he place if he wanted to. "Dey didn1 try to teach us readin1 and writ in} but Mies Mary read de Bible to us every Sunday. Iffen us git sick dey git ok Ur. Haynes or Dr. Perkins. ttWhen us chillun, we playe •Town Ball1 and marbles. Motner!s far1rite lullaby was Bye-o Baby Bant in1. WI never seed any sojers tiU after de War close, aen I seed dem camp on Gourt House Square right here in Jasper. Wnen freedom was fclared, Miss Mary call us niggers into tne parlor and den Marster McKay come and tol* us we»s free. He fvise fem to wofk fround Jasperf whar they knows people, and says iifen aay wan*s to stay witn hin to please rise up. Every person riz up. So dey all stay witn hia tor a time. After •wnile ne *gin to rent and cultfvate differed plantatxon, and dere treatment not so good, so dey fgin to be dissatisy and pull loose. ****** 420301 EX-SLATiS STORIES page One ,i0 cA, JULIA 1UL0KB, 79, was horn a slave of Judge Ellison, who owned a thous- and acre plantation near Loctehart, Texas, Julia's mother was killed by another slave. Julia stayed with the Ullison family several years after she wns freed. She lives at 305 Percy St.t Tort Worth, Texas. "Jedge Ellison owned 'bout a tousand acres land near lockhart, a few miles up de Clear 7ork river. Bight dere I is horned, and it were a big place and so many goin' and com in1 it look like de beehive. De buildin's and sheds look like de ll'l tow. MI 'member bein1 left in de nursery whilst my mammy work in de fields. One night she go to de river for to wash clothes. She has to wash after dark and so she am wafthln' and a nigger slave sneak up on her and hit her on de neck, and it am de des&h of her. So de woman what mammy allus live with takes care of me den and when freedom c^rne she moves to towi, but massa won't let her took me. I stays on with him and runs errands, while I is not fannin1 de new baby. Dey has six while I'm dere. I fans dem till I draps asleep, and dat call for de whippln1. "My foster mammy comes oat and asks massa to let her have me, but he won't do dat. But she puts one over on him fin'ly and gits me anyway. He am gone and missus am gone and I has to stay home alone with de last baby, and a man and woman what was slaves on de place 'fore surrender, comes by in a wagon and tells me to jump in. Dey takes me to my foster and she moves and won't flow me outside, so massa can't ever find me. -1- Ex-slave Stories Page !Uwo 44 (Texas) ^* "She 'splalns lots of things to me. I done see de women stick dere heads in de washpot and talk out loud, while us in slavery. She tells me day pray in' for de Lawd to take dem out from bondage. Dey think it right to pray out loud so de Lawd can hear hut dey mustn't let de massa hear dem. MI asks her •"bout my father and she says him on de place hut die 'fore Ics horned* He was make de husband to lot* of women on de place, ' cause he de big man. "She am good to me and care for me till I meets de boy I likes. Us lives together for fifteen years and den him dies. My Chilian is all dead. He name am William Smerson and I waits nine years •fore I marries 'gain. Den I marries Albert Mai one and I9s lucky 'gain. He's de good man. One day he am fixin1 de sills under de house and de whole house moves over and falls on him. I feels so grievous over dat I never marries 'gain. Dat thirty-four year ago. and I lives alone all de time. It ainft 'cause I doesn't have de chance, 'cause lots of backs wants me. 'cause I's de hard worker. nI washes for de livin1 and washes old massa1 s daughter's clothes. Massa am de powerful man durin' slavery and have de money and fine clothes and drives de fine teams and acts like de cock of de walk. All dat changes after freedom. I seed him lay in' in de sun like de dog. I offers to wash be clothes and he Jus1 grunt. He done turned stone deaf, and de white folks say it 'cause he done treat he slaves so bad. "I done live here in fort forth 'bout fifteen years with my daughter, Beulah Watkins. I's mighty happy here, and has de $10.00 pension and thanks de Lawd for dat. 4£0£84 EX-SLAVE STORIES Page One QQ (Texas) ADELINE MARSHALL, 3514 Bastrop St., Houston, Texas, was bom a slave somewhere In South Carolina. She was bought by Capt. Brevard and brought to Texas while still a baby, so she remembers nothing about her family and has no record of her age. Adeline is evidently very old. "Yes, suht Adeline Marshall am my name, all right, but folks •round here jes1 calls me • Grandma.f HLawd have mercy, I*s been in dis here land too long, too lon^t and jes1 ainH no fcount no more for nothin1. I got misfries in my bones and jes1 look at what I's got on my feet! Dam's jes1 rags, dat's all, rags. Can't wear no thin1 elae on fem, day hurts so. Cat's what de red russet shoes what we wears in slave times done —jes1 pizen de feets. HLawd, Lawdf dat sho1 bad times - black folks jes1 raise up like cattle in de stable, only Cap'n Brevard, he what own me, treats he bosses and cattle better'n he do he niggers* MDonft know nothin1 fbout myself, fcept on Capfn Brevard's place down on Oyster Creek. He has de plantation dere, what de only place I knows till I*s freedomed. He says Ivs a South Car'lina nigger what he bought back dere and brung to Texas when I jes1 a baby. I reckon it de truth, 'cause I ain't never knowed no mama or papa, neither one. "Capfn he a bad man, and he drivers hard, toof all de time whippin1 and atroppin1 de niggers to make dem work harder. DidnH make no difference to Capfn how little you is, you goes out to de field mos1 soonfs you can walk, De drivers donH use de bullwhip cm de little niggers, but dey plays de switch on us what sting de hide plenty. Sometimes dey puts a nigger; in de stocks and leaves dem two or three days, don't give dem nothin8 to eat -1- Ex-slave Stories Page Two /%£\ (Texas) iU or a drink of water, jes' leaves dexo till dey mos' dead. Does dey die, jes' put dem in a box and dig a hole out back of de hoss lot and dump dem in and cover up. Ain't no preachin' service or nothing but de poor nigger out he mis'ry, dat's all. w01d Capfn jes* hard on he niggers and I 'member one time dey strops old Beans what's so old he can't work good no more, and in de mornin' dey finds him hangin' from a tree back of de quarters. He done hang himself to 'scape he mis'ryl "We works every day 'cept Sunday and has to do our washin' den. Does anybody git sick week days, he has to work Sunday tomake it up. When we comes in at night we has to go rigjht to bed. Dey don't 'low no light in de quarters and you better be in bed if you don't want a whippin*. MWe gits a plain cotton slip with a string 'round de neck, de stuff dey makes pickin1 sacks of. Summer or winter, dat all we gits to wear. "Old Cap'n have a big house but I jes' see it from de quarters, 'cause we wasn't flowed to go up in de yard. I hear say he don't have no wife, but a black woman what stays at de house. Dat de reason so many 'Ho Hat ion' niggers 'round. Some calls dem 'Bright' niggers, but I calls dem 'Ho Hation1 •cause dat what dey is, ain't all black or all white, but mix. Dat come from slave times, "I knows I's good sise when Old Capfn calls us in and say we's free, but nobody tell me how old I is and I never found out. I knows some of us stays and works for somethin' to eat, 'cause we didn't know no one and didn't -S~ fx-slave Stories Page Three /py Texas) **' "Deri one day, Capfn come out in de field with fnother man and pick me and four more what's workin1 and say wefs good workers, Dat was Mr. Jack Adams, what have a place clost to Stafford's Eun. He say if we wants to work on his place he feed us and give quarters and pay us for workin1, and dat how come I leaves old Cap*n, and I ainft never see him or dat place where Ifs raise sence, but I reckon he so mean de debbil done got him in torment long time ago. MI works in de field for Mr. Jack and dat where Wes Marshall, what I marries, works, too. After we gits married we gits a piece of ground and stays on de seme place till Mr* Jack die and we come to Houston. Dat ffore de 1900 storm. ,fI tells folks when dat storm comin1. I ain*t 'lieve in no witch doin1 s, but some way I knows when dat storm comin9. Day laughs at dis old nigger, but it come and dey loses hosses and cattle and chickens and houses. HI tells de truth jes1 like it am, and Ifa had a hard time in de land. Whyf in dis sinful town, dey donft do like de Qood Book say. No, suhf dey don*t. It say, fLove thqy neighbor,f and folks. donft love nobody but theyselves! Mes1 look at me. Ps old with misery and flone in de world. Vty husband and chillen done die long ago and leave me here, and I jes1 go from house to hotise, tryin1 to find a place to stsgr. Dat why I prays Gawd to take me to his bosom, 9cause He de onlies1 one I got to call on. *?** 4*20813 ? 48 Dibble, Pred, P. W., Grey, Bernice. V.I., Beaumont, Jefferson, Dist. #3. Quite black, with close-cut hair and stubby gray whiskers, ISAAC MARTIN is contentedly spending the evening of his life. But two or three darkened teeth show between his thick lips as Tab talks. He was enjoying the friendly shade of the old tree in his backyard from his comfortable seat in an old rocker. His feet were bare and his once striped trousers were rolled up above his knees to keep him cool in the hot midsummer wea- ther. Beside the chair was a pair of brogan shoes with gaping splits across the toes to avoid cramping his feet. He told the story of by- gone days with evident enjoyment. "Dis ol' man jea' layin' 'roun'. Ain't nuttin' to him no iao'. I done wo' out. I jes' waitin' for de Good Mar- ster to call po' ol' Isaac home to Glory." "When dey read de proclamation to my mammy and daddy dey mek 'em give eb'rybody' age in de fam'ly. I was twelve year' ol' den.11 WI was bo'n up here in Montgomery county 'bout t'ree mile from Willis upon de I&GN Railroad. I holp to buil' dat I&GN Railroad." tt0l! Major Wood he my daddy' marster, and 'course he mine too. He was well fixed. He had 'bout seb'nty or eighty * ^49 Dibble, Fred, P.W., Grey, Bernice, V.W., Beaumont, Jefferson, Diat. #3. wukkin' slaves and I dunno how many li'l niggers. I didn' know nuttin' 'bout ol' Missus, Mrs, Wood. I jis' 'member she a big fat woman. Bey didn' 'low no li'l nigger chil- lun up in de yard 'roun' de big house 'cep'n'^ to clean up de yard, and dem what done dat, dey hatter be jis' like dat yard, clean as peckerwoods." "01' marster he warn't mean. He nebber whip' 'em jis' so iffen anybody say de slave orter be whip. Dey hafter see him and tell him what dey done befo' he give de order to de overseer to whip. Iffen he don' t'ink dey orter be whip, he say don' whip 'em and dey don' git whip." "I had to mind de cows and de sheep. I had a mule to ride 'roun' on. It was dis way, I hafter mind de cows. 01' marster he plant dif'rent fiel's in co'n, fifty or sixty or a hundred acres. Ihen dey harvestin' de co'n, when dey git one fiel' done dey tu'n de cows in so dey kin eat on de stalks and nubbins what lef in dat fiel'. I got to ride 'roun1 and see de cows don' bus' over from one fiel' what dey done harves' into de other fiel' where dey wukkin', or what ain't been harves' yet. I jis' like dat, ridin' dat mule 'roun* de fiel' and keepin' de cows in." J* 50 Dibble, Fred, P.W., Grey, Bernice, V.W., Beaumont, Jefferson, Dist. #3. wDen dere was five or six of us boys to keep de dogs out de sheep. You know iffen de dogs git in de sheep dey ap* to kill 'em." "Us go huntin1 wid de dogs lots of time, and lots of time us ketch rabbits. Dey was six dogs, and de rab- bits we kotch was so much vittles for us. I 'member one night us went out huntin1 and ketch fo' or five rabbits. Us tek 'em home and clean and dress 'em, and put 'em in de pot to have big rabbit supper. I was puttin' some red pepper in de pot to season 'em, and den I rub my eyes wid my han' and git dat pepper in my eyes and it sho' burn. You know how red pepper burn when it git in your eyes, I nebber will forgit 'bout dat red pepper. De ol' folks uster show us how to fix de t'ings we ketch huntin1, and cook 'em.u "01' marster sho1 fought mo! of his li'l nigger chil- len. He uster ride in de quarters 'cause he like to see 'em come runnin'. De cook, she was a ol' woman name' Forney, and she had to see atter feedin' de chillen. She had a way of callin' 'em up. she holler, 'Tee, tee, t-e-e; and all us li'l niggers jis' come nonn&n'. 01' marster he ride up and say, 'Forney, call up dem li'l pickaninnies,1 and ol1 Forney she lif' up her voice and holler, 'Tee, t-e-e, £ 51 Dibble, Fred, P,«., Grey, Bernioe, V.W., Beaumont, Jefferson, Dist, #3. t-e-e,' and ol' marster jis' set up on de hoss and laugh and laugh a lot to see us come runnin' up. He like to count how many lifl niggers he did have. Dat was fun for us too. I 'member dat jes' like yestiddy.w "Nuttin' went hard wid me. Fur's I know 'bout slav'ry dem was good t lines. " "Dey had 'bout free or fo' hundred of sheep. My father hafter kill a mutton eb'ry Friday for de house. Dey bring up de sheep and somebody hoi' de head 'cross a block and my father cut de head off wid a hatchet. Sheeps is de pitifullest t'ings to kill. Dey jis' give up. And dey cries, too. But a gosat, he don' give up, naw sun, he talk' back to you to de las'." WI 'member one time dey gwine to give a school feas', and dey gwine kill a goat. Dey hang dat goat up to a tree by he hind legs so de blood dreen good. Dey cut he t'roat, dat's de way dey gwine kill 'im. Dat goat seem like h© kep' on talkin1 and sayin' 'Please, God, don' kill me' to de las', but dat ain't done no good. Dat goat jis! beg to de las'." "My olf marster he live in a big house. Oh, it was a palace. It had eight or nine rooms. It was buil* outer ¦sr* 52 Dibble, Fred, P.W., Grey, Bernice, V.W., Beaumont, Jefferson, Dist. #3. logs, and moss and clay was stuff twixt de logs. Dere was boards on de outside and it was all ceil' nice on de inside. He lived in a mansion." "Dey was plenty rich. 01» marster he had a ol' wait- in1 man all dress up nice and clean. Now if you wanter talk to ol1 marster you hafter call for dat ol' waitin' man. He come and you tell him what you want and den he go and tell ol1 marster and den he say, 'Bring him in,' and den you go in and see de ol'.marster and talk your busi- ness, but you had to be nice and hoi' your hat under your arm." "Dey's big rich people. Sometime' dey have parties what las' a week. Dey was havin' dere fun in dere way. Dey come in kerridges and hacks." "My father was de hostler and he hafter keep de hosses and see 'bout feedin1 'em. Dey had a sep'rajre li'l house for de saddles. 01! marster he kep' good hosses. He warn't mean.w "He had a great big pasture and lots of times people go camp In it. You see it was disaway, de Yankees dey got rushin' de American people, dat de Confed'rates, dey kep' comin' furder and furder wes', 'till dey come to Texas and K Dibble, Fred, P.W., Grey, Bernice, V.W., Beaumont, Jefferson, Dlst. #3. den dey can't go much furder, De Yanees kep' crowdin1 'em and dey kep* on comin'. Ifthen dey camp in ol! mar- ster' pasture, he give 'em co'n. I see 'em dribe a whole wagon load of co'n and dump it on de groun' for dey hos- ses. Do Yankees nebber come 'till de war close. Den dey come all through dat country. Dat was destruction, it seem to me liko. Dey take what dey want." "When freedom come and do proclamation was read and de ©1' marster tol' *em dey was free and dldn' have no ol' marster no mo' some of de slavea cried. He tell 'em, 'I don't want none of you to leave.' 'I'll give you $8.00 a mont'.' All de ol' folks stay and help gadder dat crop. It sho' griebe ol' marster and he didh' live long atter dey tek his slaves 'way from him. loll, it jls' kill' him, dat's all. I 'members de Yankees on dat day dey sot to road do proclamation. Dey was gwine 'roun! in dey blue uniform' and a big long sword hangin' at dey side. Dat was cur'osity to dem niggers.11 "Mien ©l1 marster want to go out, he call he 11'1 nig- ger serbont to go tell my father what was de hostler, to saddle up do hoss and bring him 'roun'. Den ol marster git ©n him. He had t'reo steps, so he could jis' go up 54 Dibble, Fred, P.W., Grey, Bernice, V.W., Beaumont, Jefferson, Dist. #3. dem steps and den his foot be right at de stirrup. My daddy hoi' de stirrup for him to put he other foot in it." "I was big 'nuff to run after him and ax him to gimme a dime. He laugh and sometime he gimme de dime. Sometime he pitch it to me and I run and grab it up and say, 'T'ankee, marster,' and he laugh and laugh." "01» mistus she had a reg'lar cook. Dat was my mud- der's mudder. Eb'ryt'ihg had to be jis' so, and eb'ry- t'ing nice and clean." nDey didn' do no reg'lar wuk on Sunday. Eb'ry Sunday ©ne ®f de wther wimmins hafter tek de place of de cook so she could git off. All of 'era what could would git off and go to de chu'ch for de preachin'. Dera what turn didn' come one Sunday, would go anudder 'till dey all got 'roun' to go." "Marster had two or free hundred head of cattle. My gran'father, Guilford, had a mule and hoss ©f he own. Uncle Haak was his brudder, and he had de sheep department to leok atter. Sometime de niggers git a hoss or a sheep over, den de marster buy 'im. Some ©f de niggers had a li'l patch 'roun' dey cabin' and dey raise veg'table. 01' mar- ster he buy de vegetable sometime. I didn' know what free- ^ 55 Dibble, Fred, P,W., Grey, Bernice, V.l., Beaumont, Jefferson, Dist. #3. dom was. I didn! know wedder I needed it or not. Seem t© me like it was better den dan now, 'cause I getter look «ut for myself now." "Us uster be ©n de watch-out for ol1 marster. De fus' ©ne see him comin' lit out and open de gate for him t© ride fr@o and olf marster toss him a nickle." "When it was time t© eat, de ol1 cook she holler out, •T-e-o, t-e-e, t-e-e-e' and all us li'l niggers come run- nin!. She have a big tray and each of us have a wessel and a spoon. She fill' us wessel and us go eat and den us go back f©r m©!. Us git all us want. Dey give us supper bef©' de nan's c@me in from de fiel' and what wid playin' 'r©un' all day and eatin' all us c©uld hoi' in de aftern©©n, twarn't long befo' us li'l niggers ready to g© t© sleep." wOne t'ing, el' marster didn' want his niggers to run about. Sometime dey want t© g© ©ver to anudder plantation ©n Sunday. Den he give 'em a pass iffen he willin' for 'em t© g®. Dey had patterr©llers to ride from plantation t© see iffen dey was any strange niggers dere." "When dey wanter marry, de man he rep©'t t© ol' mar- ster. He want his niggers to marry on his ©wn plantation. He give 'em a nice li'l supper and a big dance. Dey had 56 Dibble, Fred, P.W., Grey, Bernice, V.W., Beaumont, Jefferson, Dist. #3. some sort of license but ol' marster tek care of dat. He had two sons what had farms and slaves of dere own. 01f marster dldn' care if his slaves marry on his sons' farms. If any of do slaves do mean, he mek 'era work on Sunday. He didn1 b'leeb in beatin* 'em." "So many ©f 'em as could, usually go t© de white folks chu'ch on Sunday and hear de white preacher. Dey sit off to deyse'fs in de back of de chu'ch. Dem what stay at h©me have a cullud preacher. Dey try to raise 'em up social." "Dey had a olf woman t© look after de babies when dey mammies was out in de fiel'. Dey have a time sot for de mammies t« come in and nuss de babies. De ol' woman she had helpers. Dey had a big house and cradle' for dem babies where de nuss tek care of 'em." "When anybody die dey have a fun'rel. All de han's knock off work t© 'tend de fun'rel. Dey bury de dead in a h©'made coffin." nI nebber pay n© 'tenshtm t© talk 'bout ghos'es. I nebber b'leeb in 'em. But one time comin' from chu'ch my uncle* wife say, 'Ike, you eber see a ghos'? Want t© see see ©ne?, and I tell her'I don't give a cent, yes I want 5? Dibble, Fred, P.W,, Grey, Bernice, V.W., Beaumont, Jefferson, Dist. #3. t© see one.' She say, fI show you a man dress1 all in white what ain't got no head, and you gwine feel a warm breeze.1 After a while down de hill by de graveyard she say, 'Dere he go.' I look' but I neber see nuttin', but I feel de warm breeze." "I uster go to see a gal and I uster hafter pass right by a ol' graveyard. It was all wall' up wid brick but one place dey had step3 up over de wall so when dey hafter bury a body two men kin walk up dem steps side by side, and dat de way dey tek de corpse over. Well, when I git to dem steps I hear sump'n'* Den I stop and I ain't hear nuttin1. When I start walkin' ag'in I hear de noise ag'in. I look 'roun' and den I see sump'n' white come up right dere where de steps go over de wall. I had a stick in my han' and nex' time it come up I mek a rush at it and hit it. It was jis1 a great big ol' billy goat what got inside de wall and was tryin' to git out. He g©t out jis* when I hit him and he lit out fro® de woods. Dat's de only ghos' I eber see and I's glad dat warn't no ghos'.tt tt0l* marster he had twenty head of cows. Dey give plenty milk. Dey uster git a cedar tub big as dat dere one full ©f milk. De milkers dey pack it on dey head t© / 0 58 Dibble, Fred, P.W., Grey, Bernice, V.W., Beaumont, Jefferson, Dist. #3. de house. Uc cow-pen boys had t© go drive up de caffs. Cow-pen boys? 0©w-pen boys, dera de boyat what keep away de caffs when dey do de milkin'. Co'se, lots of times when dey fro© milkin1 U3 jump en 'era and ride 'em. When- eber dey ketch us doin' dat dey sh©' wear us ©ut. Dat warn't yestiddy." "Furaa I'» concern we had a plum good time in sla- v'ry. Many a year my grampa raise a bale ©f cotton and marster buy it. Bat waS encouragin' us to be smart." "My daddy name' Edmond Wood and my ma name' Maria. I had a brudder and a sister; dey name' Cass and Ann. I been a farmer all my life. I kep' @n farmin' 'till de boll weevil hit dese parts and den I quit de farm and went to public work. I work in de woods and cut logs. I buy dis house. I been here 'roun' Voth 'bout twenty- five year'.11 ttI been marry twict. De fus' time I marry—I git so stinkin' ©1' I can't 'member when it were, but it been a long ways back. My fus* wife, Mary Johnson. She die' and den I marry dis yere woman I got yere now. Her name been Rhoda McGowan when I marry her but she been, marry bef©'. Bofe of us ©1', ain't fit for nuttin'. Us git pension' \ \ 59 Dibble, Fred, P.W., Grey, Bernice, V.Ytf., Beaumont, Jefferson, Dist. #3. and dat what us live on now, 'cause I to© ol' t© do any- work no mo'." "Me and ray fus' wife we had ten chillun. Dey's all dead but fo! and I ain't sho' dey's all livin'. Las' I heerd ©f 'em one was in Houston, and one in Chicago, and ©ne in Kansas City, and one live here. I see him dis mawnin'.n "I heerd tell of de Klu IClux but I ain't neber seed fem. I neber did go to scho©l.needer." "I's « member of de C.M.E. Meth'dis' Chu'ch. lihen I uster c©uld git about I uster be a steward in de chu'ch. Den I was de treasurer ©f de chu'ch here at Voth for some seben year'. I uster b'long t© de U.B.P. Lodge, too." "Back in slav'ry dey allus had a ol' darky to train de y®ung ©nes and teach 'em right fr©m wrong. And dey'd whip y©u for d©in' wrong. Dey'd rep©'t t© de ©verseer. S©me ef 'em was mean and rep©'t somebody dey ain't like jis' t© git 'em in trouble. De ©verseer he had to 'vesti- gate 'bout it and if it was s©, somebody git a whippin*. S©metimes s©me f©lks rep©'t aump'n* when it warn't true." "01' marster he was plum ind'pendant. His planta- tion was ©ff fr©m de t©wn. He uster had his mail brung W 60 Dibble, Fred, P.W.., Grey, Bernice, V.W., Beaumont, Jefferson, Dist. #3. t© him. Purfs I kin 'member I didn' had t© look ©ut for nuttin'. Dey had a time to call all de slaves up and give 'em hats, and anudder time dey give 'em shoes, and anudder time dey give 'em cl©,'s. Dey see dat eb 'rybody was fit. 01' marster allus give 'em all some kinder present at Crismus. I dunn© what all he give de ol' folks but h© give de chillun candy and de like." WI was allus tickle' to see ol' marster come 'reun'— Oh, good gracious, yes. And it allus tickle' him to come 'roun' and see all his li'l niggers." "One time Cap'n Fisher was 'sedated wid ©1' marster, and him and anudder man come 'long wid ol' marster up de road what run fro© de quarters. Dey wanter see de li'l niggers, 01' marster call 'em up and frow out a han'ful of dimes. It sh®' tickle' 'em t© 3ee de li'l niggers scramble for dem dimes, and us look' for dimes 'roun' dat place fer a week. Dat was enjoyment t© de white folks dem days.tt "Marster was good to his niggers and none of 'em eber run away. My mudder she raise ol' mistus' baby chile. She uster suckle him jis' like he her own baby and he allus t'ink lots of her. After he a growed up man he uster bring her presents lots of times. He call her 'mammy all de time." '3 81 Dibble, Fred, P.W., Grey, Bernice, V.W., Beaumont, Jefferson, Dist. #3« "He went off to de war* He los1 he hearin1 and got deef• Muster been de noise from dem big cannons what done it* He got his big toe shot off in de war, too* After de war was over he come home and git married.11 wDat !bout all dat I kin 'member !cep!nT dat I vote1 in de state and other 'lections when Ifs twenty-one year1 ol!.,f fLj- 420085 S3USLAVB STOEIBS Page One ' Qg (Texas) JAMES MARTIB, 311 Dawson St*, San Antonio, fexas, is 90 years old. His parents were Preston and Lizsie Martin and he was born in Alexandria, Ta# Uses little dialect* "I was born in Virginia in 1847. My mother was a slave and my grandfather was one of the early settlers in Virginia* Bo was bora in Jamaica and his master took him to England* When the English came to Virginia, they brought us along as servants , but when they got here, everybody had slaves, so we was slaves, too* My mother was born in the West Indies* "A man named Martin brought my grandfather here and we took his name* And when marster was ready to die, he made a will and it said the youngest child in the slaves must be made free, so that was my father and he was made free when he was 16. That left me and my brothers and sisters all free, but all the rest of the family was slaves* *My mother was born a slave near Alexandria. She marster1 s daughter, Miss Lisa, read to my mother, so she got some learning* When my mother*s owner died he left her to Miss Lizef and then my father met my mother and told her they should get married* My mother said to Miss Lisas "I'd like fine to marry Preston Martin*8 Miss Liza says, fTou canH do that, * cause he's a fr^e nigger and your children would be fre%9 You gotta marry one of the slaves** Then Miss Liza lines up 10 or 15 of the slave men for my mother to pick from, but mother says she don1 like any of femf she wants to ~1~ Ex-Slave Stories Page Two QQ (Texas) marry Preston Martin* Miss Lisa argues but My mother Is just stub- born, so Miss Liza says, 'I'll talk to the marster.' He says, 'I can't lose property like that, and If you can raise $lf200 you can hay yourse'f free,' So my mother and my father saves money and It takes a long time, hut one day they goes to the marster and lays down the money, and they gits married. Marster don1 like it, hut he's promised and he can't back out* 11 So me and my brothers and sisters is free. And we sees others sol1 on the auction block. They're put In stalls like pens for cattle and there's a curtain, some tines just a sheet In front of them, so the bidders can't see the stock too soon. The overseer's standin' just outside with a big black snake whip and a pepper box pistol in nis hand. Then they pulls the curtain up and the bidders crowds 'round* She over- seer tells the age of the slaves and what they can do. One bidder takes a pair of white gloves th$y have and rubs his fingers over a man's teeth, and he saysf 'You say this buck's 20 years old, but there's cups worn to his teeth. He's 40 years if he's a day. S0 they knock that buck down for $lt000f 'cause they calls the men 'bucks' and the women • wenches.' Then the overseer makes 'em walk across the platform, he makes 'em hop, he makes 'em trot, he makes 'em jump. "When I'm old enough, I'm taught to be a saddler and when I'm Iv or 13 I enlist In the Confederate Army. "Did they whip tne slaves? Well, they jus' about half killed 'am,, When it was too rough, they slipped into Canada. MA marriage was a event. The bride and groom had to jump over -3- IxeSlare Storioe Page Two Q (Texas) a brooa handle. Tne boss man had a white preacher9 sometimes, and there was plenty good beef cornbread. But if the boss didnH care such, he jus1 lined 'em up and said. •Handy, that's your husband and, Bufusf that's your wife.1 "After the war we were sent to Texas, tne 9tn U.S. Cavalry, under Capt. Francis ?• Dodge, I was at fort Sill, Fort Davis, Fort Stockton and ?ort Clark. I was in two battles with Indians in the Quadalupe Mountains, I serred under Col. Shafter in 1371 and I got my discharge under Gen* Merrltt in 1372. Tnen I come to San Antonio. w I helped bring the first railroad here. The S.P. in them days only ran near Seguin and I was a spiker and worked the whole distance. Then I helped build the old railroad from Indianola to Cuero and then from Cuero to Corpus,and Schleister, I think, and Cunningham were the contractors. That was in 1873 and 1874. "I drove cattle for big outfits, and drove 2,000 or 3,000 head from South Texas some times clean up to Dakota. I drove for John Lytle, Brockhaas, lieran and Bill Sutton. There wasn't no trails and no fences. The Indians would cone ask for neat and we knew if we didnH give it to •em they'd stampede the cattle. "If I wasn*t so old, I*d travel • round again. I donft believe any man can be educated who ain't traveled some. * ******* 42G235 EX-SLAVE STORIES Page One Q5 (Texas) LOUISE MATHEWS, 83, la a sister of Scott Hooper. Her owner was the Eev. Robert Turner, Louise married Henry Daggett when she was twenty, Jim Byers when she was thirty-one and Bill Mat hews when she was thirty-three. She lives alone at 2718 Ennis Ave., Tort Worth, about a block from Scott* HShof, I 'members dam slavery timesf 'cause Ifs eleven when de break- up come. Everybody call my massa Jedge Turner, but him am a Baptist preacher and have de small farm and gen'ral store. My pqpy and mammy don't live to- gether, 'cause pappy am own by Massa Jack Hooper, Massa Turner done many dam, Moateat de cullud folks jus' lives together by 'greement den, but massa have de car'many, "Ua liva in log cabins with da dirt floor and no windows, and sleep on atraw ticks. All da cookin1 done in de eatin1 shed but when pappy come over twict da week, mammy cooks him de meal dan* "Let ma tall yous how da young funs cared for, Massa give dea special cars, with da food and lots of clabber and milk and pot-liquor, and dey all fat and healthy. "Massa am a preacher and a farmer and a saloonkeeper. Ha makes de medicine with whiskey and cherry bark and rust offen nails. It mus' be good, 9causa ua all fat and sassy. Gosh for 'mighty. How I hates to take dat medi- cine! He say to mef 'Take good care de young funs, 'cause de old onea gwine play out sometime, and I wants da young'uns to grow strong, "Massa Turner wants de good days work and ua all give it to him, faery Saturday night us git de pass if us wanta to ge to de party* Us have partiea . -1~ Ex-slare Stories Page Two f\f\ and danein' de quadrille and fiddles and banjoes. "On Sunday mas 3 a preach to us, 'cause he de preacher heself. He preach to de white folks, too. "I fmember dat surrender day© He call u s round him* I can see him now, like I watches him come to de yard, with he hands clasp 'hind him and he head bowed* I know what he says, *I likes every one of you. You been faithful but I has to give you up, I hates to do it, not * cause I don't went to free you, but fcause I don't want to lose you all©1 Us see de tears in he eyes. "Mob1 everybody leaves, and us go to pqppy's place, den comes here in 1872, right here where us live now. My sister, Scott, she lives up de street. It worn't no houses here den, "I gits married in 1$74 to Henry Dtggett and he dies In 1884, Den I marries Jim layers in 1885 and he sen lazy and no fcount. He leaves on Christmas Day in de mornin1, and don't come back, Dat de only present he ever give me! He cm what you ei&ls de buck passer, I does de washln1 and ironin' and he passes de bucks I makes, I marries Bill Mathews and he my las1 husband. He dies on May 15th, din year, I has seven chillen and four of dem am right in die town© "I never votes but once, fbout four years ago, I jus1 don't care *bout it. Too much tost in1 round for me, My husband allus voted de Lincoln ticket© WI gits fround and it wo^t be long ffore I goes to de Lawdfs restin1 place. My sister m 81 and I*s 83, and she lives in de next block yonder way© Us m de cons'latien te each ether* ?*** 420295 IX-S1AVB STORISS Page One p^ (Texas) °* WIIUAM MATHSWS, 899 was born a slave on the Adams plantation, in Franklin Parish, Louisianao He was driver of the family cai>- riege . After William was freed he supported himself by hiring out as a field hand and by making and selling baskets* Since 1931 he has lived with his daughter, Sarah Col- burn, at 812| 41st St., Galveston. Texas, "Course I can 'lect fbout slavery. I is old and my eyesight am gone, but I can still flect* I ain't never forgit it, MMy massa, old Buck Adams, could out-mean de debbil heself. He sho1 hard - hard and sneaky as slippery ellum. Old Mary Adams, he wife, was 'most as hard as he was. Sometimes I used to wonder how dere chill en ever stood 'em. Old Buck Adams brung my mammy and daddy from South Car'lina to work in de fields and my daddy1* name was Economy Mathers and my mammy's name Phoebe* Simmons was her name ffore she marry* I is born on old Buck's place, on Dec- ember 25th, in 1848. Bat plantation was in Franklin Parish, some- where round Monroe, in Louisiana* rtMe and Bill Adams raised together. When he shoot a deer I run home like greased lightnin1 and git de hoss. Sometimes hefd shoot a big hawg and I'd akin him* wWhen I got big •nough Ifd drive dere carriage* I was what dey calls de •waltin1 boy.1 I sot in dat buggy and wait till dey come out of where dey was, and den driv fe© off. I wasnft 'lowed to git out and visit round with de other slaves. Nof suh, I had to set dere and wait* -*. Ex-slaveStories Page Two GB (Texas) MDe slaves git out in de fields ffore sun-up and work till black dark. Den dey cone home and have to feel dere way in de house, with no light. My mammy and daddy field harids. My grandma was cook, and have to git in de cook pot fbout four ofclock to git breakfas1 by daylight. Dey et by candles or pine torches. One de black boys stand behin* fem and hold it while dey et. MDe clothes we wore was made out of dyed •lows*1 Dat de stuff dey makes s^ckin1 out of. Summer time us go barefoot but winter time come, dey give you shoes with heels on 'em big as biscuits, "De quarters is b^ck of de big house and didn't have no floors. T)ey sot plumb on de ground and build like a hawg pen, Dey cut down timber and stake it up at de corners and fill it in with timber with de bark on it. Dere was split log houses and round log houses and all sech like dat. Dey have only fifty slaves on dat place, and it a big plsce, big fnou- HIRAM I4AYBS thinks ne was born ^\jX in 1862, a slave of Tom Edgar, who owned a plantation in Double Bayou, Texas, Hi^ara lives with two daughters in a rambling fam- house n**ar Beaumont, less than three miles from his birthplace on the old Edgar homestead near the Iron Bridge, for thirty- years Hiram has served as Worship- ful Master of the Masonic Lodge (Negro) in the vicinity. Nativ* intelligence gleams in his deep- set eyes, but his speech shows tnat he received little schooling. ,1De fust thing I •members back in slavery time w me and you coulcin1 hardly call that » whippin*. "Old mm Vom Edgar was my master and de oiu >; cigar place was aown below where Jackson*s store it *nd fbout two mile from where I lives now. Some de brick from dat house still standin* dere in ae wooas. "My mania name Mary and Dolf Hayes my papa, mcL Vb homed ¦ Dout X8b<2, I guess, • cause I wasn't very big when freedom come. I did most my playin1 with young master, Tim, him and me «bout de same age. *01d master was sho1 good to he slaves and dey ain*t never have no cruel overseer nor no lot of whippin1 like some masters did. Mama work in de white folks house and done de cookin1 in de big kitchen. De big house was a big, low place with galleries 'round it. Mama tie me to a chair leg on de gallery to keep me from runnin1 off to de bayou. ~1- Ex-slave Stories Page Two ^3 (Texas) Dey !fraid of alligators. Dem •gators never did eat no cullud chillen fround us place, "but dey allus •fraid dey would. Dey sich Mg snakes in de woods, too, dey skeered of dem. uDe cullud folks pll have lifl brick cabin quarters and dey have a brickyard right near de place what a white man own and he make de "bricks what dey calls Cedar Bayou brick fcount of de mud being diff'rent. Ifs born in one dem li1! brick houses. I donft 'meiofber none my grandfolks f cept my papa's siame, call Martha Godfry. She cone from Virginny, and flong to de Hayes where my papa born, "I never did bother with Sunday School much, me. Dey one on de baj^ou and a white ladyf Miss Joseph, am de teacher. Dey wasn't no school but after I git free I go to school on de edge of de woods. Dey have teacher name Binnells and a old blue-back speller to larn out of. "After us freed my papa move up de prairie a ways and hire out to ride de range. Bey done larn me to ride when I fbout five, six year old and I rid with de old m&n. Dat ridin1 business was jes1 my job. My daddy never did like to settle down and farm, but drutner ride de range for four bits or six bits de day. De old master done give us nothin1, jes1 turn us ndrift, but he didnH have much and everybody jes1 have to shift for demselvps dem days. Us git 'long all right maMn1 money with de cattlemen. "De prairie lands a good place to git things to eat and us see plenty deers, sometime eight or ten in de bunch. Dey lots of wolves roamin' 'round lookin1 for stray cows. Dat when de whip come in handy, to knock dem on de head. Hever hear tell of but one bear, and us cotch him on Gum Island and kill him. You know dem funny lookin*, horny things dey calls armadillos' -2- Ex-slave Stories Page Three ^^ (Texas) /'* Dey been immigrate here 'bout ten year ago, Dey come from somewhere but us ainH knowed why. Dey never was none here in slavery time but plenty horny :• frogs and 'gators. MI marry 51 year ago to filina Day and I's still marry to her. Us marry in her brudder's house with jes' homefolks. Deyfs nine chillen and eight still livin' and most dem farmers, fcept two boys in de reg'lar army. Dey am Dolf and Robert. Oscar runs de fillin1 station at Double Bayou. Oscar was in IVance in de World War. I has two my gals with me here and two grandchillen. "I rode de range till !bout 20 year ago and den I start gittin1 purty old, so I settles dorm to farmin1. Dey charter a Masonic lodge here in 1906f I 'lieve it were number naught six, and dey put me up for Worshipful Master of de bunch. After dey vouch for me I git de chair and I been sittin1 in de east for 30 year. ************* 420053 EX-SLAVE STOEIES p*£e Ore *ytZ (Texas) '° SUSAN MERRITT, 87 f was bora in Bask Co., Texas, a slave of Andrew Watt. A year after she was freed, Susan moved with her parents to Harrison Co. t and stayed on their farm until she married Will Merritt. They reared fifteen children, Susan has little to say of her life from 1865 to the pres- ent, stating that they got along on the farm they worked on shares. Since her husband's death Susan lives with a son, Willie, west of Marshallf Texas, on the Hynsen Springs Eoad. WI couldn't tell how old I is, hut does you think Ifd ever forgit them slave days? T 'lieve I's 'bout 87 or more, 'cause I's n good size gal spinnin all the thread for the white folks when they lets us loose after surrender. "I1 s horn right down in Husk County, not along way frmm Henderson, and Massa Andrew Watt am my owner. My pappy, Hob Bollins, he come from North Carolina and "belonged to Dewe Blakely and mammy come from Mississippi. Mammy have eleven of us chill en hut four dies when they babies, but llbert, Eob, John, Emma, Anna, Lula and me lives t© be growed and married. "Massa Watt lived in a big log house what sot on a hill so you could see it 'round for miles, and vm lived over in the field in little log huts, all huddled along together. They have homemade beds nailed to the wall and baling sack mattresses, and us call them bunks. Us never had no money but plenty clothes a*d grub and wear the same clothes all the year 'round, Massa Watt made our shoes for winter hisself and he made furmiture and saddles and harness and run a grist mill and a whiskey still there on the place* That man had ev'ything* -1- Er~slave Stories Page Two .. '^(j (Texas) ,fThe heads was woke with the bit "bell and when massa pulls that bell rope the aiggers falls out them buaks like rain fallia1. They was ia that field ffore day and stay till dusk dark. They work slap up till Sat- urday aight and thea washes their clothes, and sometimes they gits through and hp.s time for the party oad plpys ring playa. I * member part the words to one play and that, 'Boiling river, roll on, the old cow die in cold water ...now we's got to drink bad water 'cause old cow die ia cold water,1 but I ca»ft 'member more'n that. Itfs too long ago, "When the hands come in from the field at dusk dark, they has to tote water from the spring and cook and eat and be in bed whea that old bell rings at nine o'clock, 'Bout dusk theyrcalls the chillea and gives 'em a piece of corn pone 'bout size my hand and a tia cup milk and puts them to bedf but the growed folks et fat pork and greens and beans and sich like and have plenty milk. Ev'ry Sunday massa give 'em some flour and butter and a chicken. Lots of aiggers caught a good cowhiding for slippia* fround and stealia1 a chicken ffore Sunday. "Massa Watt didn't have no overseer, but he have a nigger driver what am jus' as bad. He carry a long whip 'round the neck and Ifs seed him tie aiggers to a tree and cowhide 'em till the blood run down onto the ground. Sometimes the women gits slothful and not able to do their part but they makes 'em do it anyway. They digs a hole, fbout body deep, and makes them women lie face down in it and beats 'em nearly to death. That aigger driver beat the chillea for not keepia1 their cotton row up with the lead man. oometimes he made niggers drag loag chains while they -2- Ex-slave Stories Page Three ; ,^ (Texas) *•¦ if works in the field and some of fem run off, but they oughtn't to h&ve done it, fcause they chase fem with hounds and nearly kilt fem. "Lots of times Massa W^.tt give us a pass to go over to George Petro's place or Dick Gregg1 n place. Massa Pethro run ^ slave market and he have big, high scaffold with steps where he sells slaves. They was stripped off to the waist to show their stren^t1. "Our white folks have a church end $. place for xxs in the hack. Sometimes at might us gather 'round the fireplace on& pr^r and sing: snd cry, hut us darenH flow our white folks know it. Thank the Lawd us can worship where us wants nowadays. I Member one song we allus sing: H,I heard the voice of Jesus callin* Come unto ma and live Lie, lie down, weepin1 one Res1 they head on my breast. "fI come to Jesus as I wa« Weary and lone and tired and sad, I finds in him a rest in1 place, And he has made me glad.' "Us h#ve two white doctors call Dr. Dan and. Dr. Gill Shaw, what wait on us when we real sick* Us wore asafftedit? bags 'round the neck and it kep1 off sickness. MI stay mos1 the time in the big house and massa good but missy am the devil. I couldnH tell you how I treated. Lots of times she tie me to a stob in the yard an& cowhide me till she give out, then she go and rest and come back and beat m some more. Y0u see, Ils massa nigger and she have he^own niggers what coroe on her side and she never did like aie. She stomp and beat me nearly to death and they have to grease my -3- Ex-slave Stories Page Jour t*JL} (Texas) ' *C3 hack where she cowhide me aad Ifs sick with fever for s week. If I have a dollar for ev'ry cowhidia* I git, Ifd aever have to work no more, "Young missy Betty like me aad try larn me readin* aad writia1 and she slip to my room ©nd have me deiaf right good. I lprn the alphabet. But one day Missy Jane cotch her schoolia1 me and she say, diggers don't aeed to kaow anything, • #nd the lams me over the head with the butt of a cowhide whip. That white naan so rough, one day us makia1 soap aad some little chickens gits ia the fire 'round the pot aad she say I let •em do it and make me walk b&refoot through that bed of coals sev'ral times* "I hears '"bout freedom ia September aad they's pickia1 cotton and a white raaa rides up to massa1 s house oa a big, white hoss and the houseboy tell mass a a man want see him aad he hollers, • Light, stranger.! It a gov'merit man and he have the big book and a buach papers and say why aiaft massa turn the niggers loose, liassa say he tryia1 git the crop out and he tell massa have the slaves ia. Uacle Steven blows the cow hora what they use to call to eat and all the aiggers come runnin1, 'cause that horn mean, 'Come to the big house, quick.1 That man reads the paper tellin1 us we's free, but massa make us work several months after that. He say we git 20 acres land and a mule but we didn't git it, "Lots of aiggers was kilt after freedom,1 cause the slaves in Harrison County tura loose right at freedom aad them in Rusk County wasn't. But they hears fbout it and runs away to freedom in Harrison County and they oroaers have feia bushwhacked, that sfcet dowa. You could see lots of aiggers haagia1 to trees ia Sabiae bottom right after freedom,'cause they cotch 'em swimmia1 fcross Sabiae River and shoot fem. They sho1 am goin1 be lots of soul cry 'gainst «em ia Judgmeat! H ******* 4201220 B3USLAVE STORIES Page One 79 (Texas) JOSH MILES, 78, was born in Richmond, Virginia, a slave of the Miles family. In 1862 Mr, Miles brought his family and slaves to franklin, Texas. After he was freed, Josh worked for the railroad until he was laid off because of old age. He lives in Mart, Texas, H I was born in Richmond, in Yirginny, back in 1859, and my mammy and pappy was slaves to a man named Miles, what lived in Richmond but owned three plantations out a few miles, and 'bout fifteen hundred niggers. Peppy was de fam'ly coachman and druv de lifl surrey when Massa gwine see he plan- tations* On Sunday he druv de big coach to church. Dm Old Massa wear de big stove-pipe hat and de long-skirt coat and he big boots. Pappy, he wear de tall hat with de blue uniform with brass buttons, and black, shiny boots. He have de long horsewhip to crack at dem hosses - he drive four or sir bosses, ' cause dat coach am big and heavy and de roads am often muddy. "Massa allus went to de big fairs in Louisville and Richmond, where de big hoss races am. Dey name de hosses for Abe Lincoln and Steve Douglas, in 1860. De bettin1 song what dey sings am like die: WfDere*s a old plow hoss, whose name am Doug,doo,dah,doo-dah - He's short and thick, a reg'lar plug, oh, dootdah,doo-dah,doo - We're bom to work all night, we're born to work all day, I111 bet my money on de Lincoln hoss, who bets on Steven A?' "Well, dat de way us lives jes1 befo* de war. When de presidents calls for volunteers, Yirginny goes for de Rebels, and dey moves de capitol to Rich- mond. So Old Massa sees he'll be right in de thick of de war and he 'cides to come to Texas. He gits he slaves and he folks and hosses and cattle and he household things in de covered wagon and starts. Course, de hosses and cattle walks, and so does us niggers. But massa take he time and stops wherever -1- Ex-slareStorieB p^ Tw0 qq \ irexas/ he wants. It takes two years to make de trip. He stay de whole winter one place, and stops in Nashville and Memphis and Vicksburg. All dese places he trade de hosses and mules and oxen and niggers and everything else he have. But he wouldn't trade he personal slaves. Dey have de big warehouse in places like Memphis, and take de nigger de day befo1 de sale and give his plenty to eat to make him look in good humor. Dey chain him up de night befo* de sale, and if fen he am de fight in1 nigger, dey handcuffs him. De auctionneer say, •Ms nigger am eightten year old, sound as de dollar, can pick 300 pounds of cotton a day, good disposition, easy to manage* come up fxamine him.0 Dey 8trips him to de waist and everybody look him over and de good ones brung $1,500 sometimes. I seed de old mammy and her two boys and gals sold. One man buys de boys and old maauqy cry, but it donH do no good. •Bother man bids de two gals and mammy throw such a fit her old massa throws her in, f cause she too old to be much •count. "De siege of Yicksburg •gins jus* after old massa done left there, on he way to Texas, He friends tell him all «bout it. Coffee was $4.00 de pound, tea $18.00, butter to $2.00 de pound, corn $15.00 de bar1!, calico $1.75 de yard and muslin *bout $7.00 de yard. De Bebels holds de city long as they could. De bluff over de city have de caves in it and deyfs rented for high rent. Flour am $10.00 de pound and bacon $5.00. Dey eats mule meat, and day give it de French naaae, •Mule tongue cold, a la bray.1 HWe keep's up with what happen and after de war dey tells us *bout Richmond. De lab'tory am blowed up Friday, and de Stuart home burnt. Befo1 Richmond am taken, dey sings dis songs Bx-slave Stories Page Three &Z4 (Texas) " fWould you like to hear my song? Ifm 'fraid its rather long - Of de "On to Richmond, • double trouble, Of de half a dozen trips 4nd de half a dossen slips, And de latest bus tin1 of de bubble. MfPull off you coat and roll up you sleeve, For Richmond am a hard road to travel - Then pull off you coat and roll up you sleeve. For Richmond am a hard road to travel.1 "Bey sung dat song to de old time call 'Old Rosin de Beau.1 HDe war ends and in de few months old massa sot he slaves free. He give my pappy some money and he starts out for heself. He goes to Milligan and rents land and raises he fam'ly. Old Massa never goes back to Richmond. De Tanks gits what he left so dey no use gwine back dere. He lives in Franklin till 1S14. It ain't like Old Tirginny, but day's plenty wild game and hawgs and he raises a bale of cotton to de acre, so he have money once more. *Deyfs folks comin* to Texas all de time from de old states. It am de new werld and dey likes it. Dey has de Juneteenth cel'brations after 'while, and de white folks gives us beeves and hawgs to barbecue, so Texas am de good place to stay. "When I's 'bout growed, I starts workin1 on de I. & G. H. railroad and helps build it from Houston into Waco. I works for it for years and years, and allus lives near de Brasos River. X's lived here in Mart forty years. "I doesn't have de bitter mem'ries like some de niggers, 'Cause Old massa allus good to us. I's had de good life and am •bout ready to go to Hebben, and hopes I can see Old Massa dere. ***** 420197 B3USLAVE STOHIES (Texas) Page One *« 82 •# ANNA MILLEB, 85, lives with her daughter, Lucy Watkins, at 407 W. Bluff St,, Ft. Worth, Texas. She was "born * slave in Kentucky, and was sold, with her parents, to Mark Loyed, a farmer in Missouri. He later sold Anna's mother, before Anna was old enough to remember her. When Anna was 8, her owner moved to Palo Pinto, Texas. "I'se now 'bout 85 years ole, dats what de white folks tells me. I'se bo'n in Kentuck1. My mammy, pappy and Ifse sold by our fust marster to Marster Mark Loyed, who lived in Missouri. He takes us to him's farm. When Ifse fbout eight years ole, Marster % Loyed sold him!s farm and comes to Texas in covered wagons and oxen. He's brung all de slaves wid him.I'se don' fmember much 'bout de trip, 6au.se I*se sick wid de fever. I'se so bad, de marster thinks Ifse goin' to die. One mornin' he comes and looks at me and says, 'Dis nigger am too val'able to die. We'd better doctor her,' We camps for six days. HWe comes to Palo Pinto mid dat's wild country den. Plenty of Indians, but dey never trouble we'uns. My work, 'tw?s help in' wid de chores and pick up de brush whar my pappy was ©rclearin1 de land. When I gits bigger, I'se plowed, hoed, and done all de goin1 to de mill, I*se helps card, spins and cuts de thread. We'uns makes all de cloth for to mates de clothes, but we don1 git 'em. In de winter we mos1 freeze to death, De weavin1 was de night work, after workin* all de day in de fiel** "Dey sho itaps us. I'se gits wfaupped lots a times, Marster whops de men dad missus wimps de women. Sometimes she wfaups wid de Rx-slave Stories p^e Two 83 (Texas) nettleweed. Whan she uses dat, de licks ain*t so bp&, hut de stingin1 and de burnin1 after am sho1 misery, Dat jus1 plum runs me crazy, De ibens use de rope when dey whups. "'Bout eatin', we keeps full on what we £its, such ?.s hepus, cofn~ me©l and 'lasses. We seldom gits meat. White flour, we don1 know what dat taste like. Jus1 knor what it looks like, ffe gits fbout all de milk we wants, * cause dey puts it in de trough and we helps ourselves. Dere was a trough for de niggers and one for de hawgs. "Jus1 fbout a month hef o' freedom, my sis and nigger Horace runs off. Dey don1 go fsr, and stays in de dugout. Ev'ry night dey'd sneak in and git 'lasses and milk and whst food dey could. My sis had a baby and she nuss it 8Tfry night when she comes. Dey runs off to keep from gettin1 a whuppin1. De marster was mad 'cause dey lets a mule cut hisself wid de plow. Sis says de bee stung de mule and he gits unruly and tangle in de plow, Marster says, fDey can1 go far and will come back when dey gits hongry.* "I'se don1 k^ow much fbout de war. De white folks don1 talk to us *bout de war and wefuns don1 go to preachin' or nothin1, so we can't lnrn much. When freedom comes, marster says to us niggers, *All dat wants to go, git now. You has nothing1 And he turns dem away, nothin1 on 'cept ole rags, 'Twarn't enough to cover dere body. No hat, no shoes, no unner- wear. "My pappy and mos1 de niggers goes, but Ifs@ have to stay till my pappy finds a pla,ce for me. He tells me dat he*ll come for me. I'se have to wait over two years. De aarster gets worser in de disposition and goes *roun' sort of talkin1 to hisse'f and den he gits to cussin' ev'rybody. ~2~ Ex-slave Stories page Three Q/l (Texas) r,In '"bout a year after freedom, Marster Loyed moves from Palo Pinto to Port Worth. He says he don1 want to live in a country whar de niggers am free. He kills hisse'f '"bout a year after dey moves. JLfter datf Ifse sho1 glad when pappy comes for me. He had settled at Xzle on a rented farm and I*se lives wid him for '"bout ten years. Den I'se goes and stays wid ogr hrudder on ,1s h Creek. De three of us rents land rnd us runs dat farm. flIlse git married 'bout four years after I'se goes to Ash Greek, to Bell Johnson. lie had four chillen. He works for white folks. fBout nine years after we married my hushsn1 gits drowned and den I works for white folks and cares for my chillen for fo'teen years. Then I'se gits married again. I'se married Tred Miller, a cook, pnd we lived in Fort Worth. In 1915 he goes fway to cook for de road 'struction camp and dats de las1 Ifse hears of dat no 'count niggerI "Lots of difference when freedom comes. Mos! de time pjfter, I*se have what I wants to eat. Sometime 'twas a little hard to gitf but we gits on, Ifse goes to preechin1 and has music kn& visit wid de folks I*se like. But Marster loyed makes ms work frora daylight to dark in de fiel's and make cloth at night. *********** 4£0JL41 SI-SLAVE STORKS Page One % &fj (Texas) MIKTIE MABU MILLSE, 1404 39th St., Salve©ton, Texas, was born in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, in 1852* She has forgotten her first mas- ter9 s name, but was sold while vexy young to Dr. Uassie, of Irjmchburg, Texas. The journey to Texas took three months by oxcart. After the Civil far Mintle went to Houston and stay- ed with an old colored women whose former master had given her a house* Later she went to Galveston, where she has worked for one family 34 years. HI was born in Alabama in 1852, in Tuscaloosa and my mammy's name was Hannah, but I donft know my pappy1 s name. When I was still pretty little my brother and uncle and aunt and mother was sold and me with fem. MDr. Uassie brung us to Texas in an oxcart but my sister had to stay with the old mistress and that the last I ever seen my sister. She was four year old then. "After we reaches Texas we lives on a great big place, somewhere 1 round tynchburg and Dr. Hassle have two girls and I sleeps on the foot of they bed. They nice to me, they spoil mef in fac*. I plays with the white gals and they feeds me from they tables and in the evenin1 my mammy takes me down to de bayou and wash my face and put me on a clean dress. "My mammy cook for the white folks and they treats us both fine, but one gal I knowed was •bout 8 or 9 and she run away from her master and swim de Trinity River and it was winter and her feets freeses. He cotches die gal and puts her feets in the fire to thaw fe», and burnt 'em. The law say you could take slaves fway from sich a man, so -1- Ex-slave Stories page Two Qr (Texas) &V Dr. Frost takes her away from that man and gives her to Miss Nancy what was de mistress at Dr. Hassle's place. "Then they says they gwlne sell me, 'cause Hiss Nancy's father- in-law dies and they got rid of some of us. She didn't want to sell me so she tell me to be sassy and no one would buy me. They takes me to Houston and to the market and a man call George Fraser sells the slaves. The market was a open house, more like a shed. We all stands to one side till our turn comes. They wasn't nothin' else you could do* "They standsme up on a block of wood and a man bid me in. I felt mad* You see I was young then f too young to know better. I donft know what they sold me for, but the mm what bought me made me open my mouth while he looks at my teeth. They done all us that-a-way, sells us like you sell a hoss. Then my old master bids me goodby and tries to giveme a dog, but I 'members what Uiss Nancy done say and I sassed him and slap- ped fifce dog out of his hand. So the man what bought me say, 'When one o'clock come you got to sell her 'gain, she's sassy. If she done me that way I'd kill her.' So they sells me twice the same day* They was two sellin's that day. wMy new master, Tom Johnson, lives in Lynchburg and owns the river boat there, and has a little place, 'bout one acre, on the bayou. Then the war comes and jes' 'fore war come to Galveston they took all the steamships in the Buffalo Bayou and took the cabins off and made ships. They put cotton balss 'round the© and bullded 'em up hi^h with the cotton, to cotch the cannoaballs. Two of 'em was the Island Cityt and the Neptune. -2- ExQslave Stories Page Three Q*7 (Texas) "Then freedom cries and the master say we all free and I goes to Hous- ton with my mammy* We stays with a old colored woman what has a house her old master done give her and I finishes growin' there and works some. But then I comes to Galveston and hired out here and I been work In' for these white folks 24 year now. ************* 4S017S EX-SLAVE STORIES Page One ^ (J8 (Texas) .<£¦ *N TOM MILLS was torn In Fayette Co., Alabamaf In 1858, a slave of George Patterson, who owned eQ^ Tom1 e father and mother. In 1862 George Patterson moved to c Texas, bringing Tom and his ^ mother, "but not his father* After they were freed, it was difficult for Tom's mother to earn a living and they had a hard time for seyeral years, until Tom was old enough to go to work on a ranch, as a cow- hand. In 1893 Tom undertook stock farming, finally settling in Uvalde in 1919. Be now lives in a four-room house he "built himself, A peach orchard and a grape arbor shade the west side of the house and well-fed cows are in the little padture, Tom is contented and optimistic and says he can "do a lot of work yat." WI was born in Alabama* in Fayette qq^ in 1858. My mother was named fflaaline Riley and my fatner was named Thad Mills. My sisters were named Ella and Ann and Lou and Maggie and Matildy, and the youngest one was Easter. I had two brothers, Richard and Ben* Bob Lebyuc was my great -uncle and for a long while he ran a freight wagon fromJSalt Lakes to this country. That was tne only way of getting salt to Texas, this part of Texas, I mean, because Salt Lakes is down east of Corpus, close to the bay. My uncle was finally killed ty the Indians in Prio County. HIn Alabama we lived on Patterson*s place. The grandmother of all these Pattersons was Betsy Patterson and welived on her estate, My mother wove the clothe It kep1 her pretty busy, but she was stout and active. My uncle was blacksmith and made all tne plows, too* "We had a picket house, one room, and two beds built in cornerso -1- Ex-Slave Autobiographies — Tom Mills Page B^tP go (Texas) "My mother done the cookin' up at the house because she was workin* up there all the time, weavin' cloth, and of course we ate up there, 'i'he rest of 'em didn't like it much because we ate up there, but her work was there. 1 guess you never did see a loom? It used to keep me pretty busy fillin' quills, ^he made this cloth — this four-dollar-a-yard, four-leaf jean cloth, all wool, of course. ttI was too little to work durin* the war; of course we packed a little water and got a little wood. X was goin* to tell you about this scar on my finger. I was holdin* a stick for another little fellow to cut wood and he nearly cut my finger off. That sure woke me up. "They had field work on the place, but a family by the name of Knowles did the farm work. I worked stock nearly all my life. It used to be all the work there was. I think my mother was allowed to make a little money on this cloth business. That is, cloth she made on the outside. And she was the only one of the slaves that could read. I don't know that they cared anything about her readin', but they didn't want her to read it to the rest of 'em. I never earned no money; I was too little. "We called Old Man Patterson 'master' and we called Mrs. Patter- son 'mistuss'. "I don*t know what the other slaves had to eat — they cooked for themselves, but we had jes» what the Patterson's had to eat. On Sunday mornin* we had flour bread. Always glad to see Sunday mornin* come. We made the eo*n meal right on the place on these old hand mills that you turn with both hands like this, lihen the Qo'n jes* fust began to get ha*d, they would grate that; but when -2- Ex-slave Autobiographies — Tom Mills Page Ture« ' (Texas) it got haTd, they would grind it. We always had meat the yepr •round. We called hogshead cheese "souse*. But we never did make sausage then. It was a long time before we had a sausage mill.. Oh, sho' we made 'chittlin's' (chitterlings). We make them even now. Why mama always takes the paunch and fixes it up ever* time we kill hogs. Wearied beef, strung it out, and put it on the-line. "tThen we got ready to cook it, we'd take it and beat it and make hash and fry it or boil it. We had lots of deer and turkeys, quail and ?possums, but they never did do much eatin' rabbits. 1 didn't eat no ?possums and I didn't eat no honey; there was sever*1 things I didn't like. 1 like straight beef, turkeys, quails and squirrel is mighty fine eatin1. I set .traps and isould ketch quail. Armadillos are pretty good meat, but we didn»t eat 'em then. Why, I was grown before I ever saw an armadillo. I don»t know tfiere they immigrated from. Yes'm, I think they come from Mexico; they must surely have because they wasn't any here when I was a young boy. We used to see *em in shows before they ever got to be around here. WI wore a shirt that hit me down about my knees. When my mother made my pants, she made 'em. all in one piece, s3.eeves 'n all. The fust shoes I ever had, my uncle tanned the leather and made tem. l guess I was about six years old. He made the pegs, tanned the leath- er, and made the shoes. It takeg 18 months to tan the leather. Bark tanned. Huh, I c'n smell that old tannin' vat now. People nowadays, they're livin* too easy. »Eraid to let a drop of water fall on 'em. *E\rer» day was Sunday with me then. After we got up any size, they put us to work, but we didn't work on Sunday. After I got to -3- EX-slave Autobiographies — Tom Hills Page y<>ur£ (T«xas) be a cowboy, of course, they didn't have no Sunday then. "I was twenty-two when i fust married, it was in Medina. County. Her name was Ada Goston. She ha'^on a white dress, draggin* the groun* in the back, what you used to call these trains. I remember when they wore these hoops, too. we married about 7 o'clock in the evenin*. I had on one of these frock-tail coats, black broadcloth suit. I had on good shop-made shoes. Vie had better shoes then than we ever have now. ?»Te had a supper and then danced. Had a big wed- din' cake — great big white one, had a hole in the center, all iced all over. 1 think my auntie made that cake, or my cousin. We had coffee, but I never did drink whiskey in my life. I think they had chickens — if I remember right, chicken and dressin'. Had a whole lot better to eat then than I can get now. ¥e danced all night. I was at a weddin* where they danced three days and nights, and I tell you where it was. Have you been down to Old Bill Thomas'? You have?- Well, that was where it took place. Bill and Ellen married when I was about twelve years old, and I think they danced three days and nights, and maybe longer. Now, if they didn't tell you that, 1 could'a told you if I had been there. We danced these old square dances, what you call the Virginia Reel, and the round dances like the Schottische, Polka, waltzes, and all them. I was a dancin' fool, wanted to dance all the time. I inherited that from my mother. She was a terrible dancer. "Old Man G-eorge Patterson was a very tall and a dark complected man. He was a kind old man. He was good to my mother and all those that come from Alabama, 'ifce old mistuss would whip me, but he didn't. The grandchillun and I could fight all over the house; he would jes1 -4- Ex-slave Autobiographies — Tom Mills i'age n-vJt Uuldnft run, because they had fooled 'im so much. So the Indians slipped up on him and killed fim. "Yes, I knew all the Millers better than I did nearly any of the rest of the old settlers up there. Aunt Dorcas, that was Georgefs mother, she nursed me through the measles. I was awful sick, and when my mother heard it and come up after me, she told my mother to leave me there, she would take care of me. I tell you she took good care of me too. ttBut that was after freedom. You see, my mother didn't want to come to Texas. She laid out nearly two years before they got hold of her and got her to come to Texas. Alabama wasn*t thickly settled then. ^ners was bottoms of trees and wild fruit she could eat. She stayed out by herself, and would come and get something to eat and leave again. But Patterson told her if she would come to Texas she would be treated right and not be whipped or nothin* like that. And so far as I know, she never was whipped. He kep1 his word with her. She was useful and they needed her. She wove the cloth and was such a good worker. "The first cow we ever owned, we cut cockle burrs out of a field of about seven or eight acres. Mr. John Ware gave her a cow to cut the burrs out. *££ter the war, my uncle carried my mother and his wife and -7- Ex-sMve Autobiographies — Tom Mills Page ng& 95 (Texas) chillen away, and when they started with Margaret — she was his niece and my cousin — they overtook »em and took Margaret back. She was house girl, she didn*t do nothin* but work in the house. I don't know whether they ever paid her anything or not. They needed her to wait on the old lady. "I don*t know how that come about when they told~'em they was free, I don't know whether mother read it in the paper or he come and told 'em. We went on, and came right on up the same creek to a place where a man had a ranch by the name of Honey. It was an old abonded (abandoned) place, and we didn't have anything to eat. My uncle got out and rustled around to get some bread stuff and got some co'n, but while he was gone was when we suffered for something to eat. We didn't have anything to kill wild game with. We would fish a little. When he left he went up in the Davenport settlement, up i/* v "fetor6 about where your grandfather lived, ^j? got milk and careless weeds, but that was all we had, and we were awful glad to see the f \. co'n come. And that was my first taste of javelin (javelina). It If' evidently was an/old male javelin,]for I couldn't eat it. I don't * think my uncle ever stole anyting in his life. I was with him all the time and I know he didn*t. My mother, she went over to Daven- ports* and my uncle got out and rustled to see where he could get something to do. So they moved up in the Sabinal Canyon and he got on Old Man Joel Fenley»s place. "Old Man 'Parson* Monk,..I think, was the first person I ever keard preach. T&at was down here in the Patterson settlement (formerly a settlement six miles south of the present town of Sabinal). -8- EX-slave Autobiographies — Tom Mills page Hine* " (Texas) The preachin* was right there on the place. I Joined the church after I was grown, but that was the cullud church, then. My mother she joined the white church. She joined the Hardshell Baptist. She never did live in any colony and the cullud church was too far. They had lots of camp meatin's. I never was at but one camp meetin' that I know of. They would preach and shout and have a gopd time and have plenty to eat. That was vftiat most of fem went for. But the churches then seemed to be more serious than they are now. They preached the 'altar.' You know, like anyone wanted to join the church, they was a mourner, you see, seekin* for religion. And they would sing and pray with 'em till they professed the religion. I had a sister that never went to a meetin* that she di&n*t get to shoutin» and shout to the end of the sermon. I always tried to get out of the way before I Joined because if she got to me, she would beat on me and talk to me. We always tried to get to her, if she had her baby in her arms, because she would jes* throw that baby away when the Spirit moved her. "Did you ever know of Monroe Brackins over at Hondo City? Well, I and him was both Jes* boys and was with Jess Campbell, Joe Dean and a man named McLemore. They was white men. We went down on the Frio Hiver,and there was some pens down there on the Johnson place. Bhey was three brothers of them Johnsons. We had a little bunch of cattle, goin* down there. This Jess Campbell and Joe Dean was full of devilment and they knew Monroe was awful scarey. When we penned the cattle that evenin* it was late and Monroe noticed a pile of brush at the side of the gate. He asked »em what you reckin that was there, and they told him they was a man killed and buried there. -9- jfc Of? Sx-slave Autobiographies — Tom Mills Page ffe i7' (Texas) That night after dark they was fixin* to get supper ready and told Monroe to go get some water down at the river, but he wouldn't do it. Well, I never was afraid of the dark in my life, so I had to go get the water. Well, we made a fire and fixed supper and then these men put a rope on Monroe and took him off a little piece and wrapped the rope around a tree and never even tied the rope fast. The other man, McLemore, he went around the camp and came up on the other side. He had an old dried cow hide with the tail still on it. The old tail was all bent, crimped up. Here he come from dovra the creek, from where they told Monroe that fellow was buried, and right toward Mon- roe with that hide on. Tail first and in the dark it looked pretty had, and, I tell you, Monroe got to sereamin'. I believe he would have died if they hadn't let him loose. I never laughed so much in my life. When he would get scared, he would squeal like a hog. He sure was scarey- "Sometimes, I know, we would be woke up in the night and they would be cookin* chicken and dumplin's, or havin* somethin* like that. I'd like for 'em to come ever* night and wake me up. I don't know where it come from, but they would always wake the chillen up (This is an early recollection of and let *em have some of it. his childhood during slavery) "My mother's'daddy, if he was here, he could tell plenty of things. He could remember all about them days, and sing them songs too. I've heard him tell some might*bad things, and he told some- thin* pretty bad on hisself. He said they oaptured some Indian ehillen and he was carryin one and it feot to cryin' and he jes* took his saber and held it up bu its feet and cut its head off. Couldn't stan* to hear it cry. He got punished for it, but he said he was a -10- EX-slave Autobiographies — Tom Mills Pagesiitf&ft 98 (Texas) soldier and not supposed to carry Indian babies. Usually when Indians captured little fellows like that, they carried 'em off. Like -hen they carried off jjTank Buckilew, a white boy. And a cullud boy that got away up close to Utopia. They kep» the Buckilew boy a long time, long enough that he got to where he understood the lan- guage. It was a long time that the Indians didn't kill a darky, though. But after the war, when they brought these cullud soldiers in here to drive 'em back, that started the war with the cullud peo- ple then. "After freedom, I remember one weddin' the white folks had. That was when John Kanady (Kennedy) married Malinda Johnson. He was a man that lived there on the river and was there up to the time he died. I wasn*t at the weddin1, but I was at the infair. They were married east of Hondo City, 'iliey had the infair then and it was a kind of celebration after the weddin'. Ever'body met there and had a big dance and supper and had a big time. They danced all night after the supper and then had a big breakfast the next mornin*. I was little, but I remember the supper and breakfast, for I was en- joyin* that myself. They was lots to eat, and they had it too. After freedom, I remember these quiltin*s where they would have big dinners. They would have me there, threadin* needles for Tem. life always had a big time Christmas, 'ihey had dances and dinners for a week. Yes*m, the cullud people did. '¦'•'hey would celebrate the holi- days out. 'Ihat was all free too, and they all had plenty to eat. Thfty would meet at one place one night and have a dance and supper and, the nerfe night, meet over at another place and have the same thing. -11- Ex-slave Autobiographies — Tom Mills Page fwaaVe (Xoxas) "When I got to workin* for myself, it was cow work. I done horseback work for fifty years. Many a year passed that I never missed a day bein' in the saddle, i stayed thirteen years on one ranoh. The first place was right below Hondo City. His name was Tally Burnett and I was gettin' $7.50 a month. Went to work for that and stayed about three or four months and he raised my wages to what the others was gettin* and that.was #12.50. He said 1 was as good as they were. Then I went to Frio City. I done the same kind of work, but I went with the people that nearly raised me, the Hutjiled- ges. "That's where I was give twice in the census. My mother gave me in and he gave me in. That was one time they had one man too many. WI married when I was with them and I worked for him after that. That was when we would work away down on the Eio Grande, when Demp Fenley and Lee Langford and Tom Roland and the two Lease boys and one or two more was deliverin* cattle to the Gold cranks' ranch. He wanted 8,000 two-year-old heifers. He had 150,000 acres of land and wanted cattle to stock it. Some taken a contract to deliver so many and some taken a contract to deliver so many, so these men I was with went down below Laredo and down in there. We wound that up in •85. In »86, I went to Kerr County and taken a ranch out there on the head of the Guadalupe Kiver. I stayed there two years and a half, till they sold out. %is man I was workin' for was from Boston. :, and he leased the ranch and turned it over to me and I done all the hirin» and payin* off and buyin* and ever'thing. When he sold out, I left and went on the Horton ranch about thirteen months. -12- 100 KXrslave Autobiographies — Tom Mills Page Thirteen (Texas) *B|y first wife died in 1892, but we had been separated about five or six years. I married again in Bandera and quit ranchin* and went to stock farmin* for Albert Miller, then leased a place from Charley Montague two years, then went over into Hondo Canyon and leased a place there in '98. We stayed there till 1906, then came to Uvalde. I leased a place out here, about two hundred acres, four miles from town, and had odd jobs around here too. Then, about 1907, we went to Zavala County and stayed till 1919. I leased a place here, then, and finally settled at this place I'm on now and have been here ever since. "I've got 11 chillen livin*. One boy, Alfred, is in Lousiana and I don't know what he's doin', but he's been married about five times. I have a boy workin* in the post/office in San Antonio named Mack, and the rest of the chillen are here. There's Sarah, Kiley, Frank, James, Banetta, John, Theodore, Tommy, Annie Laurie. ,j-ney all live here and work at different places. ttI know when we used to camp out in the winter time we would have these old-time freezes, when everything was covered in ice. We would have a big, fat cow hangin' up and we could slice that meat off and have the best meals. And when we was on the'cow hun$s we would start out with meal, salt and coffee and carry the beddin' for six or eight men on two horses and carry our rations on another horse. I guess it would scare people now to hear 'em comin' with all them pots and pans and makin» all that racket. "When we camped and killed a yearlin' the leaf fat and liver was one of the first things we would cook. When they would start in to gather cattle to send to Kansas, they would ride out in the -13- Kx-slave Autobiographies — Tom Mills Page loiVem (Texas) herd and pick out a fat calf, and they would get the 'fleece* and liver end broil the ribs. 'J-'he meat that was cut off the rijgs was called the fleece. It was a terr'ble waste, for many a time, the hams wasn't even cut out of the hide, jes' left there, uld Man Alec Hutledge used to say, when they would throw out bread and meat, he would say, 'L'll tell you, Tom, he will have to walk alone sometimes because this willful waste will make woeful wants.' He was tailing' about his brother — they was two of 'era, and sure 'nough, his brother finally lost all his cattle, quit the business, and never had nothin' left. There would be an awful lot of good meat wasted, *nd now we are payin* for it. "The first fence l ever seen wasn't any larger then this add- ition here, and it was put up out of pickets, i,'he iiexkins used to build lots of fences and we got the idea from them, mostly on these old-timey stake-and-rider fences, it was an awful pasture when they had eight mile of fence. The &ay they made the field fences was nothin' but brush. I remember when I was a little fellow at John Kanady's (Kennedy'sJ, u-eorge Johnson would come over and stay with his sister, Mrs. itanady, and he would keep the cattle out of the field, une day, he came there and put me on his horse. He had loosened up his girt, and 1 got out there a little ways and one of the cows turned back. The horse was a regular old cow pony and when that cow turned back, the old horse turned just as quick and the saddle slipped and 1 stayed there. "Oh, pshaw: they turn so quick you have to be on the lookout. You have to watch the horse as well as the cow. Some of them horses get pretty smart. One time they wer^cuttin' cattle and a fellow -14- Ex-siave Autobiographies — Tom Mills Page FiftVen (Texas) brought a cow to the edge of the herd and the cow turned back and when she did, the horse cut back too and left him there. When he went from under him, that fellow's spurs left a mark clear across the sad- dle as he went over. It was my saddle he was ridin' and that mark never did leave it, where the spurs cut across it. "We've done some ridin' even after my wife, here, and I were married. She's seen 'em breakin* horses and all that.pitchin' and bawlin'. But, I never was no hand to show off. If I kep' my seat, that v/as all I wanted. You see lots of fellows ridin' just to show off, but I never was for anything like that. nNo, I never did go up on the trail. I've helped prepare the herd to take. Usually, there would be one owner takin' his cattle up on the trail. They had no place to hold the cattle, only under herd. Usually, they would stnrt with a thousand or fifteen hundred head, but they didn't put *em all together till they got away out on the divide. They would have *em shaped up as they gathered 'em and jes' hold what they wanted to send. It didn't take so many men, either, because they all understood their business. rtI was jes* thinkin* about when Mr. Damp Fenley and Rutledge was here. They had about nine hundred head of cattle. ¥e brought 'em right in below Pearsall, right about the Shiner ranch, and delivered ?em there. But before we got there at a little creek they called Pato, they was hardly any place to bed the cattle because they was so much pear. Mr. Rutledge and I always bedded the cattle down, and then I would go on the last relief, usually about the time to get up, anyway. He used me all the time when they would get ready to go to oamp in the evenin*, and we'd spread »em out and let 'em graze before -15- 103 Ex-slave Autobiographies — Tom Mills Page stiteen (Texas) beddin' 'em down. Sometimes he would give me a motion to come over there, and I knew that meant an animal to throw. He always got me to do the ropin' if one broke out. Well, we was comin on with those cattle and they was a steer that gave us trouble all the time. As soon as you got away, he would walk out of the herd. ¥ell, we got the cattle all bedded down and they were quiet, but that steer walked out. I was ridin' Mr. Fenley's dun horse, and Mr. Hutledge says to me, 'I tell you what we'll do. We'll ketch that steer out here and give »im a good whippin'.* I says, 'We'll get into trouble, too.f Well, he was to hold »im away from the herd and I was to rope 'im, but the steer run in front of him and out-run ,im. If he would have run in behind him, I would 'a caught *im, but that steer beat ?im to the herd and run right into the middle of 'em. And did he stampede ?em! Those cattle run right into the camp, and the boys all scramb- lin' into the wagon and gettin* on their horses without their boots on. One steer fell and rolled right under the chuck wagon. You know, we run those cattle all night, tryin' to hold *em. It was a pear flat there, and next mornin' that pear was all beat down flat on the ground. 'i3hey sure did run, and all because of that foolishness. Mr. Rutledge got to me and told me not to tell it, and I don't reckin to this day anybody knows what dona that. "I never told you about the panther about to get on to me, did I? Well, we was out on the Rio Grand^, about thirty-one or thirty- two miles beyond Carrizo. It was at the Las Islas (The Islands) fcrossin'. I was about three days behind the outfit when they went out there. That was in July, and they was a law passed thfct we had to quit wearin' our guns the first day of July and hang ?em on the -16- 104 Enslave Autobiographies — Tom Mills Page seventeen (Texas) ho'n of our saddle. YJhen I got to the outfit, the boys was gettin* pretty tired herdin*. They had to bring »em out about six miles to grass and to this little creek. Tfe would put *em in the pen at night and feed *em hay. we were waitin* there for them to deliver some cattle out of Mexico, 'i'he Mexkin told me they was somethin* out there where they were herd in' sheep that was scarin* the sheep out of the pen at night. I had seen some bobcats, but I laid down under one of these huisache trees and went to sleep. I had my pistol on and was layin' there and about two o'clock, I woke up. I turned over and rested myself on my elbow and looked off there about 12 feet from me and there stood a big old female panther. She was kind of squat- tin* and lookin* right at me. I reached right easy and got my Win- chester that was layin* beside me and I shot her right between the eyes. 1hy, I had one of her claws here for a long time. She had some young ones somewhere. I imagined, though, she was goin* to jump right on me. It wasn*t no good feelin*, I know. She was an awful large one. "Oh, my goodness! I have seen lobos, eight or ten in a bunch. They*re sure mean. I*ve seen *em have cattle rounded up like a bunch of cow hands. If you heard a cow or yearlin1 beller at night, you could go next mornin* and sure find where they had killed her. They would go right into the cow or calf and eat its kidney fat first thing. I tell you, one sure did scare me one time. I was out ridin', usually ropin* and brandin* calves, and I came across a den in the ground. I heard something whinin* down there in that hole. It was a curiosity to me and I wanted to get one of those little wolf pups. That was what I thought it was. I got dom thejs and reached in there -17- 105 Ex-slave Autobiographies — Tom Mills Page Eighteen «(Texas) and got one of those little fellows. They was lovos (lobos). They are usually gray, but he was still b^ck. '^hey are black at first, then they turn gray. He was a little bit of a fellow, tfell, I got him out and the old lovo wolf run right at me, snap^in* her teeth, and my horse jerked back and came near gettin* away. But I hung to my wolf and got to my horse and got on and left there. I didn»t have nothih* to kiliher with. I was jes* a boy, then. I took that pup and give it to Mrs. Jim Reedes, down on the Hondo, and she kepf it till it began eatin* chickens. "I had a bear scare, too. That was in '87, about fifty years ago. Well, Ira Wheat was sheriff at Leakey in Edwards County, then. I went down there, and I was ridin* a horse I broke for a sheriff in Kerr County. I came to Leakey to see Wheat — you see they was burnin* cattle (running the brands) all over that country then. As I was ridin* along, I seen some buzzards and I rode out there. Somethin1 had killed a hog and eat on it. I knowed it was a bear afterwards, but then I went on down to Leakey and started back, I got up on the divide, at the head of a little canyon and I seen those buzzards again. I seen two t/^lck things and I jes* thought to muself them ^j) kogs was comin* backhand eatin* on that dead hog. I rode up and seen that it was two bears and I made a lunge at 'emdand the old bear run off and the little cub ran up a tree. I thought, 'I'll ketch you, you little rascal.* So I tied my horse and I went up the tree after the cub and when I was near 'im, he squalled jes* like a child, I tell you, when it squalled thrt way, here came the. t old bear and begin snuffin* around the tree. My horse was jes* rearin* and tryin' to break loose out there. I tell you, when I did get down there and -18- ±06 Ex-slave Autobiographies — Tom Mills Page Nineteen (Texas) get to him, I had to lead him about two hundred yards before 1 could ever get on him. He sure was scared. Like it was when I was a boy down on the Hondo one time and I could hear horses eomin' and thought it was Indians and after awhile, 1 couldn't hear nothin* but my heart beatin*. " Uncle Tom Mills is one of the most contented old darkies sur- viving the good old days when range was open and a livelihood was the easiest thing in the world to get. He lives in the western part of Uvalde, in a four-room house that he built himself. A peach orchard and a grape arbor shade the west side of the house. It is here that uncle Tom spends many hours cultivating his little garden patch. Contented and well-fed milk cows lie in the shade of the oak trees in a little pasture east of the house, and he proudly calls attention to their full udders and sleek bodies. His wife, Hattie, laughs and joins him in conversation, helping to prod his memory on minor events. He smiles a lot and seems optimistic about most things. I did not hear him speak grudgingly toward anyone, or make a complaint about the old-age pension he gets. He is always busy about the place and claims that he can dc a lot of work yet. 4:20032 h vs EX-SLAVE STORIES Page One l(j7 (Texas) LA SAN MIRE, 86, aged French Negro of the Pear Orchard Settlement, near Beaumont, Texas, is alert and intel- ligent, and his long, well- formed hands gesture while he talks. He was horn in Abhegrille Parish, Louisiana, a slave of Prosper Broussard. His father was a Spaniard, his mother spoke French, and his master was a Creole. La Sanfs patois is superior to that of the average French Negro. His story has been translated. ^Pp^ f,The old war? No, I don't remember so much about it, "because I was so young. I was ten years old at the "beginning of the wsr. I was horn the 12th of May, but I do not know of what year, in the Parish of Abbeville, on M'sieu Prosper1s plantation between Abbeville and Crowley. My parents were slaves. My father a. Spaniard, who spoke Spanish and French. My mother spoke French, the old master too, all Creoles. I, as all the other slaves, spoke French. "During the war all the child^nn had fear. I drove ?n old ox-cart in which I helped pick up the dead soldiers and buried them. A battle took place about 40 miles from the plantation on a bluff near a large ditch —not near the bayou, no. \Te were freed on July 4th. After the war I remained with my old master. I worked in the house, cooked in the kitchen. Early each morning, I made coffee and served it to ray master and his family whils they were in the bed. "Th» old master was mean —made slaves lie on the ground and whipped them. I never saw him whip my father. He often whipped my mother. -1- Ex-slave Stories Page Two j[GB (Texas) Ifd hide to keep from seeing this. I ?* "They hired me out most times as nuss for whit© folks chillen, and I missed Tom Tharman's chillen. He run the bakery there in Ltfnch- burg and come from the north, and when war broke they made him and •nother northener take a iron clad oath they wouldn't help the north, I^rin1 the war I worked in Massa Thurman's bakery, helping make hard tack and doughnuts for the 'federate sojers. He give me plenty to eat and wear and treated me as well as I could hope for. "Course, I didn't git no schoolin'. The white folks allus said niggers don't need no larnin'. Some niggers larnt to write their initials on the barn door with charcoal, then they try to find out who done that, the white folks, I mean, and say they cut his fingers off if fen they jus1 find out who done it. Ex-slave Stories Page Two '111 ) Texas) "Lynchburg was good sired when war come on and Woodruff's nigger tradin* yard was ffcout the bigg«s' thing there. It was all fenced in and had a big stand in middle of where they sold the slaves. They got a "big price for fem and handcuffed and chained fem together »n& led fem off like convicts. That y?rd wr.s full of Louisiana p.n& Texas slave "buyers mos1 ail the time. None of the niggers wanted to he sold to Louisiana, 1 cause that's where they heat f era till the hide was raw, and salted fem and "beat 'em so»ne more. "Course us slaves of white folks what lived in town wasn't treated like they was on most plantations. Massa Nat and Missy Julia was good to us and most the folks we wes hired out to was good to us. Ltaichburg was full of pattyrollers ?iusf like the country, though, and they had a fenced ^in whippin1 post there in town snd the pattyrollers sho* put it on a nigger iffen they cotch him without a pass. "After war broke Lee, you know General Lee himself, come to Ljinch- burg and had a campground there and it look like 'nother torcn. The federates had a scrimmage with the Yankees fbout Wo miles out from lynchburg, and after surrender Genera! Wilcox and a big company of Yankees come there. De camp was clost to a big college there in Lynchburg and they throwed up a. big breastworks out the other side the college. I never seed it till after surrender, f cause us wasn't f lowed to go out there. Gen. Shumaker was commander of the 'Federate artillery and kilt the first Yankee that come to Lynchburg. They drilled the college boys, too, there in town. I didn't know till after surrender what they drilled them for, 'cause -3- Ex~slave Stories Page Kiree IXo (fexas) the white folks didn't talk7 the war 'mongst us. "Bout a year after the Yankees come to lynchburg they moved the cullud free school out to Lee's Camp and met in one of the barracks and had four white teachers from the north, and that school run sev'ral years after surrender. "Lots of 'federate sojers passed through Lynchburg goin' to Petersburg. Once some Yankee sojers come through clost by and there was a scrimmage 'tween the two armies, but it didn't last long.Gen. Wilcox had a standin' army in Lynchburg after the war, when the Yankees took things over, bat everything was peaceful and quiet then. "After surrender a man calls a meet in' of all the slaves in the fairgrounds and tells us we's free. We wasn't promised anything. We jus' had to do the best we could. But I beared lots of slaves what lived on farms say they's promised forty acres and a mule but they never did git it. We had to go to work for what- ever they'd pay us, and we didn't have nothing and no place to go when we was turned loose, but down the street and road* When I left the Terry's I worked in a tobacco factory for a dollar a week and that was big money to me. Mammy worked too and we managed somehow to live. "After I married I started farmin', but since I got too old I live round with my chillen. I has two sons and a boy what I raised. One boy lives clost to Jacksonville and the other in the Sabine bottom and the boy what I raised lives at Henderson. I been gittin' $10*00 pension since January this year.(1937) "I never fool round with politics much. I's voted a few times, but most the time I don't. I leaves that for folks what knows politics, I says this, the young niggers ain't bein' raised like we was* Most of them don't have no manners or no moral self-respect. "I don't 'lieve much in hants but I's beared my wife call ay name• She's -,}}-¦• Ex-slave Stories Page four (Texas) "been deaxi four years. If you crave to see your dead folks, you111 never see them, but if you donft think ' "bout them they'll come hack sometime. **Two nigger women died* in this house and hoth of them allus smoked a pipe. My hoy andme used to smell the pipes at ni^bt, since they died, and one morain1 I seed one of them. I jus1 happened to look out the window and saw one of them go in1 to the cowpen, I knowed her hy her bonnet. HThey*s a nigger church and cemetery up the road away from ray house where the dead folks come out by twos at night and go in the church and hold service. Me and the preacher what preaches there done seed and heared them. •MEhey1* a way of keepin1 off hants. 1!hatfs done by tackin* an old shoe by the side the doorf or a horseshoe over the door, or pullin* off part of the planks of your house and putt in1 on some new boards*w ******* 4?2(.U3S IX-SLAVB STORMS Page Cue (Texas) PBTER UITCHELL, in the late serenties, was born la Jasper, Texas, a slave of fhad Laaier. He has lived In or near Jasper all his life. 114 *Yes9m. I9a Peter Mitchell and I was horn right near here and my father and mother wasn't lawful married. De niggers wasnH in dem days. My pappy1 s name was Richard Lanier and ay mammy1 s was Martha Mitchell, hut us all talcen mammy1 s name. She taken her name from de Mitchells, what owned her hefo1 de Laniers git her. My brothers named Lewis Johnson and Dennis Fisher, and William and Mose and Peter Mitchell. My sisters was Sukie and Louisa and Bffie. "Mammy was de house gal. She say de Mitchells done treat her hard hut Mas3a Lanier party good to us. In summer she kep9 us chillen near de hig house in de yard, hut we couldn9t go in de house. In winter we stays round de shade where we llres while mammy work. "We gits plenty cornhread and soup and peas* On fundagr dey gives us jus9 one biscuit apiece and we totes it round in de pocket half de day and shows it to de others, and says, 9See what we has for break- fast.9 "We wears duck in9 dyed with indigo, and hickory shirts, and we has no shoes till we gits old 'nougfr to work. Den dey brogans with de brass toe. Mammy knitted de socks at night and weaves coats in winter. Many a night I sits up and spins and cards for mamaj. "Mass a Lanier lire in de fine, big house and hare hundreds of acres in de plantation and has twentywfive houses for de slaves and dere -1- 2z-»sl&Ye Stories Page Two (fexae) 115 families. He kep' Jus1 'nough of de niggers to work de land and de extry he sells like bosses* "Missy lamed mammy to read and dey hare de cullud preacherf named Sam Lundy. Dey hare de big bayou in de field where dey baptises. De white people has de big pool 'boat 50 yard from de house, where dey baptise* 11 Sometimes dey runs 'way but didn't git far, f cause de patter rollers watches night and day. Some de men slaves makes hoe handles and cotton sacks at night and de women slaves washes and irons and sews and knits. We had to work so many hours every night, and no holidays but Christmas. "Us plantation so big9 dey kep1 de doctor right on de place, and taken purty good care oP de sick niggers, 'cause dey worth money. We was not so bad off, but we never has de fun, we jus1 works and sleeps. wWhen freedom come dey turn us loose and say to look out for ourselves, Mos1 of de slaves jus9 works round for de white folks den and gits pay in food and de clothes, but after while de slaves lams to take care denselves* I marries and was dress up in black and my wife wore de purple dress, De Bev, San Hadnot marry us, "I farms all my life and it ain't been so bad. I's too old to work much new, but I makes a little here and there oa de odd jobs* 430116 §>" EX-SLATE STOBIBS Page One IjlG *"" (Texas) v ¦1 era II 3 ANEBEW MOODY was born in 1855, , ^ "^ in Orange, Texas, a slave to Colonel Fountain Floyd, who owned a plantation of about 250 acres on Lacey1 s River, Andrew is said to be the oldest ex-slave in Orange County* HI was ten year old when freedom come and I1.* the oldest slave what was bora in Orange County still livin1 there. They called Orange, Grreen Bluff at the first, then they call it Madison, and then they call it Orange. I used to live on Colonel Fountain Floyd's plan- tation on Lacey's River, fbout 17 miles from here* They had 'bout forty hands big enough to pick cotton# ,fMy grandmother was with me, but not my mother, and my father, Ball, he belong to Locke and Thomas. We lived in houses with homemade furniture. Yes, they had rawhide chairs and whenever they kilt a beef they kep1 the skin of fen the head to make seat for chairs. "Colonel Floyd he treat us good, as if h«'s us father or mother. No, we didn1 suffer no 'buse, 'cause he didn1 !low it and he didn1 do it hisself. "Parson Pipkin, he coiae 'round and preach to the white folks and sometimes he preach ertry to the cullud quarters* Some of the cullud folks could read the hymns* Young missus, she laxn 'em. They sing, "Jerdon ribber so still and col1, Let's go down to Jerdon. Go down, go down, Let's go down to Jerdon. "Every man had a book what carried his own niggers' ngxaes. ~1~ Ex-slave Stories Page Two X^ r (Texas) The niggers1 names was on the white folks church hook with the white folks names and them "books was like tax "books. The tax collector, he come »round and sayf 'How many li'l darkies ybu got?1 and then he put it down in the 'cessment book. "Folks had good times Christmas. Dancin' and "big dinner. They give 'em two or three day holiday then. They give Christmas gif1, maybe a pair stocking or sugar candy. The whitefolks kill turkey and set table for the slaves with everything like they have, bre^d and biscuit and cake and pofk and baked turkey and chicken and sich. They cook in a skillet and spider. The cullud folks make hoe cake and ash cake and cracklin1 bread and they used to sing, 'My baby love shortenin' bread.1 "When a hand die they all stop work the nex' day after he die nnd. they blow the horn and old Uncle Bob, he prqjr and sing songs. They have a wake the night he die and come from all 'round and set up with the corpse all night. They make the coffin on the place and have two hands dig a. grave. "The way they done when 'mancipation come, they call up at twelve o'clock in June, 1865, right out there in Duncan Wood, Hwixt the old field and Beaumont. They call my mother, vrho done come to live there. They say, 'Now, listen, you and your chillen don' 'long to me now. T0u kin stay till Christmas if you wants. So mother she stay hut at Christmas her husban1 come and they all go but me. I was the las1 nigger to stay after freedom come, and the marster and I'd would go huntta and fishin* in the Heches Hiver. We ate raccoon then and rabbit and keep the rabbit foot for luck, jus1 the first joint. The 'Toby1 what we call it, and if we didn' have no 'Toby( we couldn' git no rabbiV nex' time we goes Imntin'• ******** 420212 £X-SLAVE STORIES Fpf?e One (Texas) A. M. MOORE, aged preacher and school teacher of Harrison Co., Texas, v s born in 1846, a slave of :tf. R. Sherrad who, in the 1830^8f settled a large planta- tion eight miles northeast of Marshall. Uoore worked as a farmhand for several years after he left home, but later attended Bishop and Wiley Coll^g^s, in Marshall, and obtained a teacher's certificate. He taught and preach- ed until a*:e forced him to retire to his farm, which is on land that vras once a part of his master1 s plantation. MMy name? is Ala on t M. Lioore and I was born right here in Harrison County, in 1846, and belonged to Master W\ R« Sherrad. My master was one of the first settlers in these parts and owned a big plantation, eight miles northeast of Marshall. liy father was Jiles D. Moore and he was born in Alabama, and my nother, Anna, was born in Mississippi. They c*me to Texas as slaves, tiy grandmother on ray mother1s side **as Cherry and she belonged to the Sherr^ds, too. She said the Indians gave them a hot time when they first cme to Texa^ finally they 'became friendlv to the white people. MMy mistress was Lucinda Sherrad pnA she hnd a world of children. They lived in a big, log house, but vou wouldn't know it was a log house unless you went up in the attic where it wasnH ceiled. The slaves helped master build the house. The quarters looked like a little town, with the houses all in lines* "They had rales for the slaves to be governed by and they were shipped when they disobeyed. Master didn't have to whip his slaves muchf because he _1~ Ex-slave Stories Page Two JLlrD (Texas) was fair to them* more than most of the slaveowners. Lots of masters wouldn't let the slaves have anything a£& wouldn't let them read or even look at a hook* Ifve known courts in this county to fine slaveowners for not clothing and feed- ing their slaves right. I thought that was right, because lots of them were too stingy to treat the slaves right unless they made them do it* "Corn shucking was a big sport for the Negroes and whites, too, in i slavery time* Sometimes they gave a big dance when they finished shucking, "but my master1 s folks always had a religious service. I went to a Methodist church and it had too floors, one for the slaves and one for the whites. Just before j the war they began to let the Negroes preach and have some books, a hymn book and a Bible. "After the war they treated the slaves fine in this part of the country. The industrious ones could work and save money. Down in Louisiana lots of owners | divided syrup, meat and other things with the slaves, Uy brother and I saved j enough to buy five hundred acres of land. Lots of white men took one or more t slaves to wait on them when they joined the army, but my master left me at home to help there. "Some owners didnft free their slaves and they soon put soldiers at Marshall and Shreveport and arrested the ones who refused to let the slaves go. My father died during the war and my mother stayed with Master Sherrad three yews after surrender. I stayed with her till I was bit enough and then hired out on a farm. They paid farmhands $10*00 to $15*00 a month then* "Then I went to school at Wiley and Bishop Colleges here for four years and I hold a county teacher's certificate* I have taught school in Harrison and * Ex-slave Stor&e* f>age 5&res (Texas) Gregg Counties and in Caddo Parisht in Louisiana* I started preaching in 1880 and for several years was District Missionary for the Texas-Louisiana Missionary Baptist Association. I have preached in and organized churches all over East Texas* wWe raised six children and two hoys aid two girls are still living. The girls live in Longvisw and one hoy farms. The other boy is a i>reach#r here in Harrison County. 111 heve voted in county and other elections. I think they should instruct the Hegroes to they can vote lite whit« folks. The young Kegroes now have a "better chance than most of us had* They have their schools and churches, hut I don't think they try as hard as we did* We learned lots from the white folks and their teaching was genuine and had a great effect on us, I attribute the Christian beliefs of our people to the earnest, faithful teaching of white people, and today we have many educated Uegro teachers and preachers and leaders that we are not ashamed of. ******* 420229 EX-SLAVE STORIES Page One ±2i (Texas) J2KRY MOOBE, a native of Harrison County, Texas, was born May 28 f 1848, a slave of Mrs. Isaac Yen Zandt> who was a pioneer civic leader of the county. Jerry has always lived in Marshall. For fifty years after he was freed he worked as a brick mason. He now lives alone on the Port Onddo road, and is supposted lay a $15#00 per month pension from the gov- ernment* MMy name is J# M. Moore, but all the white and cullud folks calls me Uncle Jerry, fcause I has lived here nosf since Marshall started, I was born on the 28th of May, in 1348, up on the hill where the College of Marshall is now, and I belonged to the Van Zandt 3. That was their old home place. MI never did see Col. Isaac Van Zandt, ray mistresses1 husband, but has beared her and the older folks talk lots cf him. They spy he was the one who helped set up Marshall and name it. They say he run ~"or Governor and had a good chance, but was never honorated as Governor, fcause he died 'fore election, "My distress was named Fanny and was one sweet soul. She had five children and they lived here in town but have a purty big farm east of town. My mother sewed for Mistress Fanny, so we lived in town. There were lots of niggers on the farm oncl everybody round these parts called us fVan Zandtfs free niggers,1 !cause our white folks shared with their darkies and lamed fem all to read and write. The ether owners wnuldnH have none of Van Zandt's niggers* "My mother was Aiay Van Zandt Moore and was a Tennessian. My father was Henry Moore and he belonged to a o3d bachelor named Moore, in Alabama. -1- Ex~slave3tories Page Two JL#3J3 (Texas) Moore freed all his niggers *fore Mancipation except three. They was to pay a debt and my father was Moore's choice man and was one of the three. He bought hisself. He had saved up some money and when they went to sell him he bid $800.00. The auctioneer cries •round to git a raise, but wouldn't nobody bid on my father ' sause he was one of Moore's 'free niggers'. My father done say after the war he could have buyed hisself for $1.50. So he was a free man lfore the 'mancipation and" he couldn't live 'mong the slaves and he had to have a £jaardian who wr*g 'sponsible for his conduct till after surrender. They was lots of niggers here from the free states 'fore the war, but they wasn't 'lowed to mix with the slaves* ''Mistress Fanny allus give the children a candy pullin' on Saturday ni^ht .and the big folks danced and had parties. She allus gave the children twenty-five cents apiece when the circus come to town. The patterrollers wasnft •loved 'bout our pl^ce and her darkies went mos' anywhere and wasn't ever bothered. I never seed a slave shipped on our place. S.e give her darkies money along for doin' odd jobs and they could 5) end it for what they wanted. She was a Christian wcoan and re?d the Bible mos' all the time. She give my mother two acres of land at 'mancipation. "The first thing I serd of the war was them musterin' .and drillin1 sojers here in Marshall, back in Buchanan's time. Politics was hot in '59 and f60. I •member 'em havin' a big dinner and barbecue and speaJcin1 on our place. They had a railroad to Swanson1 a Landing on Caddo Lake and the train crew brung news from boats from Shreveport nnd New Orleans. Soon as the train pulled into town it signaled. Three long, moamful whistles meant bad news. Three short, quick whistles meant good news. I went to town for the mail with my ~2- a&atacr &cna^ t&* it££\ 3ba*il m$$r t>u 12m* ^JftEray. t&a aaaaar tfce igr 3js writ* iim. wmmsmr na*33L xm saa&er WTll >** ?twb» .131 ti* Tte 2tekfix Utacrw* am&«2 $& fee £an*e% '2&^ li^t laad^.r^aH^fi fewr ^well lio^r •*!& fee*** ¦*&&&& ta.33 afftacr taajj- feeft it® ¦*2 :r*r*a»rt i&fc t&aa tifee ffi32»i T®lk& i^^imsm^ '%&?m acFiaer iaaa 'war* 2&^p ^i2aaiafc«r^£ *j» arbiitaa s 3ata£ mjpw 2te?l£ ana gmmrnmr aen& all tJae a&iitte> falls fesfi t c x&jat t&e Iran nwa &e3& %& TOfee. %&2^%^mB^*?m -aS 3Jag?®e$ sn tie gpa«aflBaai. Ix xk mgr%j figy** tia$~ feeli ttoe e&artian fmr 4^m* Sbrr -fiifin't wfce la pre>c32B£s "tact &x 7&m &W3*i feaasa* !B» SeMcnttis 5*rt7 irnfi d£ t&K&M fee 'taai&sta t&e frin^iaa* ^S» ^m^lnmi pgrigr ~5m& a l^ara! 3*fe$6^a„ * *» *® jflrafcae* tfee traHhai f tlkaw JSjwt ta» SetBraaa arot la ta» lAaflpa israa* t-a gal *atem£tlana aei& feaSLlala but. liar 3ssrsl»fi %.e ti» nassrt iasjs*** taufele i^iHe* xr tsi». ^r f^iter aaa a Bkwbsr xrf si* 331& an£ X3ti l^sS.#taCT f^rom tiik 'owastgr, 33* *ras 13a©*4ei. .jcurt F^i«r -cfee "SmartiAiSiiiD®! .aagweuutlaain,, *is£ Iter&a a«e alertaS gBWHraawr. 2aa a>«qftiea» ItitaSb 3£exm£l asfi IS-Lryr Jataana* aB$ ^laietaiL fnarn tStis easmlgr Is fee isaifesrs a£ ItlXgZ 3J2H5.MBl£t i .nzw tr^r3m?l laae .aBsmad»acxiim lie Segr^se oatfeeerrfL M SasTie-aa Dssrntj. -!Baa 3sniaee *©^raa aafi ^Pra^g^e^ It^t mafi.* 1Saae3«iia wf ^IssUfs fa*5k 3a«re f-tap pnrfceo- tittu 1S» 2bl ffinar ^fBa^^-t at «lr©ijg &r» -snfl tMs pla©« ersaa 3o«6s&t?ii3artt'«ra far tie ^Jh^^fleuHou11 Satt taw *9nve»* »gp^hy1 asii aaa 'S©^«a.* !Cb«y %ri^ae. n^ all xifflX^ mmikxxmm an -3hMMffxuBr fi^BS^s *3a». ISMr •fiiirifi»i «a» ¦uaDartjr i»t^ jcraeiota aim taaB fii^f23tt©ist hib3? &ee jba i3aa> fsr*e3a0St## Jiwt UJte i* is ma^ IfeS^A «xt «• ^m t>^asu 3&af *^€ M»^ *Wm*& *atta«r yfar#f trljjrt gt* taae «a Ma lamie^ .^a* *?*&*£ 2Jlsie ]taa «^a jragr^a11 *S31 te cs»€^i *^ ttlaa Iwak aaai. Jiaapai Ex-slave Stories Page Three 123 (Texas) sister durin' the war. She'd say to me, 'Jerry, the sooner the war is over, the sooner we'll be free. All the Van Zandt Negroes wanted to be free. They didn't understand how well they was bein' treated till after they had to make their own livin'. "I rec'lect the time the cullud folks registered here after the war. They outnumbered the whites a long way. Davis was governor and all the white folks had to take the Iron Clad oath to vote. Carpetbaggers and Negroes run the government. In the early days they held the election four days. They didn't vote in precincts but at the court house. The Democratic Party had no chance ti 'timidate the darkies. The 'publican party had a 'Loyal League,' for to protect the cullud folks. First the Negroes went to the league house to get 'structions and ballots and then marched to the court house, double file, to vote. My father was a member of the 11 th and 12th legislature from this county. He was 'lected just after the Constitutional Convention, when Davis was elected governor. Two darkies, Mitch Kennel and Wiley Johnson, was 'lected from this county to be members of That Convention. "Durin' the Reconstruction the Negroes gathered in Harrison County. The Yankee sojers and "Progoe' law made thousands of darkies flock here for protection. The Ku Klux wasn't as strong here and this place was headquarters for the 'Freedman.' That the 'Progoe' Marshal said and was Gospel. They broke up all that business in Governor Hogg's time. They divided the county into precincts and the devilment was done in the precincts, just like it is now. "My father told me about old Col. Alford and his Kluxers takin' Anderson Wright out to the bayou. They told him, "You better pay.' Wright got down on His knees and acted like he was prayin' till he crawled back and jumped Off in the bayou. The Klux shot him fifty or sixty times, but he got away. Ex~slave Stories Page Four i P*l (Texas) The Loyal League give him money to leave on and he stayed away a long time. He came hack to appear against Alford at his trial and when the jury gave Alford ninety-nine years, Anderson was gladf of course. ,fI left the Van Zandts two years after I was freed and worked in hotels and on the railroad and saved up money and went in "business, helping people ship cotton. I've seen a thousand cotton wsgons in town at one time. I stayed in business till I was burnt out. I came back to Marshall and took up the brick mason trade and worked at it till I got too old to hold out, HI*ve sat on the jury in the county, justice and federal courts. I know enough to vote or set on a juiy bat I think the restriction on colored folks votin1 is all right in this State. The white folks has a good government system. Our leaders ainft hard-hearted people and the cullud folks is well off or better as if they voted. Ifve lived here in Marshall most all the time since I was born and ain*t had no trouble. Aslong as the Negroes treat the white folks rightf the white folks will treat them right. *************** 420183 ^v E3USLAVB STORIES' (Texas) JOHN MQ0B3B, 84, was torn a sla.ve to IXxncan Oreggf in Vermillionville, La. # where he lived until ne was freed. In 1876 he came to Texas and now lives in Beaumont. Page One 125 111 was twelve year old when freedom broke up. I lives 'tween Vermillionville and Lafayette in Louisiana and my massa's name Duncan ftreggs and ne have purty "big farm pjid lots of cullud people. His house was two, three hunferd yard from de nigger quarters. De old gramraas, dey took care of de chillen. when d.ere mothers was in de fields antf took dem up to de big house so de white folks could see ,em play, "We chillens was dress in a shirt and. we was "barefoot. Sometime dey make what dey call moccasin out of rawhide. Shoes was skeerce. "Dey raise ae food and have grits ground in de grits mill. Dey raise hnwgs and mpke syrup *uid farm and raise chickens. Marster didn* 'low de niggers to have "big garden patch hut sometime ne flow !em have place raise watersillion. "Marster have purty good house, a box-house, and have good furniture in it. De cullud folks have house witn chimbly in de middle of two rooms and one fambly live on one side de chimbly and *nother faobly on de other side de cftimbly. De chillen have pallets on de floor. "After freedom my daddy die with cholera* I don1 know how many chillen in us fambly. My daddy's name Yalmore Moore and mamma's name SillimaA. -1~ Ex-slave Stories Page Two iQfX ,,rvey have niggers in de fields in different squads, a hoe squad and a plow sound, and de overseer was pretty rapid. If fen dey don1 do de work dey buck dem down rnd whip dem. Dey tie dey hands and feet togedder and make fem put de hands 'tween de kneew, and put a long stick 'tween de hands to dey can't pull fem out, ancL-den dey whip dem in good fasnion* "Then war st&rtst dey havt* a fight at Penock Bridge, not far from a place dey call Laffette# Dey burn de bridge and keep de Yankees from takin1 de town. But de Yankees gits floatin1 bridges *md gits 1 cross de bayou dat way. De Yankees comes to our place and d<*y go to de sugprhouse and tatces barrels of sugar and syrup, and corn and meat rmd de white folks hides de chickens under de bed, but de old rooster crow and den de Yankees hear denu 11 "Young marster say he gwine to war to kill r Yankee and bring he head back and he take a servant 'long. He didn' bring no Yankee head back but he brung p shot up arm, but dat purty soon git well. ,fIffen us sick dey n?ke med1 cine out of weess, mosf bitter weed, bone set (ley calls it. Dey bile Jerusalem oak t^jid give it to us* "We has dances sometimes and sings »Run, nigger, run, De patterroles git you; ; un, nigger run, It almos1 day.! Or we sings fMy old missus promise me Shoo a Is a day, When she die she set me free Shoo a la a day. She live so long her head git bald, Sh^o a le. a day. She give up de idea of dyin1 a-tall Shoo a la a day.1 ~2- :¦;*' Ex-slave Stories Page Three 1/3'/ (Texas) /W "Sometimes we hollers de corn hollers. One was somethin* like this: fEabbit gittin1 up in a holler for niggers kotch for breakfast.1 Sometimes my madder jump up in de air and sing, 1 Sugar in de gourd, Sugar in de gourdf Iff en you waster git De sugar out-- S-o-o-l-lde gourd over,* 11 And all de time she shout in1 datf she jumpin1 rignt straight up in de air. 11 I heered lots about de ELu Klux. So^^times dey want a nigger1 s place and dey put up notice he better sell out and leave. If fen he go see a lawyer f de lawyer wouldn1 take de case, * cause mos* dem in with de Klux. He tell de nigger he better sell. ttI come to Texas in '76 and been here ever since. Ifs had 13 chillen. I owns eight acres in dis place now and I got de purties1 corn in de country but de insecks give it de blues. ***************** 420013 M-SUYS STOBIIS Page One -%OR (Texas) X/w° VAH MOORS, now liring at 2119 St. Charles St., Houston, Tex., was horn on a plantation owned by the Cunningham family, near iynchburg, Virginia. While Tan was still a baby, his owner mo-red to a plantation near Crosby, Tex. Fan is about 80 years old. "Like I say, Va born on de first day of September, near Lynch- burg, in Tirginy, but I's reared up here in Texas. My mammy's name was Mary Moore and my pappy1 s name was Tom Moore. Maamy 'longed to de Cunninghams but Pappy 'longed to de McKinneys, what was Missy Cunningham's sister and her husban'. That's how my mammy and pappy come together. Is dem days a slave man see a slave gal what he wants and he asks his old massa, kin he see her. If fen she owned by someone else, de massa ask de gal's massa iffen it all right to put 'em together, and iffen he say so, dey Jus' did. Twa'nt no Bible weddin', like now. "Mammy had 19 chillen, 10 boys and 9 gals, but all of 'em dead 'cspt me. Dey was call' Matthew and Joe and Harris and Horace and Charley and San and Dare and Millie and Yiney and Mary and Phyllis, and I for git de others. "While I Jus' a baby Massa Cunningham and he family and he glares, and Massa McKinney and he slaves comes to Texas. I never did 'member old Massa Cunningham, 'cause dey tells me he kilt by a rarin' beef, right after we gits to Texas. Dey say he didn't take up 'nough slack on dat rope when he tryin brand de beef and de critter rared over and broke massa's back. "Bat I 'members Missy Mary Ellen Cunningham, he wife, from de time I»» a little feller till she die. She sho» was de good woman and treated de slaves good. •1- 2*~slave Stories Pago Two 1#29 (Texas) "*" "Mamay told me It dis~a»way how ccrae de Cunninghams and do McKinneys to eons to Texas* When war begin most folks back in Virginny what owns slaves moved further south, and lots to Louisiana and Texas, 'caise dey say de Yankees wonft never git dat far and dey won't have to free de slaves iff en dey come way over here. 'Sides, dey so many slaves runnin' 'way to de north, back dare. Mammy say when dey starts for here in de wagons, de white folks tells de po' niggers, what was so ig'rant dey 'lleve all de white folks tell 'em, dat where dey is go in' de lakes fall of syrup and covered with batter cakes, and dey won't have to work so hard* Dey tells 9em dls so dey don't ran away* "Well, mammy say dey comes to de lake what has round things on top de water. Course, dey jus' leaves, but de niggers thinks here is de Idee with de syrup and one runs to de edge and takes de big swallow, and spits it out, and say 'ffhufi ' I reckon he thinks dat funny syrup, "De plantation at Crosby was a great big place, and after old Massa Cunningham kilt by dat beef Missy Cunningham couldn't keep it up and we goes to Gal vest on* Dere she has de great big house with de beautiful things in it, de mirrors and de silk ehairs and de rugs what soft 'nough to sleep on. Missy Cunningham mighty good to us niggers and on Sunday she'd fill up de big wood tray with flour and grease and hawg meat* so we could have de biscuit and white bread, Manny say back in Ylrginny dey called biscuits 'knots' and white bread • tangle-dough.f "Iffen old Missy Cunningham ain't in heaven right now, den dere ain't none, 'cause she so good to us we all loved her. She never —2*» Bx-«laTe Stories page Ihree -$ llM (fexas) ^°k/ took de whip to us, but I heered ay mamoy- say she kaowed a glare woman what owned by Massa Rickets, and she workia' in de field, and she heary with de chile what not born yet, and she has to set down in de row to rest* She was haTla9 de misery and couldn't work good, and de boss man had a nigger dig a pit idiere her stomach fit in, and lay her down and tie her so she canft squirm f round none, and flog her till she lose her mind. Yes, suhf dat de truf, ay mammy say she knowed dat woman a long time after dat, and she never right in de head 'gain, nfhen de war broke, de Union soldiers has a camp not so far from we'uns and I slips down dere when old missy not looking fcause de soldiers give me black coffee and sugar what I takes to my mammy. I had to walk in de sand up to de knees to git to dat camp* Lots more chill en went, too, but I never seed no cruelness by de soldiars. Dey gives you de sugar in de big bucket and when you puts de hand in it you could pinch de water out it, 'cause it not refined sugar like you gits now, but it mure tasted good. "Mammy wraps me in both de Yankee and de • federate flags when I goes to dat camp0 and de soldiers takes off de • federate flag, but I allus wears it 'round de house, 'cause old missy tell me to. "When freedom cone, old missy tell my mammy, 'You Is free now, and you all jus' have to do de best you kin,1 But mammy she never been 'way from old missy in her life, and she didn't want no more freedom dan what she had. so we Jus' stays with old missy till she moved back to Crosby. -3- Ex-slave Stories Page Four (Texas) "When pappy sot free by Massa Albert McKinney, he didn't haTS nothin9 - not even a shirtt so Massa Albert 'lowed hi* stay and work 1 round de plantation* One day ffore we goes back to Crosty, pappy cone down to Gtalveston to see mammy and us chillen, fcause he wants to talcs us back with him. He rid all de way on a mule, carryin1 a wallet what was thrown over de hack of de mule like de pack saddle, and he gives it to mammy* You know what was in dat wallet? He brung a coon and possum and some corn dodger, • cause he thinks we donft hare 'nough to eat down there. Mammy she give one look at de stuff and say, •You, Tom, l*s stay in1 right here with old Missy Cunningham, and we has white folks eats,1 and she throw de whole mess 'wasy. I sho9 "member dat happening "But old missy git tin1 poorly and, like I told youf we more bade to Crosoy and mammy and pfipy lives together 'gain. I gits me some small work here and there till I grows up, and Ifs worked hard all my life* * All de old folks is gone now. Old missy, she die in Crosby, and mammy and pappy die, too, and is buried there* Doctor say I got dis and dat wrong and can*t work no more, so I guess I go, too, 'fore long. But I still has love for my old missy, fo (Texas) ±*** f1We had lifl bitty cabins out of logs with puncheon beds and a bench and fireplr-ee in it. We chillun made out to sleep on pallets on the floor* "Some Sundays we went to church some place. We allus liked to go any place. A white preacher allus told us to fbey our masters and work hard and sing and when we die we go to Heaven. Marse Tom didn't mind us singin1 in our cabins at night, but we better not let him cotch us prayin*. "Seeras like niggers jus1 got to pray. Half they life am in prayin1. Soae nigg*r take turn *hDut to watch and see if Marse Tom anyways 'bout, then they circle they selves on the floor in the cabin and pray. They git to moanin1 low and gentle, *Some day, some dayf some day, this yoke gwine be lifted offen our shoulders,1 MMarse Tom been dead long time now. I flieve hefs in hell. Seem like that where he flong. He was a terrible mean man and hn<3 a indiff'ent. mean wife. But he had the fines1, sweetes1 chillun the Lnwd ever let live nnd breathe on this earth. Theyfs so kind and sorrowin1 over us slaves. MSome them chillun used to read us li'l things out of papers and books, We'd look at them papers and books like they somethin1 mighty curious, but we better not let Marse Tom or his wife know iti "Marse Tom was a fitty man for meanness. He jus1 *bout had to beat somebody every day to satisfy his craving He had a big bullwhip and he stake a nigger on the ground and make « nother nigger hold his head down with his mouth in the dirt and whip the nigger till the blood run out and red up ~2~ Ex-Slave Stories Page Three * «>* (Texas) XO<* the ground. We li'l niggers stand round and see it done. Then he tell us, •Run to the kitchen and git some salt from Jane.1 That my Jaamroy, she was cook, He!d sprinkle salt in the cut, open places and the skin jerk and quiver and the man slobber and puke* Then his shirt stick to his back for a week or more, MMy mammy had a terrible bad back once, I seen her tryin1 to git the clothes off her back and a woman say, ¦What's the matter with you back?1 It was raw and bloody and she say Marse Tom done beat her with a handsaw with the teeth to her back. She died with the marks on her, the teeth holes goin1 crosswise her back. When Ifs growed I asks her 'bout it and she say Marse Ton got mad at the cookin* *nd grabs her by the hair and drug her out the house and grabs the spw off the tool bench and whips her. 11 My paw is the first picture I got in my mind. I was settin' on maw's lap and paw come in and say Marse Tom loaned him out to work on a dam theyfs buildin1 in Houston and he has to go. One day word come he was haul in1 a load of rocks through the swamps and a low-hangin1 grapevine cotched him under the neck and jerked him off the seat and the wagon rolled over him and kilt him dead. They buried him down there somewheres. "One day I1m down in the hawg pen and hears a loud agony screamin1 up to the house. When I git up close I see Marse Tom got maarny tied to a tree with her clothes pulled down and he's layin* it on her with the bullwhip, and the blood am runnin1 down her eyes and off her back. I goes crazy. I sayf 'Stop, Marse Tom,1 and he swings the whip and donft reach me good, but it cuts jus1 the same. I sees Miss Mary standin1 in the cookhouse door, I ~3~ Ex-Slave Stories Page Four lu5 (Texas) runs round crasy like and sees a big rock, and I takes it and throws it and it cotches Marse Tom in /the skull and he goes down like a poled ox. Miss Mary comes out and lifts her paw and helps him in the house and then comes and helps me undo mamnQr. Mammy and me takes to the woods for two, three months, I guess. My sisters meets us and grease mammy's back and brings us victuals. Purty soon they say it am safe for us to come in the c^bin to eat at night and they watch for Marse Tom. "One day Marse Tom's wife am in the yard and she calls me and say she got somethin1 for me. She keeps her hand under her apron. She keeps beggin1 me to come up to her. She say, 'Gimme you hand,1 I reaches out my hand and she grabs it and slips a slip knot rope over it. I sees then that's what she had under her apron and the other end tied to a li1l bush. I tries to get loose and runs round and I trips her up and she falls and breaks her arm, I gits the rope off my arm and runs, "Mammy and me stays hid in the bresh then. We sees Sam and Billie and they tell us they am fight in* over us niggers. Then they done told us the niggers 'clared to Marse Tom they ain't gwinebeno more beatin's and we could come up and stay in our cabin and they'd see Marse Tom didn!t * no thin1. And that ' s what mammy and me did, Sam and Billie was two the biggest niggers on the place and they done got the shotguns out the house some way or 'tother. One day Marse Tom am in a rockeipn the porch nnd. Sam and Billie am standin1 i by with the gun3. We all seen five white men ridin' up* When they gits near ¦ni^Lr. Ex-slave Stories Page Jive v (Texas) 130 Sam say to Marse Tom, tffirst white man sets hisself inside that rail fence gits it from the gun. * Marse Tom waves the white men to go hack hut they gallpps right up to the fence and swings off they bosses. "Marse Tom asy, fStay outside, genfaan, please do, I done change my mind*1 They say, fWhatfs the matter here? W© come to whip you niggers like you done hire us to,1 wMarse Tom sqjr, 'I done change my mind, hut if you stay outside Ifll hring you the money.1 "They argues to come in hut Marse Tom outtalk them and they say they1!! go if he hrings them they three dollars apiece. He takes them the money and they goes fway. "Marse Tom cuss and rare, hut the niggers jus1 .stay in the woods and fool fway they time. They say it ainft no use to work for nothin1 all them days. "One day Ifm in a 'siamon tree in middle a lifl pond, eat in1 fsimmonst and my sister, Mandy, come runnin1. She say, *Us niggers am free,1 I looks over to the house and seen the niggers pilin1 they li1! hunch of clothes and things outside they cabins* Then mammy come runni^with some other niggers and mammy was head runner. I dumb down out that tree and run to meet her. She say Marse Tom done told her he gwine keep me and pay her for it, Shefs a-scared 1*11 stay if I wants to or not and she hegs me not to. f,We gits up to the house and all the niggers standin1 there with they li1! hundles on they head and they all say, f«here we goin1?* *-*f>* Ex-slave Stories Page Six ^ *\\*y (Texas) "Mammy saidf *I donft know wh*re you all gwine but me, myself, am gwine to go to Miss Mary.f S0 all the niggers gits in the cart with mammy and we goes to Miss Mary* She meets us by the back door and say, fCome in, Jane, and all you chillen and all the rest of you* You can see my door am open and my smokehouse door am open to you and 1*11 bed you down till we figurates a way for you* ¦ MWe all cries and sings and prays and was so fcited we didn't eat no supper, though mammy stirs up some victuals* HIt warnft long afore we found places to work. Miss Mary found us a place with a fine white man and we works on sharance and drifts round to some other places and lives in Gorsicana for awhile and. buys manray a lifl house and she died there. "I got married and had three chillen, cute, fetchin1 li'l chillen, and they went to school. WasnH no trouble *bout school then, but was when Manci- pation come* My brother Ed was in school then and the Ku BLux come and drove the Yankes lady and genfman out and closed the school* wMy chillen growed up and my wife died and I spent mos' my days workin1 hard on farms* Now 1% old and throwed fway. But Ifm thankful to Gawd and praiseful for the pension what lets me have a li!i somethin1 to eat and a place to stay* *?* 420150 E3US1AV1 STORIES Page On© j[3Q (Texas) fcUNDY MOERQW, 80f was hern a slave of Ben Baker, near Georgetown, Texas. Mr. Baker owned Mandyfs grandparents , parents, three "brothers and one sister. After she was freed, Mandy was Gov. Stephen Hogg1 s cook while he occupied the Governor's Mansion in Austin. She married several times and gave "birth to eight children. Two of her sons were in the World War and one was killed in action. She now re- ceives a $11.00 Old Age Pension check each month, and lives at 3411 Prairie Ave., Port Worth, Texas. *Mas8a, I don1 know 'aactly how old I is, * cause I never gits de statement from my massa. My daddy keep dat record in he Bible and I don*t know who has it. But Ifs old *nough for to fmember de war 1 cause I carries uncle's lunch to him and sees de ffederate sojers practicin1. *0ne day I stops a li1! while and watch de sojers and dey am practicin1 shetotin*, snd I seed one sejer drap after de shot. Den dere lots of fcitement, and ahof fnough, dat sojer dead. Dey says it1 s a accident. wIfs bom in Burnet County on Massa's farm, and I has three brothers call lewis and Monroe and Hale, and one sister, Mollie. Most de time Massa am in de town, 'cause he have blacksmith shop dere* Prom what Ifs larnt by talk with other slaves, we's lucky slaves, •cause dere no sich thing as whippin1 on our farm, She1, dere1* apankin's, and Ifs de one what gits deia from my mammy, fcause I*s de pestin1 chile, into something all de time. I gits in de devilment* MMassa smoked and I foides to try it, so I gits eneioeld pipe and some^hnae-cured tebaecy and goes te de barn and covers up with de hay. &^y.'s^:.';.;•, -.:.'.• • •..¦..¦¦'.'....-. ..... .....:"., „¦ • ¦.. ¦...•* ¦ •.;. - •;..¦ .;¦.. ,-'.-..... , :•.uj'^i-k; Ex-slave Stories Page fwo 189 (Texas) A Mammy miss me, fcause everything am quiet 'round. She look for me and come to de ham and hears 6.6 crinklin1 of de hay. She pulls me out of dat and den dere am plenty of fire put on my rear and I sees lots of smoke. I sho* fmem"bers dat •speriencel MWe all lives in one big family, *cept us have dinin1 room for de cullud folks, Grandpappy am de carpenter and 'cause of dat us quarters fixed fine and has regflar windows and handmade chairs and a real wood floor. ^Mammy and my grandma am cooks and powerful good &nd deyf s larnt me and dat how I come to "be a cook* Like everybody dem times, us raise every thing and makes preserves and cure de meats* De hams and "bacons am smoked. Dere am no hickory wood f round hut we uses de corncobs and dey makes de fine flavor in de meat. Manyfs de day I watches de fire in dat smokehouse and keeps it low, to git de smoke flavor, I follows de cookin1 when I gits hig and goes for myself and I never wants for de "When surrender breaks all us stay with Massa for good, long spell. When pappy am ready to go for hisself, Massa gives him de team of mules and de team of oxen and some hawgs and one cow and some chickens* Dat give him de good start, "My uncle gits de blacksmith shop from de Massa and den him and P«Ppy g^s together and does de blacksmithin1 and de haulin1. I stays in Georgetown »bout 20 year and den I goes to Austin and dere I works for de big folks. After I been dore fbout five year, Oov'&or James Ml/'. k.> Ex*slave~St*ries Page Three 140 (Texas) Stephen Hegg sends for me te "be cook in de Mansion and dat de "best cook job Vs aver had. De gev*ner am mighty fine man and so am he wife. She sm net of de good health and allus have de misery, and befe* leng she say te mef *Man&y, I's gwineter fpend en you without my watchin1.1 Mass a Hegg allus say I dees wanders with dat food and him preud fer te have him friends eat it. HYesf suh, de &Gvfner am de geed man. You knows, when he eld nigger mammy die in Temple, him drap all he werk and goes te de fun*ral and dat show him don't forgit de kindness. "No, suhf I denft knew de names of de people what cemes te de Mansion te eat, I hears dem talk hut hew yeu fspose die igne'mus nigger unnerstand what 6.ey talks *beut. Lawd A-mighty* Day talks and talks and ene thing make fpressien en my mind. De Grevfner talk lets *beut railroads* "I werks fer de Gev'ner till he wife die and den Ifs quit, •cause I don*t want bossin1 by de heusekeeper what denft knew much '"bout ceekin1 and am allus fustin1 'round. "I ceoks here and yonder and den gits mixed up with dat mar- riage. De fust hitch lasts 'beat ene veer and de nexf hitch lasts fbout twe year and fbeut feur years later I tries it fgaln and dat time it lasts till I has two chillen. Three year dat hitch lasts. After *whiie I mar- ries Sam Merrew and dat hitch sticks till Sam dies in 1917. I has six chillen by him. "My twe eldes1 beys jines de army and gees te France and de yeung one gits kilt and de ether cemes home, ill my chillen scattered new Ex-slave Stories p^e ymT 141 (Texas) imd I don't knew where they»s at. In 1920 Ifs married de last time and dat hitch lasts ten years snd us sepfrate in 1930, !cause dat man am no good. Why for I wants a man what ain*t of de service to me? If I wants de pet, den I gits de d&wg or de cat. Shuckc] It didnft take me long. When dey donft satisfy dis nigger, I transports dem. MDe last five and six year I dees lifl work, f cause I don't have no substance to me no mere. Ifs jus1 fbeut were out. I gits dat pension from de state every month and with dat $11,00 I has to git on. ******* 4!30£51 EX-SLAVE STOEDSS Page One 14*2 (Texas) PATSY MOSES, 74, was horn in lort Bend Co*, Texas, a slave of the Armstrong family. She tells of charms and lfconjure ,w many learned from ex-slaves. Patsy lives at Mart, Texas. MI was bo~n in Fort Bend County, about de year 1863. My daddy's old master by name of Armstrong brung my folks from Tennessee. My own daddy and mammy was named Preston and Lucy Armstrong, Mamiqy's grand- dad was Uncle Ned Butler, and he ¦ longed to Col. Batler, in Knoxvllle, in Tennessee* Old master sold he plantation and come to Texas jes1 befo* freedom, fcause nobody thank dey*d have to free de slaves in Texas. MMy great grand-dad fit in de Rev1 lutionary War and my own daddy fit in de war for freedom, with he master,for bodyguard. He had some fingers shot off in de battle and was tooken pris'ner by dem Yankees, but he run fway and come back to he master and he master was wounded and come home. Den he moved to Texas befo' Ifs born. MMy old grand-dad done told rae all fbout conjure and voodoo and luck charms and signs. To dream of clear water lets you know you is on de right side of Gawd. De old voodoo doctors was dem what had de most power, it seem, over de nigger befo1 and after de war. Dey has meet in' places in secret and a voodoo kettle and nobody know what am put in it, maybe snakes and spiders and human blood, no tellln1 what. Polks all come in de dark of de moon, old doctor wave he arms and de folks crowd up close. Dem what in de voodoo strips to de waist and commence to dance while de drums beats. Dey dances faster and faster and chant and pray till dey falls down in a heap. f,De armour bearers hold de candles high and when dey sways and chants dey seize with power what sends dem leapin1 and whirlin1. Den de -1- Ex-slave Stories Page Two A .q n, (Texas) l^i time dat old doctor work he spell on dem he wants to conjure. Many am de spell he casts dem days. Iffen he couldn't work it one way, he work it •nother, and when he die,do he stay buried? Not sir! He walks de street and many seed he ghost wavin* he arms. MDe conjure doctor, old Dr. Jones, walk !bout in de black coat like a preacher, and wear sideburns and uses roots and sich for he medicine. / He larnt fbout dem in de piney woods from he old granny. He didn't cast spells like de voodoo doctor, but uses roots for smallpox, and rind of bacon for mumps and sheep-wool tea for whoopin' cough and for snake bite he used alura end saltpeter and bluestone mix with brandy or whiskey. "He could break conjure spells with broth. He take he kettle and put in splinters of pine or hickory, jesf so dey has bark on dem, covers dem with water and puts in de conjure salt. HA. good charm bag am make of red flannel with frog bones and a piece of snakeskin and some horse hairs and a spoonful of ashes. Dat bag pertect you from you enemy. If fen dat bag left by de doorstep it make all kind mis- fortune and sicknesses and blindness and fits. "De big, black nigger in de corn field mos1 allus had three charms round he neck, to make him fort'nate in love, and to keep him well and one for Lady Luck at dice to be with him. Den if yon has indigestion, wear a penny round de neck. MDe power of de rabbit foot am great. One nigger used it to run away with. His old granny done told him to try it and he did. He conjures hisself by takin1 a good, soapy bath so de dogs can't smell him and den say a hoodoo over he rabbit -3- Sx~slave Stories Page Three i^l/1 (Texas) jLJ* foot, and go to de creek and git a start by wadin1 • Dey didn't miss him till he clear gone and dat show what de rabbit foot done for him. Hl0, Molly Cottontail, Be sho1 not to fail, Give rae you right hind foot, My luck wonft be for sale.1 MDe graveyard rabbit am de best, kilt by a cross-eyed pusson. De niggers all flieved Gen. Lee carried a rabbit foot with him. To keep de rabbit footfs luck workin*, it good to pour so.ie whiskey on it once in a while, wIf you has a horseshoe over you door, be sho1 it from de left, hind foot of a white hoss, but a gray hoss am betterfn none. "Conjures am sot with de dark or light of de moon, to make things waste or grow. If fen a hen crow, it best to wring her neck and bake her with cran- berry sauce and gravy and forgit fbout her crowin*. Everybody know dat. HI larnt all dem spells from my daddy and mammy and de old folks, and most of dem things works iffen you tries denu ******* 420189 XX~SLAT£ STORIES Page One JL45 (Texas) ANOT NELSON, 76, is leader of a small ^ rural settlement of negroes known aa Moser Valley, ten miles east of Fort ^ Worth on State Highway #15* He was ^ born a slave to J, Wolf, on a Denton *5 County farm9 and his mother belonged to Dr# John Barkswell, who owned an adjoining farm. At the death of his father he was sold to Dr. Barkswell. When freed, he and his mother came to Birdville and later moved to Moser Yalley, which derives it name from Telley Moses, who gave his farm to his slaves, and sold parcels to other ne- groes. WI don1 fmember much fbout de war, but I was bo'n in slavery near de line of Tarrant County, in 1861. My master was named Wolf, but fbout de end of de war he sells me to Dr. Barkswell, who owns my mammy. "When de war is over we gits out and comes to Birdville and after three years Master Moser gives my mammy 17 acres of Ian1. He owned lots of slaves and gives fea all some land for a home. «For ten, twelve years after de wax, de Klux gits after de niggers who is gittin1 into devilment. De cullud folks sho1 quavered when they thought de Klan was after them* One nigger crawls up de chimney of de fireplace and that nigger soon gits powerful hot and has to come out. You should of seen that nigger. He warnft human lookin1. He is all soot, fussed up. choked and skeered. Day warnH after him but wants to ask him if he knows whar other niggers is hiding I was too young to git in no piclcle- ment with de Klux. "Tears after dat, Ifse married and have four, five chillens, •1- jEx-Slave Stories Page Two jl^O (Texas) and I1 Be comin' home. If&e stopped by seven men on hosses and dey all has rifles and pistols. I says tw myself, fDe Kbxx sho1 have come hack and dey Is gwine to git me. It sho1 looks like troublement.1 "One of dem weighs fbout 1S5 pounds and has dark hair and complexlun, and he says to me, ' Rigger # whar's de lower Dal ton cros- sing Dere was two crossin's of de Trinity Biver, de upper and de lower. I says, fDe upper crossln' is hack yonder.1 "He says, *I knows whar de upper crossln1 is, IHe askin1 you whar de lower one is, Don1 fool with ust nigger#f "Dere was a big fellow, •bout 2501 sett in1 In de saddle and sort a ant goglin1, with his gan pointin1 at me. De hole in de end of dat gan looked big as a cannon. He was mean lookin1 and chewln1 a quid of terbaccy. He says, fTou is go in1 with us to de crossln.1 Lead de way.1 Den I gits de quaverment powerful bad. I knows I'se a gone nigger. HI says to dem, fI done nothing1 and de big fellow raises his gun and says, 'Git goinf, nigger, to dat lower crossln1, or youfll be a dead nigger.,1 "On de way I never says a word, but Ifse pray in * de good Lawd to save dis nigger. When we reached de crossln1", I says to myself, *Dis am de end.1 "De little fellow says, 'Do you know who I is?1 I says, 'Ho.1 "He says, ,Ifse Sam Bass.1 "I9se heered of Sam Bass, everybody had in dem days. He was leader of a band. -3- Ex-Slave Stories Page Three ^ ^'V (Texas) ^^ f HHe saysf *We don* want noooay to iaiow we been here# Hhieh you ruther be, a dead nigger befo1 or after tellin1?1 HDe big fellow says, fl£akB a sno* joo. A dead nigger cainft talk, * and den starts raisin1 de gun. HI wants to talk9 but Ifse so skeered I can* say one word. MDen Sam Bass says, fHo, no! Let him go,1 and den I knows de lawd has heered die nigger's prayers. "Dey tells me deyfs comin1 back if I tells and I promised not to tell. I9se skeered for a week after dat. "In a few weeks9 I hears dat Sam Bass is killed at Round Rock. Den I tells. "Dat's de las1 troublement I9se been in. Since dat I'se been busy eamin1 vittles for de family. Ifse been married 40 years and wefuns has 14 chillen and 10 of fem are livin1. If it warn't for dis farm and de work wnite folks give me, I don1 know how I could of got on. We gits a pension of $21 every month from de state and dat helps a heap. MIfse never had no schoolin1. Dey used to think us cullud folks has no use for edumacation. I thinks diff'rent and sends my chillen to school. Dey reads to me from de papers and sich. *********** 420110 SX-SLAViS STORI25S Page One 148 (Texas) VIRSINIA NEWMAN was freebom, the daughter of a Negro "boat captain and a part Negro, part Indian moth- er. When a young girl, Virginia apprenticed herself f and says she was nursegirl in the family of Gov, Foster, of Louisiana, She does not know her age, but says she saw the "Stars fall" in 1333, Sne ha* the appearance of extreme old age, #nd is generally conceded to be 100 years old or more. She now litres in Beau- mont, Texas, "When de stars fall Ifs 'bout six year old. They didn* fall on de grou1. They cross de sky like a millions of firebugs, "My fus1 name Georgia Turner, !cause my pa?py*s name George Turner, and he a freeborn nigger raaa, Hefs captain of a boat, but they call fem vessels them d?y3. It hav* livin1 quarters in it pnd. go back and forth Uween dis place pnd. dat and go back to AJtricy, too, HMy grandmudder, she an Africy woman. They brung her free- born from Africy and some people what knowed things one time tol! us we too proud but us had reason to be proud. My grandmudderfs fambiy in Africy was a African prince of de rulin1 people. My udder grandmudder was a pure bred Indian woman and sne raise all njy mudder's chillen. My uiuader najae Eli Ghivers. "When I's small I live with my ^randaudder in a old log cabia on the ribberf 'way out in cte bresh jus* liice de uuuer Indians live, I'ts oora on my fadder1 s big boatf fway below Grades Island, close by Franklin, in Louisiana. They tells me ne carry cargo of cotton in de hull of de "boatf and when I»s still li'l they puts out to sea, and grandmudder, Sareh Turner her name, vLk us and kep» us with her in dwabin. -1- 3x-elave Stories Page Two 149 (Texas) "Us didn* have stick of furniture in de house, no "bed, no chairf no nothin1. Us cut saplings boughs for bed, with green moss over %$m» Us was heppyf though. Us climb trees and play. It was hard sometime to git things to e^t, so far in de woods and us eat mosf everything what run or crpwl or fly outdoors. Us eat many rattlesnake and therms fine eat in*. ;?e shoot de snake and skin him and cut him in li'l dices. Den us stew him slow witn lots or brown gravy. "They allus askin! me now make hoe-cake like we et. Jus1 take ae cornmegl and salt and wat^r and make patties with de hands and wrop de sot"• patties in cabbage leafs, stir out de ashes and put de patties in de hot ashes. Dat was good. f,0ne my grandi'adders a old Mexican man call Old Man Caesar, All de grandfolks was freeborn and raise de chillen de same, but when us gits big they tell us do what we wants. Us could stay in de wooas and be free or go up to live with de white folks. I!s a purty big gal when I goes up to de big house and fprentice myself to work for de Fosters. Dey have big plantation at Franklin and lots of slaves. One time de Governor cripple in he leg and I do nothin* but nuss him. MIfs been so long in de woods and don* see nobody much dat I love it up with de white folics. Dey • lowed us have dances and when dat old fcordian starts to play, iifen I ain't git my hair comb yit, it don't git comb. De boss man like to s«e de niggers '^.oy dercselves. Us dance de quarrille. "Us have 'ceptional raarsters. My fadder sick on Marster Lewis1 plan- tation and caunH walk and de marster brung him a fspensive reclinin* chair. Old Judge lewis was his merster. ~2~ Ex-slave Stories Pa~ r*Z« - ~,. (Texas) P«g«^wo J5() *I git marry from de plantation and my husbaa1 he name Beverly Newmaa and he from de lewis plaatatioa ia Opelousas. They read outfa de Book aad after de readia1 us have lots of white folks to come and watch us have big dance. "When a aigger do wrong deaf they dida1 sead him to de pea. They put him fcross a barrel and strop aim benia1. "U&en fightia1 fgiaf all our white folks aad us slaves have to go *way from Louisiana. Opelousas aad them place was free long time •tore ae udders. Us strike out for Texas and it took mos* a year to walk irom de Bayou la Fouche to de Brazos "bottoms. I have to tote my two li*l boys, dat was Jonah end Simoa. They coulaa1 aeitner walk yit. Us have de luggage ia de ox cart aad us have to walk. Dey was some mo1 cullud people and white and de mud drag de feetses and stick up de wheels so dey coulda1 even move. Us all walk barefects and our feets break aad rua they so sore$ and blister for months. It cold and hot sometime and rain and us got no house or no tent. HDe white folks settles ia Jasper countyf oa a plaatatioa dere« After while freedom come to Texas, too. but mos1 de slaves stay round de old marsters. Ifs de oaLy one what go back to Louisiana. After de war my famhly git broke up aad my three ©Ides' chillea aerer see de li'l oaes. Dose later chillea, dey's eignt livia' aow out'a aine what was bora siace slavery aad my fourth chile die sevea year ago whea she 75 year old. "Whea I git back to Louisiana I come to he a midwife and 1 bruag so maay hahies here 1 caa't couat. De old priest say 1 ought to hare a big book with all their aames to 'member by. Ex-slave Stories Page Tnree (Texas) * It were •boat dis time I have ay far1 bou$it dress aad it was blue gaimea with yaller spots* It were long at de aakle aad ®ake with a body waisf# TJs wore* lots of uaaerwear amd I aia't taJce fss off yit. 111 mever beem sick, I*s jus1 weak. I almos1 go bJim1 some time back bat now I git ay secoa* sigbt a&d I sees well 'aough to sew. ******** A 4^0123 mUSSikn STOBIES " Page Oae ^ (Texas) 152 'w mBOBBfT HH&IN, 90f was bom a slave to Charles Coraeallus, at Palestime, Texas. After they were freed, Margrett aad her mother moved to Chamber's Creekt Texas. She mow lives with one of her children at 1013 W. Peach St., Fort Worth, Texas* wTast sar, I's de old slave, and 'bout my age^ I an y MART OVERTON, 117 W. Heard St., Cleburne, Texas, was horn in Tennessee, hut moved Mary does not know her u,ge9 nVze bom in Tennessee but I don1 fmember where, and I don1 know how ole I is. I don1 'member what de marster!s name' was dere. My mother1 s name was Liza and my father's name was Dick. Fnen I was fbout four year ole, my marster and mistis give me to dere daughter, who married a Dr. James Cox and dey come to Texas and brought me with !eia. The marster in Arkansas, which give me to his daughter, was named Kennard. I never seed him but one time. Dat when he was sick and he had all his little niggers dressed up and brought in to see him. wDr. Cox and his wife and me come to Fort Graham, in Hill County, Texas, from Arkansas. We was fbout two weeks oiamin1. Fort * Grpham wasn1 no reg!lar fort. Dere was jus1 some soldiers campin1 dere pnd dere was a. little town. Lots of Indians come in to trade. Den de doctor got a farm on Nolan river, not far from whar Cleburne is now, and we went there. "While wa was on de farm, I got married. My hasban* was Isaajc fright. I had seven chillen by him. My second busban1 was Sam Overt on. Him and me had two chillen. I wasnft married to Isaac by a preacher. De slaves wasn* j in1 rally married dat way. Dey jus1 told dey marsters dey wanted to be husban1 and wife and if dey agreed, dat was all dere was to it, dey was said to be married. I heered some white folks had weddin*s for dere niggers, but I never did see none. 162 Ex-slave Stories Pafi© Ewo ($exas) "My marster had 'bout four slaves. He sold and bought slaves sev'ral times, hat he coaldn1 sell me, * cause I belonged to de mistis, and she wouldn1 let him sell me, I cooked and washed and ironed and looked after de chill en, mostly* Dey had three chillen, bat de mistis died when the least one was fbout six months ole and I raised de two older ones. Dey was two boys, and dey was ?bout grown when I lef* after freedom. "We slaves had god fnuf houses to live in. We didn1 have no garden. I wore cotton dresses in summer and linsey dresses and a shawl in de winter. I had shoes most of de time. My white folks was pretty ^ood to keep me in clothe^. I gen1 rally went to church wid mistis. "Didn1 have no special clothes when I got married. I slep1 in de kitchen gen1 rally, and had a wooden bed, sometimes with a cotton mat- tress and sometimes it was a shuck mattress. •My mistis teached me to read and write, but I wouldn1 learn. I never went to school neither. She would read de Bible to us. "I didn* know no songs when I was in slavery. I didn1 know 'bout no baptizin1. I didn1 play no certain games, jus1 played roun1 de yard. WI wasn1 at no sale of slaves, but saw some bein' tuk by in chains once, when we lived at Reutersville. Dey was said to be 'bout 50 in de bunch. Dey was chained together, a chain be in1 run 'tween !em somehow, and dey was all man and women, no chillen. Dey was on foot. Two white men was ridin1 hosses and drivin' de niggers like dey was ahherd of cattle. "lots of slaves run away, "but I don1 know how dey got wora • round •mong de niggera. is-slave Stories Page Three JLG4 » (Texas) "I don1 'member much 'bout de war. Dere wasn1 no fight in' whar we was, on de farm on Nolan river. On de day we was made free, de ra&rster come and called us out one at a time and tolf us we was free. He said to me, 'Maryi you is free "by de law. You don1 belong to me no more. You can go wherever you wan1 to. I ain't got no more to say •bout you.1 He tol1 us if we'd stay awhile he'd treat us good and maybe we'd better stay, as de people was pretty much worked up. De rest of 'em stayed 'bout a week, den dey went off, and never come back, 'cept Isaac. I didn' go, but I stayed a long time after we was made free. I didn' care nothin' 'bout bein' free. I didn' have no place to go and didn1 know nothin' to do. Dere I had plenty to eat and a place to stsy and dat was all I knowed 'bout. "When I lef' I hired out as cook. I got ten dollars a month and all my food and clothes and a place to sleep. I didn' spend but one dime of my pay for eight months. I bought candy wid dat dime, like a walkin' stick. "I sure wish I knew how old I is, but I ain' sure, I don' even know my birthdayl* (According to some white persons who have knomi Mary for a long time, calculated from information Mary had given them as .to her younger days, when her memory was better than it is now, she is prob- ably more than one hundred years old,) ********** 420315 Dibble, Fred, P.!., Beehler, Rheba, P.W., Beaument, Jeffersen, Dist. #3. GEORGE OWEN§, medium in height and weight, seated c©mf®rtably under the shade ©f an ©Id ©ak tree, was clad in a blue shirt and ©veralls, and br©gan shees with a few slits cut in them t© prevent hurting his feet. He has kinky gray hair, a bit ef~ gray hair ©n his chin and a nicely trimmed mustache ©n his upper lip. Geerge's right eye is cempletely cl®sed fr©m an injury which he re- ceived while in railread service. B®rn near Marshall, Texas, the slave ©f Dave Owens, he t©ld his story with great interest and enj©yed the ©ppertunity t© tell abeut the ©Id days. "I was bo'n right cl®se ta de ©l1 p©wder mill up in Marshall, Texas, where dey uster mek pewder. Understand Dey call it Mills Quarters. I was a right sizeable bey twel1 year1 el1 when freedem c©#e.tt "Dave Owens, dat was my el1 marster' name, and dat was my daddy1 name t®©. My name' Geerge William David Owen. I use dat William 'cause ©ne ©f dem ether Owens uster git my mail.,f "01' marster he had a big farm plantati©n. Dey uster raise c®tt«n, and c©'n and 'taters and sich like. My daddy was de sheemaker fer de plantati©n.tt "One day me and my daddy was talkin'. Dat was de fus' Crismus atter freed©m. He say t© me, *S©n, d©es y®u kn®w 160 Dibble, Fred, P.W., Beehler, Rheha, P.W., Beaum©nt, Jeffers©n, Dist. #3. ©1' y®u is?1 I say, 'N«, suh.' He say, 'Well, y©u is 12 year1 ©1'.' I 'member dat and dat was de fus' Crismus atter freed©m.w "Williams was my fus' marster hut he s©l' us t© Owens. He live in Marshall, but he hab a plantation 'bout free •r f©' mile' ©ut. Atter dat Owens he buy ®ut Mills Quar- ters from Williams." "My wuk was jis' de ©dds and en's 'r©un' de yard. When ©1' mistus call me and tell me t© pick up chips, ©r pull up weeds ©r bring in w©@d and sich, I hafter d© it. You kn©w hew wimmen is, allus havin' y©u d© fus' ©ne t'ing and den aaudder. I neber did wuk in de fiel'." "It was a big plantation. Dey was in de neighb©rh®©d ©f 25 ©r 30 slaves ©n de place. Us had a good marster and I 'speck us was pretty lucky. 01' marster see t© it dat us have plenty t© eat. Dey feed us milk and 'taters and peas, and bread and meat. N© sir, we dldn' sit d®wa at n© tr®ugh f©r t© eat. Dey had tables in de slaves houses. Us sit d®wn t© us meals like human bein's. My mammy was de c©®k ©n de place. Her name was Sarah .'-' &a-i.;..:• BSc-Slave Autobiographies — Martha Patton Pag9 S ; J_76 six years. At de end of dat time most of us bought plaoes. "When de war was over and we moved, de men put up a picket house. Dr. McBride, a soldier, taught school. When de orops was laid by, all de men and women went to school. De chillen went all de time. We had log seats and a dirt flof. We would have meetinTs in de school house. "Twasn't fine, but we had good times* "We lived olost to de old mission, built during Santa Anna*© war, I think it were» ' "I has ten chillen; seven of them are living, I have fifteen or nineteen grandchillen, but I don*t know where dey all are or what dey are doing.n - 30 - 420239 S3USLAVE STORIES Page One £77 (Texas) BLLEN PAYNE, 88f was born a slave of Dr. Evans, pioneer physician of Marshall, Texas, and father-in-law of former Governor Olark* She married Nelson Payne when she was twenty-five, and they farmed in Marshall for fifty-two years, .Since Nelson1s death eleven years agof Ell^n has operated the farm herself and has always made a crop. She lives alone on the Port Caddo Hoad. TfMy name is Ellen Payne now, but in slave times it was Ellen Evans, and I was born on the old Mauldin place right here at Marshall and belonged to old Dr. Evans. Dr. Evans loans the Bible what had all our ages in it and never got it back, so when he freed us they guessed oar ages. My mistress say I was fbout sixteen years old when surrender come, and my daddy and mammy *ras Isom and Becky Lewis. Mammy come from Tennessee and they was seventeen of us chillen. "Master Evans lived in a big brick house on the north side of Marshall and ran his farm four miles from town, and I stayed on the farm, but come in town some with my mammy to work for Mistress Hancy. The niggers on other farms had to sleep on 'Damn-it-to Hell1 beds, but we didn!t have that kind. We had good wood beds and hay mattresses with lowell covers, HI mostly minded the calves and chickens and turkeys. Master Evans had a overseer but he didnH 'low him to cut and slash his niggers and we didn't have no hard taskmaster. They was *bout thirty slaves on the farm, but I is the only one livin* now. I loved all w white folks and they was sweet to us. "The hands worked from sun to sun and had a task at night. Some spinned or made baskets or chair bottoms or knit socks. Some the young*uns •1- Ex-slave Stories Page Two 1/78 (Texas) courted and some jest rambled round most all night* On Saturday was the prayer xneetin1 in one house and a dance in another. On Sunday some went to church and visitinff but not far, fcause that was in patterroller times. "They was allus plenty to eat and one nigger didn't do nothin1 but raise gardens. They hunted coon and possum and rabbits with dogs and the white folks kilt deer and big game like that. My daddy allus had some money, 'cause he made baskets and chair bottoms and sold them, and Master Evans give every slave a patch to work and they could sell it and keep the monjy. HWe didnft know nothin1 but what went on at the place. Us slaves didnU carry news * cause they wasn't none to carry and if the white folksN want to send news anywhere, they put a boy on a mule to take it, MMaster Evans had a old woman what tended to us when we was sick, and he give us quinine and calomel and castor oil and boneset tea* That tea was 'nough to kill a mulef but it done us good, Some wore esfidity bags round they necks to keep off sickness. HMy young mistress married Master Olark and they lived close, and my mammy and me used to spent part the time workin1 for her. Master Clark got to be governor 'bout time war started and moved to Austin, I still got the Bible he give me. f,I fiaember the white southern men folks xun off to the bottoms to git 'way from war, but I never seed nothin1 of the war. ^hen we was freed my old master calls us up and say, *You is free, and I*m mighty glad, but Ifm mighty sad,1 We stays on till Christmas, then mammy and me leaves and hires out. I stays workin1 with4her till Ifm twenty-five and then I mar- ries Kelson P^yne, Ex-slave Stories Page Three (Texas) 1/9 ^My young mistress sends me a blue worsted dress to marxy in, and we's married at mazmy's house and she give us a nice supper. He was a farmer and we kep1 on livin1 on the fana fifty-two years, till he,died. We loved farm life. I raised four boys but none of them is livin1 now. When Nelson died first one then *nother holps me and I has made a cfop every year till now, I'm too old now, but I still raises some corn and peas and garden stuff. They gives me a $15.00 month pension, but I likes to be doin1 something MI still shouts at meet in1 s. • I donft have nothin' to do with it. It hits me jes1 like a streak of lightning, and there ain*t no holdin1 it. I goes now to camp meet in's clost to Karnack and tries to 'have, but when I gits the spirit, I jest can't hoi? that shout in1 back. The young folks makes fun of me, but I don't mind. Style am crowded all the grace out of 'ligion, today. ********* 430094 .'O BX-SLAVE STORIES Page One l30 (Texas) BZSDSRSOV PEEK IKS, about 85, was born a slave to John Pruitt, near K Hasfrville, Tena., who owned Hen- a? derson's mother and about 20 other "^ si are 8. Prior to the Civil War, :- Mr* Pruitt moved to Centerrilief Leon Co#, Texas, and sold Henderson and his mother to Tom Garner t of Centerville. When the war "began, Henderson was old enough to he trust- ed with taking grain to the mill and other duties. After they were freed, Henderson and his mother worked in Mr, Garner's tavern until he sold it. He then placed the two on a piece of land and gave them tools to work it. Henderson later married and moved to Waco, where he reared 14 children. After they were grown he moved to Port Worth and now lives at 610 Penn St. MI*se tells you de truth •tout my age, Ifse too ol1 for any good, hut from what de white folks says, Ifse bo'n *bout 1839 in Ten1 see, near Nashville* In dem dayst 'twarn't so particular 9 bout get tin1 married, and my mammy warnH before Ifse bofn, so I'se don9 know my father* Dat's one on dis nigger* * After Ifse ol1 enough to tote water, pick up kindlin1 and sich, Marster Pruitt moves to Texas, near Centervllle and sol1 me and ay mammy to Marster Garner. My mammy gits married seven times after we comes to Texas* "Marster Garner runs a tavern, dey calls fem hotels now* My mammy was cook for de tavern* De other nigger*s named Gib, and I9se to do de work froun de place and take grist to de water mill for to grin1* Marster have de farm, too, and have seven niggers on dat place and sometimes I goes dere for to hefp* -1- (£53*8torl" fa" *• ifti "Well, 'bout treatment, you can say Harster flarner am de bestest man ever lived. Ifse Jus9 says he am 0. K. I4se never nears nlm say one cross word to my mammy* Back in Tennessee, Marster Fruitt was good, too. Hlms have him's own still and gives de toddy to *e'uns lots of times. I9se gits a few whuppinfsf but 'twas my fault. Ifse cause de devilment* I tells you 'bout some. I drives de oxen and de two-wheel cart for to go to de water mill and sich. In dem days, it was great insult to say, fToufuns has bread and rotten egg for supper.1 Ifse gwine to de mill one day, past de school and I say1 s dat to de chillens. I thinks de teacher wonft let *am come out, but I makes a mistake, for it am like yellow jackets pour in9 outta de hive* Dey throws sticks and stones at we'ons and dat Uprise de ox and he runs, De road am rough and dat cart have no springs and de cofn made scatterment on de road. Marster wttups us for dat. Hot hard, just a couple licks. "Did you8 s ever drive de ox? Days de devil sometimes and de angel sometimes. When deys gwine home, you can go to sleep and dey takes you dere. If deys dry and you comes near water, de devil canH stop *em, dey goes in de water wid de care and all dats in it. "When de war starts Marster1 s girl gits married to Charles Taylor, and dey have big weddin.1 Befo1 de war am over, wefuns have hard time. De soldiers comes and takes all de co*n, all de meat, every chicken and all de t'baccy. You couldn1 buy t1 baccy for a dollar a pound. But we makes it. We takes de leaves and cures dem9 den place dem on de board and put honey 9tween fem. We place a log on top and leave it 9bout a month. White man, dat an t'baceyl -3- Ex-Slave Stories Page Tnree Hvipa move away but de old masse come after him md worry him till he 'most have to come back. When my lifl sister have de whoop in1 cough, old mr>ssa come down in a hurry and say, fTou ..iwineter kill dem chillen,1 and he puts my sister and brother on de hoss in front of him and takes *em home and cures 'em hisself. It were years after dat ffore my papa leave him fgain, "Dey driv beefs and have two rivers to cross to git dere, de Sabine and de Neches. Dey 'liver 'em by so many head and if fen day ainft have 'noogh, other mens on de prairie help fem fill out de number what dey needs. Ifs rid many a wild hoss in my day and dat*s where I make my first money for myself. "If£ workin* in Hyatt when I *cide to git marry and I marry dis gal, iiirandy, fbout 52 year ago and us still been together. Us marry in Koss Bluff and Sam Harris, he a cullud man, he de preacher what marry us. I have on pretty fair suit of clothes but one thing I •member, de gal I marry, she have $5.00 pair of shoes on her feet whpt I buys for her. **3— Ex-slave Stories Page Four 200 (Texas) 11 Us done have five sons and three daughters and I "been a pretty ' fluentiaL man 'round Liberty. One time dey a man name Ed Pickett what was runnin' for Clerk of de Court in Liberty County and he come ¦round my place 'lectioneering, 'cause he say whatever way I votes, dey votes. "Did you ever hear a old coon dog? Old coon dog, he got a big, deep roice what got lA-woo-o~of a-woo-o-o.1 You can hear him a mile. Wellf dat 7d Pickett he say to me, 'John Price, you know what I wants you to do? I wants you put dat other feller up a tree. I wants you put him so fur up a tree he can't even hear dat coon dog heller# f And I does it, 'cause 1*8 pretty ffluentiaL 'round here. *********** V 420393 Dibble, fred Beaumont, Jefferson Co,Dist,#3 Pago 1 -'. STQRIBS OF TO-SLAYBS Texas REVEREND LAmBTTI PRICK , ancient and venerable minister of a small, dilapidated church on the outskirts of Beaumont, received his education under his old master, a plantation owner of the South. He was horn a slave of the Higginbotham family, in Wilcox County, Alabama, but after the death of his original master, he became known as "orphan children property w and went to Louisiana to live with Robert and Jim Carroll, brothers-in- law of Sam Higginbotham, During the Civil War, LalPayette, then about 12 years old( he does not know his exact age) served as water boy for young Bobert Carroll at the battle of Mansf ield. Ihen the slaves were freed he came to Texas and has been a minister since that time. He lives with his one daughter in a small, ramshackle house near the church and conducts Baptist services each Sunday. Lafayette is small and very dark, and with his crop of almost white hair and his Tan Burke beard, he has facial characteristics much like those of the patriarch who played the part of wDe Lawd* in the "Green Pastures* picture. His conversation, is that of a devout person, well informed in the Scriptures, 111 had a statement when I was bo1 a, but I don1 fmember Jus1 now, Sfhen de war fusf start I was water toter for my marster. Well, now den, I wan1 to say dat my marster whar I was bo*n in ffilcox County, Alabama, his name was Higginbotham. When Mr, Higginbotham dief his son, Mr. Sam Higginbotham, was my young marster. When he married, he marry in de Carroll family, \fy father and mother belong to Mr. Higgin- botham* Mr, Sam, he move to Louisiana. When he went back to Alabama, he tuk sick wid de cholera and die dere. Mr, Sam, he marry Miss Cafline Carroll, Later on after Mr, Sam die Miss Canine marry Mr, Winn, I become orphan chillen property, Mr, Winn was de overse'er. When I was a small boy I had playtime. I allus had good owners. When I get bigger I had some time off after work in de eveninfs and on Sundays, Den I want to say I was hired out an1 dey claimed dey was goin1 to be a war. The north and de south was goin9 to split apart. In 1861 war commence 201 Dibblef Fired Beaumont, Jefferson Co.Dist.#3 Page 2 2QQ and my mistress die. I was den stayin1 wid de Carroll family. De Garrolls were brothers of my owner. Mr. Jim and Mr. Robert was soldiers in de war. Mr. Robert was in de infantry and Mr. Jim they took him along to drive, fhea day was goin1 to Barn Chest (evidently the name of a place) Mr. Robert he say to me, "Fay, you go back home and tell ma she need not be oneasy fbout me, *cause de Yankees is retreatin* to Nachitoches." So I driv back but I didn1 put up de team. When I was tellin1 her, it was •bout three mile over to Mosses Fiel1 (Mosses1 Field was the local name for the tract of land on which the battle of Mansfield was fought, in part). When I was tellin1 her, a big cannon shot overhead — l,Boomw. She jus1 shook and say, "Oh, Fay* git some co*n and throw it to de hogs and go to Chicet." I got some co*n and start to git out de crib. Dey shot another cannon. She say to me, HGk> back and give de cofn to de pigs»M When I put my feets through de crib do1, dey shoot another shot, and I pull my feets back. She tell me to go back and feed de pigs, but I don1 know if I ever did git de cofn to de pigs# *Mr. Carroll say dat at Mansfiel1 where dey was shoot in1 de big guns de ladies was cryin1. He tole lem dey needn1 to cry now, when dey was shootin1 de big guns dey wasnft killin1 ment but when dey hear de little guns shoott den dey could start cryin1, fcau«# dat mean dat men warn gittin1 kill. I dunno if you ever parch popcofn. Dat de way de little guns soun1. He say dat den dey could begin cryin1. Outfits people(the Confederates) was comin1 from Shreveport to meet de Yankees from Nachitoches, aim in1 to go to Shreveport. If anything iras a wunnerful consideration it was den#Mr. Robert Carroll was stood up by a big tree there at Mansfiel1 and de captain, he said, "Is anybody here dat know de neighborhood!11 Herefs de ting dey want to know: When de soldiers start out dey didn1 want fem to launch out and git aix up. Dey sent for Mr. Carroll, 'cause he live *bout a mile away* ^e was Dibble, Jred Beaumont, Jefferson Co. ,Dist, #3 Page 3 303 order to stan1 by de tree and de captain went by wavin1 a sword, and purty soon de captain was kill. Dey Jeep1 on fight in1 and after awhile a soldier come by and ax wi\at he doin1 there. He said he had orders to stan1 dere. De soldier say dat de captain was kill and for him to go and help wid de wounded soldiers. When de big General come from Shreve- port and hollert "Charge,* de Yankees git in de corner of a rail fence. Dey broke right through dat fiel» ol* prairie and 60 men git kill dead befo1 dey git across, Kexf day, coain1 home, I want to tell you de bosses didn1 lay on dis side nor on dat side, dey jus* squat down, dey was deadt I think it was a wuxmerful consideration to bring up in memfry. 11 One night right wfere de battle was fought we had to camp. *t was rainin1 and sleetin1 and snowin! I said, "Tf^at you goin1 to do tonight?11 Mr. James Carroll said, MWe jus1 hafta stan1 wfere we camp. Jus1 stack de guns and put out w^at you call de watchman M I saidt ,fSentineltw and he said, HTes." Dey had w^at you call de relief. Dey wasnft in bed, dey was out lander a tree in de col.1 Ev'ry hour deyfd walk fem out flong a runway to walk guard, It was a wunnerful distressin1 time. De soldiers had a little song dey sung: ,tfEat when you1 re hungry, Drink when you1re dry, Iffen a tree don1 kill you, T0ufll live «til you die.1 "Dis was 'cause dey had to stan* under trees and when de Yankees shoot cannot deyfd knock off limbs and tops of trees and them under de trees might git kill from de fallin1 branches. Another song was: 1,1 Hit was on de eighth of April, Dey all •member well, When fifes and drams were beatin1 For us all to march away.1 f,In slavery times de slaves went to church wid dere w'ite folks and Dibblef Pred Beaumont, Jefferson Co#tDist*#3 Page 4 0(\A heard de wfite preacher. I never knew of cullud baptisms. Deyfd hare camp meetin1 and when cullud people wanted to jine de church dey»d take 'en in den. I didn1 quite git throu^i fbout de Mansfiel' battle* Dem 60 men dat was kill, dey jus1 dig a big hole and put *em in and threw dirt on faa. I went back after two or three days and de bodies done swell and crack de groun*. Marster9 s plan- tation comin1 from Shreveport was on de eas' side of Mosses Jiel1* We was fbout 1 and $k>-~&fc& mile f*om Mosses Fiel1* I wasnH acquaint wid many whites f cause I was wid de Carrolls and dey was allus kind. I heard dey was people dis w^r and dat, but I don8 know *bout dat. My wf ite folks see dat I was not abused* %e» news of de surrender come lots of cullud folks seem to be rejoicin* and slngf «Its free, 1*8 free as a ftrog H *cause a frog had freedom to git on a log and jump off when he plr-ase. Some jus1 stayed on wid dere w*ite folks* One time dey say day sen1 all de niggers back to Africa* I say dey never git me. I bin yeret and my w'ite folks bin yere, and yere I goin1 to stay. My young marster say he want me for a nigger driver, so he tsach me how to read and spell so I could ten1 to business. In time of de war Miss Cafline say de soldiers been dere and take de bes* hoss* Dey sent me off wid Ball, a little hoss. When I come back I meet some sol- diers. Dey say dey goin1 take de hoss, if dey don1 de Yankees cam© take fem, I tell »em dey done got Marster Carroll other hoss, to leave dis one, ^rey say, H(Jit down, I goin1 give you a few licks anyhow* w I fall down but dey never hit me and 4e7 say, "Maybe dat Mr* Carroll! whose hoss w© tukf let dis boy go on wid de hoss.11 i y Miss Cafline spy she wish she*d let me takeJDandy, day was de bes* hoss. ^-"^ ,fI wan1 to tell you one story fbout de rabbit* De rabbit and de tortus had a race. De tortus git a lot of tortuses and put *em long de way* Bver now and den a tortus crawl *long de way, and de rabbit say, "How you now, Brfer lortus?" And he say, "Slo1 and sho*, but my legs vexy short*" When dey git tired, de tortus win * cause he dere, but he nerer run de race, • cause he had tortuses strawAd out all *long de way. De tortus had other tortuses help hiauM ~4?^— 420135 E3USLAVE STORIES Page One (Texas) HENRY PROBASCO, 79, was born a slave of Andrew McGowen, who owned a plantation and 50 slaves in Walk- er County, Texas* Henry lived with his family, in Waco, until 1875, when he became a stock hand on Judge Weakly1 s ranch in Ellis County. In 1902 he came to Pert Worth and worked in packing plants until 1932, Since that time he has supported himself by any little work he could find and now has an $8#00 per month pension. He lives at 2917 Cliff Cliff St., Fort Worth, Texas. lfIfs horn on Massa McGowenfs plantation. He name was Andrew McCrowen and us lived near Euntsville, down in Walker County. All my folks and grandfolks was dere. Orandpap am carpenter, grandma am nuss for cullud chillen, and pappy and manmy does de sheemakin1 and de cookin•• HIn de days Ifs a hoy even de plows was made on de place. De blacksmith do de iron work an& de wood work fan done by pappy, and de plows am mostly wood. Jusf de point and de shear am iron. My grandpap made de mouldboards out of wood. No, sar, ftwarnt no steel meuldboards den. I!s watch grandpap take de hard wood block and with de ax and de drawshave and de plane and saw and rule, him cut and fit de mouldbeard to de turnin1 plow. Be mouldboard las1 fbout one yeat. "Now, with de shoes it am diffrent and dem last more1 n twict de time as store shoes. Gosh for 'mighty! We'uns canft wear dem out. De leather am from cattle raise on de place and tan right dere. It pm real oak tan, and strong as steel, ^efuns grease de shoes with mutton tallow and dat make dam waterproof shoes* "Cotton am main crop end corn for feed. De corn feed both de ~1~ Ex-slave Stories ?age fwo 206 (Texas) critters and de niggers, fcause de main food for de niggers am de corn and de cornbread and de corn mush. Course, us have other victuals, plenty meat and veg1 tables* De hawgs allus run in de woods and find dere own food, sich as nuts and acorns# Dey allus fat and when massa want meat he hitch de mules to de wagon and go to de woods. Dere him catch de hawg with massa1 s mark on it and fotch it in. HDe quarters am not mansions, dey am log cabins with dirt floors, but good !nough. Dey am fixed tight for de winter. If you am used to sleepin1 in de "bunks with straw tick's, its jus1 good as de spring "bed* De fust time I sleeps on de spring bed, I's fwake most all night. "When surrender come, massa told wefuns dat all us am free folks and he reads from de paper. fNow,f him say, yous am free and dem what wants to go, let me know. 1*11 ¦ range for de pay or to work de land on shares.1 "Some goes but all my folks stays, but in fbout a year pappy moves to Waco and run a shoe shop. I stays with him till I 17 year old, den I goes to Ellis County and works on de cattle ranch of Judge Weakly. His brand am 111 and him place clost to Piles Valley. Ifs larnt to ride some on de plantation and soon I's de good rider *nd I likes dat work best. MWe has lots of fun when we goes to town, not much drinkin1, like r some people says, but its mostest mischievious de boys am. We gits de joke on de preacher once* Him tellin1 fbout harm of drink and one of us say, ffiead from de Bible, Proverbs 31, 6 *md 7. Him reads and it am like dis: "Give de strong drink to him dat m ready to perish and wine to dem what am heavy of heart. • Dat de last time him talk to us fbout drink* Ex-slave Stories Page Three Q/V*# (Texas) >W7 !,Wefuns holds de Kangaroo Court* If wefuns "been on de party and someone do something patch way *fore day a singin*: "'Peggy, does you love me now?' "One ole man he sing: "'Sat'day night and Sunday too Young gals on my mind, Monday mornin' way 'fore day Ole marster got me gwine. Chorus: Peggy, does you love me now?1 "Den he whoops a sort of nigger holler, what nobody can do jes* like dem ole time darkies, den on he goes, " •Possum up a 'simmon tree, Babbit on de ground Lawd, Lawd, 'possum, Shake dem fSimmons down. P®£€>y» does you love me now? Holler Babbit up a gum stump ?Possum up a holler Git him out little boy And I gives you half a dollar, foggy* does you love me now?* "We didn» have muoh lookin* after when we git siok* We had to take de worst stuff in de world fer medicine, jes» so it was cheap* Dat ole blue mass and bitter apple would keep us out all night* Soma times he have de doctor when he thinks we goln' to die, 'cause he say he aint got Page nine any one to lose, den dat calomel what dat doctor would give us would purty nigh kill us. Den dey keeps all kinds of lead bullets and asafoetida balls 'round our necks and some carried a rabbit foot wid dem all de time to keep off evil of any kind. "Lawd,Lawd, honey 1 It seems impossible dat any of us ev'r lived to see dat day of freedom, but thank God ws did. "When ole marstsr comes down in de cotton patch to tells us 'bout bein* free, he say, 'I hates to tell you but I knows I's got to, you is free, jes' as free as me or anybody else whats white,' We didn* hardly know what he means. We jes' s©rt of huddle 'round together like scared rabbits, but after we knowed what he mean, didn' many of us go, 'cause we didn* know where to of went. Ole marster he say he give us de woods land and half of what we make on it, and we could clear it and work it or starve. Well, we didn* know hardly what to do 'cause he jes' gives us some ole dull hoes an' axes to work with but we all went to work and as we cut down de trees and de piles he tells us to build de fence 'round de field and we did, and when we plants de co'n and de cotton we jes' plant all de fence corners full too, and I never seen so much stuff grow in all my born days, several ears of co'n to de stalk and dem big cotton stalks was a layin' over on de ground. Some of de ole slaves dey say dey believe de Lawd knew sumpin' 'bout niggers after all. He lets us put co'n in his crib and den Page tan 21*7 we builds cribs and didn* take long 'fore we could buy some hosses and some mules and some good hogs* Dem mangy hogs what our marster give us de first year was plum good hogs after we grease dem and scrub dem wid lye soap. He jes' give us de ones he thought was sho* to die but we was a git- tin* goin* now and 'fore long we was a buildin* better houses and feelin* kind of happy like* After ole marster dies we keeps hearin' talk of Texas and me an' my ole man, I*s done been married several years den and had one little boy, well we gits in our covered wagon wid our little mules hitched to it and we comes to Texas* We worked as share croppers around Buffalo, Texas 'til my ole man he died. My boy was nearly grown den so he wants to come to San Angelo and work, so here we is. He done been married long time now and got six chlllun. Some of dem work at hotels, and cafes and fillin' stations and in homes." 420161 t'V! BJUSLAVE STOHIES Page One (fexas) 0 A. C. Pruitt was born about 1861, a slave of the Magill family, in St. Martinville, La. He lives in S & settlement of Negroes, on the \c road leading from Monroe City to Anahuac, in a shanty made of flat- tened tin cans, odd pieces of cor- rugated iron and scrap lumber, held together with rope, nails and tar paper, Pruitt migrated from Beau- mont to Monroe City when the oil boom came and ekes out an existence ' doing odd jobs in the fields. He is a small, muscular man, dressed in faded work clothes and heavy brogans, laced with string. MI really does live in Beaumont, but when dey start dat talk fbout matin1 sich good money in de oil fields I done move out here to git some of dat. It ain't work so good, though, and I been tearin' down part my house dis week and plannin' to move back. 111 ain't 'lect much 'bout slavery time, 'cause I jes» too lifl out I can tell some things my mama and graainma done told me. HIfs born in St. Martinville, over in Louisiana. I done go back to de old plantation onct but it start to change den. Dave Magill he was de old massa and Miss Frances de missy. My mama name Bachel Smith and she born and raise right dere,and my daddy I ain't never seed, but mama say he name Bruford Pruitt. Dey brudders and sisters but only one livin' and dat Clementine James in Beaumont. wJes' ffore freedom us done move to Snowball, Texas, what was somewheres clost to Cold Springs. Dey told us dey tryin1 keep us slaves 'way from de Yankees. Dey everywhere, jes1 like dem lifl black ants what gits in de sugar, only dey blue. Ifs jes« de li1! chile den, runnin* 'round in my split shirt tail. Dem was sho1 fancy shirt tails dey make us wore in dem days. Dey make *em on de loom, jes' in two pieces, with Ex-slave Stories Page gjw0 q* q (Sen*) * ^Xy a hole to put de head through and Mother hole at de bottom to put de legs through. Den dey split 'em up de side, sofs us could run and play without dem tyin' us fround de knees and throw us down. Even at dat, dey sho1 wasn't no good to do no tree climbin', less'n you pull dem mos' jup over you head. ''Us chillen run down to de rail gate when us see dus' clouds comin1 and watch de sojers ridin1 and marchin1 by. Dey ain't never do no fightin1 'round us, out dey's gunboats down de bayous a ways and us could hear de big guns from de other fights. Us li'l niggers sho1 like to wave to dem sojers, and when de men on iiossep gg by, dey.seem like dqy more enjoyin' deyselves dan de others. "I have de old gramma what co.ie from Virginny. Her name Handy Brown. Dey 'low her hire her own time out. She wasn't freeborn out dey give her dat much freedom. She co.dd go git her a job anywhere jes* as long as she brung de old missy half what she done make. If fen she make $5.00, she give Miss Frances $2.60 and like dat. MDe old massa he plumb good to he slaves. He have a good many but I ain't knowed of but one dem mens what he ever whip. He have a church right on de place and cullud preachers. Dey old Peter Green and every evenin1 us chillen have to go to he cabin and he teach us prayers. He teach us to count, too. He de shoemaker on de plantation. "ifcr mama done told me 'bout de dances day have in de quarters. Dey ta«:e de big sugar hogshead and stretch rawhide over de top. Den de man straddle de barrel and beat on de top for de drum. Dat de onlies' music dey have, * 'lM$l$te*-J.:¦'¦¦••<.:¦'¦.- •••.'-¦¦¦ ¦ ¦¦'-'•¦•• .•¦-'.¦». lEx-slave Stories Page Three (Texas) 220 f,Us allus have good things to eat, cabbage greens and cornbread and bacon. Jes1 good, plain food. Dey have a sugarhouse and a old man call de sugar boiler. He give us de cane juice out de kittles and low us tote off lots deia cane jints to eat. Dat in June. MDe field hands stay up in de big barn and shuck corn on rainy days. Dey shuck corn and sing. Us chillen keep de yard clean and tie weeds together to make brooms for de sweeping Us sepfrate de seed from de cotton and a old woman do de cardin'. Dey have fnother old woman what do nothin1 on de scene but weave on de loom. n0ne old, old lady what am mos' too old to git 'round, she take care de chillen and cook dere food sep'rate. She take "big, black iron washpots and cook dem plumb full of victuals. Come five in de «venin' us have de bigges1 meal, dat sho' seem long time 'cause dey ainft feed us but two meal a day, not count in1 de eat in1 us do endurin1 de day. "After freedom come us leave Snowball and go back to Louisiana. Old massa ain't give us nothin1. I marry purty soon. I never go to school but one month in my life, and dat in New Iberia. I can sign my name and read it, but dat all. ,fI works fust for Mr. William Weeks as de yardboy and he pay me $7.00 de month. De fust money I gits I's so glad I runned and take it to my mama. I have de steppa and he nearly die of de yellow fever. I's hardly able wait till Vs 21 and can vote. Dat my idea of something mos1 as good as de fust time I wears pants. 111 tries farmin awhile but dat ain't suit me so good. Den I gits me de job firin1 a steamboat on de Miss'sip River, de steamer Mattie. She go .>i"*k&^-5»^^ JEx-slave Stories Page Four QQA jlTexas) [from Hew Orleans through Morgan City. I fire in de sawmills, too. "My fust wife name Liny and us marry and live together 43 year and den she die. In 1932 I marry a gal call Zellee what live in Beaumont and she still dere. I ain't never have no chile in dis world, "I lams all dese things 'hout slaveiy from ray mama and gramma, 'cause I allus ask questions and dey talks to me lots. Datfs 'cause day's nobody but me and I allus under dey feets. *********** 2-C 7 4?w01C)7 EX*SULVE STOEIBS page One gOjg (Texas) HAKHE QUJLRLS, 96, was bom in Hardice, Missouri, a slave of John W. Quarlsf who sold him to Charley Guniot. The latter owner moved to Texas, where Harre lived at the time of emancipation. Harre now lives ^ in Madisonville, Texas, His £ v% memory is very poor, but he managed to recall a few inci- ' dents of early days. "Massa Qjiaris he live in Missouri. Place call Blardice. He done give me to he son, Ben, and he sold me to Massa Charley Guniot. Massa Charlqr come to Texas but I don't know when, Itfs befo1 de freedom war, dat all I knows. 11 My daddy name Dan and mammy Hannah. She was blind. I •member us have small room in back of dere house, with de bed make from poles and cowhide or deerhide. Our massa good to us. "I must be purty big when vls come to Texas, 'cause I plows and is stockman back in Missouri. I don't know 'xactly how old* I is, but it am prob'bly 'bout 96. I think dat 'bout right. "Sir, us got one day a week and Christmas Day, was all de holiday us ever heered of, and us couldn't go anywhere ' cept us have pass from our massa to fnother. If us slips off dem patterrollers gits us. Patterroller hits 39 licks with de rawhide with de nine tails. Patterroller gits 50 cents for hittin1 us 39 licks. Captain, here am de words to de patterroller song: "'Run, nigger, run, patterroller cotch you, How kin I run, he got me in de woods And all through de pasture? White man run, but nigger run faster,1 MSir, us have everything to eat what's good, but here in Texas everybody eat beef and bread a^d it am cooked in oven in de fire- ~1- Ex-slave Stories Page Two 2^3 (Texas) place and ia washpot out in de open. Sir, de great day am when massa brung ia de great, fat cooa and possum. "Certain, us has no weddia1 dem days fmong de slaves. Ifd ask massa could I have a gal, if she flong to 'nother massa, and she ask her massa could I come see her. If dey says yes, I goes see her oace de week with pass. Boss, say, I had three wives. When Ifs sot free dey wouldaft let me livewith "but one. Captain, that aiaft right, fcause I wants all three. HMy missus larned me readia1 aad writia1. After freedom I taught de first aigger school. Dat ia Madison and Leoa Counties. I's de oaly nigger what can read and write in tm settletneats. They was thousands couldn't read and write. "I 'lieve it's 1861 when us come to Texas. Us camps at Neasho in Arkansas and then come through the Indian Nation. Massa was purty good. He treated us jus1 fbout like you would a good mule. 11 Us wore horseshoes and rabbit feet for good luck. Then us have de hoodoism to keep raassa from beia1 mean. Us git de stick amd notch so many notches on it and slip up to massa1 s front steps, without him seeia1 us, and put this stick -under his doorsteps. Every night us go back to de stick and drive it down one notch. By time de last notch down in de ground, it make massa good to us. Dat called hoodoism. "Massa tells us wefs free on June Heenth. I leaves. I made a fiddle out of a gourd ffore freedom aad laras to play it. I played for dances after Ifs free. ~2~ Ex-slave Stories Page 5?hree (2fexas) "I marries Emily Umioms aad us have de home weddim1 hut mot amy preacher. Us jus1 *greed live together as mam aad wife and that all they was to it. Us have one gal aad one boy. "Emily leaves aad I marries Iiucimdy Williams. Preacher marries us. Us have three boys and two gals. Dey all farms mow. I has some sixty odd grand and great graadchillea. "Say, boss, I waats to siag you *aother song 'fore you goes: "WaDfcia1 in de parlor, Idghtaia1 is a yailer gal. She live up ia de clouds. "Thuader he is black maa, He caa holler loudf Whea he kisses lightaia1. "She dart up ia woader, He jump up aad grate de clouds; That what make it thuader** ************** SIX-SLAVES (Texas) Page One Aunt ?Aa. Rain3, 94, was born a slave in Little Rock, Arkansas, in 1853. In 1860 Eda, her brothers and mother, were bought by a Mr. Carter and brought to Texas. Sue now lives in D0uglasville, Texas. !I donft f umber my first marster, 'cause my aaamy and Jim and John vrfio was my brothers, and me was sold when I was seven and brought to Douglass, in Texas, to hire out. Befo1 we leff Little Kock, whar I v,as born, we was vaccinated for sirnllpox. We came through in a wagon to Texas and camped out at ni :ht and we slept on the sroun1. ,rwnen I!s hired out to the Tomlins at Douglass I sho1 got lonesome for Ifs jus1 a little girl, ,/ou know, and wanted to see ny mother. ?hey put ifie to work parch inf coffee and v.y arm was still sore, and Ifd pa'ch and cry, and pafch and cry. Finally Missus Tomlin say, •You can quit now. * She looked at ray arm and then put me to ten&in* chillen, I was fannin1 the baby with a turkey wing fan and I fell to sleep and when the missus saw me she sna.tched the fan and struck me in the face with it. This scar on my forehead is froa that quill stuck in my head, 111 slep1 on a pallet in the missus1 room and she bought rue some clothes. She had nine chillen, two boys and ?even girls. But after awhile she sol1 me to Marster Roack, and he bought my mother and &y brothers, so we was togedder again. We had our own cabin and two beds. Every day at four they called us to the big house and give us &ilk and mush. The white chillon had to eat it, too. It was one 3f marster1 s ideas and he said he's raised thataway. -1- S3USUVS STORIES Page Two c%f%r (Texas) ^W "Now, I mus1 tell you all fbout Christmas, Our bigges* time was at Christmas. Marsterfd give us maybe fo^bits to spend as we wanted and maybe we'd bu y a string of beads or some sech motion* On Christmas 2ve we played games, fYoung Gal loves Candy,1 or fBlde and Whoop.T Didnf know nothin1 fbout Santa Clausf ne'ver was lamed that. But we allus knowed what we!d git on Christmas mornin1. Old Marster allus call us togedder and give us new clothes, shoes too. He allus wen1 to town on the Eve and brung back our things in a cotton sack# That ole sack'd be crammed full of things and we knewed it was clothes and shoes* * cause Marster didn* flieve im no fool- ishness. We got one pair shoes a year, at Christmas. Most times they was red and Ifd allus paint mine black. I's one nigger ditto1 like red. Ifd skim grease off dishwater, mix it with soot from the chimney and paint my shoes. In winter we wore woolen clothes and got fem at Christmas, too. "We was woke up in the morn in1 by blowing of the conk. It was a big shell. It called us to dinner and if mything happened fspecial, the conk allus blew* "I seed runaway slaves and marster kepf any he caught in a room, and he chained %m till he cool* reach their marsters. MIe didn1 get lamed to read and write but they took care of us iffen we was sick, and we made medicine outta black willow and outta black snake root and bone set. It broke fevers on us, but, lawsy, it was a dose. "After freedom they tolf us we could go or stay. I stayed a while tut I married Clainborn Eains and lived at Jacksonville. We had ten Chil- ian. The lawd's been right good to mef even if I*m blind. Nearly all my ole white folks and my chillen has gone to Judgment, but I know the Jiawd woaft leave me here too long *fore Ifjines em. ******' 4?30108 ffiU81A?18 STORIES Page One 2*>7 (Texas) MILLIE RAHDAU,# was horn in Mississippi, hut spent most of her slavery days on the Den McMillan fans* near Big Can®, Louisiana. She is about 80 years old, though her estimate of her actual ae^ is vague* She now lives in Beaumont, Texas* "I was jes1 fbout six year old when peace was fclared and I donebeen born in Mississippi, but us aove to Bayou Jacques, tother side of Big Cane, in Louisiana, I mis' be purty old now. My name1 Millie Randall and ay many, she call9 Boss, but I don't know nothin9 'bout my paw* My old massa name9 Dan McMillan and he wife she name5 Laura* It were a old wood country where ay nhite folks was and us live way out. Dey raise de corn and de cotton and when dey wasn't workin' in de field, dey diggin* oat ©tumps and movin' lo<;s and clearin1 up new ground* Dey have lots of goats and sheep, too* and raises dey own rice* *Dey give us cuilud folks de ration in a sack right reg'lar. It have jes1 plain food in it, butplenty for everybody* "Missy have de big pLank house and us have de little log house. Us have jes1 old plaric beds and no furniture. Us clothes make out good, strong clOth, but dey was plain make. "HI us white folks was mean, I tells you de truf. Yes* ^awd, I seed dea beat and almost kilt on us own place* Vfhat dey beat deia for? 'Cause dey couldnft he'p demselves, I guess. De white folks kave de niggers like dey want dea and dey treat dem bad. It were de -1~ &>£§ Ex-slaw Stories p^ ^q (Texas) 228 old, bully, mean overseers what was doin1 de beatin* up with de niggers and I guess dey would hare kilt met but I1* too little to beat much. WI heered 'bout dem T&xkees drivin* day bosses in de white folks house and makin1 dem let dem eat offen de table. Another time, dey come to de plantation and all de niggers locked in de barn. Dose soldiers go in de house and find de white boss man hidin* in 'tween de mattresses and dey stick swords through de mattress and kilt him* "Some de white folks hides dey silver and other thiqgs i&at worth lots of money and hang dem down in de well, so de Yankees not find dem. But dey find dem anyway* Dey breaks open a store what was lock up and told de niggers to git all dey wants. De women ketches up de bottom of dey skirt round de waist and fill dem up with everything dey wants. "After freedom old massa not *low my mamny have us chillen. He takas me and my brother, Benny, in de wagon and druv us round and round so dey couldn't find us. My mammy has to git de Jestice of de Peace to go make him turn us a-loose# He brung us to our mammy and was we glad to see her. 111 don't 'member 'sactly when I git marry. It was at Big Cane and when I git marry I jes' git marry, dat's all, Dqy was three chillen but dey all dead now and so my husband ********* 420263 EX-SLAVE STORIES Page One (Texas) LAUBA EEEMOUN was bom about 1855, a slave of the Robertson family, in Jonestown(now ab- sorbed "by Memphis) Tennessee. Laura is a quaint, rotund fig- ure of a woman, a living pict- ure of a comic opera mammy. She lives at 3809 Mayo St., Dallas, Texas. "The funny thing fbout me is, I*s a present to the white folks, right off. They's lookin' for my mammy to have a baby and, Gawd bless, I*s borned twins. a boy and a girl. When 1*8 six months old, Miss Gusta, my old missy1 s daughter, marries Mr. Scruggs, and Ifs give to her for a weddin1 present# "Miss Gusta am proud of me and I slep1 right on the feet of her tied. We lived at 144 Third Exchange Street in Memphis. She didnft have "but two slaves, me and Lucy, the cook. Law, I didn't know I was no slave. I thunk Ifs white and plumb indifffent froa the niggers, I!s right sfprised ^h#n I finds out I*s nigger, jus1 like the other black faces! 111 had good times and jes1 played round and got in devilment. Some- times Mr. Scruggs say, 'I's gwine whip dat brat,1 but Miss Gusta allus say, •No you ainft gwine lay you hands on her and if fen you does Ifm gwine quit you.' Mis3 Gusta was indifffent to Mr. Scruggs in quality. He fooled her to marry him, lettin1 on he got a lot of things he ain't. WI seen sojers all toggered up in uniforms and xaarchin* and wavin1. Pltnty times they waves at me, but I didnft know what its all 'bout* tfliiss Gusta allus took me to church and most times I went to sleep by her feet, But when Ifs *bout eight the Lawd gits to workin1 right inside 010 Ex-slave Stories Page Two (Texas) ^ti&Z ma and I perks up and listens. Purty soon the glory of Gawd 'scended right down on me and I didn*t know nothin1 else. I run away up into the ridges and crosses a creek on a foot 3,og.. I stays up 'round them caves in tall cane and grass where panthers and bears is for three days ffore they finds me. They done hear me praisin1 Gawd and shoutin1, fI got Jesus.1 When they finds me I done slap the sides out my dress, e1esf slappin1 my hands down and praisin1 the L&wd. That was a good dress, too. I heared tell of some niggers wearin1 cotton b\it not me - I weared percale. "They done take me home and Miss Gusta say, 'You ain*t in no fittin1 condition to jine a church right now. You got to calm down- fsiderable first.1 But when I's nine year old she takes me to the Trevesant St. Baptist church and lets me jine and I*s baptised in the Mississippi river right there at Memphis. "Bout that time the Fedfrals come into Memphis and scared the daylights out of folks. Miss Gusta calls me and wrops ray hair in front and puts her jewelry in under the plaits and pulls them back and pins them down so you couldnH see nothin1. She got silverware and giwe it to rae and I run in the garden and buries it. I hid it plenty good, fcause we like to never found It after the Fed^als was gone. They come right up to our house and Mr. Scruggs run out the back door and tried to leap the rail fence in the backyard. He cotched the seat of his pants on the top rail and jesf hung there an^anglin1 till the Fed1 rale pulls him down. He hurt his leg and it was a bad place for a long time. When I seed him hangin1 there I cut a dido and kep* screamin1, •Miss Gusta, he!s a^dyin1,' and them Federals got plumb tickled at me. "They went in the smokehouse and got all the sugar and rice and strowed it up and down the streets and not carin* at all that victuals was scarcer than ksa's teeth in them parts! it.*.slave Stories Page SJhree SrT (Texas) "Then Miss Gusta done tell me I wasn't no slave no more, but, shucks, that don't mean nothin' to mt 'cause I ain't never knowed I was one. "In them times the Ku KLux got to skullduggerin' round *nd done take Mr. Scruggs and give him a whippin' but I never heared what it had to do about. He donft like them none, noways, and shets hisself up in the house. He a curious kind of man, it 'pear to me, if fen I's to tell the plain out truth. I don't think he was much but kind of trashy. "When I!s seventeen Miss Gusta sickened and suffered in her bed in terrible fashion. She begs the doctors to tell her if she's a-dyin' so she could clear up business ffofe she passed away. She took three days and fixed things up and told me she didn't want to leave me friendless and lone. She wanted mt to git married. I had a man I thunk Ifd think well of marryin' and Miss Gusta give me p.way on her bed at the weddin' in her room. She told my husband not to cuff me none, 'cause I never been 'bused in my life, and to this day I ain't never been hit a lick in my life. "My first baby was born the year of the big yellow fever in New Orleans. I had six chillen but they all died when they's little from creep in' spasms. I advertises round in the papers and finds my mammy c»nd she come and lived with me. She's in a pitiful shape. 'Tore the ceasin' of war her master done sold her and the man what bought her wasn't so light on his niggers. She said he made her wear breeches and tote big, heavy logs and plow with oxes. One the men knocked her on back the head with a club and from that day she allus shook her head from side to side all the time, like she couldn't git her mind straight. She told me ¦y paw fell off a bluff in Memphis and stuck a sharp rock right through his head. They cropped him in a blanket and buried him. That's all I ever knowed fbout hia. 332 Ex-slave Stories page your C-7-fi (Texas) ^J "My husband was a good man and a good worker* We farmed and I worked for white folks. We took a notion to come to Texas and I been in these parts ever since. 111 don't haveno complaint to make. I seen some hard times, but I*s able to do a little work and keep goin1. They is so many mean folks in the world and so many good ones, and I*m mighty proud to say my white folks was good ones. **** 420227 EX-SLAVE STORIES Page One (Terns) ELSIE EEECE, 90, was horn a slave of John Mueldrew, in Grimes County, Texas. Elsie came to iFort Worth in 1926 to live with her only remaining child, Mrs. Luff in Baker f who supports Elsie with the aid of her $7#00 monthly old age pension. MIfs horned in Grimes County, ninety years ago. Dat am long time, child. It am heap of change since den. 7e couldnft see dem airplanes flyin' in de air and hear folks sing and talk a thousand miles away. when Ifs de youngfun de fartheres1 you could hear anybody am 'bout a quarter mile and den dey has to holler like a stuck hawg. "My massa's name am John l&ieldrew and he have a small plantation near Navasota, and fbout twenty cullud folks, mos1 of 'em 'lated to each other. There was seven chillen in mammyfs family and I's de baby. Pappy dies when I's a year old, so I don't 'member him, "Dey larnt me to weave cloth and sew, and my brudder am de shoe- maker. My mammy tend de dows and Uncle John am de carpenter. De Lawd bless us with de good massa. Massa John die befo' de war and Missie Mary marries Massa Mike Hendricks, and he good, too. But him die and young Massa Jim Mueldrow take charge, and him jus* as kind as he pappy. * ! Not her thing am change a heap. Dat buy in1 all us wears and eats. Gosh 'mighty, when I's de gall, it am awful li'l us buys. Us raise nearly all to eat and wear, and has good home-raised meat and all de milk and butter us wants, and fruit and 'lasses and eggs and tea and coffee onct a week* How I has to live on $7.Q0 a month and what place am I bes1 off? Sho't on de massa's place. -1- Ex-slave Stories Page Two (lexas) "We'uns has Sundays off and goes to church. Old man Buffington preaches to us after dinner. Dere am allus de party on Saturday night on our place or some other place nearby. We gits de pass and it say what time to "be home. It de rule, twelve of clock. We dancej^ de quadrille and sings and sich. De music am fiddles. "But de big time and de happy time for all us cullud folks am Christmas . De white folks has de tree in de big house and somethin* for all us. When Missie Mary holler, fSanta Claus *bout due,1 us all gathers at de door and purty soon Santa 'pears with de red coat and long, white whiskers, in de room all lit with candles. He gives us each de sack of candy and a pair of apfcioes from de store. Massa never calls for work from Christmas to New Tears, * cept chores. Dat whole week am for eel1 "bration. So you sees how good massa am. "Young Massa Jim and Sam jines de army and I helps make dere army clothes. Ifs f"bout fourteen den. Lots of young men goes and lots never cames back. Sam gits his right leg shot off and dies after he come home, but Jim lives. Den surrender come and Massa Jim read de long paper. He say, *l !splain to yous. It de order from de govfment what make it 'gainst de law to keep yous slaves.1 Y0u should seed dem cullud folks. Dey jus1 plumb shock. Dere faces long as dere arm, and so pester dey don't know what to say or do# "Massa never say fnother word and walks away. De cullud folks say, 'Where we'uns gwine live? What we'uns gwine do?1 Dey frets all night. Hex aornin1 massa say, 'What you,uns gwine do?1 Uncle John say, 'When bH ^fial^eS?7 f Den metssa laughs hearty and say dey can stay for wages ¦' -2- Ex-slave Stories Page Three (Texas) '*S*>* tfWellf sar, dere a bunch of happy cullud folks after dey larnt dey could stay and work, andmy folks stays nearly dey could stay and work, and my folks stays nearly two years after •manci- pation. Den us all move to Havasota and hires out as cooks* I cooks till Ifs eighteen and den marries John Love, He am de carpenter and right off builds a house on land he hay from Dr. Terrell, he old massa. I has four chillen, and dey all dead now. He died in 1881f fway from home. He's on his way to Austin and draps dead from some heart misfry. Dat am big sorrow in my life.^ There I is, with chillen to support, so I goes to cookin1 !gain and we has some purty close times, but I does it and sends dem to school. I don't want dem to be like dey mammy, a unknowledge person. "After eight years I marries Dave Reece and has two chillen. He am de Baptis* preacher and have a good church till he died, in 1923. Den soon after I gits de letter from old Missie Mary, and she am awful sick. She done write and visit me all dem years since I lef! de old plantation. I draps everything and goes to her and she am awful glad to see me. She begs me not to go back home, and one day she dies sudden-like with a heart misery. She de besf friend I ever has. WI comes to Fort Worth in 1926 and lives with my daughter. Ifs paralyze in de right side and can't work &o more, and it am fine I has de good daughter. *** 1 ?20£42 2X-SLAVE STORIES PageOne Q'Mj (Texas) MARY REYNOLDS claims to be more than a hundred years old. She was born in slavery to the Kilpatrick family, in Black River, Louisiana. Mary now lives at the Dallas County Con- valescent Home. She has been blind for five years and is very feeble. nMy paw1 s name was Tom Vaughn and he was from the north, born free man and lived and died free to the end of his days. He wasn't no eddic&ted mnn9 but he was what he calls himself a piano nan. He told me once he lived in New York and Chicago and he built the insides of pianos and knew how to make them play in tune. He said some white folks from the south told he if he'd come with them to the south hefd find a lot of work to do with pianos in them parts, and he come off with them. 11 He saw my maw on the Kilpatrick place and her man was dead. He told Dr. Kilpatrick, my massa, he'd buy my maw and her three chillun with all the money he hadf iffen he*d sell her. But Dr. Kilpatrick was never one to sell p.ny but the old niggers who was part work in' in the fields and past their breedin1 times. So vay paw marries n;r ma,w and works the fields, sme as any other nigger. They had six gals: Martha and Panela and Josephine and Sllen and Kfitherine and me. MI was born sametime as Miss Sara Kilpatrick. Dr. Kilpatrick*s first wife and my maw come to their time right together. Miss Sara's maw died and they brung Miss Sara to suck with rne. It's a thing ve ain't never forgot. My maw's name was Sallie and Miss Sara allus looked with kindness on my maw. -1- Ex-slaveStories Page Two Q«W (Texas) &\J7 We sucked till we was a fair size and played together, i*hich wasn't no common thing. None the other lifl niggers played with the white chillun. But Miss Sara loved me so.good. "I was jus1 'bout big 'nough to start playin1 with a broom to go 'bout sweepin* up and not even half doin1 it when Dr. Kilpatrick sold me. They was a old white man in Trinity and his wife died and he didnft have chick or child or slave or nothin1. Massa sold me cheap, fcause he didnft want Miss Sara to play with no nigger young'un. That old man bought me a big doll and went off and left me all day, with the door open. I jus1 sot on the floor and played with that doll. I used to cry. He'd come home and give me somethin1 to eat and then go to bed, and I slep1 on the foot of the bed with him. I was scart all the time in the dark. He never did close the door. "Miss Sara pined and sickened. Massa done what he could, but they wasnH no peartness in her. She got sicker and sicker, and massa brung fnother doctor. He say, fYou li'l gal is grievin1 the life out her body and she sho1 gwine die if fen you don't do somethin1 *bout it.1 Miss Sara says over and over, fI wants Mary.f Massa say to the doctor, 'That a lifl nigger youngfun I done sold.1 The doctor tells him he better git me back iffen he wants to save the life of his child. Dr. Kilpatrick has to give a big plenty more to git me back than what he sold me for, but Miss Sara plumps up right off and grows into fine health. "Then massa marries a rich lady from Mississippi and they has chillun fcr company to Miss Sara and seem like for a time she forgit s me. **3»* Bx~slave Stories page Three (Texas) "Massa Kilpatrick wasnft no piddlin1 man. He was a man of plenty* He had a "big house with no more st^rle to it than a crib, but it could room plenty people. He was a medicine doctor and they was rooms in the second story for sick folks what come to lay in. It would take two days to go all over the land he owned. He had cattle and stock and sheep and morefn* a hundred slaves and more besides. He bought the bes1 of niggers near e^ery time the spectators come that way. He'd make a swap of the old ones and give money for young ones what could work. "He raised corn and cotton and cane and Haters and goobers, 'sides the peas and other feedin1 for the niggers. I fmember I helt a hoe handle mighty onsteady when they put a old women to larn me and some other chillun to scrape the fields. That old woman would be in a frantic.Shefd show me and then turn ¦bout to show some other lifl nigger, and I'd have the young corn cut clean as the grass. She say, fFor the love of Gawd, you better larn it right, or Solomon will beat the breath out you body.1 Old man Solomon was the nigger driver. "Slaweiy was the worst days was ever seed in the world. They was things past tellin1, but I got the scars on my old body to show to this dsy. I seed worse than what happened to me. I seed them put the men and women in the stock with they hands screwed down through holes in the board and they feets tied together and they naked behinds to the world. Solomon the the overseer beat them with a big whip and mass a look on. The niggers better not stop in the fields when they hear them yellin*. They cut the flesh most to the bones andsome they was when they taken them out of stock and put them on the beds, thqy never got up again. Enclave Stories Pagt F0ur (Texas) g^g "When a nigger died they let his folks come out the fields to see him afore he died. They "buried him the same day, take a big plank and "bust it with a ax in the middle Enough to "bend it back, and put the dead nigger in betwixt it. They'd cart them down to the graveyard on the place and not "bury them deep *nough that buxzards wouldn't come circlin1 round. Niggers mourns now, but in them days they wasn't no time for mournin*. "The conch shell blowed afore daylight and all hands better git out for roll call or Solomon bust the door down and git them out. It was work hard, git beatin's and half fed* They brung the victuals and water to the fields on a slide pulled by a old mule. Plenty timss they was only a half barrel water and it stale and hot, for all us niggers on the hottes* days. Mostly we ate pickled pork and corn bread and peas and beans and Haters. They never was as aoxch as we needed. ttThe times I hated most was pickin* cotton when the frost was on the bolls. My hands git sore and crack open and bleed. We'd have a li'l fire in the fields and if fen the ones with tender hands couldn't stand it no longer, we!d run and warm our hands a lifl bit. When I could steal a Hater, I used to slip it in the ashes and when I'd run to the fire I'd take it out and eat it on the sly, "In the cabins it was nice and warm. They was built of pine boardin1 and they was one long ram of them up the hill back of the big house. Hear one side of the cabins was a fireplace* They'd bring in two, three big logs and put on the fire and they'd last near a week. The beds was made out of puncheons fitted in holes bored in the wall, and planks laid fcress them poles. We had tickin' mattresses filled with corn shucks* Sometimes the men build chairs at night, I* 4idn«t know much 'bout havin1 nothia't though. Ex-slave Stories Page Jive O/fn (Texas) ^**' " Sometimes massa let niggers have a lifl patch. They'd raise Haters or goobers. They liked to have them to help fill out on the victuals. 'Taters roasted in the pshes was the best tastin1 eat in1 I ever had. I could die better satisfied to have jus1 one more Hater roasted in hot ashes. The niggers had to work: the* patches at night and dig the Haters and goobers at night. Then if they 'Yfjited to sell any in town they'd have to git a pass to ^o. They had to go at night, 'cause they couldn't ever spare a hand from the fields. I!0nce in a while they'd give us a li'l piece of Sat'day evenin* to wash out clothes in the branch. We hanged them on the ground in the woods to dry. They was a pli&ce to wash clothes from the well, but they was so mnny niggers all couldn't git round to it on Sundays. When they'd git through with the clothes on Sat'day evenin1s the niggers which sold they goobers and Haters brun.::: fiddles and guitars and eo:ae out and play. The others clap they hands and stomp they feet and we youn:.:funs cut a step round. I was plenty biggity and liked to cut a step. 11'.ve was seart of Solomon and his whip, though, and he didn't like frolickin'. He didn't like for us niggers to pray, either. T7e never heared of no church, but us have pray in1 in the cabins. \7e'd set on the floor and pray with our heads down low and sing low, but if Solomon heared he'd cone and beat on the wall with the stocic of his whip. He'd say, 'I1!! come in there and tear the hide off you backs." But some the old niggers tell us we got to pray to Gawd that he don't think different of the blacks and the whites, I know that Solomon is burnin' in hell today, and it pleasures me to know it. 11 Once my maw and paw taken me and Katherine after night to slip to 'nother place to a pray in1 and singin'. \ nigger man with white "beard tol d us a day an cornin' when niggers only be slaves of Gawd. We prays for the end of Trib'lation -5- Ex~slave Stories P^e Six g£± (Texas) and the end of beat in1 s and for shoes that fit our feet. We prayed that us niggers could hav,e all we wanted to eat and special for fresh meat* Some the old ones say we have to bear allf 'cause that all we can do« Some say they wa3 glad to the time they's dead, f cause theyfd rather rot in the ground than have the beatinfs. What I hated most was when they'd beat me and I didn*t know what they beat me for, and I hated them strippin1 roe naked as the d^jr I was born* 11 When wefs comin1 back from that pray in ft I thunk I beared the nigger dogs and somebody on horseback. I say, fMawf its them nigger hounds and they'll eat us up. f You could hear them old hounds and sluts abayin'. Maw listens and say, 'Sho •nough, them dogs am runnin1 and Gawd help usi f Then she and paw talk and they take us to a fence corner and stands us up 'gainst the rails and say don't move and if anyone comes near, don't bresfc he loud. They went to the woods, so the hounds chase them and not git us. Me and Katherine stand there, holdin' hands, shakin1 so we can hardly stand. We hears the hounds come nearer, but we donH move. They goes after paw and maw, but they circles round to the cabins and gits in. Maw &sy its thepower of Gawd. MIn them days I weared shirts, like all the young'uns. They had collars and come below the knees and was split up the sides. That's all we weared in hot weather. The men weared jeans and the women gingham. Shoes was the worstes1 trouble. We weared rough russets when it got cold, and it seem powerful strange they*d never git them to fit* Once when I was a young gal, they got me a new pair and all brass studs in the toes. They was too li'l for me, but I had to wear them. The brass trimmin's cut into my ankles and them places got mis'ble Ex-slave Stories Page Seven *>£r (Texas) bad. I rubs tallow in thera sore places and wrops rags round them and my sores got worker and worser. The scars are there to this day. "I wasn't sick much, though. Some theniggcrs had chills and fever a lot, bat they hadn't discovered so many diseases then a3 now. Dr. Kilpatrick give sick niggers ipecac and asafoetida ard oil and turpentine and black fever pills, "They was a cabin called the spinnin' house and two looms and two spinnin1 wheels goin' nil the timef and two nigger women sewing all the time. It took plenty sewin' to make all the things for a pl^ce so big. Once massa goes i to Baton Rouge and brung back a yaller gal dressed in fine style. She was a I I searaster nigger. He builds her a house 'way f r cm the quarters and she done fine \ I sewin' for the whites. Us niggers knowed the doctor took a black woman quick as he did a white vnd. took any on his placehe wanted, and he took them often. But mostly th* chillun born on the place looked like niggers. Aunt Cheyney allus say four of hers was massas, but h-» didn't give them no mind. But this yaller gal , brssds so fast and gits a mess of white youngfuns. She larnt them fine manners and combs out they hair. "Onct two of them goes down the hill to the doll house where the Kilpatrick Chilian am playin1. They wantsto go in the dollhouse and one the Kilpatrick boys say, 'That's for white chillun*' They ssjr, "We ain't no niggers, 'cause we got the same daddy you has, and he corals to see us near every day and fotches us ,; clothes and things from town.' They is fuss in' and Missy Kilpatrick is listenin* ? *?> I out her chamber window. She heard then white niggers say, 'He is our daddy | and we call hiia daddy when he comes to our house to see our mam-i,' -.7- £x~slave Stories Page Bigjit &MfK (Texas) lWt* "When massa corae home that evenin' his wife hardly say nothin1 to him, and he ask her what the matter and she tells him, fSince you asks me, Ifia studyin1 in my mind 'bout them white young*uns of that yaller nigger wench from Baton Rouge*' Ee say, 'Now, honey, I fotches that gal jus1 fcr you, f cause she a fine seamster. * She say, fIt look kind of funny they got the same kind of hair and eyes as my chillun and they got a nose looks like yours.% He say, 'Honey, you jus1 payin1 Uention to talk of lifl chillun that ainft got no mind to what they say.1 She say, 'Over in Mississippi I got a home and plenty with my daddy and I got that in my mind.' "Well, she didnft never leave an*n there, done built up on the sides with boards and holes in the boards and a Ex-slave Stories Page Ten * Q&K (Texas) **w** "bit gun "barrel stickin1 through every hole. We ain*t never seed nothin* like that. Massa goes up the plank onto the boat and comes out on the boat porch. He say, 'This am,a Yankee boat.1 He goes inside and the water wheels starts movin1 and that boat goes movin1 up the river and they says it goes to Hatches. MThe boat wasn't more^ out of sight when a big drove of sojers comes into town. They say theyfs Fedfrals. Morefn half theniggers goes off with them sojers, but I goes on back home •cause of my old mammy. "Next dgy them Yankees is swarmi^1 the place. Some the niggers wants to show them something I follows to the woods. The niggers shows them sojers a big pit in the ground, biggerfn a big house, It is got wooden doors that lifts up, but the top am sodded and grass growin1 on it, so you couldn't tell it. In that pit is stock, hosses and cows and mules and money and chinaware and silver and a mess of stuff them sojers takes. "We jus' sot on the place doin1 nothin1 till the white folks comes home. Miss Sara come out to the cabin and say she wants to read a letter to my mgtftfay. It come from Louis Carter, which is brother to my mammy, and he done follow the *edfrals to Galveston. A white man done write the letter for him. It am tored in half and massa done that, The letter say Louis am workin1 in Oalveston and wants mammy to come with us, and he111 pay our way. Miss Sara say massa swear, fDamn Louis Carter. I ainH gwine tell Sallie nothin1,' and he starts to tear the letter up. But she wonft let him, and she reads it to mammy. "After a time massa takes all his niggers what wants to Texas with him and mammy gits to Galveston and dies there, I goes with massa to the Tennessee Colony and then to Navasota* Miss Sara marries Mr. T. Coleman and goes to El Paso. She wrote and told me to come to her and I allus meant to go. Sx-slave Stories Page 11 246 (Texas) "My husband and me farmed round far times, and then I done housework and cookin' for many years, I come to Dallas and cooked seven year for one white family. My husband died years ago. I guess Miss Sara been dead these long years. I allus kep1 my years by Miss Sara's years, Teount we is born so close. 111 been blind and iaos' helpless for five year. Ifm gittin1 mighty en- feeblin1 and I ain't walked outside the door for a long time back. I sets and 'members the times in che world. I 'members now clear as yesterday things I forgot for a long time, I 'members 'bout the days of slavery and I don't 'lieve they ever gwine have slaves no more on this earth. I think Gawd done took that burden of fen his black chillun and Ifm aimin' to praise him for it to his face in the days of Glory what ain't so far off. ****** ¦120238 EX-SLAVE STORIES Page One 247 (Texas) If ALTER Bimf 30, was born a slave of Captain Hatch, in San Patricio County, Texas. After Walter was freed, he helped his father farm for several years, then worked as a cook for fifteen years on the King Ranch. He moved to Fort flforth and cooked for Mrs. Arthur ffoetz for twenty-five years. He lives at 913 E. Second St., Port Worth. "You wants to know 'bout slavery? Well, Ifs had a deal happen 'sides dat, but Ifs born on Captain Hatch's plantation, 'cross de bay from Corpus Christi. He had somewheres near fifty slaves, and mammy told me he buyed her in Tennessee and pappy in South Carolina. Massa Hatch buys Bud sells niggers some dem days, but he ain't a nigger trader, MDera sales ajn one thing what make de 'pression on me. I hears de old folks whisper 'bout gwine have de sale and 'bout noon dere am a crowd of white folks in de front yard and a nigger trader with he slaves. Dey sets up a plat- form in middle de yard and one white man gits on dat and 'nother white man comes up and has a white wcxnan with him. She 'pears to be 'bout fifteen vears old and has long, black hair down her back. Dey puts her on de platform and den I hears a screamf and a woman what look like de gal, cries out, 'I'll cut my throat if my daughter am sold.1 De white man goes and talks to her, and fin'ly 'lows her to take de young gal away with her. Dat sho' stirs up some 'motion *mongst de white folks, but dey say dat gal have jus' a lifl nigger blood and can be sold for a slave, but she look white as anybody I ever seed. "I pulls weeds and runs errands while I's a child. We has some good eat8 but has to steal de best things from de white folks. Dey never give us none of them. We has roastin' ears better'n dey cooks dem now. We puts demf shucks and all, in de hot ashes. Mammy makes good ashcake, with salt and corn msal and bacon grease and flats it out with de hands. - 1 - Ex-slave Stories Page Two 0,*Q. (Texas) ^Q "Massa and missus took dey goodness by spells like. Sometimes day was hard to ^it 'long with and sometimes dey was easy to git 'long with. I don't know de cause, but it am so. De mostest trouble am 'bout de work. Dey wants you to work if you can or can't. My pappy have de back niis'ry and many de time I seed him crawl to de grist mill. Him am buyed * cause him am de good millhand. He tells us his pappy am white, and dat one reason he am de run-awayer. I's scairt ell de time, 'cause he run away, I seed him git one whippin' and nothin1 I can do 'cept stand dere and cry. Dey gits whippin's every time massa feels cross. One slave name Bob Love* when massa start to whip him he cuts his throat and ! dives into de river. He am dat scairt of a whippin1 dat he kilt himself. "My pappy wasn't •fraid of nothin1. He am light cullud from de white | blood, and he runs away sev'ral times. Dere am big woods all round and we I sees lots of run-awayers. One old fellow name John been a run-awayar for ! four years and de patterrollers tries all dey tricks, but dey can't cotch him. E I I Dey wants him bad, 'cause it 'spire other slaves to run away if he stays a-loose. i { Dey sots de trap for him. Dey knows he like good eats, so dey 'ranges for a I | quilt in1 and gives chitlin's and lye hominey. John comes and am inside when de i£ s | patterrollers rides up to de door. Everybody gits quiet and John stands near de I door, and when dey starts to come in he grabs de shovel full of hot ashes and I throws dem into de patterrollers faces. He gits through and runs off, hollerin', 'Bird in de air! ' "One woman name Rhodie runs off for long spell. De hounds won't hunt her. She steals hot light bread when dey puts it in de window to cool, and lives on dat. She told my mammy how to keep de hounds from followin1 you is to take "black pepper and put it in you socks and run without you shoes. It make de -2- Bx-slave Stories Page Three 249 (Texas) hounds sneeze, ^One day I*s in de woods and meets de nigger runawayer. He comes to de cabin and moiawy makes him a b*^con and egg sandwich and we never seed him "g'dn. Maybe he done got clear to Mexico, where a lot of de slaves runs to. ,{De first we knows 'bout war arid when some Union ships comes into de Bay and shoots at Corpus Christi. When dat shootin' start, all de folks round us takes to de woods and sev'ral am still gone. Dey am shakin* all over. 11'Bout de third year of de war massa moves up to Clinton, but he moves back, 'cause he can't make no money dere. Den he have al 1 de quarters move up close to de big house, so if we tries to make de run for it in de night he can cotch us. Dat no use, •cause de on?s what am still with him won't run anyway. HGne day I seed massa set tin' on de gal'ry and him face all screw up. He says, '&o git you mammy and everybody.f I goes a-fly in1. My shirt tail don't hit my b.-^ck till I tells everybody. Massa am cryin1 and he reads de paper and says, 'You is free as I is. what you gwine do?1 Mammy says, 'We am stayin' right here.' But next raornin' pappy borrows a ox-team to tote our stuff away. tte goes 'bout sixty miles and stays 'bout six months, den takes a place where we can make a crop. Den massa tells us we can live on de old place without de rent and have what we can make. So we moves back and stays two years. "Den we moves sev'ral places and sometimes old missus comes to see us and say, 'Ain't you shame? De Yankees is feedin1 you.1 But dey wasn't, 'cau e we was makin1 a crop. -3- Ex-slave Stories Page Four Pr() (Texas) w 11 When I gits up "big 'nough to hire out, I works for old man King on some drives, 'fore pappy and mammy dies of de fever. Den I marries Minnie Bennett, a light cullud gal, what am knowed as High Yall*r. Her mammy am a white woia-n. She was kidnapped in Kentucky by some white men and dey dyed her hair and skin and brung her to Texas with some slaves for sale. Massa iieans, in Corpus, buyed her. She was so small all she fmembered was her real n?me was Mary Schlous and her parents am white and she lived in Kentucky. Massa Weans comes in de next momLn' and busts out cussin', for dere am black dye pII over de pillow and his slave am gettin* blonde, but dem slave traders am gone, so he can't do nothin'. "He !cides to keep her and she grows up with de slaves jus1 like she am a nigger. She gits used to bein1 with dem and marries one. She has one child 'fore freedom, what am Minnie. She has to run away to git freedom, 'cause Massa Cleans won't let her have freedom. Lots of slaves has to do dat. "Well, after I marries Minnie, we goes to de famous King Ranch. It was only in two sections ien and I hires as cook on de San Oertrudis section, hut am sent to de other section, de Faerta Agua Dulce, and works dere fifteen years. "Old man King has plenty trouble in dem days. One time some Mexicans comes to 3rovm3ville and takes everything as dey goes. Old man King had two cannons and when dey has battle dey finishes with one cowboy dead and one Mex- ican dead. No cannons was fired, though. He has more troubles with rustlers and fellows who dont like de way he's git tin' all de land. Dey tries to kill Mm lots of times, but he fools dem and dies in bed. Sx-slave Stories Page Five )26jL (Texas) "I comes to Fort Worth and cooks. Minnie dies 'fore long of de stomach mis'iy. I works for a Missus Groetz and marries Agnes Skelton, what works dere, too. ',/e has five chillen and I works dere for twenty-five years, till I goes blind. I!s allus de big, stout fellow, helpin1 somebody, and after I13 blind I has to tpend on other people to help me. De white folks sho' been good to rne since I been in dis shape, and de state sends me $13.00 a month to pay de bills with. Dat a big help, but I!s 'bout three, four weeks 'hind now. "One old man King's daughters aa here and looks me up, and leaves me a couple dollars. I gits 'long some way. "I sets here and thinks 'bout old times. Qne song we U3e to sing was 'Throw de Smokehouse Keys Down de Well.1 Dat !cause dere so many thieves in de country everybody have big locks on de smokehouse if dey 'spects to kte-g dey meat. ****** 4S0302 BX-SIdLTTB STORIES (Texas) MARIAS BOBINSQH, hor* ia Momroe, Georgia* does aot kaow a her age, hut from certaa facts £f> aad her appearaace, is prohahly ^ 90 or over. Her master was jp Judge Hill. He gave Mariah to his soa~ia-law, Boh Youag, who hroutght her to Texas. She now lives ia Meridiaa, Texas, v> "I's aoraed over ia Georgia, ia dat place call Moaroe, and mammy was Lizzie Hill, f cause her massa Jedge Hill. Ifs hoaes1, I doaft kaow de fzact date Ifs horaed. Missy Joe, my missy, put de record of all ages ia de court house for safe keepia1, to keep de Iadiaas from buraia1 dem up, aad deyfs hurat up whea de court house hunts. All I kaows is my youages1 sister, what live ia Georgia, writ me fhout a year ago and say, fLast Thursday I's 81 year old.1 Dere is five chillea *twixt my aad her age aad dere is six chillea youager'n me. Dat de "best I caa give of &y age. "Jedge HiUJs daughter, Miss Josephiae., married Dr. Touagfs soa, what lived ia Cartersville, ia Georgia, hut had doae moved to Texas. Dea my missy give me to Miss Josephine to come to Texas with her to keep her j from de loaely hours aad beia* sad so far fway from home. We come hy rail from Moaroe to Social Circle aad dere hoards de hoat f Sweet Home1. Dere was jus1 two "boats oa de liaef de f Sweet Home1 aad de %Katie Darliag.1 MUs sails dowa de JLtlaatic Gceaa to Hew Orleaas, myself aad my auat Loaaie aad uacle Johas, all with Miss Josephine. Whea us gits to New Orleaas us frested aad put ia de traderfs office. Us slaves, I meaa. Dis de way of dat. Oar massa, Massa Boh Youag, he a cottoa buyer aad he doae left Georgia without pay in1 a cottoa debt aad dey holds us for dat, *1~ st&m&ik®M$:&j 3x-slave Stories Page Two Q&'X (Texas) ¥ \ "Miss Josephine wires hack to Georgia to Dr. Young and he come and git us out. He come walkin' down de street with he goldheaded walkin1 cene. Us upstairs in de trader's office. I seed him comin1 and cries out, f0, yonder comes Hassa Young.f He looks up and shocked he goldheaded walkin1 stick at me and says, 'Never mind, old boss have you out in a few minutes.1 Dea he gits de hack soon as us out and sends us to de port, for to cotch de boat. Us gits on dat "boat and leaves dat evenin1, Comin' down de Mississippi 'cross de Gulf us seed no land for days and days and us go through de Gulf of Mexico and lands at de port, Galveston, and us come to Waco on de stagecoach. f,Us lives four year on Austin St., in Waco, dat four years 'fore de war of 1861. Us hoarded with Dr. Tiasley and he and Gen'ral Ross was good friends. I worked in a sewin' room doin' work sich as whippin1 on laces and rufflin1 and tuckin1. Den us come to Bosque County right npar Meridian, 'cause iassa Boh have de ranch dere and de time of de freedom war us lives dere, "Us he in de house at night, peepia1 out de window or pigeon hole and see Indians comin1. De chief lead in front. Dey wild Comanches. Sometime dere 50 or 60 in a hunch and dey did raidia1 at night. But Ifs purty hrave and £oes three mile to Walnut Spring every day to git vegftahles. I rid de donkey. Kiss Josephine hoards all de Bosque County school chill en and us have to git 4e food* I seed droves of wild turkey and "buffaloes and antelopes and deers. seed wild cats and coons and "bunches of wolves and heered de panthers scream Like de woman. HUs lived ia a log cafcin with two chimneys and a long shed-room and pooked ia de kitchen fireplace in de skillet and over and de pot racks. Us ade meal on de steel mill and hominy and cheese. I got de prize for spiania1 Sx-slave Stories (lexas) Page Three 254 and weaving I knitted de stockiafs hut Miss Joe had to drap de stitch for me to turn de heels and toes* "Durin1 de freedom war Massa Gea'ral Boh, Young git kilt at de last hattle. Dat de Bull Bua hattle and he fit under Genial Lee. Dat left my missy de war widow and she mammy come live with her and she teached in de school. I stays with dem four year after freedom and Ifs one of de family for de hoard and de clothes. Theyfs good to me and likes to make de de "best lookin' and neatest slave in oat place. I had sich as purty starche< dresses and dey holp me fix de hair nice. "Us used de soft, dim candlelight and I make de candle sticks. Us have gourd dippers and oak huekets to dip water out de well and us make wooden tubs out of stumps and battlin1 sticks to clean de clothes. MI done already met up with Peter Eobinsoa. He*s de slave of Massa Hidley Robinson what was gwine to California from Alabama* with all he slaves. Massa Robinson git kilt "by de Mexican and a white man name Gibb Smith gits to owa Peter. He hires him out to a farmer clost by us ranch and I gits to meet him and us have de courtship end gits married. Dat ffore freedom. Us marries hy Ceasar Berry, de slave of Massa Buck Berry. Oeasar afl de cullud preacher. Pete was Helligent and f liable and de good man. He played de fiddle all over de country and I rid horseback with him miles and miles to dem dances. "Peter could write de plain hand and he gits to haul lumber from Waco to make de Bosque County court house. He lams more and gits to t>e de couatyfs fust cullud trustee and de fust cullud teacher. He gits piated to see after de widows ia time of war and in de •coastruetioa days. ?i*fly he is sont to Austi m, de capital of Texas, to be repfseative. ggiyjj^fa&j^ ^jHMa&^dfraAato .xiXwJwte^ .* hAfr- ,*.,*-»--¦. *»** ¦^¦¦..•y,... ATS.-----* ".."A , ^ , ^l^.jJM^f^fe »>*> y^b-*Wi»g Ssfislave Stories page your (Texas) "Pete a*xd me begot ten chillem. My fust chile am horned two months 'fore freedom. After us slaves is freed us hired out for one year to git means to go free on# Us held by de committee call 'Free Coiamittee Merit1 De wages is ten dollars de month to de family. Aft^r us ready to go for ourselves, my missy am de poor widow and she have only three cows and three calves, hut she give one of each of dem to Pete aad me. "After leavin' Miss Joe us move here and yonder till I gits tired of sich. By den us have sev' ral chillen and I changes from de frivolfty of life to de sincereness,, to shape de dest'ny of de Chilians1 life* I tells Pete when he comes hack from fiddlin1 one night, to buy me de home or hitch up pjnd carry me back to Missy Joe. Dat lead him to buy a strip of land in Meridian. He pays ten dollar de acre. We has a team of oxent call Broad and Buck, and we done our farm in * with dem. Pete builds me a house, hauls de lumber from Waco. Twict us gits burnt out, but builds it fgain. Us makes de orchard a^d sells de fruit. Us raises bees aad sells de honey and gits cows and chickens and turkeys. Pete works good and I puts on niy bonnet and walks behind him and draps de cora. "He gits in organizin' de fust cullud church in Meridian, de cullud Cumberland Pres'terian Church. Us has ever lived de useful life. I works at cookin1 and washin* and iroain'. I helps de doctors with de babies. "But de disfbility of age have to come and now I is 'most disabled a&d feels stunted aad povfty stricken, I'd like to work now, but I isn't able, ******* 4^0145 EX-SLAVE STORIES Pag6 One QK(\ (Texas) ^*U SUSAN BOSS was horn at Magnolia Springs, Texas, about 1862f a slave of Chester Horn. Her feat- ures and the color of her skint together with a secretive manner, would point to Indian blood. She lives with a daughter in the enst part of North Quarters, a Negro settlement in Jasper, Texas, and is still active enough to help her daughter in their little cafe. "Susan Ross my name and I's born at Magnolia Springs durin1 de war, sometime befo' freedom come, I guess 'bout 1S62. Pappyfs name Bob Horn and he came from Georgia, and mazaay name Hallie Horn, and she think she part Indian, but she ain't sbo'. Chester Horn our massa and he have big plantation at Magnolia Springs, and he kep' one big family connection of slaves. Sometime he sold some of 'em and he sold my brother, Jack, *nd my aunt, too# My other brother name Jim r>nd Sam and Aaron and Bill Horn, and my sisters name Mandy and Sarah and Emily. MMass? have lifl houses all orer de plantation for he slaves. Massa and he folks punich dey slaves awful hard, and he used to tie 'em up and whip 'em, too. Once he told my mammy do somethia* and she didn't and he tie and whip her, and I skeert and cry. Mammy cook and work in de field, MI jes' 'member I used to see sojers dr»ss in blue uniforms walkin1 all over de country watchin' how things goia1. Massa want one my brothers go to war, but he wouldn't, so I seed him buckle my "brother down on a log and whip him with whips, den with hand saws, till when he turn him loose you couldn't tell what he look like. My brother lef but I don't know whether he went to war or nd. "I •members when de men w*s goin' to war, somebody allus ~1~ Ex-slave Stories Page Two • Q^'? (Texas) coiae git 'ea. Lots of • em didn't went to go, but dey has to. "Me go to school after us free. "hen my oldes1 brother hear us is free he give a whoop, rua and juap a high fence, and told manmy goodbye. Den he grab me up and hug and kiss me and say, 'Brother gone, don't 'spect you ever see me no more.1 I don't know where he gof but I nevtr did see him fgain. "After freedom, pqppy and zaazamy moves off to deyselfs and farms. I marry when Ifs fourteen and de Rev. George Rr ^ds, he per- form de ceremony, ?7e aarry quiet at home and I wore blue dress and my husband gran' black suit. I have four chillen and five graa'chillea. !ufv husb^n, he work here and yonder, on de farm and what he kin git. "Ifs de vridow now and gits $11,00 pension, but have only git it four times. I lives here with my daughter and us make a lifl in dis yere rest'ran'. "I never did see but one ghost, but I sho1 see one. I cookia* at de hotel in town and have to git up and go down de railroad track to ay work befo1 it git light. One momin' a great, tat 1 something tall and slender as a porch post, come walkin' 'long. He step to one side, but he didn't have no feats. I reckon he have a head, but I couldn't see it. As I pass him I didn't say nothin' and he didn't either. He didn't have time to, befo' I broke and run for ay life. Datfs de onliest ghost I ever see, but I often feel de spirits close by me. ********* 4:30175 -¦ j 23USLAV3 STQEf3S Page One 258 (Texas) A3TOIE ROW, 86, was horn a slave to Mr. Charles Finnely, who owned a plant^ ion in Nscogdoches Co., near Husk, Texas. She has lived at 920 Prank St., Fort "forth, since 1933. f,I wps sho' born in slavery and ps necr as I knows, I mus* be 'bout 86 y^ar old, from what my raaiomy tells me. I figgers tnat, 'cause I was old. enough to clean de wool when de War starts mid dey didn't gen- erally put de c&illuns to work 'fore theys ten year old. ,fMarster Charley owned my m?mray and ray four sisters and two brothers but ny pappy wp,s owned "by Marster John Kluck, end hi place was 'bout five mile from Mprster ?n?.rleyfs plantation. My pappv was flowed a psss ever;'* two weeKs t'ov to come njid see him's family, "but him sees us more often th?n that, fcause him sneak off ev^ry time him have de chance. "Allus cullud folks lived in de cullud quarters. I> cabins was built witn lo^s and dey have no floor. Dey have bunks for to sl^eo on and de fireplace. In de summer time ao/,w.\"kv^ Ex-slave Stories page ffcree (Sexas) and meat and "barrels of flour to take t© war. "Massa didnH tell us we was free for three w fiar days after freedom. Then he said, •You is free; don't leave, 1*11 pay you.f The niggers didn't know what he meant at first, then someone say, fWe is free —no more whippings and heatings.1 You aught to see »em jump and clap their hands and pop them heels. 11 My daddy and mammy left and went to a farm to work for theyselves, hut I stayed till I was near 'bout growed. Then I stayed with daddy and mammy and then come to Marshall. Woods was mostly here then. I cooked all round town for 'bout fifty years. I didn't marry till I's forty-two. I was working at the Capitol Hotel for$15,00 a week. Bube Witt, a cullud Baptist preacher, mar- ried me and Lula Downs and us raises five chillen. "My wife is dead and I ainft been able to work for five years. The relief and the Red Cross carried me till I got my pension and I's sho1 thankful to git that $12.00 a month. 0*00 420140 S&.SLAYB STORIES page One £5C8 (Texas) PLQKffiJQS BOTHS was bom of ex- slave parents in DeKalb, Texas. She talks of spirits, ghosts and spells, reciting incidents told her by her father and mother, who were supposed to hare the "power and the spirit." She lires with a daughter at 1020 W. Weatherford St., Fort Worth, Texas. "Does I believe in de ghostiesT I sho8 does and I tells yous why I knows dere an ghosties. First, I's hear and see dea and lots of other folks I*stsliced to has. Den ay peppy and ay mammy both could see dea, and day has special powers, but dey was good powers, Dey has no use for de evil spells all all sich. "In de old days 'fore surrender de eullud folks talks 'bout ghost ies and hants, but since eduacation am for de eullud folks, some of dea lams to say spirit, 'stead of ghost. Now dey has de church dat say de preacher kin bring de ghost - but dey calls it de spirit - to de aeetin' and talk with (ea. Dat am de spirituallst-tisa church. ¦I's tellin' you de things I hears ay maamy and pappy tell, and some I's seed for ayself What I seed, I kin be de witness for and what ay mammy and pappy says, I kin be de witness for dat, 'cause I's not gwine lie 'bout what de dead people says. "Ders aa only one way to best de ghost and it am call de Lawd and he will banish 'ea. Some folks don't know how to best *ea, so day gits tan'lized bad. Dere a man call' Rverson, and he been de si are. De ghost coae and tell hla to go dig in de graveyard for de pot of gold, and to go by himself. But he am 'fraid of de graveaard and didn't go. So de ghost 'pears 'gain, but dat Ban don't go till de ghost coae de third time. So he goes, but he takes two other man with him, -1- (js^rstopiai ***• Tiw ^G9 •Ireraon digs 'bait fire feet, where de ghost tolt hia to, and he spade hit da iron box. He prises de corer off and dat box m full of de gold coins, f ires and tens and twenties, gold aoney, a whole bushel in dat box* He hollars to de two Ben and day cosies ruanin1, but by de tins dey gits dare, de box aa sunk and all they can see is de hole where it go down. Dey digs and digs, but it ain't no use. If hia hadn»t taken da nen with hia, him be rich, but de ghost didnU want dea other men dere. " In dat dere sane country, dare aa a farm what sho* em hanted. Many faalies tries to lire in dat house, but an forced to move. It aa sposed de niggers what da cruel aassa on dat farm kilt in Blare times, comes back to taa'lize. Be ghost lea coaes in de night and walks back and forth 'cross de yard, and dey can see *ea as plain as day. Dere aa nobody what will stay on dat fara, *My pappy aa con in! ho&e on de hoss one night and he feel like someone on dat hoss behin1 hia. Sa turn and kin see something. Ee say, •What for you gits on ay hoss?% but dere aa no answer. Ee tries to touch dat thing, but he pass his hand right through it and he know it a ghost, and pappy hops off dat hoss and am on de ground ronnin1 quicker dan greased lightning* Pappy sees dat hoss, with de hant on hia, gwine through de woods like de deer. "Sight here in dls house, a person die and dey spirit tan'liie at night. It coae after we goes to bed and patters on de floor with de bare feet and rattles de paper. Dat sho1 git me all a-quireraent. I has, to get de Bible and call de Lawd to banish dea. But I seed de shadow of dat ghost often and it ass a aaa ghost and it look sad. 420038 EX-SU.VE STORIES (Texas) Page One m A0L