SLAVE NARRATIVES A Folk History of Slavery in the United States From Interviews ivith 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 XIII OKLAHOMA NARRATIVES Prepared by the Federal Writers1 Project of the Works Progress Administration for the State of Oklahoma INFORMANTS Adams, Isaac Alexander, Alice Banks, Phoebe Bean, Nancy Rogers Bee, Prince Bonner, Lewis Bridges, Francis Brown, John 1 6 8 12 14 17 20 24 Carder, Sallie Chessier, Betty Foreman Colbert, Polly Conrad, Jr., George Cunningham, Martha Curtis, William 27 50 33 39 45 48 Davis, Lucinda Dawson, Anthony Douglass, Alice Dowdy, Doc Daniel Draper, Joanna 53 65 73 76 81 Easter, Esther Evans, Eliza 88 92 Farmer, Lizzie Fountain, Delia 97 102 Gardner, Nancy George, Octavia Grayson, Mary Grinstead, Robert R. 108 111 115 124 Hardman, Mattie Hawkins, Annie Henry, Ida Hillyer, Morris Hutson, Hal Hut son, William 128 131 134 138 145 148 Jackson, Isabella Johnson, Nellie Jordan, Josie King, George G. King, Martha Kye, George 172 Lawson, Ben Lindsay, Mary Logan, Mattie Love, Kiziah Lucas, Daniel William Luster, Bert 176 178 187 192 200 203 McCray, Stephen McFarland, Hannah Mack, Marshall Manning, Allen B. Maynard, Bob Montgomery, Jane 207 210 212 215 223 227 r Oliver, Amanda Oliver, Salomon 230 233 Petite, Phyllis Poe, Matilda Pyles, Henry F. 236 242 245 Richardson Chaney Richardson, Red Robertson, Betty Robinson, Harriett Rowe, Katie 257 263 266 270 275 Sheppard, Morris Simms, Andrew Smith, Liza Smith, Lou Southall, James 285 295 298 300 306 Tenneyson, Beauregard 310 152 155 160 Walters, William Webb, Mary Frances Wells, Easter White, John Williams, Charley Wilson, Sarah Woods, Tom 312 314 316 322 330 344 354 165 169 Young, Annie 359 ILLUSTRATIONS Facing page Lucinda Davis 53 Anthony Dawson 65 Katie Rowe 275 Charley Williams and Granddaughter 330 Oklahoma Writers1 Project BaySlaves ISAAC APIM? Age 87 yrs. Eulsa, Oklae I was born in Louisiana, way before the War* I ttank it was about ten years before* because I can remember everything so well about the start of the War, and I believe I was about ten years old* My Mammy belonged to Mr* Sack P. Gee, name was, but it maybe was Saxon* I don't know what his real given Anyways we all called him Master Sack. He was a kind of youngish man, and was mighty rich* in England* I think he was born Anyway his pappy was from England, and I think he went back before I was born* Master Sack had a big plantation ten miles north of Arcadia, Louisiana, and his land run ten miles along both sides* He would leave in a "buggy and be gone all day and still not get all over it* There was all kinds of land on it, and he raised cane and oats and wheat and lots of corn and cotton* His cotton fields was the biggest anywheres in that part, and when chopping and picking times come he would get negroes from other people to help out* I never was no good at picking, but I was a terror with a hoe! I was the only child my Mammy had* Master did not own her very long* my pappy belonged* She was just a young girl, and my He got her from Mr* Addison Hilliard, where I think she was going to have me when he got her; anyways I come along pretty soon, and my mammy never was very well afterwards* Master Sack sent her back over to my pappy* Maybe I don't know* Mammy was the house girl at Mr* Sack's because she wasn't very strong, and when I was four or five years old she died* I was big enough to do littla things for Mr* Sack and his daughter, so they kept me at the mansion, and I helped the house boys* lime I was nine or ten Mr* Sack's daughter was getting Oklahoma Writers1 p roject - 2 - ;? to he a young woman fifteen or sixteen years old --and that was old 9 enough to get married off in them days* They had a lot of company just before the War, and they had a idiole hunch of house negroes around all the time* Old Mistress died when I was a baby, so I don't rememher anything about her9 hut Young Mistress was a winder! She would ride horseback nearly all the time, and I had to go along with her when I got big enough* She never did go around the quarters, so I don't know nothing much about the negroes Mr* S$ck had for the fields* They all looked pretty clean and healthy, though, when they would come up to the Big House* He fed them all good and they all liked him* He had so much different kinds of land that they could raise anything they wanted, and he had more mules and horses and cattle than anybody around there* Some of the boys worked with his fillies all the time, and he went off to New Orleans ever once in a while with his race horses* He took his daughter hut they never took me* Some of his land was in pasture but most of it was all open fields, with just miles and miles of cotton rows* There was a pretty good strip along one side he called the "old" fields* That's what they called the land that was wore out and turned hack* It was all growed up in young trees, and that's where he kept his horses most of the time* The first I knowed about the War coming on was when Mr* Sack had a nhole bunch of whitefolks at the Big House at a function* They didnH talk about anything else all evening and then the next time they come nearly all their menfolks wasn't there ~ just the womenfolks* It wasn't very long till Mr* Sack went off to Houma with some other men, and pretty soon we knew he was in the War* I don't remember ever seeing him come Oklahoma Writers1 Project home. - 3 - . I donft think he did until it was nearly all over* Next thing we knowed they was Confederate soldiers riding by pretty nearly every day in big droves* Sometimes they would come and buy corn and wheat and hogs, but they never did take any anyhow, like the Yankees done later on* They would pay with billets, Young Missy called them, and she didnft send them to git them cashed but saved them a long time, and then she got them cashed, but you couldnH buy anything with the money she got for them That Confederate money she got wasn't no good* I was in Arcadia with her at a store, and she had to pay seventy-five cents for a can of sardines for me to eat with some bread I had, and before the War you could get a can like that for two cents* Things was even higher then than later on* but thatfs the only time I saw her buy anything. When the Yankees got down in that country the most of the big men paid for all the corn and meat and things they got, but some of the little bunches of them would ride up and take hogs and things like that and just ride off. They wasn11 anybody at our place but the womenfolks and the negroes* Some of Mr* Sackfs women kinfolks stayed there with Young Mistress* Along at the last the negroes on our place didnft put in much stuff jest what they would need, and could hide from the Yankees, because they would get it all took away from them if the Yankees found out they had plenty o^bora and oats* The Yankees was mighty nice about their manners, though* all around our place for a while. They cashed Sphere was three camps of them close by at one time, but they never did come and use any of our houses or cabins* There was lots of poor whites and Cajuns that lived down below us, between us and the Gulf, and the Yankees just moved into their houses and cabins and used them to camp in* *j> Oklahoma Writers1 Project . - 4 4* The negroes at our place and all of them around there didn't try to get away or leave tdien the Yankees come in* way so they all stayed on* They wasn't no place to go* any- But they didn't do very much work. Just enough to take care of themselves and their whitefolks* Master Sack come home before the War was quite over* been sick, because he looked thin and old and worried* I think he had All the negroes picked up and worked migjfctty hard after he come home, too* One day he went into Arcadia and come home and told us the War was over 6ind we was all free* The negroes didn't know what to make-of it, and didn't know where to go, so he told all that wanted to stay on that they could just go on like they had been and pay him shares* About half of his negroes stayed on, and he marked off land for them to farm and made arrangements with them to let them use their cabins, and let them have mules and tools* They paid him out of their shares, and some of than finally bought the mules and some of the land. But about half went on off and tried to do better somewheres else* I didn't stay with him because I was jest a boy and he didn't need me at the h&use anyway* Late in the War my Pappy belonged to a man named Sander or Zander* been Alexander, but the negroes called him Mr. Sander* Might When pappy got free he come and asked me to go with him, and I went along and lived with him* He had a share-cropper deal with Mr* Sander and I helped him work his patch* That place was just a little east of Hbuma, a few miles* When my Pappy was born his parents belonged to a Mr* Adams, so he took Adams for his last name, and I did too* because I was his son* I don't know iriiere Mr* Adams lived, but I don't think my Pappy was born in Louisiana* Alabama, maybe* * think his parents come off the boat, because he was very black ~- even blacker than I am* Oklahoma Writers1 Project - 5 - I lived there with my Pappy until I was about eighteen and then I married and moved around all over Louisiana from time to time* My wife give me twelve boys and five girls, but all my children are dead now but five. My wife died in 1920 and I come up here to Tulsa to live. One of my daughters takes care and looks out for me now* I seen the old Sack P, See place about twenty years agof and it was all cut up in little places and all run down, Never would have known it was one time a tig plantation ten miles long* I seen places going to rack and ruin all around all the^places I lived at in Louisiana but Ifm glad I wasn't there to see Master Sack's place go down. He wag a good man and done right by all his negroes. Yes, Lord, my old feets have been in mighty nigh every parish in Louisianaf and I seen some mighty pretty places, but I'll never forget how that old Gee plantation looked when I was a boy. ^^^^^f^Wf^^^^^'W^^^'^T1^^^''^' l^n^^v^^ Oklahoma Writers1 Project Ex-Slavefe ALICE ALSXAKDER Age 88 yrsOklahoma City, Okla. I was 88 years old the 15th of March. I was horn in 1849, at Jackson My mother's name was Mary Mariow, and father1 s Henry Parish, Louisiana. llarlow. I can't remember very much !bout slavery fcause I was awful small, "but I can i^efuemher that my mother's master, Colonel Threff died, and "my. mother, her husband, and us three chillim was handed down to Colonel ThreSf' s 'poor kin folks. Colonel Threff owned about two or three hundred head of niggers, and all of fem was tributed to his poor kin. of them tool Ooh weei he sho1 had jest a lot Master Joe Threff, one of his poor kin, took my mother, her husband, and three of us chillun from Louisiana to the Mississippi Line. Down there we lived in a one-room log hut, and. slept on homemade rail bed steads with cotton, and sometimes straw, mostly stsaw stunners and cotton winners, I worked round the house and looked after de smaller chillun ~ I mean my mother's chillun. Mostly we ate yeller meal corn bread and sorghum malasses. stand rabbit meat. I ate possums when we could get 'em, but jest couldn't DidnH know there was any Christmas or holidays in dem days. I canft Wmbuh nothing 'bout no churches in slavery* and loved to dance. I was a sinner I remeiabish I was on the floor one night dancing and I had four daughters on the floor with me and my son was playing de music that got me! I jest stopped and said I wouldnrt cut another step and I 3i ^n%^ 1||$ &^ 3i|ck ^^^^^I^l^lll^^^^^^i^^ Ghisrch and been for 25 #r 30 years. ; 'cause I was an awful sinner. on Colonel S&reff's plantation and my < * i^^^^^^^^^f^ r^7r- -2~ Oklahoma Wri t ers T Pro jec t mother said he was the meanest man on earth. He!d jest go out in de fields ajid heat dem niggers, and my mother told me one day he come out in de field beating her sister and she jumped on him and nearly heat him half to death and old Master come up jest in time to see it all and fired.dat overseer. Said he didnft want no man working fer him dat a woman could whip* After: de war set us free my pappy moved us away and I stayed round down there till I got to he a grown woman and married. You know I had a oretty fine wedding 'cause my paxray had worked hard and commenced -to he prosperous. He had cattle, hogs, chickens and all those things like that. A college of dem niggers got together and packed up to leave Louisiana. Lie and my husband went "with them. We had covered wagons, and let me tell you I walked nearly all the way from Louisiana to Oklahoma. didn't git here till May. We left in March but We came in search of education, fair education down there but didn't take care of it. I got a pretty We come to Oklahoma looking for de same thing then that darkies go North looking fer now. we-./got dissapointed. What little I learned I cLuit taking * care of it and seeing after it and lost it all. "' * " :%-love to fish.Irve worked hard in my days. for 30 years, and j^aid for dis home that way. mother died righ these in dis' house. dead Bat Washed and ironed Yes sir, dis is my home. She was lll'yeahs old. My She is been" f bout 20 yeahsv I have t^ and Ire^;^ Bertie Shannon, - ,W" 350075 Oklahoma Writers* Project Ex-Slaves 10-19-1938 ' 1,423 words PHOEBE BAMKS Age 78 Muskogee, Oklahoma. In 1860, there was a little Creek Indian town of Sodom on the north "bank of the Arkansas River, in a section the Indians called Chocka Bottoms, where Mose Ferryman had a big farm or ranch for a long time before the Civil War. That same year, on October 17, I was born on the Ferryman place, which was northwest of where I livepf now in Muskogee; only in them days Fort Gibson and Okmulgee was the biggest towns around and Muskogee hadn11 shaped up yet. My mother belonged to Mose Ferryman when I ws s born; he was one of the best known Creeks in the whole nation, and one of his younger brothers, Legus Perryman, was made the big chief of the Creeks (1887) a long time after the slaves was freed. Mother's name was Eldee; my father1 s name wa.s William Mclntosh, because he belonged to a Creek Indian family by that name. Everybody say the Mclntoshes was leaders in the Creek doings away back there in Alabama long before they come out here. With me, there was twelve children in our family; Daniel, Stroy, Scott, Segal, Neil, Joe, Phillip, Mollie, Harriett, Sally and Queenie. The Ferryman slave cabins was all alike just two-room log cabins, with a fireplace where mother do the cooking for us children at night after she get through working in the Master's house. Mother was the house girl cooking, waiting on the table, cleaning the house, spinning the yarn, knitting some of the winter clothes, taking care of the mistress girl, washing the clothes yes, she was always busy and worked mighty hard all the time, while them Indians wouldnft hardly do nothing for themselves* On the Mclntosh plantation, my daddy said there was a big number of slaves 8 Oklahoma Writers1 Project and lots of slave children* Phoebe Banks -2- The slave men work in the fields, chopping cotton, raising corn, cutting rails for the fences, building log cabins and fireplaces* One time when father was cutting down a tree it fell on him and after that he was only strong enough to rub down the horses and do light work around the yard. He got to be a good horse trainer and long time after slavery he helped to train horses for-the Pree Pairs around the country, and I suppose the first money he ever earned was made that way. Lots of the slave owners didn't want their slaves to learn reading and writing, but the Perrytnans didn't care; they even helped the younger slaves with that stuff. Mother said her master didn't care much what the slaves do; he was so lazy he didn't care for nothing. They tell me about the ^r times, and that's allf I remember of it. Before the War is over some of the Perryman slaves and some from the Mclntosh place fix up to run away from their masters. My father and my uncle, Jacob Perryman, was some of the fixers. Some of the Creek Indians had already lost a few slaves who slip off to the North, and they take what was left down into Texas so's they couldn't get e,way# Some of the other Creeks was friendly to the North and was fixing to get away up there; thatfs the ones my daddy and uncle was fixing to join, for they was afraid their masters would take up and move to Texas before they could get away. They call the old Creek, who was leaving for the North, "Old Gouge" (Opoethleyohola). All our family join up with him, and there was lots of Creek Indians and slaves in the outfit when they made a break for the North. The run- aways was riding ponies stolen from their masters. When they get into the hilly country farther north in the country that be~ ; long to the Cherokee tndiaxis, they make camp on a big creek and there the Hebel <) IP" Oklahoma Writers1 Project Phoebe Banks -3- Indian soldiers catch up, "but they was fought "back. Then long "before morning lighten the sky^ the men hurry and sling the camp kettles across the pack horses, tie the littlest children to the horses hacks and get on the move farther into the mountains. They kept moving fast as they could, hut the wagons made it mighty slow in the "brush and the lowland swamps, so just about the time they ready to ford another creek the Indian soldiers catch up and the fighting "begin all over again. The Creek Indians and the slaves with them try to fight off thorn soldiers like they did before, but they get scattered around and separated sofs they lose the battle. Lost their horses and wagons, and the soldiers killed lots of the Creeks and Negroes, and some of the slaves was captured and took back to their masters. Dead all over the hills when we get away; some of the Negroes shot and wounded so bad the blood run down the saddle skirts, and some fall off their horses miles from the battle ground, and lay still on the ground. Daddy and Uncle Jacob keep our family together somehow and head across the line into Kansas. We all get to Port Scott where there was a big army camp; daddy work in the blacksmith shop and Uncle Jacob join with the Northern soldiers to fight against the South. He come through the war and live to tell me about the fighting he been in. He went with the soldiers down around Fort Gibson where they fight the Indians who stayed with the South. Uncle Jacob say he killed many a man during the wart and showed me the musket and sword he used to fight with; said he didn*t shoot the woman and children - just whack their heads off with the swordt and almost could I see the blood dripping from the point] It madfe me scared at his stories. Sie captain of this company want Ms men to k$ brave and not ^et scared, Oklahoma Writers1 Project ii Phoebe Banks -4- so before the fighting start he put out a tub of white liquor (corn whiskey) and steam them up sofs they'd be mean enough to whip their grannie! The soldiers do lots of riding and the saddle-sores get so bad they grease their body every night with snake oil so!s they could keep going on. Uncle Jacob said the biggest battle was at Honey Springs (1863). down near Ilk Creek, close by Checotah, below Rentiersville. That was He said it was the most terrible fighting he seen, but the Union soldiers whipped and went back into fort Gibson. The Rebels was chased all over the country and couldn't find each other for a long time, the way he tell it. After the war our family come back here and settle at Port Gibson, but it ain't like the placfe my mother told me about. There was big houses and buildings of brick setting on the high land above the river when I first see it, not like she know it when the Perrymans come here years ago. She heard the Indians talk about the old fort (1824), the one that rot down long before the Civil War. for trading with the stores. And she seen it herself when she go with the Master She said it was made by Matthew Arbuckle and his soldiers, and she talk about Companjr^B, C, D, K, and the Seventh Infantry who was there and made the Osage Indians stop fighting the Creeks and Cherokees. She talk of it, but that old place all gone when I first see the Port. Then I hear about how after the Arbuckle soldiers leave the old log fort, the Cherokee Indians take over the land and start up the town of Keetoowah. The folks who move in there make the place so wild and rascally the Cherokees give up trying to make a good town and it kinder blow away. My husband was fom Banks, but the boy I got ain*t my own son, but I found him on my doorstep when hefs about three weeks old and raise him like he is my own blood. He went to school at the manual training school at Tallahassee and the ediidatiM M 6t get him a teacher job at Taft (Okla), where he is now. 3D0f)79 Oklahoma Writers1 Project Ex-Slave 10-19-38% 530 Words NANCY ROGERS BEAN Age about 82 Hulbert, Okla. I'm getting old and it1 s easy to forget most of the happenings of slave days; anyway I was too little to know much about them, for my mammy told me I was born about six years before the War* My folks was on their way to Fort Gibson, and on the trip I was born at Boggy Depot, down in southern Oklahoma* There was a lot of us children; I got their names somewheres here. Y^es, there was George, Sarah, Etoia, Stella, Sylvia, Lucinda, Rose, Dan, Parap, Jeff, Austin, Jessie, Isaac and Andrew; we all lived in a one-room log cabin on Master Rogers1 place not far from the old military road near Choteau. Mammy was raised around the Cherokee town of fahlequah. I got my name from the Rogers1, but I was loaned around to their relatives most of the time* I helped around the house for Bill McCrackent then I was with Cornelius and Carline Wright, and when I was freed my Mistress was a Mrs. O'Neal, wife of a officer at Fort Gibson, me the best of all and gave me the first doll I ever had. She treated It was a rag doll with charcoal eyes and red thread worked in for the mouth. allowed me one hour every day to play with it. She When the War ended Mistress O'Neal wanted to take me with her to Richmond, Virginia, but my people wouldn't let me go. I wanted to stay with her, she was so good, and she promised to come back for me when I get older, but she never did. All the time I was at the fort I hear the bugles and see the soldiers marching around, but never did I see any battles. too far away. The fighting must have been j[2 Oklahoma Writers1 Project , -2- **-* Master Rogers kept all our family together, but ray folks have told me about how the slaves was sold* One of my aunts was a mean, fighting woman* She was to be sold and when the bidding started she grabbed a hatchet, laid. her hand on a log and chopped it off. right in her master's face* Then she thro wed the bleeding hand Not long ago I hear she is still living in the country around Nowata, Oklahoma. Sometimes I would try to get mean, but always I got me a whipping for it. When I was a little girl, moving around from one family to another, I done housework, ironing, peeling potatoes and helping the maiii cook* I went- barefoot most of my life, but the master would get his shoes from the Government at Fort Gibson. I wore cotton dresses, and the Mistress wore long dresses, with different colors for Sunday clothes, but us slaves didnH know much about Sunday in a religious way* the sly* The Master had a brother who used to preach to the Negroes on One time he was caught and the Master whipped him something awful* Years ago I married Joe Bean. Our children died as babies* Twenty year ago Joe Bean and I separated for good and all* The good Lord knows Vm glad slavery is over* in one place - tha,tf s all I aim to do* Now I can stay peaceful i 350104 Oklahoma Writers1 Project Ex-Slaves # .Age 8 p yrs. Red Bird, Okla. I don't know how old I was;when I found myself standing on the toppen part of a high stump with a lot of white folks walking around looking at the little scared hoy that was me;, Pretty soon the old master, (that's my first master) Saul Kudville, he say to me that I'm now belonging to Major Bee and for me to get down off the auction "block, I do that. to like him. Major Bee he ccjmies over and right away I know I'm going Then when I get to the j Major1 s plantation and see his oldest j daughter Mary and all her "brothers ai).d sisters, and see how kind she is to 1 all them and to all the colored children, why, I just keeps right on liking t em more all the time. ! They was about nine white Children on the place and Mary had. to watch out for them 'cause the mother! was dead. / That Mary gal seen to it that we children got the best food on the j place, the fattest possum and the hottest fish. When the possum was all 1 browned, and the sweet Haters swimming in the good mellow gravy, then she call vm for to eat. Ifc-um-h! That Inras tasty eating! And from the garden come tjhe vegetables like okra and corn and ordons that Mary would mix all up ill the soup pot with lean meats. rest kinder easy on the stomach tooj f That would specially if they was a bit of red squirrel meats in with the stew! Major Bee say it wasn*t giod for me to learn reading and writing* I&eleomed it would rain me. But thef sent me to Sunday School. Sometimes. fi i&*% $agr of the slaves knew how t;o x;ead the Bible either, but they all got V religion anyhow, X believed iri it then and I still do* 14 Oklahoma Writers1 Project -2-. That religion I got in them way "back days is still with me. And it ain't this pie crust religion such as the folks are getting these days. The old time religion had some filling "between the crusts, wasn*t so many empty words like they is today. They was haunts in them way hack days, too. Howfs I know? f Cause I stayed right with the haunts one whole night when I get caught in a norther when the Major sends me to another plantation for to "bring back ^ome cows he's "bargained for. That was a cold night and a frightful one. The "blizzard overtook me and it was dark on the way. I come to an old gin house that everybody said was the hauntinest place in all the county. Bit I went in account of the cold and then when the noises started I was just too scared to move, so there I stood in the corner, all the time til morning come. There was nobody I could see, hut I could hear peoples feet atromping and stomping around the room and they go up and down the stairway like they was running a race. Sometimes the noises would he right "by my side and I would feel like a hot wind passing around me, and lights would flash all over the room. body could I see. No- When daylight come I went through that door without looking hack and headed for the plantation, forgetting all about the cows that Major Bee sent me for to get. When I tells them about the thing, Mary she won't let the old Major scold, and she fixes me up with some warm foods and I is all right again. But I stays me away from that gin place, even in the daylight, account of the haunts. When the War come along the Major got kinder mean with some of the slaves, but not with me. I never did try to run off, but some of 'em did* One of my brothers tried and got caught. -f L Oklahoma Writers1 Project -3- The old Master whipped him *til the "blood spurted all over his "body, the hull whip cutting in deeper all the time. He finish up the whipping with a wet coarse towel and the end got my brother in the eye* He was blinded in the one eye but the other eye is good enoiigh he can see they ainft no use trying to run away no more. After the War they was more whippings. This time it was the night riders - them Klan folks didn't fool with mean Negroes. The mean Negroes was whipped and some of them shot when they do something the Klan folks didnH like, and when they come a-riding up in the nightfall covered with white spreads, they was something bound to happen. Them way back days is gone and I is mighty glad. today needs another leader like Booker Washington. The Negroes of Get the young folks to working, thatfs what they need, and get some filling in their p-fefe crust religion sofs when they meet the Lord their soul^f won11 be empty like is their pocketbooks today! j[ j I 350051 Oklahoma Writers1 Project Ex-Slaves LEWIS 30IH1SR Ago 87" yrs. 507 IT. Durland Oklahoma City, 'Oklahoma I was "born 7 miles north of Palestine, Texas, on llatt Swan son !s place in 1850, "but I kin not remember the date, Swanson. Ky His tress was name Celia liy mas tress was so good to iae till I jest loved her. My family and all slaves on our place was treated good, few floggings went on 'round and about, darkies and didn!t use no other1 n. llighty llaster was the overseer over his I waited table and churned in the Big House. I ate at the table with my mistress and her family and nothing was evah said. We ate bacon, greens, Irish potatoes and such as we git now. Aunt Chaddy was the cook and nurse for all the cliillun on the place. Me used tc hear slaves on de other places hollering from whippings, but master never whipped his niggers !less they lied. other places would ran off and come to our place, Sometimes slaves from Llaster would take them back and tell the slave-holders how to treat them so dey wouldn't run off again. Mistress had a little stool for me in the big house, and if I got sleepy, she put me on the foot of her bed and I stayed there til morning, got up washed my .face and hands and got ready to wait on the table. There was four or five hundred slaves on our place. during slavery, my father killed 18 white men and ran away. One mourning They said he was lazy and whipped him, and he just killed all of 'em he could, which was 18 of 'eixw He stayed away 3 years without being found. 7 before they could kill him. He come back and killed When he was on the place he jest made bluing. -HN Oklahoma Writers1 Project -2- My mother worked in the field and weaved cloth. Shirts dat she made lasted 12 months, even if wore and washed and ironed every 'day. Pants could not be ripped with two men pulling on dem with all their might. You talking '"bout clothes', them was- some clothes then. Clothes made now jest don't come up to them near abouts. Doing of slavery, we had the "best church, lots better than today. I an a Baptist from head to foot, yes sir, yes sir. else. In the first place, I wouldn't even try. I knows when the war started and ceaseted. war. Jest couldn't be nothing ~ I tell you it was some When it was all over, the Yankees come thoo1 singing, "You may die poor but you wonft die a slave." When the War was over, master told us that we could go out and take care of the crops already planted and plant the ones that need planting, 'cause we knowed all fbout the place and we would go halvers. 3 years after slavery. Tie stayed on We got a little money, but we got room and board and didn't have to work too hard- It was enough difference to tell you was no slaves any more. ^After slavery and when I was old enough I got married, a gal that was a daughter of her master. sho' didn't return it. jest all the time. I married He wanted to own her, but she He kept up with her till he died and sent her money Before he died, he put her name in his will and told his oldest son to be sure and keep up with her. The son was sure true to his promise, for till she died, she was forever hearing from him or he would visit us, even after we moved to Oklahoma from Texas. X Our chillun and grandchillun will git her part since she is gone. She was gore.-.a good wife and for no reason did I take the second look at no mmaxi* That was love, which don't live no more in our hearts. 18 Oklahoma Writers1 Froject -^3- I make a few pennies selling fish worms and doing a little yard work and raising vegetables. Not much money in circulation, my old age pension, it will make things a little mite "better. When I gets I guess the time will "be soon. Tain't nothing hut had treatment I ain1t had none* that makes people die young and 19 350089 Oklahoma Writers1 Project N 8 JkAfe Yd W fj>- - EX-Slave PEANCIS 3RID&ES Age 73 yrs. Oklahoma City, Okla, I was "born in Red River County, Texas in 1364, and that makes me 73 years old* I had myself 75, and I went to my v/hite folks and they counted it up and told me I was 73, hut I always felt like I was older than that. My husband1 s name is Henry Bridges. gether and married* I had five sisters. about two years ago. He was a Fisher* We was raised up children to- My "brother died here in Oklahoma Mary Russell, my sister, she lives in Parish, Texasj Willie Ann Poke, she lives in Greenville, Texas; Winnie lackson, lives in Adonia, Texas, and Mattie White, my other sister, lives in Long Oak, Texas, White Hunt County. Our Master was named Master Travis Wright, and we all ate nearly the same thing. Such things as barbecued rabbits, coon, posstims baked with sweet potatoes and all such as that. I used to hang round the kitchen. The cook, Mama Winnie Long, used to feed all us little niggers on the flo1, jest like little pigs, in tin cups and wooden spoons. We ate fish too, and I like to go fishing right this very day. We lived right in old Master Wright's yard. on a high hill. His house sat way up It was jest a little old log hut we lived in a little old shack around the yard. They was a lot of little shacks in the yard, I canft tell jest how many, but it was quite a number of 'em. We slept in old-fashion beds that we called "corded beds", 'cause they had ropes crossed to hold the mattresses for slats. Some of !em had beds nailed to the wall. rff\ Oklahoma Writers1 Project -2- * Master Travis bright had one son named Sam Wright, and after old Master Travis Wright died, young Master Sara Wright come to he my mother's master. He jest died a few years ago. My mother say dey had a nigger driver and hefd whip fem all "but his daughter. I never seen no slaves whipped, but my mother say dey had to whip her Uncle Charley Mills once for tell a story. She say he bored a hole in de A W8.ll of de store ftil he bored de hole in old Master1 s whiskey barrel, and he caught two jugs of whiskey and buried it in de banks of de river. When old Master found out de whiskey was gone, he tried to make Uncle Charley" ffess up, and Uncle Ch-rley wouldn't so he brung him in and hung him and barely let his toes touch. After Uncle Charley thought he was going to kill him, he told where de whiskey was. We didn't go to church before freedom, land noJ 'cause the closest church was so far it was 30 miles off. But I'm a member of the Baptist Church and I've been a member for some 40-odd years. heerd of a Methodist Church. I was past 40 ?/hen I My favorite song is "Companion." I didnH get to go to school 'til after slavery. I 'member more after de War. I 'member my mother said dey had pat rollers, and if de slaves would get passes from de Master to go to de dances and didn't git back before ten o'clock dey*d beat 'em half to death. I used to hear lam talking 'bout Ku Klux Klan coming to the well to get water. stomachs. They'd draw up a bucket of w^ter and pour the water in they false They false stomachs was tied on 'em with a big leather buckle. ,,x They'd jest pour de water in there to scare em and say, his is the first drink of water I've had since I left Hell." Theyfd say all sech things to scare the cullud folks. I heerd my mother say they sold slaves on what they called an apction J2JL Oklahoma Writers1 Project block. -3- Jest like if a slave had any portly fine looking children they'd sell them chillun jest like selling cattle. I didnft see this, jest heerd it. After freedom, when I was old enough then to work in the field, we lived on Mr* Martin1s paflfritation. yes'm! We worked awful hard in the fields. Lawd I've heard fbout shucking up de corn, but give me dem cotton pickings. Fry'd pick out all de crop of cotton in one day. The women would cook and de men'd pick the cotton, I mean on dem big cotton pickings. they meals. Some would work for Then after deyfd gather all de crops, dey'd give big dances, drink whiskey, aJid jest cut up sumpin terrible. V/e didnft know anything fbout holi- days. I!ve heard my husband talk fbout "Haw head an1 bloody bones." Said whenever dey mothers wmted i& scrre *ein to make !em be good dey'd tell 'em dat a man was outside de door and asked her if she'd hold his head while he fixed his back bone. hants. I donft believe in voodooing, and I don't believe in I used to believe in&otlr of fen when I y/as young. I married Jake Bridges. married us and we had a license. Ve had a ordinary wedding. The preacher We have two sons gpown living here. My husband told me that in slavery if your Master told you to live with your brother, you had to live with him. My fatherfs mother and dad was first cousins. I can 'member my husband telling me he was hauling lumber from Jefferson where the saw mill was and it was cold that night, and when they got halfway back it snowed, and he stopped with, an old cullud family, and he said way in the night, a knock come at de door --woke 'em up, and it was an old cullud man, and he said dis old man commence inquiring, trying to find out who dey people was and dey told him best dey could remember, and bless de Lawd, 'fore dey finished talking de found out dis old cullud man and de other cullud woman an' man dat was married was all brothers and sisters, and he told his brother *> / Oklahoma Writers1 Project -4- it v/as a shame he had married his sister and dey had nine chillun. My husband sho1 told me dis. I've heerd 'em say dey old master raised chillun by those cullud women. Vhy, there was one white man in Texas had a cullud woman, but didn't have no chillun by her, a.nd he had this cullud woman and her old mistress there on the same place. So, when old Mistress died he wouldnft let this cullud woman leave, and he gave her a swell home right there on the place, and she is still there I fuess. They sa,y she sa,y sometime, she didn't want yfco Negro man smutting her sheets up. I think Abraham Lincoln was a good man, and I have read, a whole lots f bout him, but I don't know much 'bout Jeff Davis. is a fine man, but I aint heerd so much about him. I think Booker T. Y/ashington 0*> 350102 Oklahoma Writers* Project Ex-Slaves K*m JOHK mom Age (about) 87 yrs. Test Tulsa, Okla. Most of the folks have themselves a regular birthday but this old colored an just pick out any of the days during the year - one day just about as good as another. I been around a long time but I donft know when I got here. Thatfs Nearest I figures it the year was 1850 - the month donft make no the truth. difference nohow. But I know the bomirtg was down in T&loga County, Alabaaaa, near the county seat town. Master John Brown. Miss Afaby was with my Masmy that day. She was the wife of She was with all the slave women every time a baby was born, or when a plague of misery hit the folks she knew what to do and what kind of medicine to chase off the aches and pains. God bless her! She sure loved us Fegrees. Host of the time there was morefn three hundred slaves on the plantation, of then. fhe oldest ones cone right from Africa. A savage in Africa - a slave in America. M? Grandmother was one Mamsy told it to me. there all the natives dressed naked and lived on fruits and nuts. Over lever see many white mess. One day a big ship stopped off the shore and the natives hid in the brush along the beach. Grandmother was there, fhe ship men sent a little boat to the shore and scattered bright things and trinkets on the beach. natives w&rB curious* soon as the boat left, fhe Grandmother said everybody made a rush for them things fhe trinkets was fewer than the peoples* "shite folks scatter soae ore. fhere was another scramble, Iferfc day the fhe natives ms OA Oklahoma Writers1 Project -2- > ) feeling less scared, and the next day some of them walked up the gangplank to get things off the plank and off the deck. The deck was covered with things like they*d found on the "beach. Two-three hundred natives on the ship when they feel it move. the side hut the plank was gone. They rush to Just dropped in the water when the ship moved away. Folks on the "beach started to crying and shouting. "boat was wild with fear. The ones on the Grandmother was one of them who got fooled, and she say the last thing seen of that place was the natives running up and down the "beach waving their arms and shouting like they was-mad. The "boat men come up from "below where they had teen hiding and drive the slaves down in the hottom and keep them quiet with the whips and clubs. The slaves was landed at Charleston. The town folks was mighty mad 'cause the "blacks was driven through the streets without any clothes, and drove off the "boat men after the slaves was sold on the market. load was sold to the Brown plantation in Alabama. Most of that, Grandmother was one of the hunch. The Browns taught them to work. Made clothes for them. time the natives didnH like the clothes and try to shake them off. was three Brown "bays - John, Charley and Henry. There Nephews of old Lady Hyatt who was the real owner of the plantation, hut the hoys run the place. lady she lived in the town. For a long The old Come out in the spring and fall to see how is the plantation doing. She was a fine woman. good. The Brown "boys and their wives was just as WouldnH let nohody mistreat the slaves. get the whip less he need it had. Whippings was few and nohody They teach the young ones how to read and write; say it was good for the Negroes to know ahout such things. Oklahoma Writers1 Project -3 - Sunday was a great day around the plantation. The fields was for- gotten, the light chores was hurried through and everybody got ready for the church meeting. It was out of the doors, in the yard fronting the big log where the Browns all lived. Master John's wife would start the meeting with a prayer and then would come the singing. The old timey songs. The white folks on the next plantation would lick their slaves for trying to do like we did. No praying there, and no singing. The Master gave out the week's supply on Saturday. Plenty of hams, lean bacon, flour, corn meal, coffee and morefn enough for the week. go hungry on that placei Nobody Daring the growing season all the slaves have a garden spot all their own. Three thousand acres on that place - plenty of room for gardens and field crops. Sven during the war foods was plentiful. diers visit the place. One time the Yankee sol- The white folks gone and I talks with them. Asks me lots of questions - got any meats - got any potatoes - got any this - some of that - but I just shake my head and they don't look around. The old cook fixes them up though. skillet the ham and pan the biscuits! She fry all the eggs on the place, Them soldiers fill up and leave the house friendly as anybody I ever seel The Browns wasn't bothered with the Ku Klux Ilan either. The Negroes minded their own business just like before they was free. I stayed on the plantation 'til the last Brown die. Then I come to Oklahoma and works on the railroad 'til I was too old to hustle the grips and packages. $ow I just sits thinking how much better off would I be on the old plantation. Homesick! good old times! Just homesick for that Alabama farm like it was in them OA 350015 Oklahoma Writers1 Project Ex-Slavey SALLIES GAHD3R Age 83 yrs* Burwin, Okla. I was horn in Jackson, Tennessee, and I'm going on 83 years* My mother was Harriett Neel and father Jeff Bills, both of them named after their masters* I has one brother, J* B# BinSf tut all de rest of my brothers and Asters is dead. No sir, we never had no money while I was a slave* have nothing a-tallJ We jest didnft We ate greens, corn bread, and ash cake* De only time I ever got a biscuit would be when a misdemeanor was did, and my Mistress would give a buttered biscuit to de one ufao could tell her who done it* In hot weather and cold weather dere was no difference as to nhat we wore* We wore dresses my mother wove for us and no shoes a^tall* never wore any shoes till I was grown and den dey was old < rogans wid only two holes to lace, one on each side* During my wedding I wore a blue calico dress, a man's shirt tall as a head :*ag, and a pair of brogan shoes* My Master lived in a three-story frame house painted white* Mistress was very mean* My Sometimes she would make de overseer whip negroes for looking too hard at her when she was talking to dem* Dey had four children, three girls and one boy* * was a servant to my Master, and as he had de palsy I had to care for him, feed him and push him around* I don11 know how many slaves, but he had a good deal of fem* About four o'clock mornings de overseer or negro carriage driver who stayed at the Big House would ring de bell to git up and git to work* cyy Oklahoma Writers1 Project - 2*- De slaves would pick a heap of cotton and work till late on moonshining nights Dere was a white post in front of my door with ropes to tie the slaves to whip dem. Dey used a plain strap, another one with holes in it, and one dey call de cat wid nine tails which was a number of straps plated and de ends unplated. Dey would whip de slaves wid a wide strap wid holes in it and de holes would make blisters* Den dey would take de cat wid nine tails and hurst de "blisters and den rob de sores wid turpentine and red pepper. I never saw any slaves auctioned off "but I seen dem pass our house chained together on de way to he sold, including hoth men and women wid "babies all chained to each other* Dere was no churches for slaves, hut at nights dey would slip off and git in ditches and sing and pray, and when dey would sometimes he caught at it dey would he whipped. Some of de slaves would turn down big pots and put dere heads in dem and pray. My Mistress would tell me to he a good obedient slave and I would go to heaven. When slaves would attempt to run off dey would catch dem and chain dem and fetch fem hack and whip dem before dey was turned loose again. De patrollers would go about in de quarters at nights to see if any of de slaves was out or slipped off. As we sleep on de dirt floors on pallets, de patrollers would walk all over and on us and if we even grunt dey would whip us. Be only trouble between de whites and blacks on our plantation was when de overseer tied my mother to whip her and ay father untied her and de overseer shot and killed him. Negroes never was allowed to git sick, and when dey would look somewhat sick, de overseer would give dem some blue-mass pills and oil of some sort 28 Oklahoma Writers1 Troject - 3 - and make dem continue to work* During de War de Yankees would pass through and kill up de chickens and hogs 9 and cattle t and eat up all dey could find. De day of freedom de overseer went into de field and told de slaves dat dey was free, and de slaves replied, "free how?* and he told demt "free to work and live for demselves.- And dey said dey didnft know what to do, and so some of dem stayed on. I married Josh Torch. I am mother of four children and 85 r grand children. I like Abraham Lincoln. I think he was a good man and president. didn't know much who Jeff Davis was. * What I heard bout Booker I. Washington he was a good man. Now dat slavery is overt I don't want to be in nary fnother slavery, and if ever nary fnothern come up I wouldn't stay here. 29 350063 Oklahoma Writers1 Project Ex-Slavfe BEETT FOREMAN* CHESSIBR Age 94 years Oklahoma City, Okla. I was bora July 11, 1843 in Ealeigjh, H* C* My mother was named Melinda Manley, the slave of Governor Manley of North Carolina, and my father was named Arnold Foreman, slave of Boh and John Foreman, two young masters. They come over from Arkansas to visit my master and my pappy and mammy met and got married, f though my pappy only seen my mammy in the summer when his masters come to visit our master and dey took him right hack. I had three sisters and two brothers and none of dem was my whole "brothers and sisters* 1 stayed in the Big House all the time, hut my sisters and brothers was gived to the master1 s sons and daughters whey dey got married and dey was told to send back for some more when dem died* mammy doing of slavery* I didn*t never stay with my I stayed in the. Big House* room table with three other darkies. I slept under the dining !Ehe flo1 was well carpeted* remembah xqy grandmammy and grandpappy, but EQT Don't master was they master* I waited on the table, kept flies off fn my mistress and went for the mail* time* Never made no money, but dey did give the slaves money at Christmas I never had over two dresses* One was calico and one gingham* I had such underclothes as dey wore then* Master Manley and Mistress had six sons an1 six darters* dem all till dey was grown too* Dey lived in a great big house Dey raised f cross from the mansion, right in town before Master was flected Governor, den dey all moved in dat mansion* Plantation folks had barbecues and "lay crop feasts11 and invited the city darkies out* When I first come here I couldn't understand the folks here, *cause dey didn't quit work on Saster Monday* life Ifaat is some day 30 Oklahoma Waiters' Project _2- Ql in North Carolina even today. almost in prison. I doesn11 remember any play songs, 'cause I was I couldn't play with any of the darkies and I doesn't re- member playing in my life when I was a little girl and when I got grown I didnft want to. I wasn't hongry, I wasn't. naked and I got only five licks from the white folks in my life. I saw 'em sell niggers once. Dey was for heing such a hig forgitful girl. The only pusson I ever seen whipped at dat whipping post was a white man. I never got no learning; dey kept us from dat, "but you know some of dem darkies learnt anyhow. We had church in the heart of town or in* the basement of some old building. I went to the 'piscppal church most all the time, till I got to be a Baptist. The slaves run away to the North 'cause dey wanted to be free. of w family run away sometime and dey didn't catch 'em neither. rollers sho1 watched the streets. Some The pat- But when dey caught any of master's niggers without passes, dey jest locked him up in the guard house and master come down in the mawnin' and git 'em out, but dem patrollers better not whip one. I know when the War commenced and ended. from the Big House to the office about a mile away. Master Manley sent me Jest as I got to the office door, three men rid up in blue uniforms and said, "Dinah, do you have any milk in there?" I was sent down to the office for some beans for to cook dinner, but dem men most nigh scared me to death. They never did go in dat office, but jest rid off on horseback about a quarter a mile and seem lak right now, Yankees fell out of the very sky, 'cause hundeds and hundeds was everywhere you could look to save your life. Old Mistress sent one of her grandchillun to tell me to come on, and one of the Yankees told dat child, "You tell your grandmother she ain't coming now and never will come back there as a slave." Master was setting on the mansion porch. Dem Yankees come up on Oklahoma Writers1 Project -3- de porch, go down in cellar and didnH tech one "blessed thing. took heart trouble, Old Mistress f cause dem Yankees whipped white folks going and coming. I laid in my bed a many night scared to death of Klu Klux Klan. Dey would come to your house and ask for a drink and no more want a drink than nothing. After the Waa?, I went to mammy and my step-pappy. She done married again, so I left and went to Warrington and Hal^ifax, North Carolina, jest for a little while nursing some white chillun. I stayed in Ealeigh, where I was "born till 7 years ago, when I come to Oklahoma to live with my only living child. I am the mother of 4 chillun and 11 grandchillun. When I got married I jumped a "broomstick. To git unmarried, all you had to do was to jump "backwards over the same "broomstick. Lincoln and Booker I. Washington was two of the finest men ever lived. Bonft think nothing of Jeff Davis, for us was the best thing ever happened. f cause he was a traitor, freedom Prayer is best thing in the world. Everybody ought to pray, 'cause prayer got us out of slavery gg 350018 Oklahoma Writers1 Project Ex-Slaves t? POLLY C0LBEB3? Age 83 yrs. Colbert, Oklahoma I am now living on de forty-acre farm dat de Government give me and it is just about three miles from my old home on Master Holmes Colbert1 s plantation where I lived when I was a slave* Lawsy me, times sure has changed since slavery timesl Maybe I notice it more since I been living here all de timef but dere's farms round here dat I*ve seen grown timber cleared off of twice during my lifetime* Dis land was first cleared up and worked by niggers when dey was slaves* After de War nobody worked it and it just naturally growed up again wid all sorts of trees* I ater, white folks cleared it up again and took grown trees off fn it and now dey are still cultivating it but it is most wore out now* Some of it wonft even sprout peas* Dis same land used to grow corn without hardly any work but it sure won*t do it now* I reckon it was on account of de rich land dat us niggers dat was owned by Indians didnH have to work so hard as dey did in de old states, but I think dat Indian masters was just naturally kinder any way, leastways mine was* My mother, Li2a, was owned by de Colbert family and my father, Tony, was owned by de Love family* When Master Holmes and Miss Betty Love was married dey fathers give my father and mother to dem for a wedding gift* I was born at Tishomingo and we moved to de farm on Red Hiver seon after dat and I been here ever since* dem since den. * had a sister and a brother, but I ain't seen 33 Oklahoma Writers1 Project -.2- My mother died when I was real small* and about a year after dat my father died. Master Holmes told us children not to cry* dat he and Miss Betsy would take good care of us. Dey did* too* Dey took us in de house wid dem and look after us jest as good as dey could colored children* We slept in a little room close to them and she allus seen dat we was covered up good before she went to "bed* I guess she got a sight of satisfaction from taking care of us 'cause she didn't have no "babies to care for* Master Holmes and Miss Betsy was real young folks but dey was purty well fixed. a e owned about 100 acres of land dat was cleared and ready for de plow and a lot dat was not in cultivation* He had de woods full of hogs and cows and he owned seven or eight grown slaves and several children. I remember Uncle Shed, Uncle Lige, Aunt Chaney, Aunt Lizzie, and Aunt Susy just as well as if it was yesterday, half-breed Choc taw Indians. Dey had both been away to school somewhere in de states and was well educated. was little. ^aster Holmes and Miss Betsy was both Dey had two children but dey died when dey Another little girl was born to dem after de War and she lived to be a grown woman. Dey sure was fine young folks and provided well for us* ^e allus had a smokehouse full of meat* lard, sausage, dried beans, peas, corn, potatoes, turnips and collards banked up for winter. He had plenty of milk and butter for all of us,too. Master Holmes allus say, MA hungry man caint work.* And he allus saw to it that we had lots to eat. We cooked all sorts of Indian dishes: Tom-fuller, pashofa, hickory-nut grot, Tomnbudha, ash-cakes, end pound cakes besides vegetables and meat dishes. Corn or corn meal was used in all de Indian dishes. outfn de whole grains. We made hominy Tom-fuller was made from beaten com and tasted sort 34 Oklahoma Writers1 Project ?- of like hominy. We would take corn and "beat it like in a wooden mortar wid a wooden pestle* We would husk it by fanning it and we would den put it on to cook in a big pot* While it was cooking we'd pick out a lot of hickory-nutsf tie f em up in a cloth and beat 'em a little and drop fem in and cook for a long time* We called dis dish hickory-nut grot* When we made pashofa we beat de corn and cook for a little while and den we add fresh pork and cook until de meat was done* Tonnbudha was green corn and fresh meat cooked together and seasoned wid tongue or pepper-grass. We cooked on de fire place wid de pots hanging over de fire on racks and den we baked bread and cakes in a oven-skillet* baking powder* We didn't use soda and We'd put salt in de meal and scald it wid boiling water and make it into pones and bake it* We'd roll de ash cakes in wet cabbage leaves and put 'em in de hot ashes and bake 'em. roasting ears dat way also* We cooked potatoes* and We sweetened our cakes wid molasses, and dey was plenty sweet too. Dey was lots of possums and coons and squirrels and we nearly always had some one of these to eat* We'd parboil de possum or coon and put it in a pan and bake him wid potatoes 'round him* gravy. We used de broth to baste him and for Hit sure was fine eating dem days* I never had much work to do* and I run errands for Miss Betsy* I helped 'round de house when I wanted to I liked to do things for her* When Xgot a little bigger my brother and I toted cool water to de field for de hands. Didn't none of Master Holmes' niggers work when dey was sick* saw dat dey had medicine and a doctor iffen dey needed one* He allus 'Bout de only sickness we had was chills and fever* *n de old days we made lots of our own medicine and I still does it yet* We used polecat grease for croup and ) Oklahoma Writers1 Project rheumatism. -4- Dog-fennel, hutterfly-root, end life-everlasting boiled and mixed and made into a syrup will cure pneumonia and pleurisy* Fursley-weed, called squirrel physicf hoiled into a syrup will cure chills and fever* Snake-root steeped for a long time and mixed with whiskey will cure chills and fever also* Our clothes was all made of homespun* De women dome all de spinning and de weaving hut Miss Betsy cut out all de clothes and helped wid de sewing* She learned to sew when she was away to school and she learnt all her women to sew* She done all the sewing for de children* "bought our shoes and we all had fem to wear in de winter* Master Holmes We all went hare- foot in de summer* He kept mighty good teams and he had two fine saddle horses* Miss Betsy rode fem all de time. He and She would ride wid him all over de farm and dey would go hunting a lot, too* She could shoot a gun as good as any man* Master Holmes sure did love his wife and children and he was so proul of her* It nearly killed 'em hoth to give up de little hoy and girl* * never did hear of him taking a drink and he was kind to everybody, hoth hlack and white, and everybody liked him* turned anybody away* Dey had lots of company and dey never We lived about four miles from de ferry on Bed &iver on de Texas Eoad and lots of travelers stopped at our house* We was flowed to visit de colored folks on de Eastman and Carter plantations dat joined our farm* married Indian wives. Eastman and Carter was hoth white men dat Dey was good to dey slaves, too, and let *em visit us* Old Uncle Kellup (Caleh) Colbert, Uncle Billy Hbgan, Eev. John Carr, 36 Oklahoma Writers1 Project -5- Rev* Baker, Rev. Hogue, and old Father Murrow preached for de white folks all de time and us colored folks went to church wid dem. Dey had church under brush arbors and we set off to ourselves but we could take part in de singing and sometimes a colored person would get happy and pray and shout but nobody didnft think nothing 'bout dat. De Pat^rollers was de law, kind of like de policeman now* never Dey sure did whip one of Master Holmes1 niggers for he didnft allow it* H e didnft whip fem hisself and he sure didnft allow anybody else to either* I was afraid of de Xu Kluxers too, and I 'spects dat Master Holmes was one of de leaders if fen de truth was known* I was scared of de Yankee soldiers* Dey sure was scary looking* Dey come by and killed some of our cattle for beef and took our meat and lard outfn de smokehouse and dey took some com. too. Us niggers was awful mad. 'bout dem fighting to free us. We didnft know anything We didnft specially want to be free dat I knows of* Right after de War I went over to Bloomfleld Academy to take care of a little girl, but I went back to Master Holmes and Miss Betsy at de end of two years to take care of de little girl dat was born to dem and I stayed with her until I was about fifteen. Master Holmes went to Washington as a delegate, for something for de Indians, and he took sick and died and dey buried him dere. Poor Miss Betsy nearly grieved herself to death* stayed on at de farm till her little girl was grown and married* She Her nigger men stayed on with her and rented land from her and dey sure raised a sight of truck* Didnft none of her old slaves ever mcse very far from her and most of them worked for her till dey was too old to work* I left Miss Betsy purty soon after Master Holmes died and went back to 3*7 Oklahoma Writers1 Project -6- de Academy and stayed three yea*s, Holmes1 cousin* I married a man dat belonged to Master His name was Colbert, too, I had a big wedding. Miss Betsy and a lot of white folks come and stayed for dinner. We danced all evening and after sapper we started again and danced all night and de next day and de next nigfct* Wefd eat awhile and den we'd dance awhile* My husband and I had nine children and now I've got seven grandchildren. My husband has been dead a long time* My sister, Ohaney, lives here close to me bat her mind has got feeble and she can't recollect as much as I can, mighty good to me, I live with my son and he-is I know I ain't long for dis world but I don't mind for I has lived a long time and I'll have a lot of friends in de other world and I won't be lonesome* m. to: 38 35 Oklahoma Writers1 Project ^ Ex-Slaves GBORQB OONBAJ), JR., Age 77 yrs. Oklahoma City, Okla. I was horn February 23, 1860 at Connersville, Harrison County, Kentucky. My mother1 s name is I was born and lived just 13 miles from Parish. Eachel Conrad, born at Bourbon County, Kentucky. My father, George Conrad, was born at Bourbon County Kentucky. My grandmother1 s name is Sallie Amos, and grandfather1 s name is Peter Amos. My grandfather, his old Mastef freed him and he bought my grandmother, Aunt Liza and Uncle Cy. He made the money by freighting groceries from Ohio to Maysville, Kentucky. Our %ster was named Master Joe Conrad. H Mosw Joe Conrad. We sometimes called him Master Joe Conrad stayed in a big log house with weather boarding on the outside. I was born in a log cabin. We slept in wooden beds with rope cords for slats, and the beds had curtains around them. Tou see my mother was the cook for the Master, and she cooked everything chicken, roasting ears. She cooked mostly everything we have now. in big ovens. that we had. Ihe skillets had three legs. They didnft have stoves; they cooked I can remember the first stove I guess I was about six years old. My old Master had 900 acres of land. made three barrels of whisky a day* 13 a gallon. Ifcr father was a stiller. He Before the War whisky sold for 12 ^ and After the War it went up to $3 and $4 per gallon. When far broke out he had 300 barrels hid under old Master's barn. ' There was 14 colored men working for olcL Master Joe and 7 women. I think it was on the 13th of May, all 14 of these colored men, and my father, went to the Army. When old Master Joe come to wake fem up the next morning I remember he called real loud, Miles, Esau, George, Frank, Arch, on down the linef and my mother told him theyfd all gone to the army. Old Master went 39 Oklahoma Writers1 Project -2- to Cynthia, Kentucky, where they had gone to enlist and begged the officer in charge to let him see all of his boys, but the officer said "No.H Some way or Mother he got a chance to see Arch, and Arch came back with him to help raise the crops. My mother cooked and took care of the house. of the children. Aunt Sarah took care I had two little baby brothers, Charlie and John. The old Mistress would let my mother put them in her cradle and Aunt Sarah got jealous, and killed both of the babies. out two frogs. When they cut one of the babies open they took Some say she conjured the babies. Them niggers could 'con- jure each other but they couldn't do nothing to the whitefolks, but I don!t There1 s an old woman living back there now (pointing around believe in it. the corner of the house where he was sitting) they said her husband put a spell on her. They call fem two-headed Negroes. Old Master never whipped any of his slaves, except two of my uncles Pete Conrad and Richard Sherman, now living at Palsmouth, Kentucky. We raised corn, wheat, oats, rye and barley, in the spring. In January, February and March wefd go up'to the Sugar Camp where he had a grove of maple trees. We'd make maple syrup and put up sugar in cakes. for $2.50 and $3 a cake. He had a regular sugar house. Sugar sold My old Master was rich I tell you. Whenever a member of the white family die all the slaves would turn out, and whenever a slave would die, whitefolks and all the slaves would go. My Master had a big vault. called a potanic coffin. My Mistress was buried in an iron coffin that they I went back to see her after I was 21 years old and she look jest like she did when they buried her. All of the family was buried in them vaults, and I expect if youfd go there today they'd look the same. The slaves was buried in good handmade coffins. I heard a lot of talk fbout the patrollers. away from home and didn't have a pass they'd whip you. In them days if you went Sometimes they'd whip 4f) Oklahoma Writers1 Project -3-# you with a long "black cow whip, and then sometime they!d roast elm switches in the fire. dat. This was called wcat-o-nine-tails", and theyfd whip you with We never had no jails; only punishment was just to whip you. Now, the way the slaves travel. If a slave had been good some- times old Master would let him ride his hoss; then, sometime they!d steal a hoss out and ride x em and slip him "back before old Master ever found it out. There was a man in them, days by the name of John Brown. We called him an underground railroad man, 'cause hefd steal the slaves and carry !em across the river in a boat. When you got on'the other side you was free, r cause you was in a free State, Ohio, We used to sing, and I guess young folks today does too: f, John Brown1 s Body Lies A'moulding In the Clay." and "They Hung John Brown On a Sour Apple Tree.11 Our slaves all got very good attention when they got sick. send and get a doctor for 'em. Theyfd You see old Mistress Mary bought my mother, father and two -efe**S'EBar throwed in for $1,100 and she told Master Joe to always keep her slaves, not to sell !em and always take good care of 'em. When my father went to the army old Master told us he was gone to fight for us niggers freedom. My daddy was the only one that come back out of the 13 men that enlisted, and when my daddy come back old Master give him a huggy and hoss. When the Yanks come, I never will forget one of 'em was named John Morgan. We carried old Master down to the barn and hid him in the hay. I felt so sorry for old Master they took all his hams, some of his whiskey, and all dey could find, hogs, chickens, and jest treated him something terrible. The whitefolks learned my father how to read and write, but I didn't learn how to read and write 'til I enlisted in the U. S. Army in 1883. A\ Oklahoma Writers1 Project -4^ 42 They sent us here (Oklahoma Territory) to keep the immigrants from settling up Oklahoma* I went to Fort Riley the 1st day of October 1883, and stayed there three weeks. Left Tort Riley and went to Ft. Worth, Texas, and landed in Henryetta, Texas, on the 14th day of October 1883. 65 miles to walk to Ft. Sill. Then, we had We walked there in three days. I was assigned to my Company, Troop G. 9th Calvary, and we stayed and drilled in Ft. Sill six months, when we was assigned to duty. We got orders to come to Ft. Reno, OlcLa., on the 6th day of January 1885 where we was ordered to Stillwater, OldLa., to move five hundred immigrants under Capt. Couch. We landed there on the 23rd day of January, Saturday evening, and Sunday was the 24ttu inspection Monday, January 25, 1885. We had general We fell in line of battle, sixteen com- panies of soldiers, to move 500 immigrants to the Arkansas City, Kansas line* We formed a line at 9:00 o1 clock Monday morning and Captain Couch run up his white flag, and Colonel Hatch he sent the orderly up to see what he meant by putting up the flag, so Captain Couch sent word back, "If you donft fire on me, I111 leave tomorrow." Colonel Hatch turned around to the Major and told him to turn his troops back to the camp, and detailed three camps of soldiers of the 8th gaftgKay to carry Captain Couch1 s troop of 500 immigrants to Arkansas City, Kansas. Troop L.f Troop D. f and Troop B. taken them back with 43 wagons and put them over the line of Kansas. Then we were ordered back to our supply camp at Camp Alice, 9 miles north of Guthrie in the Cimarron horseshoe bottom. We stayed there about three months, and Capt. Couch and his colony came back into the territory at Caldwellf Kansas June 1885. I laid there ftil August 8, then we changed regiments with the 5th Calvary to go to Nebraska. the. 1st of July 1885. There was a breakout with the Indians at Ft. Reno The Indian Agency tried to make the Indians wear citizens1 Oklahoma Writers1 Project clothes. -5- They had to call General Sheridan from Washington, D. 0. the Indians down. f ^|3 to quiet Now, we had to make a line in three divisions, fifteen miles a part, one non-commissioned officer to each squad, and these men was to go to Caldwell, Kansas and bring him to Ft. Reno that night. He came that night, so the next morning Colonel Brisbane and General Hatch reported to General Sheridan what the trouble was. General Sheridan called all the Indian Chiefs together and asked them why they* rebelled against the agency, and they told them they weren't going to wear citizen's clothes. General Sheridan called his corporals and sergeants together and told them to go behind the guard house and dig a grave for this Indian agent in order to fool the Indian Chiefs. Then, he sent a detachment of soldiers to order the Indian Chiefs away from the guard house and to put this Indian agent in the ambulance that brought him to Ft. Reno and take him back to Washington, D. C., to remain there !til he returned. The next morning he called all the Indian Chiefs to the guard house and pointed down to the grave and said that, "I have killed the agent and buried him there. n The Indians tore the feathers out of their hats rejoicing that they killed the agent. On the 12th of the same July, we had general inspection with General Foresides from Washington, then we was ordered back to our supply camp to stay there ftil we got orders of our change. On August 8, we got orders to change to go to Nebraska, to Ft. Robinson, Ft. Nibrary, and Ft. McKinney, and we left on the 8th of August. This is my Oklahoma history. I gave this story to the Daily Qklahoman and Times at one time and they are supposed to publish it but they haven11. Now you see that tree up there in front of my house? 50 years old. It is called the potopic tree. here in 1882. This was a bald prairie. Market sets now. That tree is That was the only tree around I enlisted over there where the City That was our starting camp under Capt. Payne, but he died* Oklahoma Writers1 Project -6- I joined the A. M. E. Methodist Church in 1874. I love this song better than all the rest: "Am I a Soldier of the Cross?" Abraham Lincoln was a smart man, hut he would have done more if he was not killed, I don't think his work was finished. truth about Booker T. Washington. and stay in the country. Ifll tell you the He argued our people to stay out of town He was a Democrat. He was a smart man, but I think a man should live wherever he choose regardless. whenever Ifd hear he was coming to town to speak. I never stopped work You know they wasn!t * fighting for freeing the slaves; they was fighting to keep Kansas from being a slave State; so when they had the North whipped, I mean the South had 'em whipped, they called for the Negroes to go out and fight for his freedom. Don't know nothing 'bout Jeff Davis. I've handled a lots of his money. It was counterfeited after the War. I've been married four times. mean the three wasn't no good. Poxiahuntas Jackson. 3rd: I had one wife and three women. My first wife's name** Nannie Shumpard. tried to beat me out of my hoine# I Amanda Nelson. 2nd: . We lived together 9 years. She 44 350014 Oklahoma Writers1 Project Xac~gLaves A#L MABXHA CUNNINGHAM (white) Age 81 yrs. Oklahoma City, Oklahoma My father1 s name was A. J. Brown, and my mother's name was Hattie Brown. I was horn in the East, in Saveer County, Tennessee. twelve sisters and brothers, all are dead hat two. I had W. S. Brown lives at 327 W. California, and Maudie Reynoldsf my sister lives at Minrovie, California. We lived in different kinds of houses just like we do now. ~Some was of log, some frame and some rock. I remember when we didn't have stoves to cook on, no lamps, and not even any candles until I was about six years old. We would take a rag and sop it in lard to make lights. All of our furniture was home made, but it was nice. We had just plenty of every thing. It wasnft like it is in these days where you have to pick and scrape for something to eat. My grandfather and grandmother gave my mother and father two slaves, an old woman and man, nhen they married* My grandfather owned a large plantar tion, and had a large number of slaves, and my father and mother owned several farms at different places. Our mother and father treated our slaves good. They ate what we ate, and they stayed with us a long time after the War. remember though all of the slave; owners weren't good to their slaves. I I have seen fem take those young fine looking negroes, put them in a pen *hen they get ready to whip them, strip them and lay them face down, and beat them until white whelps arose on their bodies. Tes, some of them was treated awful mean. I saw mothers sold from their babies, and babies sold from their mothers. They would strip themf, put them on the auction block and sell them bid them off just like you would cattle* Seme would sell for Oklahoma Writers1 Project -2* lots of money* They wouldn't take the slaves to church* I donft rmmember when the negroes had their first schools, hut it was a long time after the War* Why, I remember when they'd have those hig corn shuckingSt flax pollings, and quilting parties* They would sow acres after acres of flax, then they would meet at some house or plantation and pull flax until they had finished, then give a big party. There1 d be the same thing at the next plantation and so on until they'd all in that neighborhood get their crops gathered* I remember theyfd have all kinds of good eats pies, cakes, chicken, fish, fresh pork, beef, just plenty of good eats. I went over the battlefield at Knoxville, Tennessee, two or three hours after the Yankees and the Eebels had a battle* It was about a mile from our house, and I walked over hundreds of dead men lying on the ground. Some were fatally wounded, and we carried about six or seven to our house* I saw the doctor pick the bullets out of their flesh* When the Yankees came they treated the slave owners awful mean* They drew a gun on my mother, made her walk for several miles one real cold night and take them up on the top of a mountain and show them where a still was* They would make her cook for 'am* They took every thing we had* I was about twelve years old at that time. I stayed there with my mother until after my father died, then we moved to Alabama* I was about 22 years old* and my brothers were railroad graders* I made the Bun. children. I married a man named Kelley. He We traveled all over Texas* Came here in f89 with my mother, husband and eight My husband and brothers graded the streets for the townsite of Oklahoma City and platted it off* 46 Oklahoma Writers* Project 3~ When we made the Sun, we just stood on the property until it was surveyed, then wefd pay $1*00, and the lot was ours* I camped on the corner of Bobinson and Pottawatomie Streets and Sobinson and Ghickasaw* the Northwest corner* I owned L later sold both lots* I am a Christian, Baptist mostly, I guess, and I believe in the Great Beyond* I donft think you have to go to church all the time to be saved, but you have to be right with the Man up yonder before you can be saved* I am a Bepublican, and it makes my blood boil whenever I hear a negro say he is a democrat* They shottld all be Republicans* I have been married twice* I married William Cunningham here in 1922* He is dead; in fact, both my husbands are dead, so I don't see much need of talking about them* A*f ^^CT^^t^S^^fa^^ Hgy. "ymj? v&f*,fT^^, "KM* Oklahoma Writers1 Project Jbc^Slav^ WIIiLIAM QOBJIS Age 93 yrs.\ McAlester, Oklahoma U ^ \<$ "Hun Nigger, run, De Patteroll git yei Run digger, run, Ee!s almost herel" . Please Mr. Patteroll, DonH ketch me I Jest take dat nigger What's "behind dat tree." ~ Lawsy, I done heard dat song all my life and it warnH no joke neither. De Patrol would git ye too if he caught ye off the plantation without a pass from your Master, and he'd whup ye too, Hone of us dassn't leave without a pass. We chillun sung lots of songs and we played-marbles, mumble'peg, and town T>all. In de winter we would set around de fire and listen to our Mammy and Pappy tell ghost tales and witch tales. I don't guess dey was sho1 nuff so, "but we all thought dey was. My Mammy was "bought in Virginia "by our Master, Hugh McKeown. owned a "big plantation in Georgia. married my pa. He Soon after she come to Georgia she Old Master was good to us. We lived for a while in the quarters "behind the Big House, and my mammy was de house woman. Somehow,in a trade, or maybe my pa was mortgaged, but anyway old Master let a man in Virginia have him and we never see him no more 'till after the War* It nigh "broke our hearts when he had to leave and old Master sho1 done "everthing he could to make it tip to us. Ihere was four of us chillun. ^XJ^ I didnU do no work Hill I was \ , f^ g, !p Oklahoma Writers1 Project about fifteen years old. -2- Old Master "bought a tavern and mammy worked as house woman and I went to work at the staples. I drove the carriage and took keer of the team and carriage. I kept fem shining too, I!d curry the horses 'fcill they was :'slick and shiny. I!d polish the harness and the carriage. and Mistress was quality and I Yfanted everybody to know it. Old Master They had three girls and three hoys and we hoys played together and went swimming together. We loved each other, I tell ye. Old Master "built us a little house jest hack of de tavern and mammy raised us jest like Old Mistress did her chillun. de boys and me would go hunting. hogs. When I didn!t have to work Wefd kill possum, coon, squirrels and wild Old Master killed a wild hog and he give mammy her ten tiny pigs. She raised 'em and my, at the meat we had when they was butchered. They had lots of company at de Big House, and it was de only tavern too, so they was lots of cooking to do. They would go to church on Sunday and they would spread their dinners on the ground. My, but they was feasts. allus git to go as I drive the carriage and mammy looked after the food. We!d We had our own church too, with our own preacher. We had a spinning house where all the old women would card and spin wool in de winter and cotton in de summer. we wore. Dey made all our clothes, what few TJs hoys just wore long tailed shirts !till we was 12 or 13 years old, sometimes older. I was 15 when I started driving the fambly carriage and I got to put on pants then. Our suits was made out of jeans. That cloth wore like buckskin. We*d wear !em for a year before they had to be patched. We made our own brogan shoes too. We'd kill a beef and skin it and spread the skin out and let it dry a while. We*d put the hide in lime water to get the bair offt then we*d oil it and work it !till it was soffc. 4SI -" Oklahoma Writers1 Project -g- llext we'd take it to the bench and scrape or 'plesh' it with knives* It was then put in a tight cabinet and smoked with oak wood for about 24 hours. Smoking loosened the skin. soften it. We!d then take it out and rub it to It was blacked and oiled and it was ready to be made into shoes. It took nearly a year to get a green hide made into shoes. Twan't no wonder we had to go barefooted. Sometimes I'd work in the wood shop, dressing wagon spokes* We made spokes with a plane, by hand on a bench. I didn't have much work to do before I was 15 except to ran errands. One-of my jobs was to take corn to the mill to be ground into meal. Some one would put my sack of corn on the mule's back and help me up and Ifd ride to the mill and have it ground and they'd load me back on a-nd I'd go back home. I remember once my meal fell off and I waited and waited for somebody to come by and help me. log and laid it acrost it. I got tired waiting so I toted the sack to a big I led my mule up\to the log and after working hard for a long time I managed to get it on his back. I climbed up and jest as we started off the male jumped and I fell off and pulled the sack off with me. I couldn't do nothing but wait and finally old Master came after me. He loiowed something was wrong. Old Master was good to all of his slaves but Ms overseers had orders to make !em work. He fed 'em good and took good keer of 'em and never made fem work if fen they was sick or even feltjbad. They was two things old Master jest wotddn11 'bide and dat was for a slave to be sassy or lazy. Sometimes if dey wouldn*t work or slipped off de farm dey would whip 'em. didn't whip often. He Colored overseers was worse to whip than white ones, but Master allus said, "HadnH you all rather have a nigger overseer than a white W&l I &0n*t want to white man over my niggers." a^Millaisi^ lfve seen the overseer whip Oklahoma Writers1 Project -4- some hut I never did get no whipping. He would strip fein to the waist and whip fem with a long leather strop, about as wide as two fingers and fastened to a handle. When de war "broke out everthing was changed. to go. go. My young Masters had T. H. McKeomi, the oldest was a Lieutenant and was one of the first to It nigh "broke all of our hearts. keep him company. Pretty soon he sent for me to come and Old Master let me go and I stayed in his quarters. stationed at Atlanta and Griffin, Georgia. He was I'd stay with him a week "or two end I'd go hone for a few days and I'd take "back food and fruit. I stayed rath him and waited on him 'till he got used to "being in the army and they moved him out to fighting. I wanted to go on with him hut he wouldn't let me, he told me to go hack and take care of Old Master and Old Mistress. was getting old "by then. they sent me home. Party soon Young Master got wounded purty had and I never went back* after the war nothing was right no more. what to do. They I got a "pass" to go home. Course, Yes, we was free hut we didn't ]~now We didn't want-to leave our old Master ajid our old home. stayed on and after a while my pappy come home to us. We Dat was de best thing about de war setting us free, he could come back to us. We all lived on at the old plantation. died and young Master took charge of de farm. without us niggers. Old Master and old Mistress He couldn't a*done nothing He didntt know how to work. He was good to us and divided the crops with us. I never went to school much but my white folks learned me to read and write,. I could always have any of their books to read, and they had lots of 'em. Times has changed a lot since that time. I don't know where the world is much better now, that it has everthing or then when we didn't have Kji wm ^^!m^^^\^i^iw^w^^r^^^ Oklahoma Writers1 Project hardly nothing, "but I "believe there was more religion then. We always went to church and I've seen !em "baptize from in the early morning 'till afternoon in the Chatahooche river. Jolks don't hardly know nowadays jest what to "believe they's so many religions, "but they1 s only one God. I was eighteen when I married. 86, and she lives in St. Louis, Missouri. ^^:HBIiliilSiI I had eight chillun. My wife is 1 PRP 380073 Oklahoma Writers1 Project S2>-S14ves LUGIHm DAVIS Age (about) 89 yrs. Eulsa, Okla. i*%* ^ "What yo1 gwine do when de meat give out? What yo1 gwine do when de meat give out? Set in de corner wid my lips pooched out! lawsy! What yo1 gwine do when de meat come i$? What yo1 gwine do when de meat come in? Set in de corner wid a greasy chin! lawsy!w Dat!s about de only little nigger song I know, lessfn it be de one about: 11 Great big nigger, laying 'hind de log ~ Pinger on de trigger and eye on the hawg! Click go de trigger and bang go de gun! Here come de owner and de buck nigger run!11 .And I think I learn both of dem long after I been grown, ! cause I belong to a full-blood Creek Indian and I dicta11 know nothing but Creek talk long after de Civil War, My mistress was part white and knowed English talk, but she never did talk it because none of de people talked it. T heard it sometime, but it sound like whole lot of wild shoat in de cedar brake scared at something when I do hear it. Dat was when I was little girl in time of de War. I donft know where I been born. Hobody never did tell me* But my mammy and pappy git me after de War and I know den whose child I is. De men at de Creek Agency help !em git me, I reckon, maybe. First thing I remember is when I was a little girl, and I belong to old Tuskaya-hiniha. He was big man in de Upper Creek, and we have a purty good size farm, jest a little bit to de north of de wagon depot houses on de old road at Honey Springs. Dat place was about twenty-five mile south of Port Gibson, but I don!t know nothing about #iar de fort is ifcen I was a little girl eO Oklahoma Writers1 Project at dat time, *~ ^jfr- ~ I know de Hk River 'bout two mile north of whar we live, f cause I been there many de time. I don't know if old Master have a white name. didn't have no white name. Lots de Upper Creek Maybe he have another Indian name, too, because Tuskayahiniha mean "head man warrior" in Creek, but dat what everybody call him and dat what de family call him too. My Mistress1 name was Nancy, and she was a Lott before she marry old man Tuskaya-hiniha. so all white. Her pappy name was Lott and he was purty near white* Maybe Dey have two chillun, I think, but only one stayed on de place. She was name Luwina, and her husband was dead. His name was Walker, and Luwina bring Mr. Walker1 s little sister, Nancy, to live at de place too. Luwina had a little baby boy and dat de reason old Master buy me, to look after de little baby boy. He didn't have no name cause he wasn!t big enough when I was with dem, bti.t he git a name later on, I reckon. him "Istidji." We Q11 call Dat mean "little man." When I first remember, before, de War, old Master had 'bout as many slave as I got fingers, I reckon. I can think dem off on my fingers like disf but I can!t recollect de names. Dey call all de slaves "Istilusti." Old man Tuskaya-hiniha was near Dat mean "Black man." f bout blind before de War, and 'bout time of de War he go plumb blind and have to set on de long seat under de bresh shelter of de house all de time. yard a little, but not very much. Sometime I lead him around de Dat about de time all de slave begin to slip out and run off. My own pappy was name Stephany. I think he take dat name 'cause when he little his mammy call him "Istifani.11 was a skinny man. Dat mean a skeleton, and he He belong to de Grayson family and I think his master name p^i g Oklahoma Writers* Project George, "but I don!t know. 55 Dey "big people in de Creek, and with de white folks too* my mammy name was Serena and she belong.to some of de Gouge family. Dey was big people in de Upper Creek, and one de biggest men of the Gouge was name Hopoethleyoholo for his Creek name. He was a big man and went to de Worth in de War and died up in Kansas, I think. Dey say when he was a little boy he was called Hopoethli, which mean "good little boy", and when he git grown he make big speeches and dey stick on de "yoholo.11 Dat mean "loud whooper.** Dat de way de Creek made de name for young boys when I was a little girl. When de boy git old enough de big men in de town give him a name, and sometime later on when he git to going round wid de grown men dey stick on some more name. If he a good talker dey sometime stick on wyoholoM, and iffen he make lots of jokes dey call him "HadjoJ1 If he is a good leader dey call him HImalaw and if he kind of mean dey sometime call him nfixigo.w My mammy and pappy belong to two masters, but dey live together on a place, Dat de way de Creek slaves do lots of times. Dey work patches and give de masters most all dey make, but dey have some for demselves. Dey didn!t have to stay on de master1 s place and work like I hear de slaves of de white people and de Cherokee and Choctaw people say dey had to do. Maybe my pappy and mammy run off and git free, or maybeso (Ley buy demselves out, but anyway dey move away some time and my mammy's master sell me to old man Ohiskaya-hiniha when I was jest a little gal. All I have to do is stay at de house and mind de baby. Master had a good log house and a bresh shelter out in front like all de houses had. for de roof. like a gallery, only it had de dirt for de flo1 and bresh Dey cook everything out in de yard in big pots, and dey eat out in de yard too. Dat was shor good stuff to eat, and it make you fat tool Roast de Oklahoma Writers1 Project ~4^ green corn on de ears in de ashes, and scrape off some and fry it! dry corn or pound it up and make ash cake. Grind de Den "bile de greens all kinds of greens from out in de woods and chop up de pork and de deer meat, or de wild turkey meat; maybe all of dem, in de "big pot at de same time! 3?ish too, and de "big turtle dat lay out on de hank! Dey always have a pot full of sofki settin right inside de housef and anybody eat when dey feel hungry. f em some of de sofki. Anybody come on a visit, always give Ef dey don't take none de old man git mad, too! When you make de sofki you pound up de corn real fine, den pour in de water an dreen it off to git all de little skin from offfn de grain. Den you let de grits soak and den bile it and let it stand. put in some pounded hickory nut meats. Sometime you Dat make it real good. I don't know whar old Master git de cloth for de clothes, less!n he "buy it. Befo1 I can remember I think he had some slaves dat weave de cloth, but when I was dar he git it at de wagon depot at Honey Springs, I think. He go dar all de time to sell his corn, and he raise lots of corn, too. Dat place was on de big road, what we called de road to Texas, but it go all de way up to de North, too. De traders stop at Honey Springs and old Master trade corn for what he want. He git some purty checkedy cloth one time, and everybody git a dress or a shirt made off!n it. I have dat dress 'till I git too big for it. Everybody dress up fine when dey is a funeral. Dey take me along to mind de baby at two-three funerals, but I don't know who it is dat die, De Creek sho' take on when somebody die! 7 long in de night you wake up and hear a gun go off, way off yonder somewhar. in. Den it go again, and den again, jest as fast as dey can vaxa de load Dat mean somebody dead. When somebody die de men go out in de yard and ) J Oklahoma Writers1 Project let de people know dat way. 5^ Den dey jest go back in de house and let de fire go out, and don11 even tech de dead person till somebody git dar what has de right to tech de dead. When somebody had sick dey build a fire in de house, even in de summer, and don!t let it die down till dat person git well or die. When dey die dey let de fire go out. In de morning everybody dress up fine and go to de house whar de dead is and stand around in de yard outside de house and don11 go in. Pretty soon along come somebody what got a right to tech and handle~de dead and dey go in. I donft know what give dem de right, but I think dey has to go through some kind of medicine to git de right, and I know dey has to drink de red root and purge good before dey tech de body. When dey git de body ready dey come out and all go to de graveyard, mostly de family graveyard, right on de place or at some of the kinfolkses. When dey git to de grave somebody shoots a gun at de north, den de west, den de south, and den de east. If fen dey had four gons dey used !em. Den dey put de body down in de grave and put some extra clothes in with it and some food and a cup of coffee, maybe. Den dey takes strips of elm bark and lays over de body till it all oovered up, and den throw in de dirt. When de last dirt throwed on, everybody must clap dey hands and smile, but you sho hadn't better step on any of de new dirt around de grave, because it bring sickness right along wid you back to your own house. Dat what dey said, anyways. Jest soon as de grave filled up dey built a little shelter over it wid poles like a pig pen and kiver it over wid elm bark to keep de rain from soaking down in de new dirt. Den everybody go back to de house and de family go in and scatter 5# Oklahoma Writers1 Project some kind of medicine f -8* round de place and "build a new fire. Sometime dey feed everybody befo1 dey all leave for home. Every time dey have a funeral dey always a lot of de people gayt "Didn't you hear de stikini squalling in de night?" de night!" f, I hear dat stikini all De "stikini" is de screech owl, and he suppose to tell when any- body going to die right soon, I hear lots of Creek people say dey hear de screech owl close to de house, and sho1 nuff somebody in de family die soon. When de big battle come at our place at Honey Springs dey jest git throu^i having de green corn "busk." De green corn was just ripened enough to eat. It must of been along in July, Dat busk was jest a little busk, have a good one. Dey wasn't enough men around to But I seen lots of big ones. different kinds of "banga," Ones whar dey had all de Dey call all de dances some kind of banga, De chicken dance is de "Tolosabanga", and de "Istifanibanga" is de one whar dey make lak dey is skeletons and raw heads coming to git you, De "Hadjobanga" is de crazy dance, and dat is a funny one, dance crazy and make up funny songs to go wid de dance. Dey all Everybody think up funny songs to sing and everybody whoop and la&gh all de time. But de worse one was de drunk dance, Dey jest dance ever whichaway, de men and de women together, and dey wrassle and hug and carry on awful! good people don't dance dat one. De Everybody sing about going to somebody elses house and sleeping wid dem, and shout, "We is all drunk and we don't know what we doing and we ain!t doing wrong f cause we is all drunk" and things like dat. Sometime de bad ones leave and go to de woods, tool Dat kind of doing make de good people mad, and sometime dey have killings about it. When a man catch one his women maybeso his wife or one of his daughters been to de woods he catch her and beat her and cut off de rim of her ears! KGL Oklahoma Writers1 Project -7! People think maybeso dat ainft so, but I know it is! I was combing somebody's hair one time I ainH going tell who- and when I lift it up offfn her ears I nearly drap dead! ri^rt offfn fem! Dar de rims cut But she was a married woman, and I think maybeso it happen when she was a young gal and got into it at one of dem drunk dances, Dem Upper Creek took de marrying kind of light anyways. If fen de younguns wanted to be man and wife and de old ones didnft care (Ley jest went ahead and dat was about all, f cepting some presents maybe* But de Baptists changed dat a lot amongst de young ones, I never forgit de day dat battle of de Civil War happen at Eoney Springs! Old Master jest had de green corn all in, and us had been having a time gitting it in, too. Jest de women was all dat was left, slaves had all slipped off and left out. f cause de men My uncle Abe done got up a bunch and gone to de North wid dem to fight, but I didn't know den whar he went. He was in dat same battle, and after de War dey called him Abe Colonel. all de slaves f Most round dat place done gone off a long time before dat wid dey masters when dey go wid old man G-ouge and a man named McDaniel. We had a big tree in de yard, and a grape vine swing in it for de little baby rfIstidjilf* and I was swinging him real early in de morning befo1 de sun up. De house set in a little patch of woods wid de field in de back* but all out on de north side was a little open space, like a kind of prairie. I was swinging de baby, and all at once I seen somebody riding dis way * cross dat prairie jest coming a~kiting and a-laying flat out on his hoss. he see de house he begin to give de war whoopf w ISya^a-a-a-he-ah!w git close to de house he holler to git out de way f When When he cause dey gwine be a big fi^at, and old Master start rapping wid his cane and yelling to git some grab and blankets in de wagon ri$it now! QQ Oklahoma Writers1 Project -8^ We jest leave everything setting right whar it is, out de fire and grabbing all de pots and kettles. 60 f cepting putting Some de nigger women run to git de mules and de wagon and some start gitting meat and corn out of de place whar we done hid it to keep de scouters from finding it befo1 now. All de time we gitting ready to travel we hear dat boy on dat horse going on down de big Texas road hollering. w 2fora-a~a-he-he~hah!H Den jest as we starting to leave here come something across dat little prairie sho1 miff! We know dey is Indians de way dey is riding, and de way dey is all strung out. Dey had a flag, and it was all red and had a big criss-cross on it dat look lak a saw horse. De man carry it and rear back on it when de wind whip it, but it flap all * round de hon?sefs head and de horse pitch and rear lak he know something going happen, shoj f Bout dat time it turn kind of dark and begin to rain a little, and we git out to de big road and de rain come down hard. It rain so hard for a little while dat we jest have to stop de wagon and set dar, and den long come more soldiers dan I ever see befo1. Dey all white men, I think, and dey have on dat brown clothes dyed wid walnut and butternut, and old Master say dey de Confederate soldiers. Dey dragging some big guns on wheels and most de men slopping 'long in de rain on. foot. Den we hear de fighting up to de north 'long about what de river is, and de guns sound lak hosses loping f cross a plank bridge way off somewhar* De head men start hollering and some de hosses start rearing and de soldiers start trotting faster up de road. We canrt git out on de road so we jest strike off through de prairie and make for a creek dat got high banks and a place on it we call Rocky Cliff. We git in a big cave in dat cliff, and spend de whole day and dat ni^b.t in dar, and listen to de battle going on. Oklahoma Writers' Project -9^ Qj^ Dat place was ahout half-a-mile from de wagon depot at Honey Springs, and a little east of it# We can hear de guns going all day, and along in de Or fo evening here come de South side making for a gateway, Dey come riding and running by whar we is, and it donft make no difference how much de head men hollers at fem dey canft make dat hunch slow up and stop. After while here come de Yankees, right after fem, and dey goes on into Honey Springs and pretty soon we see de "blaze whar dey is "burning de wagon depot and de houses* De next morning we goes hack to de house and find de soldiers ainft hurt nothing much. cackling 'round too* De hogs is whar dey is in de pen and de chickens come Dem soldiers going so fast dey didn't have no time to stop and take nothing, I reckon. Den long come lots of de Yankee soldiers going hack to de North, and dey looks purty wore out, but dey is laughing and joshing and going on. Old Master pack up de wagon wid everything he can carry den, and we strike out down de big road to git out de way of any more war, is dey going be any. Dat old Texas road jest crowded wid wagons! Everybody doing de same thing we is, and de rains done made de road so muddy and de soldiers done tromp up de mud so bad dat de wagons git stuck all de time. De people all moving along in bunches, and every" little while one bunch of wagons come up wid another bunch all stuck in de mud, and dey put all de hosses and mules on together and pull em out, and den dey go on together awhile. At night dey camp, and de women and what few niggers dey is have to git de supper in de big pots, and de men so tired dey eat everything up from de women and de niggers, purty nigh. Oklahoma Writers1 Project ilO- After while we come to de Canadian town. Dat whar old man Gouge been and took a whole lot de folks up north wid him, and de South soldiers got in dar ahead of us and took up all de houses to sleep in. Dey was some of de white soldiers camped dar, and dey was singing at de camp. I couldn't understand what dey sing, and I asked a Creek man what dey say and he tell me dey sing, "I wish I was in Dixie, look away look away.,f I ask him whar dat is, and he laugh and talk to de soldiers and dey all laugh, and make me mad. De next morning we leave dat town and git to de big river. make de river rise, and I never see so much water! De rain Jest look out dar and dar all dat waterI Dey got some boats we put de stuff on, and float de wagons and swim de mules and finally git across, but it look lak we gwine all drown. Most de folks say dey going to Boggy Depot and around Fort Washita, but old Master strike off by hisself and go way down in de bottom somewhar to live. I donft know whar it was, but dey been some kind of fitting all around dar, 'cause we camp in houses and cabins all de time and nobody live in any of 'em. look like de people all git away quick, f cause all de stuff was in de houses, but you better scout up around de house before you go up to it. Liable to be some scouters already in itj Dem Indian soldiers jest quit de army and lots went scouting in little bunches and took everything dey find. Iffen somebody try to stop dem dey git killed. Sometime we find graves in de yard whar somebody jest been buried (52 Oklahoma Writers1 Project -11- fresh, and one house had some dead people in it when old Mistress poke her head in it. We git away from dar, and no mistake! By and by we find a little cabin and stop and stay all de time. I was de only slave by dat time. All de others done slip out and run off. We stay dar two year I reckon, * cause we make two little crop of corn. For meat a man name Mr. Walker wid us jest went out in de woods and shoot de wild hogs. De woods was full of dem wild hogs, and lots of fish in de holes whar he could sicken f em wid buck root and catch fem wid his hands, all we wanted. I donft know when de War quit off, and when I git free, but I stayed wid old man Tuslcayar-hiniha long time after I was free, I reckon. I was jest a little girl, and he didnt t know whar to send me to, anyways. One day three men rid up and talk to de old man awhile in English talk. Den he called me and tell me to go wid dem to find my own family:. He jest laugh and slap my behind and set me up on de hoss in front of one de men and dey take me off and leave my good checkedy dress at de house! Before long we git to dat Canadian river again, and de men tie me on de hoss so I can!t fall off. Dar was all dat water, and dey ain!t no boat, and dey ain!t no bridge, and we jest swim de hosses. I knowed sho1 I was going to be gone dat time, but vie git across. When we come to de Creek Agency dar is my pappy and w mammy to claim me, and I live wid dem in de Verdigris bottom above Fort Gibson till I was grown and dey is both dead. Den I marries Anderson Davis at Gibson Station, and we git our allotments on de Verdigris east of Tulsa kind of south too, close to de Broken Arrow town. I knowed old man Jim McHenry at dat Broken Arrow town. preaching and was a good old man, I think. He done some g3 Oklahoma Writers1 Project -13- I knowed when dey started dat Wealaka school across de river from de Broken Arrow town. Dey name it for de Wilaki town, hut dat town was way down in de Upper Creek country close to whar I lived when I was a girl. I had lots of children, but only two is alive now. My "boy Anderson got in a mess and went to dat McAlester prison, hut he got to he a trusty and dey let him marry a good woman dat got lots of property dar, and dey living all right now. When my old man die I come to live here wid Josephine, "but I*se blind and canft see nothing and all de noises pesters me a lot in de town. And de children is all so ill mannered, too. time! Dey donft mind you neither! Dey gest holler at you all de # When I could see and had my own younguns I could jest set in de corner and tell !em what to do, and if fen dey didnft do it right I could whack fem on de head, 'cause dey was raised de old Creek way, and dey know de old folks know de best! )4; 350071 , Oklahoma Writers* Project Ex-slaws ANTHOHY DA.WSON Age 105 1008 E. Owen St., Tulsa, Okla. 4. b v # "Run nigger, run, De Patteroll git youl Hun nigger, run, De Patteroll comei "Watch nigger, watchDe Patteroll trick youl Watch nigger, watch, He got a big goni" Dat one of the songs de slaves all knowed, and de children down on de "twenty acres" used to sing it when dey playing in de moonlight * round de cabins in de quarters. Sometime I wonder iff en de white folks didnft make dat song up so us niggers would keep in line* None of my old Master's boys tried to git away fcepting two, and dey met up wid evil, both of 'em. One of dem niggers was fetching a bull-tongae from a piece of new ground way at de back of de plantation, and bringing it to my pappy to git it sharped* My pappy was de blacksmith, Dis boy got out in de big road to walk in de soft sand, and long come a wagon wid & white overseer and five, six, niggers going somewhar. and told dat boy to git in and ride. Dey stopped Dat was de last anybody seen him, Dat overseer and another one was cotched after awhile, and showed up to be underground railroaders* Dey would take a bunch of niggers into town for some excuse, and on de way $est pick up a extra nigger and show him whar to go to git on de "railroad system." When de runaway niggers got to de North dey had to go in de army, and dat boy from our place got killed* boy, but dey jest talked him into it. Dem railroaders He was a good was hoaest, and dey . : }5 Oklahoma Writers1 Project -2- didnft take no presents, hut de patrollers was low white trasht We all knowed dat if a patroller jest rode right hy and didnH say nothing dat he was doing his honest job, hut iff en he stopped his hoss and talked to a nigger he was after some kind of trade. Dat other black hoy was hoeing cotton way in de hack of de field and de patroller rid up and down de big road, saying nothing to nobody. De next day another white man was on de job, and long in de evening a man come by and axed de niggers about de fishing and hunting! Dat black boy seen he was de same man what was riding de day bef o1 and he knowed it was a underground trick. But he didnft see all de trick, bless God! We found out afterwards dat he told his mammy about it. She worked at de big house and she stole something for him to give dat low white trash I reckon, f cause de next day he played sick along in de evening and de black overlooker - he was my uncle - sent him back to de quarters* He never did git there, but when dey started de hunt dey found him about a mile away in de woods wid his head shot off, and old Master sold his mammy to a trader right away. Dat was de way it worked. like dey is now. run away. He never whipped his grown niggers. Dey was all kinds of white folks jest One man in Sesesh clothes would shoot you if you tried to Maybe another Sesesh would help slip you out to the un&arground and say f,God bless you poor black devil", and some of dem dat was poor would help you if you could bring fem sirapin you stole, lak a silver dish or spoons or a couple big hams. I couldnH blame them poor white folks, wid the men in the War and the women and children hongry. them nohow, and they had to live somehow. Ihe niggers didnft belong to But now and then they was a devil on earth, walking in the: sight of God and spreading iniquity before hisu He was de low-down Sesesh dat would take what a poor runaway nigger had to give S0 Oklahoma Writers1 Project -3* for his chance to git away, a#d den give him fstructions dat would lead him right into de hands of de patrollers and git him caught or shot I Yes, dat's de way it was. Devils and good people walking in de road at de same time, said nobody could tell one from t1 other. I remember about de trickery so good * cause I was "grown and out" at that time, ?fhen I was a little hoy I was a house boy, f cause my mammy was the house ?/oman, hut when the war "broke I already been sent to and mammy was still at de house, the fields ~ I was horn on July 25, 1832, I know, 'cause old Master keep de hook on his slaves jest like on his own family. He was a good man, and old Mistress was de best woman in de worldl De plantation had more than 500 acres and most was in cotton and tobacco. But we raised corn and oats, and lots of cattle and horses, and plenty of sheep for wool, I was born on the plantation, soon after my pappy and mammy was brought to it, I don't remember whether they was bo*ught or come from my Mistress's father. He was mighty rich and had several hundred niggers. she was married he give her 40 niggers. When One of them was my pappy1 s brother. His name was John, and he was my master's overlooker. We called a white man boss the "overseer", but a nigger was a overlooker. John could read and write and figger, and old Master didn't have no white overseer. Master1s name was ^evi Dawson, and his plantation was 18 miles east of Greenville, Horth Carolina. It was a beautiful place, with all the fences around.the Big House and along the front made out of barked poles, rider style, and all whitewashed. pft Oklahoma. Writers1 Project -4* The Big House set back from the big road about a quarter of a mile. It was only one story, but it had lots of rooms. There was four rooms in a bunch on one side and four in a bunch on the other, with a wide hall in between. They was made of square adzed logs, all weat herb oar ded on the outside and planked up and plastered on the inside* Then they was a long gallery clean across the front with big pillars made out of bricks and plastered over*. They called it the passage fcause it dinft have no floor excepting bricks, and a "buggy could drive right under it. Mostly it was used to set under and talk and play ca,rds and drink the best whiskey old Master could buy. Back in behind the big house was the kitchen, and the smokehouse in another place made of plank, and all was Y/hitewashed and painted white all the time. Old Mistress was named Miss Susie and she was born an Isley. She brought 40 niggers from her pappy as a present, and Master levi jest had 4 or 5, but he had got all his land from his pappy* he had the land. She had the niggers and Thatfs the way it was, and that's the way it stayed! She never let him punish one of her niggers and he never asked her about buying or selling land. Her pappy Y/as richer than his pappy, and she was sure quality! My pappy1 s name was Anthony, and mammy1 s name was Chanie. He was the blacksmith and fixed the wagons, but he couldntt read and figger like uncle John* Mammy was the head house woman but didnft know any letters either They was both black like me. Old man Isley, where they come from, had lots of niggers, but I don't think they was off the boat. You can set the letters up and I can't tell them, but you can't fool me with the figgers* f less they are mighty big numbers. 4 68 Oklahoma Writers1 Project -5- Master Levi had three sons and no daughters. Simeon* He was in the Sesesh army, can't remember their names. The oldest son was The other two boys was too young* I They was a lot younger and I was grown and out befo* they got big. Old Master was a fine Christian but he like his jewleps anyways. He let us niggers have preachings and prayers, and would give us a parole to go 10 or 15 miles to a camp meeting and stay two or three days with nobody but Uncle John to stand for us. Mostly we had white preachers, but-when we had a black prea.cher that wa,s Heaven. We didn't have no voodoo women nor conjure folks at our 20 acres, ue all knowed about the Word and the unseen Son of &od and we didn't put no stock in conjure. Course we had luck charms and good and bad signs, but everybody got dem things even nowaday^. My boy had a white officer in the 3ig War and he tells me that man had a li'l old doll tied around his wrist on a gold chain. We used herbs a,nd roots for common ailments, like sa,ssafa,cs, and boneset and peach tree poultices and coon root tea, but when a nigger got bad sick Old Master sent for a white doctor. I remember that old doctor. He lived in Greenville and he had to come 18 miles in a b"uggy# When he give some nigger medicine'he would be afraid the nigger was like lots of them that believed in conjure, and he would say, "If you don't take that medicine like I tell you and I have to come back here to see you I going to break your dam black neck next time I come out here!*1 When it was bad weather sometime the black boy sent after himl had to carry a lantern to show him the way back. If that nigger on his mule got tojfur ahead so old doctor couldn't see de light he sho1 catch de devil from that old doctor and from old Master# too, lessen he was one of old Missy*s QQ Oklahoma Writers1 Project -6-* house niggers, and then old Master jest grumhle to satisfy the doctor. Down in the quarters we had the spinning house, where the old woman card the wool and run the loom. They made double weave for the winter time, and all the white folks and slaves had good clothes and good food. Master made us all eat all we could hold. He would come to the smokehouse and look in and say, "You niggers ain't cutting down that smoke side and that souse lak you ought to I You made dat meat and you got to help eat it up I" Uever no work on Sunday fcepting the regular chores. Ihe over- looker made everybody clean up and wash de children up and after the praying we had games. Antny over and marhles and "I Spy11 and de likes of that. times de "boys would go down in de woods and git a possum. Some I love possum and sweet taters, but de coon meat more delicate and de har donft stink up de meat. I wasn't at the quarters much as a hoy. I was at the "big house with my mammy, and I had to swing the fly hresh over my old Mistress when she was sewing or eating or taking her nap. Sometime I would keep the flies off !n old Master, and when I would get tired and let the hresh slap his neck he would kick at me and cuss me, but he never did reach me. He had a way of keeping us little niggers scared to death and never hurting nobody. I was down in the field burning bresh when I first heard'the guns in the War. De fighting was de battle at Kingston, North Carolina, and it lasted four days and nights. After while bunches of Sesesh come riding by hauling wounded people in wagons, and then pretty soon big bunches of Yankees come by, but dey didnft ack like dey was trying very hard to ketch up. .Bey had de country in charge quite some time, and they had forages coming round all the time. By dat time old Master done buried his money and a*ll desilyer and, de big clock, but the Yankees didn*t^iar to search omt dat *^Q Oklahoma Writers1 Project kind of stuff* -7- All dey ask ah out was did anybody find a bottle of brandyl T .Vhen de War ended up. most all de niggers stay with old Master and work on de shares, until de land git divided up and sold off and the young niggers git scattered to town. I never did have no truck wid de Ku Kluckers, hut I had to step mightyhigh to keep out'n it! 1 De sho' nuff Kluxes never did bother around us cause we minded our own "business and never give no trouble. We wouldn't let no niggers come 'round our place talking- 'bout delegates and voting, end. we jest all stayed on the place. Sut dey was some low white trash and some devilish niggers made out like dey was Ku Klux ranging f round de country stealing hosses and talcing things. Old Master said dey wasn't shore enough, so I reckon he knowed who the regular ones was. These hunches that come around robbing got into our neighborhood and old Master told me I better not have my old horse at the house, f cause if I had him they would know nobody had been there stealing and it wouldn't do no good to hide anything 'cause they would tear up the place hunting what % had and maybe whip or kill me. "Your old hoss aint no good, Tony, and you better kill him to make them think you already been raided on, "old Master told me, so I led him out & and knocked him in the head with an axe, and then we hid all our rrub and waited for the Kluckers to come most any night, but they never did come. I borried a hoss to use in the day and took him back home every night for about a year. The niggers kept talking about heing free, but they wasn't free then and they ain't now. Putting them free jest like pitting goat hair on a sheep. When it rain de goat come a running and git in de shelter, 'cause his hair won't shed ^JL Oklahoma Writers1 Project *V2 ~8 the rain and he git cold, "but de sheep ainft got sense enough to git in the shelter hut jest stand out and let it rain on him all day. But the good Lord fix the sheep up wid a woolly jacket that turn the water off, and he don!t git cold, so he donft have to have no "brains, De nigger during slavery was like de sheep. He couldnH take care of hisself hut his Master looked out for him and he didnH have to use his brains. De master1 s protection was like de wooly coat. But de 'mancipation come and take off de woolly coat and leave de nigger wid no protection and he cainft take care of hisself either. when de niggers was sot free lots of them got mighty uppity, and everybody wanted to be a delegate to something or other. The Yankees told us we could go down and vote in the flections and our color was good enough to run for anything. Heaps of niggers believed them. that, fcause they didn't You cainft fault them for have no better sense, but I knowed the black folks didnft have no business mixing in until they knowed more. It was a long time after the War before I went down to vote and everything quiet by that time, but I heard people talk about the fights at the schoolhouse when they had the first election. I jest stayed on around the old place allong time, and then I got on another piece of ground and farmed, not far from Greenville until 1900 Then I moved to Hearn, Texas, and stayed with my son Sd until 1903 when we moved to Sapulpa in the Creek Nation. We come to Tulsa several years ago, amd !D been living witft hiip ever sincei I canft move off my bed How, but one time I was strong as a young bull. I raised seven boys and seven girls. My boys was named Edward, Joseph, Shirney, Julius, James, and William, and my girls mfo 3fcw&ft4?aj OB^Mi Chanie Mamie, Rebecca and Susie* ! Oklahoma Writers1 Project -9- I always been a deep Christian and depend on God and know his unseen Son, the King of Glory. I learned about Him when I was a little boy. Old Master was a good man, but on some of the plantations the masters wasn't good men and the niggers didn't get the Word. I never did get no reading and writing 'cause I never did go to the schools. I thought I was too big, but they had schools and the young ones went But I could figger, and I was a good farmer, and now I bless the Lord for all his good works. needed each other. Everybody don't know it I reckon, but we all The blacks needed the whites, and still do. There's a difference in the color of the skin, but the souls is all white, or all blaxk, 'pending on the man's life and not on his skin. The old fashioned meetings is busted up into a thousand different kinds of churches and only one &od to look after them,. worry my old head about 'em. All is confusion, but I ain't going to 350085 Oklahoma Writers' Project r ' -''riff a 73 Ex-Slates ALICE DOUGLASS {$ i^1 Age 77 yrs. Oklahoma City, Okla. I was horn December 22, 1860 in Stunner County, Tennessee. mother I mean mammy, f My cause what did we know fbout mother and mamma* Master and Mistress made dey chillun call all nigger women, "Black Mammy." Jest as I was saying my mammy was named Millie EJ.kins and my pappy was named Isaac Garrett. My sisters and "brothers was Prank, Susie and Mbllie. They is all in Nashville, Tennessee right now. I 'member my grandpappy and when he died. They lived in log houses. I allus slept in the Big House in a cradle wid white babies. We all the time wore cotton dresses and we weaved our own cloth. Some wore shoes, and I sho1 did. The boys jest wore shirts. now as they measured my feets to git my shoes. if fen we got sick and ailing. I kin see f em We had doctors to wait on us We wore asafedida to keep all diseases of fen us. When a nigger man got ready to marry, he go and tell his master that they was a woman on sech and sech a farm that he!d lak to have. If fen master give his resent, then he go and ask her master and iiffen he say yes, well, they jest jump the broomstick. Mens could jest see their wives on Sadday nite. They laid peoples !cross barrels and whupped !em wid bull whups till the blood come. night. They'd half feed !em and niggers1 d steal food and cook all The things we was forced to do then the whites is doing of their own free will now. You gotta reap jest what you sow 'cause the Good Book says it. They used to bid niggers off and then load !em on wagons and take 1 em to cotton farms to work. .1 never seen no cotton till I come heah. make big miration fbout girls having babies at 11 years old. Peoples And you better have them whitefolks some babies if fen you didnft wanta be s'old. Though a funny thing to me is, iffen a nigger woman had a babjr on the boat on the way Oklahoma Writers1 Project ~2- to the cotton farms, they throwed it in the river. Taking ! em to them cotton farms is jest the reason niggers is so plentiful in the South today. I ain't got no education a' tall. In dem days you "better not "be caught with a newspaper, else you got a "beating and your back almost cut off. When niggers got free, whitefolks killed it was a nigger uprising. hear fem pass. to whup f ! em by the carload, ! cause they said I used to lay 6n the flo' with the whitefolks and Them patrollers roved trying to ketch niggers without passes They was sometimes called bush whackers. (4 J? em. We went to white folks1 church. went to cullud church. I was a great big girl before we We'd stay out and play while they worshipped. We jest played marbles - girls, white chillun and all. The Yankees come thoo' and took all the meat and everything they could find. They took horses, food and all. Mammy cooked their vittles. One come in our cabin and took a sack of dried fruit with my mammy1 s shoes on the top. I tried to make !em leave mammy's shoes too but he didn't. I stayed in the house with the whitefolks till I was 19. to kept me in there too long. That's why I'm selfish as I am. weeks after I was out of the house, I married William Douglass. now don't want you to tech 19. f They lak Within three Whitefolks em, and I slept with white chillun till I was You kin cook for fem and put your hands in they vittles and they don't say nothing, but jest you tech one! We stayed on, on the place, three or four years and it was right then mammy give us our pappy' s name. We moved from the place to one three or four miles from our master's place, and mammy cooked there a long time* Abraham Lincoln gits too much praise. praise. I say, shucks, give God the Lincoln come thoo1 Gallitan, Tennessee and stopped at Hotel Tavern with his wife. They was dressed jest lak tramps and nobody knowed it was him ^4 Oklahoma Writers1 Project -3- and his wife till he got to the White House and writ "back and told f em to look 'twixt the leaves in the table where he had set and. they sho1 nuff found out it was him. I I never mentions Jeff Davis. He ain't wuff it. Booker T. Washington was all right in his place. told these whitefolks jest what he thought. that way down South. him f He come here and Course he wouldn't have done I declare to God he sho1 told fem enough, round on their hands. I jined the church They toted Uo Jim Crow here then. f cause I had religion round 60 years ago. People ought a he religious sho1; what for they wanta live in sin and die and go to the Bad Man. To git to Heaven, you sho1 ought to work some. place somewhar, 'cause I ain't got none here. I want a resting I am a member of Tabernacle Baptist Church, and I help "build the first church in Oklahoma City* I got three boys and three girls. give 'em the best education I could. I don't know none' s age. I */* ) 350106 Oklahoma Writers1 Project *< * r <$5fe ,& \^ Ex-Slavbe DOC MNIBL DOWDY Age 81 yrs. Oklahoma City, Oklahoma I was horn June 6, 1356 in Madison County, Georgia, Joe Dowdy and mother was named Mary Dowdy. There was 9 of us hoys, George, Smith, Lewis, Henry, William, myself, Newt, James and Jeff. and she was my twin, and her name was Sarah* Richmond, Ya., to Georgia. on the other wide. lather was named There was one girl My mother and father come from Father lived on one side of the river^and my mother My father would come over ever week to visit us. Noah Meadows "bought my father and Elizabeth Davis, daughter of the old master took my mother. They married in Noah Meadows1 house.. My mother was the cook in the Big House. with "bread crumbs in it* Theyfd give us pot likker Sometimes meat, jest sometimes, very seldom. liked black-eyed peas and still do till now. I We lived in weatherboard house* Our parents had corded-up beds with ropes and us chillun slept on the floor for most part or in a hole bored in a log. Our house had one window jest big , enough to stick your heai( out of, and one door, and this one door faced the 3ig House which was your master1 s house. This was so that you couldn't git out *less somebody seen you. Ify job was picking up chips and keeping the calves and cows separate so that the calves wouldn't suck the cows dry* M*4, noons off to wash. was twins* Mostly, we had Saturday after- I was show boy doing_the mrf me and my sister, cause we !4y mother couldjgnTbe bought * cause she done had 9 boys for one farm and neither my father, * cause he was the father of !em. I was religious and didn't play much, but I she/ did like to listen to preachings. to play marbles sometimes* I did used ^6 Oklahoma Writers1 Project ^^ We jest wore shirts and nothing else both winter and summer. was a little heavier in winter and that's all. after I was set free. No shoes ever. I had none till I guess I was almost 12 years old then. The overseer on our place was a large tall, black man. poor white neighbors. They They was one of our biggest troubles. We had plenty They'd allus look in our window and door all the time. I saw slaves sold. I can see that old block now. was a pretty girl, really good looking. My cousin Eliza Her mastail was her father. When the girls in the big house had beaux coming to see 'em, they'd ask, "Who is that pretty gal?M So they decided to git rid of her right away. hevf will allus be remembered. The day they sold They stripped her to be bid off and looked at. I wasn't allowed to stand in the crowd. I was laying down tinder a fig brush. The man that bought Eliza was from New York. The Negroes had made up miff money to buy her off the/^elf, "but they wouldn't let that happen. a man bidding for her who was a Swedeland. cullud gals and bought fem for his own use. There was He allus bid for the good looking He ask the man from New York, "Whut you gonna do with her when you git 'er?" The man from New York said, "None of yoiir damn business, but you ain't got money nuff to buy fer.M When the man from New York had done bought her, he said, "Eliza, you are free from now on." She left and went to New York with him. Mama and Iliza both cried when she was being shoTOd off, and master told 'em to shet up before he knocked they brains out. If fen you didn't do nothing wrong, they whipped you now and then anyhow. I called a boy Johnny once and he took me 'hind the garden and poured a** it on me.and made me call him xnastou the white man. It was from then ony I started to fear I come to think of him as a bear. Sometimes fellows would be a little late making it in and they got whipped with a cow-hide. The same man vyy Oklahoma Writers1 Project 3- whut whipped me to make me call him master, well, he whipped my mamma* tied her to a tree and "beat her unmerciful and cut her tender parts* He I don!t know why he tied her to that tree. The first time you was caught trying to read or write, you was whipped with a cow-hide, the next time with a cat-o-nine tails and the third time they cut the first jint of fen your forefinger. They was very severe. You most allus got 30 and 9 lashes. They carried news from one plantation "by whut they call relay. Iffen you was caught, they whipped you till you said, M 0h, pray Master!M One day a man gitting whipped was saying Oh pray master, Lord have mercy!" They'd say HEeep whipping that nigger Goddamn him.M pray Master, I gotta miff.n He was whipped till he said,'f0h Then they said, "Let him up now, 'cause he's praying to the right man.* My father was the preacher and an educated man. they give him to preach? - Servant, Obey Your Master. hymn was On Jordan's Stormy Bank I Stand. You know the sermon Our favorite baptizing My favorite song is Nobody Knows the Trouble I've Seen. Oh, them patrollers! They had a chief and he git'em together and if fen they caught you without a pass and sometimes with a pass, they'd beat you. But iffen you had a pass, they had to answer to the law. had two slaves, brothers, on his place* One old master They was both preachers. was a hardshell Bajfcfeist and Andrew was a Missionary Baptist. Mitchell One day the patroller chief was rambling thoo1 the place and found some letters writ to Mitchell and Andrew. He went to the master and said, some niggers that could read and write?n who do you *spect? master said, W w Did you know you had Master said, MUo, but I might have, Eke patroller answered, MMitchell and Andrew." I never knowed Andrew to tell me a lie *bout nothing! * The old *78 Oklahoma Writers1 Project -4- Mitchell was called first and asked could he read and write* scared stiff. "Yes-sir." He said, "Haw-sir." Andrew was called and asked. He was asked iffen Mitchell could. He said, He said, M Shof, betterfn me.15 The master told John Arnold, the patroller chief, not to bother fem. gloried in they spunk. a home apiece. He was He When the old master died, he left all of his niggers We had Ku Klux Elans till the government sent Federal officers out and put a stop to their ravaging and sent *em to Sing Sing. Doing the war my father was carpenter. His young master come to him cause he was a preacher and asked him must he go to the front and my father told him not to go f cause he wouldnH make it. He went on jest the same and when he come back my father had to tote him in the house * cause he had one leg Hie Yankees come thoo1, ramshacked houses, leave poor horses and tore off. take fat ones and turn the poor ones in the corn they left. thing they could. They took ever- They cuss niggers who dodged !em for being fools and make ! em show fem everything they knowed whar was. Our old master was mighty old and him and the women folks cried when we was freed. He told us we was free as he was. I come to Oklahoma in 1906. I come out of that riot in 1906. Some fellow knocked up a colored woman or something and we waded right in and believe me we made Atlanta a fit place to live in. It is one of the best cities in America* I married Miss Emmaline Witt. the coldest nights I ever rid. grandchillun. I carried her to the preacher one of I have three chillun and donH know how many My chillun is one a nurse, one in Arizona for his health and the other doing first one thing and another. I think Abraham Lincoln was the greatest human being ever been on *J>U Oklahoma Writers1 Project -5- earth 'cepting the Apostle Paul. Negroes? Who any better'n a man who liberated 4,000,000 Some said he wasn*t a Christian, hut he told some friends once, "I'm going to leave you and may never see you again (and he didn't) so I'm going to take the Divine Spirit with me and leave it with you.w Jeff Davis was as "bloody as he could he* But you know good things come from enemies* Washington. "between. I don't lak him a'tall. I don't even admire George White men from the south that will help the Negro is far and few Booker T. Washington was a great man. mistakes, hut he was a great man. He made some "blunders and He is the father of industrial education and you know that sho' is a great thing. The white folks was ignorant. self the "better you act. You know the better you prepare your- If fen they had put some sense in our heads 'stead of sticks on our heads, we'ud "been better off and more benefit to 'em. I had something from within that made me fear God and taught me how to pray. People say God don't hear sinners pray, but he do. Everybody ought to be Christians so not to be lost. I work in real estate and can do a lot of work. I don't use no crutches and no cane and walk all the time, never hardly ride. I come in at 1 and 2 o'clock a* m. and get up between 8 and 9 a. m. 'cept Sundays, I get up at 7 or 8 a. m. so I can be ready to go to Sunday School. own self all the time too. Church. I cook for my I am a Baptist and a member of Tabernacle Baptist I am a trustee in my church too. Q() 350084 Oklahoma Writers * Ex-slaVes Project AUG 19 1937 JOANNA DRAPER Age 83 yrs. Tulsa, Okla. Most folks can*t remember many things happened to f em when they only eight years old, hut one of my biggest tribulations come about dat time and I never will forget itl That was when I was took away from my own mammy and pappy and sent off and bound out to another man, way off two-three hundred miles away from whar I live* And dat!s the last time I ever see either one of them, or any my own rinfolksl Whar I was born was at Haselhurst, Mississippi. Jest a little piece east of Hazelhurst, close to the Pearl River, and that place was a kind of new plantation what my Master, Dr. Alexander, bought when he moved into Mississippi from up in Virginia nwhile before the War. They said my mammy brings me down to Mississippi, and I was born jest right after she got there. My mammy1 s name was Margaret, and she was born imder the Ramson,s, back in Tennessee. She belonged to Dave Ramson* and his pappy had come to Tennessee to settle on war land, and he had knowed Dr. Alexander's people back in Virginia too. and he always belonged to Dr. Alexander. my pappy liked her. My pappy1 s name was Addison* Old doctor bought my mammy 'cause Old doctor live in Tennessee a little while before he go on down in Mississippi Old doctor's wife named Dinah, and she sho1 was a good woman, but I donft remember about old doctor much. He was away all the time, it seem like* When I is about six year old they take me into the Big House to learn to be a house woman, BM. they show me how to cook and clean up and take 81 Oklahoma Writers1 Project care of babies* -2- That Big House wasnft very fine, but it was mighty big and cool, and made out of logs with a big hall, but it didnft have no long gallery like most the houses around there had* They was lots of big trees in the yard, and most the ground was new ground fround that place, fcause the old Doctor jest started to done farming on it when I was took away, but he had some more places not so far away, over towards the river that was old ground and made big crops for him. I went to one of the places one time, but they wasnft nobody on fem but niggers and a white overseer. I donft know how many niggers old Doctor had, but Master John Deeson say he had about a hundred. At old Doctor1 s house I didnH have to work very hard. Jest had to help the cooks and peel the potatoes and pick the guineas and chickens and do things like that. Sometime I had to watch the baby. He was a little boy, and they would bring him into the kitchen for me to watch. I had to git up way before daylight and make the fire in the kitchen fireplace and bring in some fresh water, and go get the milk what been down in the spring all night, and do things like that -until breakfast ready. Old Master and old Mistress come in the big hall to eat in the siammer, and I stand behind them arid shoo off the flies. Old doctor didn't have no spinning and weaving niggers 'cause he say they don't do enough work and he buy all the cloth he use for everybody1 s clothes. He can do that * cause he had lots of money. He was big rich, and he keep a whole lot of hard money in the house all the time, but none of the slaves know: it but me. Sometimes I would have the baby in the Mistress1 room and she would go git three or foiar big wood boxes full of hard money for us to play with* I wouldjoaake fences out of the money all across the floor, to keep the baby satisfied, and when he go to sleep I Would put the money back in Oklahoma Writers1 Project the "boxes* -3- I never did know how much they is, but a whole lot. Even after the War start <*&& doctor have that money, and he would exchange money for people. Sometimes he would go out a.nd he gone a long time, and come back with a lot more money he got from some?/har. Right at the first they made him a high officer in the War and he done doctoring somewhifrjf at a hospital most of the time. But he could go on "both sides of the War, and sometime he would come in at night and bring old Mistress pretty little things, and I heard him tell her he got them in the Horth. One &py I was fanning him and I asked him is he been to the North and he kick out at ijie and tell"'' to shut up my black mouth, and it nearly scared me to death the way he look at met Nearly every time he been gone and come in and tell Mistress he been in the Forth he have a lot more hard money to put away in them boxes, too! One evening long come a man and eat supper at the house and stay all night. He was a nice mannered man, and I like to wait on him. The next morning I hear him ask old Doctor what is my name, and old Doctor start in to try to sell me to that man* The man say he canft buy me f cause old Doctor say he want a thousand dollars, and then old Doctor say he will bind me out to him. I run away from the house and went out to the cabin whar my mammy and pappy was, but they tell me to go on back to the Big House * cause maybe I am just scared. But about that time old Doctor and the man come and old Doctor make me go with the man* We go in his "buggy a long ways off to the South, and after he stop two or three night at peoples houses and put me out to stay with the niggers he come to his own house. I ask him how far it is back home and he say about a hundred miles or more, and laugh, and ask me if I know how far that is* Oti Oklahoma Writers1 Project -#* 8^t I wants to know if I can go hack to my mammy some time, and he say uSh6!, of course you can, some of these times. You donft "belong to me, Jo, I'se jest your Doss and not your master." He live in a big old rottendy house, but he aint farming none of the land. Jest as soon as he git home he goroff again, and sometimes he only come in at night for a little while. His v/ifefs name was Kate and his name was Mr. John. about a week before I found out they name was Deeson. I was there They had-two children, a girl about my size name Joanna like me, and a little baby boy name Johnny. One day Mistress Kate tell me I the only nigger they got. I been thinking maybe they had some somewhar on a plantation, but she say they aint got no plantation and they aint been at that place very long either. That little girl Joanna and me kind of take up together, and she was a mighty nice mannered little girl, too* Her mammy raised her good* Her mammy was mighty sickly all the time, and that's the reason they bind me to do the work* Mr. John was in some kind of business in the War too, but I never see him with no soldier clothes on but one time. One night he come in with them on, but the next morning he come to breakfast in jest his plain clothes again. Then he go off again. I sho1 had a hard row at that house. It was old and rackady, and I had to scrub off the staircase and the floors all the time, and git the breakfast for Mistress Kate and the two children. breakfast in the kitchen. Then I could have my own Mistress Kate always get the supper, though. Some days she go off with the two children and leave me at the house all day by myself, and I think maybe I run off, but I dicta11 know whar *9 go* ; ' After I been at that place two years Mr. John come home and stay. ' Oklahoma Writers1 Project -5-* He done some kind of trading in Jackson, Mississippi, a.nd he would be gone three or four days at a time, but I never did know what kind of trading it was. About the time he come home to stay I seen the, first Ku KIUJC I ever seen one night.- I was going down the road in the moonlight and I heard a hog grunting out in the bushes at the side of the road* I jest*walk right on and in a little ways I hear another hog in some more bushes, This time I stop and listen, and theyfs another hog grunts across the road, and about &hat time two mens dressed up in long white skirts steps out into the road in front of me! I was so scared the goose bumps jump up all over me I drn't know what they is! f cause They didn't say a word to me, but jest wa.lked on past me and went on back the way I had come* Then I see two more mens step out of the woods and I run from that as fast as I can go! I ast Miss Kate what they is and she say they Ku Klux, and I .better not go Y/alking off down the road any more. I seen them two, three times after that, though, but they was riding hosses them times. I stayed at Mr. Johnfs place two more years, and he got so grumpy and his wife got so mean I make up my mind to run off. I bundle up my clothes in a little bundle and hide them, and then I wait until Miss Kate take the children and go off somewhere, and I light out on foot. I had me a piece of that hard money what Master Dr. Alexander had give me one time at Christmas. I had kept it all that time and nobody knowed I had it, not even Joanna. Old Doctor told me it way fifty dollars, and I thought I could live on it for a while I never had been away from that place, not even to another plantation in all the four years I was with the Deesons, and I dicta.11 know whicha-way to go, so I jest started west* g ) Oklahoma Writers1 Project ~6* . 1F I been walking about all evening,/it seem like, and I come to a little town with jest a few houses. I see a nigger man and ask him whar I can git something to eat, and I say I got fifty dollars. "What you doing wid fifty dollars, child? anyhow?" Where you belong at, He ask me, and I tell him I belong to Master John Deeson, but I is running away. I explain that I jest bound out to Mr. John, but Dr. Alexander my real master, and than that man tell me the first time I knoweil it that I aint a slave no morel That man Deeson never did tell me, and his wife never didl Well, dat man asked me about the fifty dollars, and then I found out that it was jest fifty centsi I can't begin to tell about all the hard times I had working for something to eat and roaming around after that. I don't know why I never did try to git back up around Hazelhurst and hunt up my pappy and mammy, but I reckon I was jest ignorant and didn't know how to go about it. Anyways I never did see them no more. In about three years or a little over I met Bryce Draper on a farm in Mississippi and we was married. His mammy had had a harder time than I had. She had five children by a man that belong to her master, Mr. Bryce and already named one of the boys that my husband - Bryce after him, and then he take her in and' sell her off away from all her children! One was jest a little baby, and the master give it laudanum, but it didn't die, and he sold her off and lied and said she was a young girl and didn't have no husband, 'cause the man what botaght her said he didn't want to buy no woman and take her away from a family. 0?hat new master name was Draper. The last year of the War Mr. Draper die, and his wife already dead, and he::g&m all his farm to his two slaves and iset them free. Oae of.them 80 Oklahoma Writers1 Project ?- slaves was my husband's mammy. Then right away the whites come and robbed the place of every thing they could haul off, and run his mammy and the other niggers off! Then she went and found her boy, that was my husband, and he live with her until she died, jest before we is married. We lived in Mississippi a long time, and then we hear about how they better to the Negroes up in the North, and we go up to Kansas, but they ain't no better there, and we come down to Indian Territory In the Creek Nation in 1898, jest as they getting in that Spanish War* We leased a little farm from the Creek Nation for $15 an acre, but when they give out the allotments we had to give it up. Then we rent 100 acres from some Indians close to Wagoner, and we farm it all with my family* We had enough to do it tool For children we had John and Joe, and Henry, and Jim and Robert and Will that was big enough to work, and then the girls big enough was Mary, Nellie, Izora, Dora, and the baby. Dora married Max Colbert. His people belonged to the Colberts that had Colbert1 s crossin1 on the Red River way before the War, and he was a freedman and got allotment* I lives with Dora now, and we is all happy, and I don*t like to talk about the days of the slavery times, f cause they never did mean nothing to me but misery, from the time I was eight years old* I never will forgive that white man for not telling me I was free, and not helping me to git back to my mammy and pappy! done that* Lots of white people g^ m- 350052 Oklahoma Writers' Project Ex-Slaves- MRS. ESTHER EAST5R Age 85 yrs. Tulsa, Okla. I was horn near Memphis, Tenn., on the old Ben Moore plantation, but I don't know anything about the Old South "because Master Ben moves us all up into Missouri (about 14-miles east of Westport, now Kansas City), long before they started fighting about slavery. Mary- Collier was my mother1 s name before she was a Moore. father, I dunno. About my Mammy was sickly most of the time when I was a baby, and she was so thin and poorly when they move to Missouri the white folks afraid she going die on the way. But she fool fem, and she live two-three year after that. That's what good Old Master Ben tells me when I gets older* I stay with Master Benrs married daughter, Mary, till the coming of the War. Times was good before the War%$nd I wasnft suffering none from slavery, except once in a while the Mistress would fan me with the stick bet I needed it, too. When the War come along Master he say to leave Mistress Mary and get ready to go to Texas. Jim Moore, one of the meanest men I ever see, was the son of Master Ben; hefs going take us there. Demon Jim, thatfs what I call him when he ainH round the place, but when he's home it was always Master Jim 'cause he was reckless with the whip. He was a Rebel officer fighting round the country and didnft take us slaves to Texas right away* So I stayed on at his place not far from Master Imtr plantation* Master Jim*s wife was a demon, just like her husband. mm Used the whip \ all the time, and eveiy time Master Jim came home hfc whip me * cause the 88 Oklahoma Writers1 Project -3-. Mistress say I been mean. One time I tell him, you better put me in your pocket (sell me), Master Jim, else I'se going run away1. He donH pay no mind, and I don't try to run away 'cause of the whips. I done see one whipping and that eno-ugh. They waanft no fooling about it. A runaway slave from the Jenkin's plantation was brought back, and there was a public whipping, sofs the slaves could see what happens when they tries to get away. The runaway was chained to the whipping post, and I was full of misery when I see the lash cutting deep into that boyfs skin. He swell up like a dead horse, but he gets over it, only he was never no count for work no more. While Master Jim is out fighting the Yanks, the Mistress is fiddling round with a neighbor man, Mister Headsmith. I is young then, but I knows enough that Master Jim's going be mighty mad when he hears about it. The Mistress didn!t know I knows her secret, and I'm fixing to even up for some of them whippings she put off on me. That's why. I tell Master Jim next time he come home. See that crack in the wall? Master Jim say yes, and I say, it's just like the open door when the eyes are close to the wall. He peek and see into the bedroom. That's how I find out about the Mistress and Mister Headsmith, I tells him, and I see he's getting mad. that you mean? And Master Jim grabs*me hard by the arm like I was trying to get away* I see them in the bed* that's all I say. The Demon's got him and Master Jim tears out of 89 Oklahoma Writers1 Project >-3- the room looking for the Mistress. Then I hears loud talking and pretty noon the Mistress is screaming and calling for help, and if old Master Ben hadnH drop in just then and stop the fight, why, I guess she he heat almost to death, that how mad the Master was. Then Master Ben gets mad cause his boy Jim ainH got us down in Texas yet. Then we stay up all the night packing for the trip. Master Jim takes us, hut the Mistress stay at home, and I wonder if Master Jim heat her again when he gets hack* We rides the wagons all the way, how many days, I dunno. The country was wild most of the way, and I know now that we come through the same country where I lives now, only it was to the east. dently made over the ttTexas Road.11 (The trip was evi- And we keeps on riding and comes to the hig river that*s all hrown and red looking, (Red River) and the next thing I was sold to Mrs. Vaughn at Bonham, Texas, and there I stays till after the slaves is free. The new Mistress was a widow, no children round the place, and she treat me mighty good. She was good white folks - like old Master Ben, powerful good. When the word get to us that the slaves is free, the Mistress says I is free to go anywheres I want. And I tell her this talk about being free sounds like foolishment to me - anyway, where can I got She just pat me on the shoulder and say I better stay right there with her, and that*s what I do for a long time. Then I hears about how the white folks down at Dallas pays big money for house girls and there I goes. Thatfs all I ever do after that - work at the houses till I gets too old to hobble on these tired old feets ana legs, then I just sits down* QQ Oklahoma Writers1 Project -4- Just sits down and wishes for old Master Ben to come and get mef and take care of this old woman like he use to do when she is just a little black child on the plantation in Missouri! God Bless old Master Ben - he was good white folks! Q-| 850064 Oklahoma Writers1 Project Ex-Slaves. ELIZA 3EVMS , Age 87 McAlester, Okie,. I sho1 remember de days when I was a slave and belonged to de best old Master what ever was, Mr. John Mixon. We lived in Selma, Dallas Comity, Alabama. My grandma was a refugee from Africa. men who went slipping f You know dey was white round and would capture or entice black folks onto their boats and fetch them over hgre and sell ! em for slaves. Well, grandma was a little girl fbout eight or nine years old a^id her parents had sent her out to get wood. to roast a baby. Wasn't that awful? stick in her mouth. out. Dey was going to have a feast. Dey was going Well, they captured her and put a The stick held her mouth wide open so she wouldn't cry When she got to de boat she was so tired out she didn't do nothing. They was a lot of more Colored folks on de boat. It t*rok about four months to get across on de boat and Mr. John Mixon met the boat and bought her. I think he gave five hundred dollars for her. Oigif but Master John called her Gracie. She was named She was so good and they thought so much of her dat they gave her a grand wedding when she was married. Master John told her hefd never sell none of her chillun. mise and he never did sell any of her grandchillun either. was wrong to separate famblys. when she died. He kept dat proHe thought it She was one hundred and three years old I guess her mind got kind of feeble ! cause she wandered off and fell into a mill race and was drowned. Master John Mixon had two big plantations. four hundred slaves, chillun and all. I believe he owned about He allowed us to have church one time a month with de white folks and we had prayer meeting every Sunday. Some- times when de men would do something like being sassy or lazy and dey knowed Q > Oklahoma Writers1 Project -3^ dey was gonna he whipped, dey!d slip off and hide in de woods* When dey!d slip hack to get some food dey would all pray for fem dat Master wouldn't have fem whipped too hard, and for fear the Patroller would hear * em they!d put their faces down in a dinner pot. Hd sit out and watch for the Patroller. He was a white man who was appointed to catch runaway niggers. him. His name was Howard Campbell. hound was named Venus. We all knew He had a hig pack of dogs. The lead There was five or six in the pack, and they was vicious too. My father was a carriage driver and he allus took the family to church. My mother went along to take care of the little chilluns. take me too. Shefd They was Methodist and after they would take the sacrament we would allus go up and take it. The niggers could use the whitefolks church in the afternoon, De Big House was a grand place* It was a two-story house made out of logs dat had heen peeled and smoothed off. There was five big rooms and a hig open hall wid a wide front porch clean across de front. porch had hig posts and pretty banisters* shutters on de windows. De It was painted ishite and had green De kitchen was back of de Big House* De slaves quarters was about a quarter of a mile from de Big House. Their houses was made of logs and the cracks was daubed with mud. would have two rooms. Our bedsteads was made of poplar wood and we kept them scrubbed white with sand. We used roped woven together for slats. mattresses were made of cotton, grass, or even shucks. bed. They Our My mother had a feather The chairs was made from cedar with split white oak bottoms. Each family kept their own home and cooked and served their own meals. We used wooden trays and wooden spoons. chillun went to the Big House to eat dinner. Once a week all the cullud The table was out in de yard* 93 Oklahoma Writers1 Project My nickname was M SpeckM. -^ I didn't like to eat bread and milk when I went up there and I'd just sit there. mother would feed me. Finally theyfd let me go in de house and my She was the house woman and my Auntie was cook. I don't know why they had us up there unless it was so they could laugh at us. None of old Master' s young niggers never did much work. he want !em to grow up strong. He gave us lots to eat. He say He had a store of "bacon, milk, bread, begins and molasses. In summer we had vegetables. mother could make awful good corn pone. She would take meal and put salt in it and pour boiling water over it and make into pones. My She'd wrap these pones in wet cabbage or collard leaves and roll dem into hot ashes and bake dem. They sho1 was good. We'd have possum and coon and fish too* The boys never wore no britches in de summer time. Boys fifteen years old would wear long shirts with no sleeves and they went barefooted, De girls dressed in shimmys. They was a sort of dress with two seams in it and no sleeves* Old Master had his slaves to get up about five of clock, an ordinary day1 s work. or had a fight. back. Dey did He never whipped them unless they was lazy or sassy Sometimes his slaves would run away but they allus come We didn't have no truck with railroaders ! cause we like our home, A woman cussed my mother and it made her mad and they had a fight* Old Master had them both whipped, got twenty-five* lifer mother got ten licks and de other woman Old Mistress sho1 was mad f he wouldn't have done it if she had known it. cause mother got whipped. Said Old Mistress taught mother how to read and write and mother tau^at my father, I went to school jest one day so I can't read and write now. Weddings was big days. We'd ha;ve big dinners and dances once in a Q4 Oklahoma Writers1 Project -4- while%when somebody died they'd hold a wake. sing and pray and talk. They'd sit up all night and At midnight they'd serve sandwiches and coffee. Sometimes we'd all get together and play ring plays and dence. Once the Yankee soldiers come. piggins then. I was hig enough to tote pails and These soldiers made us chillun tote water to fill their can- teens and water their horses, fe toted the water on our heads. Another time we heard the Yankee's was coming and old-Master had ahout fifteen hundred pounds of meat. They was hauling it off to hury it and hide it when the Yankees caught them. meat. The soldiers ate and wasted every hit of that good We didn't like them a hit. One time some Yankee soldiers stopped and started talking to me they asked me what my name was. "I say Liza, and they say, ,f Liza who?" I thought a minute and I shook my head, "Jest Liza, I ain't got no other name." He say, "Who live up yonder in dat Big House?" Mixon." nigger?" He say, "You are Liza Mixon." And I say, "Yes Sir." He say, I say, "Mr. John Do anybody ever call you He say, "rText time anybody call you nigger you tell 'em dat you is a Hegro and your name is Miss Liza Mixon." The more I thought of that the more I liked it and I made up my mind to do jest what he told me to* My joh was minding the calves hack while the cows was "being milked. One evening I was minding the calves and old Master come along. "What you doin' nigger?" He say, I say real pert like, "I ain't no nigger, I'se a Negro and I'm Miss Liza Mixon." Old Master sho' was surprised and he picks up a switch and starts at me* Law, hut I was skeered! fast as I can to Grandma Gracie. matter of you child?" W&:. I hadn't never had no whipping so I run I hid "behind her and she say, "What's the And I say,"Master John gwine whip me." And she say, Q % Oklahoma Writers1 Project "What you done?" -5- And I say, "Nothing.w that time Master John got there. me.H She say she know "better and fbout He say, "Gracie, dat little nigger sassed She say, "Lawsie child, what does ail you?" I told them what the Yankee soldier told me to say and Grandma Gracie took my dress and lift it over my head and vins my hands inside, and Lawsie, how she whixrDed me and I dassent holler loud either, I jest said dat Ade wrong person ,didn't I? I'se getting old now and can!t work no more. thinks about old times. They was good times. We hated the Yankee soldiers. I jest sits here and We didn!t want to he freed. Abe Lincoln was a good man though, wasnft he? I juries to be a good Christian fcause I wants to go to Heaven when I die. Q(j 350098 Oklahoma Writers' Project Ex-Slaves LIZZIE EAHMER Age 80 years McAlester, Okla. . ^ ,; *;^! HSfc ' "Cousin Lizzie!fl "What," "I'se seventy years old.11 And I say, "Whut's you telling me for." I ain!t got nothing to do with your age!" I knowed I was one year older than she was and it sorta riled me for her to talk about it, I never would tell folks my age for I knowed white folks didn!t want no old woman working for' 'em and I just wouldn't tell ' em how old I really was. seventy five now, Dat was nine years ago and I guess I'm I can1t work much now. I was born four years before de War.-- "The one what set the cullud folks free." We lived on a big plantation in Texas. John Booker and he was good to us all. Old Master's name was My mammy died just at de close of de War ajid de young mistress took me and kept me and I growed tip with her chillun. I thought I was quality sure nuff and I never would go to school 'cause I couldn't go 'long to de same school with de white chillun. Young mistress taught me how to knit, spin, weave, crochet, sew and embroider. recollect my age and young Mistress told me to say, of de War dat set de cullud folks free, H M I'se born de second year and the only time she ever git mad at me was when I forgot to say it jest as she told me to. me and shook me. She take hold of I recollects all it, all de time* Young mistress1 name was Elizabeth Bo&ker McNew. her. I couldn't I'se named after She finally gave me to my aunt when I was a trig girl and I never lived wid white folks any more* I never saw my pappy till I was grown. Q^ Oklahoma Writers1 Project -3- In the cullud quarters, we cooked on a fireplace in "big iron pots. Our bread was "baked in iron skillets with lids and we would set the skillet on de fire and put coals of fire on de lid* like dat. We made our own candles, Bread was mighty good cooked fe had a candle mold and we would put a string in the center of the m&ld and paur melted tallow in it and let it harden. We would make eight at one time. Quality folks had "brass lamps. When we went to cook our vegetables we would put a "big piece of hog jowl in de pot. Wefd put in a lot of snap "beans and when dey was about half done we!d put in a mess of cabbage and when it was about half done wefd put in some squash and when it was about half done we!d put in some okra. Then when it was done we would take it out a layer at a time. Go !way! It makes me hungry to talk about it* When we cooked possum dat was a feast. We would skin him and dress him and put him on top de house and let him freeze for two days or nights* Then wefd "boil him with red pepper, and take him out and put him in a pan and slice sweet f taters and put round him and roast him* My. dat was good eating* It was a long time after de War ffore all de niggers knowed dey was really free. My grandpappy was Master Booker1 s overseer. have a white man over his niggers. whip. He wouldnft I saw grandpappy whip one man with a long Master Booker was good and wouldn* t whip fem less'n he had to* De niggers dassent leave de farm without a pass for fear of de Ku Kluxers and patrolers* We would have dances and play parties and have sho1 nuff good times* We had f,ring plays*11 Wefd all catch hands and march round, den we'd drop all hands lcept our pardners and we!d swing round and sing: Qg Oklahoma Writers1 Project -3-^ M You steal my pardner, and I steal yours, Miss Mary Jane. My true lovers gone away, Miss Mary Jane! "Steal all round and donft slight none, Miss Mary Jane. He!s lost out hut I!se got one, Miss Mary Jane!11 We always played at log rollinfs an1 cotton pickin1s. Sometimes we would have a wedding and my what a good time we!& have* Old Master's daughter, Miss Janief got married and it took us more'n three weeks to get ready for it. De house was cleaned from top to bottom and us chillun had to run errands. Seemed like we was allers under foot, at least dat was what mammy said. I never will fergit all the good things they cooked up. Rows of pies and calces, baked chicken and ham, my, it makes my mouth water jest thinking of it. After de wedding and de feast de white folks danced all night and us cullud folks ate all night. When one of de cullud folks die we would allers hold a "wake.11 We would set up with de corpse and sing and pr$y and at midnight we!d all eat and den wefd sing and pray some more. In de evening after work was done we!d sit round and de old.er folks would sing songs. One of de favorites was? "Miss Ca1line gal, Yes Ma1 am Did you see dett buzzards? Yes Ma!amf Did you see dem floppin1, How did ye1. like f em? Mighty well. fl Miss Oafline gal, Yes Ma'am, Did you see dem buzzards? Yes Ma1am, Did you see dem sailin1, Yes Ma!am. How did you tike fem? Mighty well* Q^ Oklahoma Writers1 Project -4^ Ifve heered folks talk about conjures and hoodoo charms. a hoss shoe over de door dat will "bring good luck. tain things bring bad luck. at night. I hare I sho1 do believe cer- I hate to hear a ecrinch (screech) owl holler Whenever a scrinch owl git in dat tree at night and start to holler I gits me a stick and I say, "Confound you, I111 make yet set up dar and say !ITmph huh1," so I goes out and time I gits dar he is gone. If you tie a knot in de corner of de bed sheet he will leave, or turn your hat wrong side out too. Dey1 s all good and will make a scrinch owl leave every time. I believes in dreams and visions too. had tall palings all ! I dreamed one night dat I round my house and I went out in de yard and dere was I111 jest put you a big black hoss and I say, "How come you is in my yard? out jest lak you got in." . I opened de gate but he wouldn't go out and finally he run in de door and through the house and Went towards de East. dat my son died. means death. I saw dat hoss again de other night. Right after A black hoss allus Seeing it de other night might mean I!se gwineter die. I know one time a woman named May Runnels wanted to go to church about a mile away and her old man wouldn't go with her. she say, "I'll be dammed if I donft go." It made her mad and She had to go through a grave yard and when she was about half way across it a icy hand jest slap her and her mouth was twisted way * round fer about three months. Dat was a lesson to her fer cussing. One time there was a nigger what belonged on a adjoining farm to Master John Bookers and dey told us dis story: "Dis nigger went down to de spring and found a terrapin and he say, "lhat brung you here?" Jest imagine how he felt when it say to himf "Teeth and tongae brung me here, and teeth and tongue will bring you here." He run JLOO Oklahoma Writers1 Project -5- to de house and told his Master dat he found a terrapin dat could talk. 101 Dey went hack and he asked de terrapin what "bring him here and it wouldn't say a word. Old Master didn't like it 'cause he went down there jest to see a common ordinary terrapin and he told de nigger he was going to git into trouble fer telling him a lie. thing again. Next day the nigger seen de terrapin and it say de same Soon after dat dis nigger was lynched right close to de place he saw de terrapin.11 Master John Booker had two niggers what had a habit of slipping across de river and killing old Master' s hogs and hiding de meat in de loft of de house. Master had a hig blue hog and one day he missed him and he sent Ned to look fer him. had it hid in his loft. Ned knowed all de time dat he had killed it and He hunted and called "Pig-ooie, Pig." done stole old Master1 s big blue hog. thought Ned knowed something 'bout it. Somebody Dey couldn't find it but old Master One night he found out Ned was gonna kill another hog and had asked John to go with him. clothes and blacked his face and met Ned at de river. He borrowed John's Soon dey find a nice big one and Ned say, "John, I'll drive him round and you kill him." So he drove him past old Master but he didn't want to kill his own hog so he made lair he*d like to kill him but he missed him. "I'll kill him, you drive him by me." Finally Ned got tired and said. So Master John drove him by him and Ned knock de hog on de head and cut his throat and dey load him on de canoe. When dey was nearly 'cross de river Old Master dip up some water and wash his face a little, then he look at Ned and he say, "Ned you look sick, I believe you've got lepersy." Ned row on little more and he jump in de river and Master had a hard time finding him again. He had the overseer whip Ned for that* I think Lincoln was a wonderful man. died, but I never heerd of Jeff Davis. Everybody was sorry when he w*?^ 350080 ',*# * - -**! Oklahoma Writers1 Project Ex-SX|tfes 10-19-38 lf876 - words . DELIA FOUNTAIN Age 69 years McAlester, Oklahoma I was born after de War of de Rebellion "but I 'member lots o1 things dat my parents told me 'bout slavery* My grandmother was captured in Africa. Traders come dere in a big boat and dey had all sorts of purty gew~gaws red handkerchiefst dress goodsf beadsf bellst and trinkets in bright colors* Dey would pull up at de shore and entice de colored folks onto de boat to see de purty things. it dey would be out from shore. Befo1 de darkies realized Dat's de way she was captured* Fifteen to twenty- five would pay dem for de trip as dey all brought good prices* I was born and raised in Louisianaf near Winfield. John Bogers and his wife was Miss Millie* My motherfs Master was Dey was awful good to deir slaves and he never sihupped his grown niggers. I f member when I was a child dat we didnft have hardly anything to keep house wid* but we got along purty well I guess. Our furniture was home-made and we cooked on de fireplace. We saved all our oak-wood ashes* and would put a barrel on a slanting scaffold and put sticks and shucks in de bottom of de barrel and den fill it wid de ashes. We*d pour water in it and let it drip. Bese drippings made pure lye* We used dis wid cracklings and meat scraps to make our soap* Father took a good-sized pine loag and split it openf planed it down smooth and bored holes in de bottom and drove pegs in dem for legs; dis was our battling IS: Oklahoma Writers1 Project bench. -a* JO Delia Fountain Wefd spread our wet clothes on dis and rub soap on fem and take a peddle and beat de dirt out. We got f em clean but had to be careful not to wear *em out wid de paddle* fe had no tubs either, so father took a hollow log and split it open and put partitions in it. He bored a hole in each section and drove a peg in it* cut two forked poles and drove log in dese forks. He next f em in de ground and rested de ends of de hollow Wefd fill de log trough wid water and rinse our clothes. could pull out de pegs and let de water out. We We had no brooks either, so we made brush brooms to sweep our floors. Cere was lots of wild game near our home. I f member father and two more men going out and killing six deer in Jest a little while, was squirrels, coon, possums and queil. Dey was plentiful, and so Dere was lots of bears, too. We*d be in de field working and hear de dogs, and father and de boys would go to *em and maybe deyfd have a bear. We liked bear meat. It was dark, but awful good and sweet* De grown folks used to have big times at log-rollings, corr^shuckings and quiltings. Dey*d have a big supper and a big dance at night. Us children would play ring playsfc play with home-made rag dolls, or we*d take big leaves and pin *em together wid thorns and make hats and dresses. Wefd ride saplings, too* All of us would pull a sapling down and one would climb up in it near de top and git a good hold on it, and ;dey would turn it loose* It took a purty good holding to stay wid it. I can tell you. All de ladies rode horseback, and day rode side-saddles. saddle when I growed up. habit, too* Be saddle seat was flowered plush. I had a purty side~ I had a purty riding De skirt was so long dat it almost touched de grounds We spun and wove all our clothes* b before bedtime* I had to spin three broaches ever night Mother would take bark and make dye to give us different colored ;m?m^$5m< jpjga Oklahoma Writers1 Project Delia fountain ~ 3 ** dresses* $ed oak and sweet gum made purple* made a purty brown. Bois d' arc made yellow or orange* Walnut We knitted our socks and stockings, too. We celebrated Christmas by haying a big dance and egg-nog for ever1 body. During slavery young colored boys and girls didn't do much work but just growed up, care-free and happy. De first work boys done was to learn to hitch up de team to Master's carriage and take de young folks for a drive. My older brothers and sisters told me lots of things dey done during slave days. My brother Joe felt mighty big after freedom and strutted about. One day he took his younger brotherf 01 wid him to where father was building a house. Dey k played 'bout de house and come up to where a white man and father was taling. De white man was rolling a little ball of mud in his hands and he just pitched it over on 01*s foot. It didn't hurt him a mite, but Joe bridled up and he started to git smart, and father told him he'd break his neck if he didn't go on home and keep his mouth shet. lather finally had to whup Joe to make him know he was black. He give father and mother lots of concern, for dey was afraid the u Kluxers would git him. One day he was playing wid a axe and chopped off brother Ol's finger. Mother told him she was going to kill him when she caught him. He took to de woods. His three sieters and two neighbor girls run him nearly all day but couldnft catch him. X&te in de evening, he come up to a white neighbor's house and she told him to go in and git under de bed and. day couldnft find him. floor and as he was tired he decided to risk it. when he heard de girls coming. Curtains come down to de He hadn't much more dan got hid He heard de woman say, t, Hers under de bed.11 knowed he was ca^glatt and, he put x a fight, but dey took him to mother. He He got a wht^piis^^ but l|e was shocked dat mother didn't kill him like she said she was. He :*% - 10? 350020 Oklahoma Writers1 Project Ex~Slaves 108 NANCY C-ABDNSR Age 79 yrs. Oklahoma City, Okla. Well, to tell you de truth I donft know my age, but I was born in 1858, in Franklin, Tennessee. how old I is. Now, you can figger for yourself and tell I is de daughter of Prophet and Callie Isaiah, and dey was natives of Tennessee. Ifm de only girl. Dere was three of us children, two boys and myself. My brothers names was Prophet and Billie Isaiah. I don't f old. I'll never forget when me, my ma and my auntie had to leave my pa member much about dem as we was separated when I was seven years and brothers. It is jest as clear in my mind now as it was den, and dat!s been about seventy years ago. Oh God! I tell you it was awful dat day when old Jeff Davis had a bunch of us sent to Memphis to be sold. He was a big nigger trader you know. and we was sold jest like cattle. pa and de boys together. Alabama. I can see old Major Clifton now. Well, dey took us on up dere to Memphis Dey sold me and ma together and dey sold Dey was sent to Mississippi and we was sent to My pa, 0 how my ma was grieved to death about him! live long after dat. She didnft She didn't live long enough to be set free. she died a slave, but she is saved though. Poor ma, I know she is, and I111 be wid her some day. It was thirty years before my pa knew if we was still living. in some way he heard dat I was still alive, and he began writing me. Finally Course I was grown and married den and me and my husband had moved to Missouri. Well, W pa started out to see me and on his way he was drowned in de Missouri Elver, and I never saw him alive after we was sold in Memphis. I canft tell you much 'bout work during de slave days 'cause you see I was jest a ba.by you might say when de War broke out. I do remember our Oklahoma Writers1 Project - 2- Master1 s name thought it was Dr* Perkins> and he was a good Master* Ma and pa sure hated to have to leave him, he was so good to dem* He was a rich man, and had a big fine house and thousands of acres of land, good to his niggers too* ^e was We had a good house too, better dan some of dese houses I see folks living in now. Course Dr* Perkins niggers had to work, but dey didnft mind cause he would let dem have little patches of dey ora such as 'tatoes, corn, cotton and garden* Jest a little, you know* He couldnft let dem have much, there was so many on Dr. Perkins plantation* I donft remember seeing anybody sick in slavery time* You see I was jest a kid and derefs a lot of things I can't remember* I am a Christian* I jined de church nigh on seventy years ago and when I say dat, I donft mean I jest jined de church* I mean I gave myself up to de Heavenly Father, and Ifve been gwine straight down de line for Him ever since* do now, You know in dem days, we didnft get religion like young folks Yotmg folks today jest find de church and den call theyselves Christians, but they aint* I remember jest as well when I was converted* One day I was thinking bout a sermon de preacher had preached and a voice spoke to me and said,' M De Holy Ghost is over your head* Accept itj" Rigfrt den I got down on my knees and prayed to God dat I might understand dat voice, and God Almighty in a vision told me dat I should find de church* I could hardly wait for de next service so I could find it, and *hen I was in de water getting my baptisement, dat same voice spoke and said, turn back * cause I will be wid you always!w n Now you have accepted donft 0 you don't know nothing 'bout dat kind of religion! I 'member one night shortly after I jined de church I was laying in bed and dere was a vine tied 'round my waist and dat vine extended into de if)9 w Okttoma Writers1 Project elements* 0 my God! - 3 -' I can see it now! I looked up dat vine and away in de elements I could see my Divine Master and he spoke to me and said, "When you get in trouble shake dis vine; Ifm your Master and I will hear your cry* I knowed old Jeff Davis good* to dat table* Why I was jest as close to him as I am I've talked wid him too* I reckon I do know dat scoundrel! Why9 he didn't want de niggers to be free! He was known as a mean old rascal all over de South. Abraham Lincoln? Now you is talking 'bout de niggers friend! was de best man Gfod ever let tramp de earth! Why dat Everybody was mighty sad when poor old Abraham was 'sassinated, 'cause he did a mighty good deed for de colored race before he left dis world. I wasnft here long during slavery, but I saw enough of it to know it was mighty hard going for most of de niggers den, and young folks wouldn't stand for dat kind of treatment now. I know most of the young folks would be killed, but they jest wouldn't stand for it. through wid my little share of it again. I would hate to have to go HO m. 850059 Oklahoma Writers1 Project 3b&-Slaves 111 OOTAVIA aSORSB Age 85 yrs* Oklahoma City, Okla I was "born in Mansieur, Louisiana, 1852, Avoir Parish* daughter of Alfred and Clementine Joseph* I am the I donft know much about my grand- parents other than my mother told me my grandfathers name was Pransuai, and was one time a king in Africa* Most of the slaves lived in log cabins, and the beds^were home-made* The mattresses were made out of moss gathered from trees, and we used to have lots of fun gathering that moss to make those mattresses* My job was taking care of the white children up at the Big House (that is what they called the house where our master lived), and I also had to feed the little Negro children* little children used to have to eat* under the house* I remember quite well how those poor They were fed in "boxes and troughs, They were fed corn meal mash and "beans* When this was poured into their "box they would gather around it the same as we see pigs, horses and cattle gather around troughs today* We were never given any money, hut were able to get a little money this way* our Master would let us have two or three acres of land each year to plant for ourselves, and we could have what we raised on it* We could not allow our work on these two or three acres to interfere with Masterfs work* but we had to work our little crops on Sundays* Now remind you, all the Negroes didnH get these two or three acres, only good masters allowed their slaves to have a little crop of their own* We would take the money from our little crops and bay a few clothes and something for Christmas* The men would save enoiagh money out of the crops to biay their Christmas whiskey* It was all Oklahom Writers1 Project -3- right for the slaves to get drunk on Christmas and New Years Day; no one was whipped for getting drunk on those days. We were allowed to have a garden and from this we gathered vegetables to eat$ on Sundays we could have duck, fish and pork* We didn!t know anything about any clothes other than cotton; everything we wore was made of cotton, except our shoes, they were made from pieces of leather cut out of a raw cowhide. Our Master and Mistress was good, they let us go to church with them, have our little two- or three-acre crops and any other thing that the good masters would let their slaves do. had a fine "barn. They lived in a "big fine house and Their barn was much "better than the house we lived in. Master Depriest (our master) was a frenchman, and had eight or nine children, and they were sure mean. They would fight us, but we were not allowed to fight our little Master or Mistress as we had to call them. The overseer on Master1 s plantation was a mean old fellow, he carried his gun all the time and would ride a big fine horse and go from one bunch of slaves to the other. Some poor white folks lived close to us. could not own slaves and theyjhad to work for the rich plantation owners. They I believe that those poor white folk are to blame for the Negroes stealing because they would get the Negroes to steal their master1 s corn, hogs, chickens ^and many other things and sell it to them for practically nothing. We had to work plenty hard, because our Master had a large plantar tion Don*t know just how many acres it was, but we had to be up at 5 o1 clock in the morning and would work until dark then we would have to go home and do our night work, that is cook, milk, and feed the stock* The sla&es were punished for stealing, running off, not doing what 1125 Oklahoma Writers1 Project -3- their master told them and for talking "back to their master. 1x3 If any of these rules were disobeyed their feet and hands were chained together and they were put across a log or a barrel and whipped until the blood came from them. There were no jails; the white man was the slaves1 jail* If whipping didn*t settle the crime the Uegro committed - the next thing would be to hang him or burn him at stake* Ifve seen them sell slaves* as we do cattle and horses today* The whites would auction them off just The big fine healthy slaves were worth more than those that were not quite so good* and I thought that was such a crime* I have seen men sold from their wives I knew that God would settle thing someday* Slaves would run away but most of the time they were caught* The Master would put blood hounds on their trail, and sometimes the slave would kill the blood hound and make his escape* If a slave once tried to run away and was caugiht, he would be whipped almost to death, and from then on if he was sent any place they would chain their meanest blood hound to him* Funerals were very simple for slaves, they could not carry the body to the church they would just take it to the grave yard and bury it* They were not even allowed to sing a song at the cemetery* Old Mistress use to A tell us ghost stories after funerals and they would nearly scare me to death* She would tell of seeing men with no head, and see cattle that would suddenly turn to cats, and she made us believe if a fire was close to a cemetery it was coming from a ghost* I used to hear quite a bit about voodoo, but that something I never believed in, therefore, I didnft pay any attention to it* When a slave was sick, the master would get a good doctor for him if he was a good slave, but if he wasnft considered a good slave he would be Oklahoma Writers1 Project given cheap medical care. -4- XX4fc Some of the doctors would not go to the cabin where the slaves were, and the slave would have to be carried on his bed to his master's back porch and the doctor would see him there When the news came that we were free, all of us were hid on the Mississippi River* We had been there for several days, and we had to catch fish with our hands and roast themi for food* I remember quite well when old Master came down to there and hollered, Gome on out niggers; you are free now and you can do as you please I We all went to the Big House and there we found old Miss crying and talking about how she hated to lose her good niggers Abraham Lincoln! diedi Why we mourned three months for that man when he I wouldn't miss a morning getting my black arm band and placing it on in remembrance of Abraham, who was the best friend the Negroes ever had. old Jeff Davis, I didn't care a thing about him. of them mean anything to the Negro. Now He was a Democrat and none And if these young Negroes don't quit messing with the democratic bunch they are going to be right back where we started from. If they only knew as I know they would straggle to keep such from happening, because although I had a good master I wouldn't want to go through it again. 350056 Oklahoma Writers1 Project Ex-Slaves MAET &EAISOH Age 83 yrs. Tulsa, Oklahoma I am what we colored people call a "native.* That means that I didn't come into the Indian country from somewhere in the Old South, after the War, like so many negroes did, bat I was born here in the old Creek Nation, and my master was a Creek Indian. That was eighty three years ago, so I am told. My mammy belonged to white people back in Alabama when she was born down in the southern part I think, for she told me that after she was a sizeable girl her white people moved into the eastern part of Alabama where there was a lot of Creeks* Some of them Creeks was mixed up with the whites, and some of the big men in the Creeks who come to talk to her master was almost white, it looked like. M My white folks moved around a lot when I was a little girlM, she told me* When mammy was about 10 or 12 years old some of the Creeks began to come out to the Territory in little bunches. They wasnft the ones who was taken out here by the soldiers and contractor men they come on ahead by themsfcLves and most of them had plenty of money, too. A Creek come to my mammy's master and bought her to bring out here, but she heard she was being sold and run off into the woods. There was an old clay pit, dug way back into a hi^h bank, where the slaves had been getting clay to mix with hog hair scrapings to make chinking for the big log houses that they built for the master and the cabins they made for themselves. Well, my mammy run and hid way back in that old clay pit, and it was way after dark before the master and the other man found her* The Creek POT that bought her was a kind sort of a man, mammy said, and wouldnft let the master punish her. He took her away and was kind to-her, but he decided she was too young to breed and he sold her to aaother Creek who iT*i Oklahoma Writers1 Project -2- 4JLB had several slaves already, and he bro-ught her out to the Territory. The Mclntosh men was the leaders in the hunch that come out at that time, and one of the "bunch, named Jim Perryman, "bought my mammy and married her to one of his hoys11, hut after he waited a while and she didnf t have a baby he decided she was no good breeder and he sold her to Mose Perryman Mose Perryman was my master, and he was a cousin to I egus Perryman, who was a "big man in the Tribe. He was a lot younger than MOSB, and laughed at Mose for buying my mammy, but he got fooled, because my mammy got married to Mosefs slave boy Jacob, the way the slaves was married them days, and went ahead and had ten children for Mr. Mose. Mose Perryman owned my pappy and his older brother, Hector, and one of the Mclntosh men, Oona, I think his name was, owned my pappy1 s brother William. I can remember when I first heard about there was going to be a war. The older children would talk about it, bat they didn't say it was a war all over the country. They would talk about a war going to be "back in Alabama11, and I guess they had heard the Creeks talking about it that way. When I was born we lived in the Choska bottoms, and Mr. Mose Perryman had a lot of land broke in all up and down the Arkansas river along there. After the War, when I had got to be a young woman, there was quite a settlement grew up at Ohoska (pronounced Choe-skey) right across the river east of where Haskell now is, but when I was a child before the War all the whole bottoms was marshy kind of wilderness except where farms had been cleared out. rich, and the Creeks who got to settle there were lucky. crops. The land was very They always had big All west of us was high ground, toward Gibson station and Port Gibson, and the land was sandy* Some of the Mc In toshes lived over that way, and my Uncle William belonged to one of them. Oklahoma Writers1 Project -3_ 11*7 We slaves didnft have a hard time at all "before the War. I have had people who. were slaves of white folks back in the old states tell me that they had to work awfully hard and their masters were cruel to them sometimes, but all the Negroes I knew who belonged to Creeks always had plenty of clothes and lots to eat and we all lived in good log cabins we "built. We worked the farm and tended to the horses and cattle and hogs, and some of the older women worked around the owner's house, "but each Negro family looked after a part of the fields and worked the crops like they belonged to us* When I first heard talk about the War the slaves were allowed to go and see one another sometimes and often they were sent on errands several miles with a wagon or on a horse, but pretty soon we were all kept at home, and nobody was allowed to come around and talk to us. But we heard what was going on. The Mclntosh men got nearly everybody to side with them about the War, but we Negroes got word somehow that the Cherokees over back of Ft. Gribson was not going to be in the War, and that there were some Union people over there who would help slaves to get away, but we children didn't know anything about what we heard our parents whispering about, and they would stop if they heard us listening. Most of Ifehe Creeks who lived in our part of the country, between the Arkansas and the Verdigris, and some even south of the Arkansas, belonged to the lower Creeks and sided with the South, but down below us along the Canadian liver they were Upper Creeks and there.was a good deal of talk about them going with the North* Some of the Negroes tried to get away and go down to them, but I donft know of any from our neighborhood that went to them* Same Upper Creeks came up into the Choska bottoms talking around among the folks there about siding with the Horth. They were talking, they Oklahoma Writers1 Project -4- said, for old man Gouge, who was a big man among the Upper Creeks His Indian name was Opoeth-le-ya hola, and he got away into Kansas with a Mg hunch of Creeks and Seminoles during the War. Before that time, I remember one night my uncle William brought another Negro man to our cabin and talked a long time with my pappy, but pretty soon some of the Perryman Negroes told them that Mr. Mose was coming down and they went off into the woods to talk. down. But Mr. Mose didn't come When pappy came back Mammy cried quite a while, and we 'children could hear them arguing late at night. Then my uncle Hector slipped over to our cabin several times and talked to pappy, and mammy began to fix up grub, but she didn't give us children but a little bit of it, and told us to stay around with her at the cabin and not go playing with the other children. Then early one morning, about daylight, old Mr, Mose came down to the cabin in his buggy, waving a shot gun and hollering at the top of his voice, I never saw a man so mad in all my life, before nor since! He yelled in at mammy to "git them children together and git up to my house before I beat you and all of them to death!" Mammy began to cry and plead th&t she didn't know anything, but he acted like he was going to shoot sore enough, so we all ran to mammy and started for Mr, Mose's house as fast as we could trot. We had to pass all the other Negro cabins on the way, and we could see that they were all empty, and it looked like everything in them had been tore up. Straw and corn shucks all over the place, where somebody had tore up the mattresses, and all the pans and kettles gone off the outside walls where they used to hang them. At one place we saw two Negro boys loading some iron kettles on a wagon, and a little further on was some boys catching chiekens in a yard, 118 Oklahoma Writers1 Project -5- but we could see all the Negroes had left in a big hurry. I asked mammy filere everybody had gone and she said, "Up to Mr. Mose's house, where we are going* Hefs calling us all in.11 "Will pappy be up there too?11 "No. I asked her. Your pappy and your Sncle Hector and your Uncle William and a lot of other menfolks won't be here any more. They went away. 5Ehatfs why Mr. Hose is so mad, so if any of you younguns say anything about any strange men coming to our place I111 break your necks!tt Mammy- was sure scared! We all tho-ught sure she was going to get a big whipping, but Mr. Mbse just looked at her a minute and then told her to get back to the cabin and bring all the clothes, and bed ticks and all kinds of cloth we had and come back ready to travel. We're goin to take all you black devils to a place where there wonft no more of you run away!M he yelled after us. leave as quick as we could. So we got ready to I kept crying about my pappy, but mammy would say, *Donft you w*rry about your pappy, he*s free now. about us. No telling where we all will end up!11 Better be worrying Ihere was four or five Creek families and their Negroes all got together to leave, with all their stuff packed in buggies and wagons, and being toted by the Negroes or carried tied on horses, jack asses, mules and milk cattle. I reckon it was a funny looking sight, or it would be to a person now; the way we was all loaded down with all manner of baggage when we met at the old ford across the Arkansas that lead to the Creek Agency. The Agency stood on a high hill a few miles across the river from where we lived, but we couldn't see it from our place down in the Choska bottoms* But as soon as we got up on the upland east of the bottoms we could look across and see the hill. jj[j[9 Oklahoma Writers1 Project -6- When we got to a grove at the foot of the hill near the agency Mr. Mose and the other masters went up to the Agency for a while. I suppose they found out up there what everybody was supposed to do and where they was supposed to go, for when we started on it wasn't long until several more families and their slaves had joined the party and we made quite a big crowd* The little Negro boys had to carry a little bundle apiece, but Mr. Mose didn't make the little girls carry anything and let us ride if we eonld find anything to ride on. My mammy had to help lead th^bows part of the time, bat a lot of the time she got to ride an old horse, and she would put me up behind her. It nearly scared me to death, because I had never been on a horse before, and she had to hold on to me all the time to keep me from falling off. Of course I was too small to know what was going on then, but I could tell that all the masters and the Negroes seemed to be mighty worried and careful all the time. Of course I know now that the Creeks were all split up over the War, and nobody was able to tell who wouLd be friendly to us or nho would try to poison us or kill us, or at least rob us. There was a lot of bushwhacking all through that country by little groups of men who was just out to get all they could. They would appear like they was the enemy of anybody they run across, just to have an excuse to rob them or burn up their stuff. If you said you was with the South they would be with the North and if you claimed to be with the Yankees they would be with the South, so our party was kind of upset all the time we was passing through the country along the Canadian. against the South. That was where old Gouge had been talking I've heard my folks say that he was a wonderful speaker, too. We all had to move along mighty slow, on account of the ones on foot, and we wouldn't get very far in one day, then we Negroes had to fix up a place to camp and get wood andfeook supper for everybody. Sometimes we would come to 1.20 Oklahoma Writers1 Project -7- \Q\m a place to camp that somebody knew about and we would find it all tramped down by horses and the spring all filled in and ruined. I reckon old Gouge1 s people would tear up things when they left, or maybe some Southern bushwhackers would do it. I don!t know which* When we got down to where the North Pork runs into the Canadian we went around the place where the Creek town was* There was lots of Creeks down there who was on the other side, so we passed around that place and forded across west of there. get across. The ford was a bad one, and it took us a long time to Everybody got wet and a lot of the stuff on the wagons got wet. Pretty soon we got down into the Chickasaw countyy, and everybody was friendly to us, but the Chickasaw people didn't treat their slaves like the Creeks did. They was more strict, like the people in Texas and other places. The Chickasaws seemed lighter color than the Creeks but they talked more in Indian among themselves and to their slaves. Our masters talked English nearly all the time except when they were talking to Creeks who didnft talk good English, and we Negroes never did learn very good Creek. I could always understand it, and can yet, a little, but I never did try to talk it much. Mammy and pappy used English to us all the time* Mr. Mose found a place for us to stop close to Port Washita, and got us places to stay and work. I don!t know which direction we were from Port Washita, but I know we were not very far. I don't know how many years we were down in there, but I know it was over two for we worked on crops at two different places, I remember. Then one day Mr. Mose came and toll us that the War was over and that we would have to root for ourselves after that. Then he just rode away and I never saw him after that tin til after we had got back up into the Oho ska country Mammy heard that the Negroes Oklahoma Writers1 Project -8- 22 were going to get equal rights with the Creeks, and that she should go to the Creek Agency to draw for us, so we set out to try to get hack. We started out on foot, and would go a little ways each day, and mammy would try to get a little something to do to get us some food* Two or three times she got paid in money, so she had some money when we got "back* After three or four days f walking we came across some more Negroes who had a horse, and mammy paid them to let us children ride and tie with their children for a day or two, They had their children on the horse, so two or three little ones would get on with a larger one ta. guide the horse and we would ride a while and get off and tie the horse and start:walking on down the road. Ehen when the others caught up with the horse they would ride until they caught up with us* Pretty soon the old people got afraid to have us do that, so we just led the horse and some of the little ones rode it* We had our hardest times when we would get to a river or big creek. If the water was swift the horse didnH do any good, for it would shy at the water and the little ones couldn't stay on, so we would have to just wait until someone came along in a wagon land maybe have t pay them with some of our money or some of our goods we were bringing back to haul, us across. Sometimes we had to wait all day before anyone would come along in a wagon. We were coming north all this time, up througjh the Seminole Nation, but when we got t feeleetka we met a Creek family of f reedmen who were going to the Agency too, and mammy paid them to take us along in their wagon. When we got to the Agency mammy met a, Hegr who had seen pappy and knew where he was, so we sent word to him and he came and found us. most of the War in the Union army. He had been through OKLahoma Writers1 Project -9- When we got away into the Cherokee conn try some of them called the *PinsM helped to smuggle him on up into Missouri and over into Kansas, hut he soon found that he couldn't get along and stay safe unless he went with the Army. He went with them until the War was over, and was around Gibson quite a lot. When he was there he tried to find out where we had gone but said he never could find out. He was in the battle of Honey Springs, he said, but never was hurt or sick* When we got back together we cleared a selection of land a little east of the Choska bottoms, near where Clarks~ ville now is, and farmed until I was a great big girl, I went to school at a little school called Blackjack school. I think it was a kind of mission school and not one of the Creek nation schools, because my first teacher was Miss Betty Weaver and she was not a Creek but a Cherokee* Then we had two white teachers, Miss King and John Kernaa, and another Cherokee was in charge. His name was Boss, and he was killed one day when his horse fell off a bridge across the Verdigris, n the way from Tallahassee to Gibson Station. When I got to be a young woman I went to Okmulgee and worked for some people near there for several years, then I married Sate Grayson. We got our freedmenfs allotments on Mingo Creek, east of falsa, and lived there until our children were grown and fate died, then I came to live with my daugbter in faLsa. 123 50054 Oklahoma Writers1 Project Ex-Slaves j^Q^t ROBERT R. GRINSTEAD Age 80 yrs. Oklahoma City, Ofcla. I was horn in Lawrence County, Mississippi, February 17, 1857. My father's name is ELias Grinstead, a German, and my mother's name is Ann Greenstead after that of her master. I am a son by my mother and her Master. I have four other half brothers William (Bill) oldest, Albert, Silas, and John. I was only eight years of age at freedom and for that reason I was too young to work and on account of being the son of my Master*"* s I received no hard treatment and did little or no work. Yet, I wore the same clothing as did the. rest of the slaves: a shirt of lowell for summer and shirt and trousers for winter and no shoes. I could walk through a briar patch in my bare feet without sticking one in the bottom of my feet as they were so hard and resistant. I was the only child of my Master as he had no wife. When the War broke out he went to the War and left the plantation in charge of his overseer and his two sisters. As the overseers were hard for them to get along with they were oftener without an overseer as with one, and therefore they used one of the Negroes as overseer for the most of the time. Across the river was another large plantation and slave owner by the name of Master Wilson. We called him Master too, for he was a close friend and neighbor to our Mistresses. There was one Negro man slave who decided to not work after Master went to the War and the white overseer was fired and the Negro overseer was acting as overseer, so my Mistress gave him a note to take across the river to Master Wilson. The note was an order to whip this Negro and as he couldn't rea4 he didn't know vdiat the note contained until after Master Wilson read it and gave orders to Ms men to tie him for his whipping. After this* the whipping was so severe that they never had any more Oklahoma Writers1 Project -3- JiQQ trouble in making this Negro slave work and they never had to send him hack again to Master Wilson to he whipped. The fun part of this ahove incidence was the Negro carried his own note and went alone to he whipped and didn!t know it 'til the lashes was being put on him. My Master's plantation was about 2 miles long and 111 mile wide and he owned between 30 or 40 slaves. The Negro overseer would wake up the slaves and have them in the field before they could see how to work each morning and as they would go to work so soon their breakfast was carried to the field to them* One morning the breakfast was taken to the field and the slaves were hoeing cotton and among them was a lad about 15 years of ago who could not hoe as fast as the older slaves and the breakfast was sat at the end of the rows and as they would hoe out to the end they would eat, and if you would be late hoeing to the end the first to ge to the end would began eating and eat everything. So, this 15 year old lad in order to get out to eat before everything was gone did not hoe his row good and the overseer, who was white at this time, whipped him so severely that he could not eat nor work- that day. The Negroes went to church with the white people and joined their church. The church was Baptist in denomination, and they hiilt a pen in the church in which the Negroes sat, and when they would take sacrament the Negroes would be served after the whites were through and one of the Negro group would pass it around to the others within the pen. As there were no dances held on the plantation the Negroes would oftimes slip off and go at nights to a nearby dance or peanut parching or rice suppers at nights after work. Some of the Slaves would be allowed to make for then*- selves rice patches which they would gather and save for the dances. To pre- pare this rice for cooking after harvested they would burn a trough into a log, they called mortar and with a large wooden mallet they called pessel, and which they would pound upon the rice until hulled and ready for cooking. This Oklahoma Writers1 Project -3- rice would he hoiled with just salt and water and eaten as a great feast with delight. During slavery some of the Negro slaves would kill snakes and skin them and wear these snake skins to prevent being voodooed they said. When some of the slaves would take sick and the home remedies would fail to cure them onr Mistress would allow one of the Negro men slaves to go to the white doctor and get some medicine for the patient. The doctor would ask questions as to the actions of the patient and from said description would send medicine without ever going to see the patient and his medicine would always cure the patient of his disease if consulted in time. After the news came that brought our freedom a white union officer with 20 trained Negrofe soldiers visited the plantations and saw that the Negroes received their\freedom. He would put on a demonstration with his Negro soldiers by having them line up and then at a command they would all rush forward and stand their guns up together on the stock end without a one falling and get back into line and upon another command they would rush forward and each get his gim again without allowing one to fall and again reline up. When I was large enough to pay attention to my color and to that of the other slaves I wondered to myself why I was not black like the rest of the slaves and concluded to myself that I would when I got grown like they were as I knew not then that I was the son of my Master. During the War and as the men and our Master all went to the War the Negroes or a Negro would have to go to the Mistress1 homes each morning and start fires and never, did I ever hear of a rape case tinder such close conditions as Negroes going into the bed rooms each morning of the white mistress to start fires. My first wife was name Tracy Smith. As I had been free for over i.%Q Oklahoma Writers1 Project 12 years. We had ordinary marriage ceremony. -4- I have 11 grown children, 15 or 20 grandchildren and.3 great grandchildren* I think Abraham Lincoln was a fine old gentlemen and as to Jeff Davis I don't think he was what he should have "been, and as to Booker T. Washington I think his idea of educating or training Negroes as servants to serve the white race appealed more to the white race than the Negroes. My viewpoint as to slavery is that it was as much detrimental to the white race as it was to the Negroes, as one elevated ones minds toohighly, and the other degraded ones mind toolowly. 127* 55002 Oklahoma Writers1 Project Bx-Slaves -| *Q MATTIB S&BDMAN Age 78 yrs. Oklahoma City, Okla# I was born January 2, 1859, at Gunalis, Texas. was William Tensley and my mother1 s name Mildred Howard. from Virginia. My father1 s name They was "brought ' I did have 8 brothers and sisters but all of them are dead. Ify Master was name William Henry Howard. Since I was too young to work I nursed my sisters1 children while they worked. The cooking was done all up to the general kitchen at Masters house and lahen slaves come from work they would send their children up to the kitchen to bring their meals to their homes in the quarters. Our Mistress would have one of the cooks to dish up vegetables and she herself would slice or serve the meat to jsee that it wasn't wasted, as seemingly it was thought so precious. As my mother worked fround the Big House quite a deal I would go up to the Big House with her and play with the white children who seemed to like for me to come to play with them. One day in anger while playing I called one of the white girls, "old black dog" and they pretended they would tell their mother (my Mistress) about it. I was scared, as they saw, and they promised me they would not tell if I'd promise to not do it again, and which I was so glad to do and be let off so lightly. Por summer I wore a cotton slip and for winter my mother knitted at nights after her days work was done so I wore red flannels for underwear and thick linsey for an over-dress, and had knitted stockings and bought shoes. As ny Master was a doctor he made his slaves wear suitable clothes in accordance to the weather. We also wore gloves my mother knitted in winter# Vty Mistress was good to all of the slaves. On Sunday morning she m Li.m^ke all thie legro children come & the Big House axid ahe would stand Oklahoma Writers1 Project -2- on the front steps and read the Catechism to us who sat or stood in front on the groiand. My Master was also good. On Wednesdays and Friday nights he would make the slaves come up to the Big House and he would read the Bible to them and he would pray* He was a doctor and very fractious and exact. He didn't allow the slaves to claim they forgot to do thus and so nor did he allow them to make the expression, if they did: M I thought so and so.n He would say to them "Who told you, you could think.1 H They had 10 children, 7 boys and 3 girls. large 2-story log house painted white. Their house was a My father was overseer on the planta- tion. The plantation consisted of 4D0 acres and about 40 slaves including children. The slaves were so seldom punished until they never1 d worry about being punished. They treated their slaves as though they loved them. The poor white neighbors were also good and treated the slave* good, for my Master would warn them to not bother his Negroes* My Mistress always told the slaves she wanted all of them to visit her and come to her funeral and burial when she died and named the men slaves she wanted to be her pallbearers, all of which was carried out as she planned even though it was after freedom. The slaves even who lived adjoining our plantation would have church at our Big House. They would hold church on Sundays and Sunday nights. As my mother worked a deal for her Mistress she had an inkling or overheard that they was going to be set free long before the day they were. She called all the slaves on the plantation together and broke to them this news after they had promised her they would not spread the news so that it would get back to our Master. So, everybody kept the news until Saturday 129 Oklahoma Writers1 Project -3- night June 19th, when Master called all the slaves to the "big gate and told them they were all free, "but could stay right on in their homes if they had no places to go and which all of them did* They went right out and gathered the crop just like they'd always done, and some of them remained there several years* Wty first husband was name, S.W. Warnley. girl and three hoys and 3 grandchildren. We had 4 children, 1 I now have two grandchildren* Now that slavery is over I sometime wish 'twas still existing for some of our lazy folks, so that so many of them wouldnft or couldnft loaf around so much lowering our race, walking the streets day "by day and running from house to house living corruptible lives which is keeping the race down as though there he no good ones among us. %3Q 350094 Oklahoma Writers* Project e& N> ^ # Ex-Slaves AmflB EkWISS Age 90 Colbert, Okla I calls myself 90, but I don!t know jest how old I really am but I was a good sized gal when we moved from Georgia to Texas. big boat and one night the stars fell. and hid and hollered and prayed. We come on a Talk about being scared! We all run We thought the end of the world had come. I never had no whitefoiks that was good to me. We all worked jest like dogs and had about half enough to eat and got whupped for everything. ' Our days was a constant misery to us. I know lots of niggers that was slaves had a good time but we never did. em but I sho' canft. When I was small my job was to tote cool water to the field to the hands. It kept me busy going back and thing good for any of f Seems hard that I caxt!t say any- forth and I had to be sho1 my old Mistress had a cool drink when she wanted it, too. Mother and my sister and me worked in the field all day and come in time to clear away the things and cook supper. the kitchen we would spin fer a long time. When we was through in Mother would spin and we would card. My old Master was Dave Giles, the meanest man that ever lived. didn!t have many slaves. Truman. He 6y mammy and me^and my sister, Uncle Bill and He had owned my grandma but he give her a bad whupping and she never did git over it and died. We all done as much work as a dozen niggers we knowed we had to. I seen old Master git mad at Truman and he buckled him down across a barrel and whupped him till he cut the blood out of him and then he rubbed salt and pepper in the raw places. so bad. It looked like Truman would die it hurt I know that don!t sound reasonable that a white man in a Christian community would do such a thing but you can't realize how heartless he was. People didnft know about it and we dassent tell for we knowed he!d kill us JL31 Oklahoma Writers1 Project if we did. ~2- You must remember he owned us body and soul and they wasnft any- thing we could do about it. Oli Mistress and her three girls was mean to us too* One time me and my sister was spinning and old Mistress went to the well-house and she found a chicken snake and killed it. back and she throwed it around my sister1 s neck. about it* She brought it She jest laughed and laughed She thought it was a big joke. Old Master stayed drunk all the time. he was so fetched mean. My, how we hated him! I reckon that is the reason He finally killed hisself drinking and I remember Old Mistress called us in to look at Mm in his coffin. We all marched by him slow like and I jest happened to look up and caught my sister1 s eye and we both jest natchelly laughed Why shouldn't we? fe was glad he was dead. It's a good thing we had our laugh fer old Mistress took us out and whupped us with a broomstick. She didn't make us sorry though. Old Master and Mistress lived in a nice big house on top of a hill and us darkies lived in log cabins with log floors. Our dresses was njade out of coarse cloth like cotton sacking and and it sho1 lasted a long time* It ort to been called mule-hide for it was about that tough. We went to church sometimes. They had to let us do that or folks would have Ifound out how mean they was to us. to show the patroller. Old Master1 d give us a pass We was glad to git the chance to git away and we always went to church* During the War we seen lotc of soMJders. and some were Sesesh soldiers. Some of them was Yankees My job every day was to take a big tray of food and set it on a stump about a igoarter of a mile from our house. this twice a day and ever time I went back the dishes would be empty. I done I never -jT*tjD; Oklahoma Writers1 Project -3- did see nobody and didnH nobody tell me why I was to take the food up there but of course it was either for soliders that was scouting 'round or it may been for some lowdown dirty bushwhacker, and again it might a been for some of old Master1 s folks scouting ! round to keep out of the army* We was the happiest folks in the world when we knowed we was free* We couldn!t realize it at first but how we did shout and cry for joy when we did realize it. We was afraid to leave the place at first for fear old Mistress would bring us back or the pateroller would git us. Old Mistress died soon after the War and we didn't care either. nothing to make us love her. She didn't never do We was jest as glad as when old Master died. I don't know what become of the three gals. They was about grown. We moved away jest as far away as we could and I married soon after. My husband died and I married again. husbands died. The last time I married it was to a man that belonged to a Indian man, Sam Love. ever lived. I been married four times and all my He was a good owner and was one of the best men that My husband never did move far away from him and he loved him like a father* He always looked after him till he died. My husband has been dead five years. I have had fifteen children. of them are living. Pour pairs of twins, and only four The good Lawd wouldn't let me keep them. through three wars so you see I'se no baby. I'se lived 133 350020 Oklahoma Writers1 Project Xx-Slarea 10-14-37 134 \# U** IDA. HSMY Age 83 Oklahoma City, Ofcla. I was born in Marshall, Texas, in 1854. Henderson and me father Silas Hall, Me mother was sold in South Carolina to Mister Hall, who "brought her to Texas* by Master John Hall. girls and one boy, Me mother was named Millie Me father was born and raised Me mother's and father's family consisted of five Ify sister1s names were: Margrette, Chalette, Lottie, Gracy and loyo, and me brother's name was Dock Howard, I lived with me mother and father in a log house on Master Hall's plantation* We would be sorry when dark, as de patrollers would walk through de quarters and homes of de slaves all times of night wid pine torch lights to whip de niggers found away from deir home. At nights when me mother would slip away for a visit to some of de neighbors homes, she would raise up the old plank floor to de log cabin and make pallets on de ground and put us to bed and put the floor back down so dat we couldn't be seen or found by the patrollers on their stroll around at nights. My grandmother Lottie would always tell us to not let Master catch you in a lie, and to always tell him de truth. I was house girl to me Mistress and nursed, cooked, and carried de children to and from school. dresses for winter. In summer we girls wore cotton slips and yarn When I got married I was dress in blue serge and was de third person to marry in it. Wedding dresses was not worn after de wedding in dem days by niggers as we was taught by our Mistress dat it was bad luck to Oklahoma Writers1 Project wear de wedding dress after marriage. -2- Therefore, Hwas handed down from one generation to the other one. Me Mistress was sometimes good and sometimes mean* One day de cook was waiting de table and when passing around de potatoes, old Mistress felt of one and as hit wasnH soft done, she exclaimed to de cook, "What you bring these raw potatoes out here for?n and grab a fork and stuck it in her eye and put hit out. She, de cook, lived about 10 years and died* Me Mistress was de mother of five children, Crock, Jim, Boss and two girls name, Lea and Annie. Vela home was a large two-story white house wid de large white posts* As me Master went to de War de old overseer tried, himself in meanness over de slaves as seemingly he tried to be important* One day de slaves caught him and one held him whilst another knocked him in de head and killed him. Master9s plantation was about 300 acres and he had fbout 160 slaves* fore de slaves killed our overseer, he would work 'em night and day* Be- De slaves was punished when dey didnH do as much work as de overseer wanted *em to do* He would lock fem in jail some nights without food and kept 'em dere all night, and after whipping fem de next morning would only give fem bread and water to work on till noon* When a slave was hard to catch for punishment dey would make *em wear ball and chains. Be ball was fbout de size of de head and made of lead* On Sunday mornings before breakfast our Mistress would call us together, read de Bible and show us pictures of de Devil in de Bible and tell us dat if we was not good and if we would steal and tell lies dat old Satan would git us* Oklahoma Writers1 Project -3- Close to our Master* s plantation lived several families of old ^poor white trashM who would steal me Master1 s hogs and chickens and come and tell me Mistress dat dey seen some of de slaves knock one of defap hogs in de head. Dis continued up till Master returned from de War and caught de old white trash stealing his hogs. De niggers did at times steal Master1 s hogs and chickens, and I would put biscuits and pieces of chicken in a sack tinder me dress dat hung from me waist, as I waited de table for me Mistress, and later would slip off and eat it as dey never gave de slaves aone of^dis sort of food. We had church Sundays and our preacher Hev* Pat Williams would preach and our Master and family and other nearby white neighbors would ofttime attend our services* De patrollers wouldnU allow de slaves to hold night services, and one night dey caught me mother out praying. Dey stripped her naked and tied her hands together and wid a rope tied to de hand cuffs and threw one end of de rope over a limb and tied de other end to de pommel of a saddle on a horse. As me mother weighed fbout 200, dey pulled her up so dat her toes could barely touch de ground and whipped her* Dat same night she ran away and stayed over a day and returned* During de fall months dey would have corn shucking and cotton pickings and would give a prize to de one who would pick de highest amount of cotton or shuck de largest pile of corn. De prize would usually be a suit of clothes or something to wear and which would be given at some later date* We could only have dances during holidays, but dances was held on other plantations* shined. One night a traveler visiting me Master and wanted his boots So Master gave de boots to one of de slaves to shine and de slave put de boots on and went to a dance and danced so much dat his feet swelled so dat when he returned he could not pull xm off* 136 Oklahoma Writers1 Project -4* De next morning as de slave did not show up with de boots dey went to look for him and found him lying down trying to pull de hoots off. He told his Master dat he had put de hoots on to shine 'em and could not puLl fem off* So Master had to go to town and buy de traveler another pair of boots* Before he could ran away de slave was beaten wid 500 lashes. De War dat brought our freedom lasted about two years* and carried one of de slaves for a servant. much different man dan he was before de War* Me Master went When he returned he seemed a He was kind and good and from dat day onv he never whipped another slave nor did he allow any of his slaves whipped. Dis time lasted from January to June de 19th when we was set free in de State of Texas. Lincoln and Davis both died short of promise. nfi- I means dat dey both died before dey carried out defap plans and promises for freeing de slaves. i/V? 350021 Oklahoma Writers' Project Eat-Slaves 138 MORRIS HILLYEE Age 84 yrs. Alderson, Okla. My father was Gabe Hillyer and my mother was Clarissy Hillyer, and our home was in Borne, Georgia. Our owner was Judge Hillyer. He was de last United States senator to Washington, D# C., before de War. My mother died when I was only a few days old and the only mother I ever knew was Judge Hillyer1 s wife, Miss Jane. Her nine children were all older than I was and when mother died Mies Jane said mother had raised her children and she would raise hers. So she took us into her house and we never lived at de quarters any more* I had two sisters, Sally and Sylvia, and we had a room in de Big House and sister Sally didnft do nothing else but look after me. I used to stand with my thumb in my mouth and hold to Miss Janefs apron while she knitted* When Judge Hillyer was elected he sold out his farm and gave his slaves to his children. He owned about twelve or fourteen slaves at this time. He gave me and my sister Sylvia to his son, Dr. Hillyer, and my father to another one of his sons who was studying law. took care of him until he graduated. while he lived with George Hillyer. Father stayed with him and Father learned to be a good carpenter George never married until after de War. Dr* Hillyer lived on a big plantation but he practiced medicine all de time. He didn't have much time to look after de farm but he had good over** seers and they sure didn!t beat his slaves or mistreat fem in any way* Dr Hillyer married a rich girl, Miss Mary Oooley, and her father gave her fifteen slaves when she married and Judge Hillyer gave him five so he had a purty good start from de first and he knowed how to make money so he was Oklahoma Writers1 Project - 2 - -J OQ a wealthy man when de Rebellion started* My sister and I didn*t know how to act when we was sent out there among strangers* We had to live in de quarters just like de other niggers, and we didn't especially like it* I guess I was a sort of bad boy. There was several more boys about my age and we didnft have any work to do but just busy ourselves by getting into mischief* We'd ride de calves, chase de pigs, kill de chickens, break up hens nests, and in. fact do most everything we hadn't ought to do* Finally they put us to toting water to de field hands, minding de gaps, taking de cows to pasture and as dat kept us purty busy we wasn't so bad after dat. My happiest days was when * was with de old Judge and Miss Jane* * can sit here and think of them old times and it seems like it was just yesterday dat it all happened. He was a great hand to go to town every day and lounge around wid his cronies. would argue* J used to go with him, and my how they Sometimes they would get mad and shake their canes in each other's faces. I guess they was talking politics* Our old Master liked cats better than any man I ever saw, and he always had five or six that followed him about de place like dogs* When he went to eat they was always close to him and just as soon as he finished he would always feed them. set de dogs on fem. When he was gone us boys used to throw at his cats or We was always careful dat no one saw us for if he had known about it he would afwhipped us and no mistake. either, for I like cats now. I wouldn't afblamed him I think they are lots of company. He was a typical Southern gentleman, medium sized, and wore a Van Dyke beard* **e never whipped his slaves, and he didn't have a one dat wouldn't a~died for him. Judge Hillyer had one son, William, dat wouldn't go to college. He Oklahoma Writers1 Project - 3 - made fun of his brothers for going to school so long, and said that he would be ashamed to go and stay five or six years* After de War he settled down and studied law in Judge AkiJs office and opened a office in Athens, Georgia, and he made de best lawyer of them all. Us boys used to go hunting with Master William. quails, squirrels, and sometimes he would kill a deer. with dogs. He never used a gun but very little. He hunted rabbits, H e hunted mostly Lead was so scarce and cost so much dat he couldn't afford to waste a bullet on rabbits j?r snakes. made his own bullets. He The dogs would chase a rabbit into a hollow tree and we'd take a stick and twist him out. Sometimes we'd have nearly all de hide twisted off him when wefd git him out. Old Judge Hillyer smoked a pipe with a long stem. ten cents a day to fill it for him. of the year, but I never made it. He used to give me He told me I had to have $36 at the end There was a store light close to us and I'd go down there and spend my money for lemon stick candy, ginger cakes, peanuts, and firecrackers. Old Master knowed I wouldn't save itf and he didn't care if I did spent it for it was mine to do with just as I pleased. Every time a circus come to town I'd run off and they wouldnft see me again all day Seemed like I just couldn't help it. to git permission to go. I wouldn't take time One time to punish me for running off he tied me up by my thumbs, and I had to stay home while de rest went. I didn't dare try to git loose and run off for I knowed I'd git my jacket tanned if I did. Old Master never laid his hand on me, but I knowed he would if I didnft do as he told me. He never told us twice to do anything either. Coins had curious names in them days. A dime was called a thrip. pen was about the same value as three cents or maybe a little more. three of 'em to make a thrip. There was all sorts of paper money. Four- It took 140 Oklahoma Writers1 Project -4- 141 Every first Tuesday slaves were brought in from Virginia and sold on de block. De auctioneer was Oapfn Dorsey. S# M# Cobb was de slave brlnger* They would stand de slaves up on de block and talk about what a fine looking specimen of black manhood or womanhood dey was, tell how healthy dey was, look in their mouth and examine their teeth just like they was a horse, and talk about de kind of work they would be fit for and could do. boys and girls brought the best prices. grow to be valuable. Young healthy I guess they figured dat they would I used to stand around and watch de sales take place but it never entered my mind to be afraid for I knowed old Judge wasnft going to sell me. I thought I was an important member of his family. Hefd take him Old Judge bought every roQgish nigger in the country. home and give him the key to everything on de place and say to help hisself. Soon as he got all he wanted to eat hefd quit being a rogue. Old Judge said that was what made niggers steal they was hungry. They used to scare us kids by telling us dat a runaway nigger would git us. De timber was awful heavy in de river bottoms, and dey was one nigger dat run off from his master and lived for years in these bottome. He was there all during de War and come out after de ssurrender. country owned him at some time or other. Every man in dat H is owner sold him to a man who was sure he could catch him he never did, so he sold him to another slave owner and so on till nearly everybody had him. or seven times. He changed hands about six They would come in droves with blood hounds and hunt for him but dey couldnft catch him for he knowed them woods too well. He'd feed de dogs and make friends with fem and they wouldnft bother him. He lived on nuts, fruit, and wild game, and niggers would slip food to him. He'd slip into town and get whiskey and trade it to de niggers for food. Oklahoma Writers* Project A ^o - 5 - Judge Hillyer never lowanced his niggers and dey could always have anything on de place to eat* We had so much frSedom dat other slave owners in our neighborhood didn't like for us to come among their slaves for they said we was free niggers and v/ould make their slaves discontented. After I went to live with Judge Hillyer1 s son* Dr. Hillyer, one of my jobs was to tote the girls books to school every morning. plantation owners had a colored boy dat did that. All the After we had toted de books to de school house we'd go back down de road a piece and line up and have the H gone-bying-estw fight you ever see. Wefd have regular battles. If I got licked in de morning Ifd go home and rest up and I'd give somebody a good licking dat evening. I reckon I caught up with my fighting for in all my working life I have always worked with gangs of men of from one to two-hundred and I never struck a man and no man ever struck me. Jim Williams was a patrcller, and how he did like to catch a nigger off de farm without a permit so he could whip him. Jim thought he was de best man in de country and could whip de best of fem. Hardin, a big husky feller, was out late. in for it. One night John He met Jim and knowed he was Jim said, "John I'm gonna give you a white manfs chance. Ifm gonna let you fight me and if you are de best man, well and good." John say, "Master Jim, I canst fight wid you. Come on and give me my licking, and let me go on home.11 But Jim wouldn't do it, and he dapped John and called him some names and told him he is a coward to fight him. All dis made John awful mad and he flww into him and give him the terriblest licking a man ever toted. went on home but knew he would git into trouble over it. Jim talked around over the country about what he was going to do to John but everybody told him dat he brought it all on hisself. He never He dklahoma Writers1 Project - 6 - did try to git another nigger to fight with hinu Yes, I guess charms keep off bad luck* always was my best lucky piece. I have wore 'em but money I've made lots of money but I never made good use of it. I was always afraid of ghosts but I never saw one* There was a grave- yard "beside de road from our house to town and I always was afraid to go by it. I'd shut my eyes and run for dear life till I was past de grave yard. I had heard dat there was a headless man dat stayed there OIL cold rainy days or foggy nights he'd hide "by de fence and throw his head at you. a man got hit and he fell right down dead. Once * "believed dat tale and you can imagine how I felt whenever I had to go past there by myself and on foot. I saw lots of Ku KLtucers but I wasn't afraid of the*. done nothing and they wasn't after me. of fem said, M Who is dis feller?M boy, come on, don't "bother him.w One time I met a hunch of 'em and one Another one said,M0h, dat's Gafce's foolish I always did think dat voice so-unded natural but I never did say anything about it. Pudge's "boys* I knowed I hadn't It sounded powerful like one of old Dey rode on and didn*t "bother me and I never was a bit afraid of 'em any more. I went to school one month after de War. I never learned much "but I learned to read some where along de road dat I come over. from Athens, Georgia, and took us away with him. trade from him. My father come I learned the carpenter's He was so mean to me dat * run away *tosn I was nineteen. I went hack to Home, Georgia, and got a job with a "bridge gang and spent two years with 'em. ten years. I went then to Henderson, Kentucky, and worked for There was hundreds of colored people coming to de mines at Krehs and Alderson and I decided to come along, too. I never worked in de mines but I did all sorts of carpentering for them. I married in Atoka, Oklahoma, thirty-three years ago. I never had no * ^ M 143 PI Oklahoma Writers1 Project - 7 - children* I1 re made lots of money hut somehow it always got away from me* me and my wife have our little home here and we are "both still ahle to work a little, so I guess we are making it all right. But 144 850058 Oklahoma Writers1 ^reject JbeSLaves HAL HUTSON Age 90 yrs. Oklahoma City, Okla. I was horn at Galveston, Tennessee, October 12, 1847. 11 children; There were 7 brothers; Andrew, George, Clemt, Gilbert, Frank, Maekrand Horace; and 3 girls: Bosie, Marie and Nancy, We were all Eutsons. Together with my mother and father we worked for the saane man whose name was Mr. * Barton Brown, hut who we all call Master Brown, and sometimes Mr. Brown, Master Brown had a good weather-board house, two story, with five or six rooms. They lived pretty well. one-room log huts. floor like hogs. whar. He had eight children. There were a long string of them huts. We slept on the Girls and boys slept together - jest everybody slept every We never knew what biscuits were! ground once) for bread. bean soup. We lived in We ate n seconds and shorts* (wheat \ Ate rabbits, possums baked with taters, beans,,and No chicken, fish and the like. My favorite dish now is beans. Master Brown owned about 36 or 40 slaves, I can!t recall jest now, and about 200 acres of ground. There was very little cotton raised in Galveston - I mean jest some corn. Sometimes we would shuck corn all night. He would not let us raise gardens of our own, but didn't mind us raising corn and a few other truck vegetables to sell for a little spending change. I learned to read, write and figger at an early age. Master Brown1 s boy and I were the same age you see (14 years old) and he would send me to school to protect his kids, and I would have to sit up there until school was ut. So i&ile sitting there I listened to what the white teacher was telling the kids, and caught on how to read, write and figger - but I never let on, 145 146 Oklahoma Writers1 Project 1 cause if I was caught trying to read or figger dey would whip me something terrible. After I caught on how to figger the white kids would ask me to teach them. Master Brown would often say: "My God 0'mighty, never do for that nigger to learn to figger." We weren?t allowed to coiuit change. If we "borrowed a fifty-cent piece, we would have to pay "back a fifty-cent piece not five dimes or fifty pennies or ten nickels. We went barefooted the year round and wore long shirts split on each side* All of us niggers called all the whites "poor white trash." The overseer was nothing but poor white trash and the meanest man that ever walked on earth. He never did whip me much fcause I was kind of a pet. to the Big House, but he sho1 did whip them others* I worked up Why, one day he was beating my ^mother, and I was too small to say anything, so my big brother heard her crying and came running, picked up a chunk and that overseer stopped a'beating her. She white boy was holding her on the ground and he was whipping her with a long leather whip. 2hey sa.id they couldn't teach her no sense and she said "1 don!t wanna learn no sense." The overseer's name was Charlie Clark. One day he whipped a man until he was bloody as a pig 'cause he went to the mill and stayed too long. The patroller rode all night and iff en we were caught out later than 10:00 o'clock they would beat us, but we would git each other word by sending a man round way late at night. Always take news by night. Tlvx Klan didn't come 'til after the war. rollers. Of course the Eu Ihey was something like the pat- Never heard of no trouble between the black and whites 'cause them niggers were afraid to resist them. My biggest job was keeping flies off'n the table up at the Big House. When time come to go in for the day we would cut up and dance. any of the songs jest now, but we had some that we sung. I can't remember We danced a whole lots Oklahoma Writers1 Project -si, *%&!? and jest sung "made up11 songs. Old Master would stay up to hear us come in. afternoon was a holiday. We didnft work no holidays. Of course Saturday Master gave us one weei off for Christmas, and never worked us on Sunday, unless the "ox was in the ditch." When the slaves got sick we had white doctors, and we would wait on each other. Drink dock root tea, mullin tea and flaxweed tea, "but v/e never wore charms. I think it's a good thing that slavery1 s over. a good while agof git better. It ought to "been over But its going to "be slavery all over again if things don't But I thank God Ifve been a Christian for 70 years, and now is a member of Tabernacle Baptist Church and deacon of the church, and a Christian 'cause the Bible teaches me to he. That war was a awful thing. I used to pack them soldiers water on my head, and then I worked at Port Sill and Port Dawson in Tennessee. Those Yankees caufe by nights got behind those rebels, and took their hams, drove ho&a^s in the houses, killed their chickens and ate up the rebels food, but the Yanks didn't bother us niggers. Y/hen freedom come old Master called us all in from the fields and told us, "All of you niggers are free as frogs now to go wherever you choose* are your 07m man now." We all continued working for him at $5.00 a month. the crops were gathered the niggers scattered out. You After Some went North ~ and we would say when they went North that they had "crossed the water.11 I never married 'till after the War. Married at my mother's house 'cause my wife's mother didn't let us marry at her house, so I sent Jack Perry after her on a hoss and we had a big dinner and jest got married. I am the father of nine children, but jest three is living. a dentist in Muskogge, Dr. Andrew Hut son. read. One is All of the children are pretty well We never had schools for niggers until after slavery. I think Abraham Lincoln was a great man, but I don't know much about Jeff Davis* Booker T. Washington was a fine man* 350093 ^ 4 1 Oklahoma Writers * \ V$& ' ' M8 Project * v < &W" V^ EX-SLAVES WILLIAM HUTSOH Age 98 ^ ?" Tulsa, Okla. When a feller gets as old as me it's a heap easier to forget things than it is to remember, hut I ain't never forgot that old plantation where good old Doctor Allison lived "back there in Georgia long "before the War that brought us slaves the freedom* I hear the slaves talking about mean masters when I was a boy. wasn't talking about Master Allison though, They f cause he was a good man and took part for the slaves when any trouble come up with the overseer* The Mistress' name was Louisa (the same name as the gal I was married to later after the War), and she was just a.bout as mean as was the old Master good* I was the house boy when I gets old enough to understand what the Master wants done and I does it just like he says, so I reckon that's why we always get along together* The Master helped to raise my mammy* (my mammy tells me when I gets older): When I was born he says to her "Cheney11, the old Master say, "that boy is going be different from these other children* I aims to see that he is* He's going be in the house all the time, he ain't going work in the fields; he's going to stay right with me all the time." They was about twenty slaves on the plantation but I was the one old Master called for when he wanted something special for himself* I was the one he took with him"on the trips to town, I was the one who fetch him the cooling drink after he look about the fields and sometimes I carry the little black bag when he goes a-doctoring folks with the .misery away off some other farm* The Master hear about there going be an auction one day and he figgered maybe he needed some more slaves if they was good ones, so he took me and started Oklahoma Writers1 Project out early in the morning. the auction started* -2- " It wasnft very far and we got there early "before Rockon that was the first time I ever see any slaves sold* They was a long platform made of heavy planks and all the slaves was lined up on the platform, and they was stripped to the waist, men, women, and children. One or two of the women folks was bare naked. They wasnft young women neither, just middle age ones, hut they was "built good. Some of them was well greased and that grease covered up many a scar theyfd earned for some foolishment or other The Master don't buy none and pretty soon we starts home. The Master was riding horseback, - he didn't ever use no buggy 'cause he said that was the way for folks to travel who was too feeble to sit in the saddle r-:sn& I rode hack of him on another horse, hut that horse I rides is just horse while the Master's was a real thoroughbred like maybe you see on race tracks down in the South. That auction kept bothering me all the way back to the plantation. I kept seeing them little children standing on the flatform (platform), their mammy and pappy crying hard 'cause their young'uns is being sold. They was a lot of heartaches even they was slaves and it gets me worried. I asked the Master is he going to have an auction and he jest laugh. I ain't never sold no slaves yet and I ain't going to, he says. easier right then. And I gets I kind of hates to think about standing up on one of them platforms, kinder sorry to leave my old mammy and the Master, so I was easy in the heart when he talked like that. The plantation house was a big frame and the yard was shaded with trees all around. The Master's children - four boys and two girls - would play in the yard with me just like I was one of the family. And we'd go hunting and fmshing. There was a creek not far away and they was good fishing in the stream and squirrels in the trees. Mighty lot of fun to catch them fishes but more fun when they is all fried brown and ready for to eat with a piece of hot pone. i^lQ Oklahoma Writers1 Project -3- Ain't no fish ever taste that good since! One thing I sort of ponders about. The old Master donft let us have no religion meetings and reading and writing is something I learn after the War* Some of the slaves talk about meeting 'round the country and wants to have preaching on the plantation. Master says NO* No preacher around here.to tell about the Bible and religion will be just a puzzlement, the Master say, and we let it go at that* I reckon that was the only thing he was set against* Moat and the Yankees. it was most over. The Master went to the War an& stayed ftil He was a mighty sick man when he come back to the old place, but I was there waiting for him just like always. take care aroimd the house. to fight the Yankees. All the time he was^-away I That's what he say for me to do when he rides away Lotfs of talk about the War but the slaves goes right on working just the same, raising cotton and tobacco* The slaves talk a heap about Lincoln and some trys to run away to the North* DonH hear much about Jeff Davis, mostly Lincoln* He give us slaves the freedom but we was better off as we was* The day of freedom come around just any other day, except the Master say for me to bring up the horses, we is going to town* about the slaves being free. store* That's when he hears We gets to the town and the Master goes into the Itfs pretty early but the streets was filled with folks talking and I wonder what makes the Master in such a hurry when he comes out of the wtore* He gets on his horse and tells me to follow fast. to the plantation he sounds the horn calling the slaves. WS$n we gets back They come in from the fields and meet 'round back of the kitchen building that stood separate from the Master's house. They all keeps quiet while the Master talks! free now, and all the rest of the slaves is free too* nobody going to %i you anymore!11 "You-all is Nobody owns you now and Tjhat was good news, I reckon, but nobody know lf)0 Oklahoma Writers1 Project -4~ . $hat to do about it. The crops was mostly in and the Master wants the folks to stay 'til the crop is finished. They talk about it the rest of that day. They wasnft no celebration 'round the place, but they wasnft no work after the Master tells us we is free. Nobody leave the place though. fall when the work is throtigh. Hot 'til in the Then some of us go into the town and gets work 'cause everybody knows the Allison slaves was the right kind of folks to have around. That was the first money I earn and .then I have to learn how to spend it. That was the hardest part 'cause the prices was high and the wages was low. Then I moves on and meets the gal that maybe I been looking for, Louisa Baker, and right away she takes to me and we is married. Ain't been no other woman but her and she's waiting for me wherever the dead waits for the living. I reckon she won't have so long to wait now, even if I is feeling pretty spry and got good use of the feets and hajads. Ninety-eight years brings a heap of wear and some of these days the old body'll need a long time rest and then I'll'join her for all the time. I is ready for the New Day a-conjingl *f t^\ 350096 Oklahoma Writers1 Project \<$ lx-Slaves. MHS> IBABKLIA JACKSON Age79yrs. Tulsa, OKLa* Afr\* |$y* w Boom ... BoomI Boom ... Boom!" Thatfs the way the old weaver go all day long when my sister, Margaret, is making cloth for the slaves down on old Doc Joe Jackson1s plantation in Louisiana. That was near the little place of 3unker, and its my hirthplace, and I guess where all Mammy1 s children were horn hecause she was never sold hut once and nohody hut the old Doc ever did own her after she come to his place* He always say couldn't nohody get work out of Mammy hut him. I . guess that*s just his foolery * cause if she ainft no good the Old Doc most likely sell her to some of them white folks in Texas. Thatfs what they done to them mean, no account slaves - just send them to Texas* Them folks sure knew how for to handle fem! But I was talking ahout my sister, Margaret* I can still see her weaving the cloth - Boom! * Boom! ~ and she hear that all the day and get mighty tired* Sometimes she drop her head and go to sleep* get her then sure* The Mistress Eap her on the head with almost anything handy, hut she hit pretty easy, just trying to scare her thatfs all* The old Master though, he ainft so easy as that. The whippings was done hy the master and the overseer just tell the old Doc ahout the troubles, like the old Doc say: You just watch the slaves and see they works and works hard, hut donH lay on with the whip, hecause I is the only one who knows how to do it rightt A5<2 Oklahoma Writers' Project -2- Maybe the old Master was sickened of whippings from the stories the slaves told about the plantation that joined ours on the north. If they ever was a living Devil that plantation was his home and the owner was It! That's what the old slaves sa^r, and when I tell you about it see if I is right. That man got so mean even the white folks was scared of him, 'specially if he was filled with drink. That's the way he was most of the time, just before the slaves was freed. All the time we hear about slaves on that place getting whipped or being locked in the stock - that one of them things where your head and hands is fastened through holes in a wide board, and you stands there all the day and all the night - and sometimes we hears of them staying in the stock for three-four weeks if they trys to run away to the north. Sometimes we hears about some slave who is shot by that man while he is wild with the drink. That's what I'm telling about now. Don't nobody know what made the master mad at the old slave - one of the oldest on the place. Anyway, the master didn*t whip him; instead of that he kills him with the gun and scares the others so bad most of !em runs off and hides in the woods. The drunk master just drags the old dead slave to the graveyard which is down in the corner away from the growing crops, and hunts up two of the young boys who was hiding in the barn. He takes them to dig the grave. The master stands watching every move they make, the dead man lays there with his face to the sky, and the boys is so scared they could hardly dig. The master keeps telling them to hurry with the digging. After while he tells them to stop and put the body in the grave. They wasn't no coffin, no box, for him. in the fields. Just the old clothes that he wears 153 Oklahoma Writers1 Project -3-' But the grave was too short and they start to digging some more, hut the master stop them. He says to put hack the body in the grave, and then he jumps into the grave his self. Right on the dead he jumps and stomps til the body is masked and twisted to fit the hole. Then the old nigger is buried. That's the way my Mammy hears it and told it to us children* She was a Christian and I know she told the truth. Like I said, Mammy was nprer sold only to Master Jackson. But shefs seen them slave auctions where the men, women and children was stripped nalced and lined up so-1 s the buyers could see what- kind of animals they was getting for their money. My pappy1 s name was Jacob Keller and my mother was Maria. Theyfs both dead long ago, and Vm waiting for the old ship Zion that took my Mammy away, like we use to sing of in the woods: "It has landed my old Mammy, It has landed my old Mammy, Get on board, Get on board, Tis the Old Ship of Zion Get on board!fl jj^54 350101 Oklahoma Writers1 Project o ^ y> SX-SLA7ES ' H1LLIB JOHNSON v I donft know how old I is, but I is a great big half grown gal when the time of the War come, and I can remember how everything look at that time, and what all the people do, too. I'm pretty nigh to blind right now, and all I can do is set on this little old front porch and maybe try to keep the things picked up behing my grandchild and his wife, because she has to work and?he is out selling wood most of the time. But I didn't have to live in any such a house during the time I was young like they is, because I belonged to old. Chief Rolley Mclntosh, and my pappy and mammy have a big, nice, clean log house to live in, and everything rotmd it look better than most renters got these days. We never did call old Master anything but the Chief or the General for that's what everybody called him in them days, and he never did act towards us like we was slaves, much anyways. He was the mikko of the Kawita town long before the War and long before I was borned, and he was the chief of the Lower Creeks even before he got to be the chief of all the Creeks. But just at the time of the War the Lower Creeks stayed with him and the Upper Creeks, at least them that lived along to the south of where we live, all go off after that old man Gouge, and he take most of the Sesainole too. I hear old Tuskenugge, the big man with the Seminoles, but I never did see him, nor mighty few of the Seminoles. My mammy tells me old General ainft been living in that Kawita town very many years when I was borned. He come up there from down in the fork of the river where the Arkansas and the Verdigris run together a little while after all the last of the Creeks come out to the [territory* His brother j[5 > Oklahoma Writers1 Project -2- old Chili Mclntosh, live down in that forks of the rivers too, but I don't think he ever move up into that Kawita town* It was in the narrow stretch where the Verdigris come close to the Arkansas, They got a pretty good sized white folks town there now they call Coweta, but the old Creek town was different from that. The folks lived all around in that stretch between the rivers, and my old Master was the boss of all of them. For a long time after the Civil War they had arcourt at the new town called Coweta court, and a school house too, but before I was born they had a mission school down the Kawita Creek from where the town now is. Earliest I can remember about my master was when he come to the slave settlement where we live and get out of the buggy and show a preacher all around the place, That preacher named Mr. Loughridge, and he was the man had the mission down on Kawita Creek before I was born, but at that time he had a school off at some other place. He git down out the buggy and talk to all us children, and ask us how we getting along. I didnH even know at that time that old Chief was my master, until my pappy tell me after he was gone. I think all the time he was another preacher. My pappy1 s name was Jackson Mclnotsh, and my mammy name was Hagar, I think old Chief bring them out to the Territory when he come out with his brother Chili and the rest of the Creek people. My pappy tell me that old Masterfs pappy was killed by the Creeks because he signed up a treaty to bring his folks out here, and old Master always hated that bunch of Creeks that done that. I think old man Gouge was one of the big men in that bunch, and *f *5fJ Oklahoma Writers1 Project -3- he fit in the War on the Government side, after he done holler and go on so ah out the Government making him come out here. Old Master have lots of land took up all around that Kawita place, and I donft know how much, but a lot more than anybody else. He have it all fenced in with good rail fence, and all the Negroes have all the horses and mules and tools they need to work it with. They all live in good log houses they "built themselves, and everything they need. Old Master1 s land wasn't all in one "big field, but a lot of little fields scattered all over the place. He just take up land what already was a kind of prairie, and the niggers donft have to clear up much woods We all live around on them little farms, a,nd we didnft have to be under any overseer like the Cherokee Negroes had lots of times. We didnft have to work if they wasnft no work to do that day. Everybody could have a little patch of his own, too, and work it between times, on Saturdays and Sundays if he wanted to#*What he made on that patch belong to him, and the old Chief never bothered the slaves a*bout anything . Every sleeve can fix up his own cabin any way he want to, and pick out a good place with a spring if he can find one. Mostly the slave houses had just one big room with a stick-and~mud chimney, just like the poor people among the Creeks had. Then they had a brush shelter built out of four poles with a roof made out of brush, set out to one side of the house where they do the cooking and eating, and sometimes the sleeping too. They set there when they is done working, and lay around on corn shuck beds, because they never did use the log house much only in cold and tainy weather* Old Chief just treat all the Negroes like they was just hired hands, and I was a big girl before I knowed very much about belonging to hinu I was one of the youngest children in my faaily; only Sammy and JL*5h? Oklahoma Writers1 Project M&lJie was younger tjian I was. -4- My "big "brothers was Adam, August and Nero, and my "big sisters was Flora, Nancy and Rhoda. We could work a mighty "big patch for our own selves when we was all at home together, and put in all the work we had to for the old Master too, hut after the War the l)ig children all get married off and took up land of they own. Old Chief lived in a "big log house made double with a hall in bety/een, and a lot of white folks was always coming there to see him about something. He was gone off somewhere a lot of the time, too, and he just trusted the Negroes to look after his farms and stuff. We would just go on out in the fields and work the crops just like they was our own, and he never come aroxind excepting when we had harvest time, or to tell us what he wanted planted. Sometimes he would send a Negro to tell us to gather up some chickens or turkeys or shoats he wanted to sell off, and sometimes he would send after loads of corn and wheat to sell. I heard my pappy say old Chief and Mr. Chili Mclntosh was the first ones to have any wheat in the Territory, hut I *donft know about that. Along during the War the Negro men got pretty lazy and shiftless, hut my pappy and my big brothers just go right on and work like they always did. A J*Q My pappy always said we better off to stay on the place and work good and behave ourselves because old Master take care of us that way. But on lots of other places the men slipped off. I never did see many soldiers during the War, and there wasnH any fighting close to where we live. It was kind of down in the bottoms, not far from the Verdigris and that Gar Creek, and the soldiers would have bad crossings if the come by our place. We did see some whackers riding around sometimes, in little Oklahoma Writers1 Project -5- Tranches of about a dozen, hut they never did bother us and never did stop. Some of the Negro girls that I knowed of mixed up with the poor Creeks and Seminoles, and some got married to them after the War, but none of my family ever did mix up with them that I knows of. Along towards the last of the War I never did see old Chief come around any more, and somebody say he went down into Texas. He never did come back that I knows of, and I think he died down there. One day my pappy come home and tell us all that J;he Creek done sign up to quit the War, and that old Master send word that we all free now and can take up some land for our own selves or just stay where we is if we want to. Pappy stayed on that place where he was at until he died. I got to be a b;ig girl and went down to work for a Creek family close to where they got that Checotah town now. a scattered settlement of Creeks and they At that time it was just all call it Eufaula town. After while I marry a man name Joe Johnson, at a little settlement they call Rentesville. He have his freedmenfs allotment close to that place, but mine is up on the Yerdigris, and we move up there to live. We just had one child, named Louisa, and she married Tom Armstrong They had three-four children, but one was named Ton, and it is him I live with now. My husband1 s been dead a long, long time now. 159 Oklahoma Toilers1 Project Ex-Slaves *1 MS. JOSU-JOEDAH MBi V^ !^6 Age 75 yrs. 840 Bast King St., Tulsa, Oklahoma. I was "born right in the middle of the War on the Mark lowery plantation at Sparta, in White County, Tennessee, so I don't know anything much about then slave days except what my mammy told me long years ago, 'Course I mean the Civil War, for to us colored folks they just wasn11 no other war as meanful as that one. My mother she come from Virginia when a. little girl, hut never no "body tells me where at my pappy is from. His name was David Lowery when I was "born, "but I gaess he had plenty other names, for like my mammy he was sold lots of times, Salina was my mammy's name, and she "belonged to a Mister Clark, who sold her and pappy to Mark Lowery 'cause she was a fighting, mule-headed woman. It wasn't her fault 'cause she was a fighter. The master who owned her "before Mister Clark was one of them white mens who was always whipping and heating his slaves and mammy couldn't stand it no more. That's the way she tells me about it. She just figgured she would "be "better off dead and out of her misery as to he whipped all the time, so one day the master claimed .they was something wrong with her work and started to raise his iship, hut mammy fought back and when the ruckus was over the Master was laying still on the ground and folks thought he was dead, he got such a heavy beating. Mammy says he don't die and right after that she was sold to Mister Clark I been telling you about. An& mammy was full of misery for a long time Oklahoma Writers1 Project -2- 161 after she was carried to Mark lowery's plantation where at I was "born during of the War. She load two children while "belonging to Mister Clark and he wouldn't let them go with mammy and pappy. That's what caused her misery, Pappy tried to ease her mind, "but she jest kept a* crying for her "babies, -Ann and Eeuban, till Mister Lowery got Clark to leave them visit with her once a month. Mammy always says that Mark Lowery was a good master. But he'd heard things about mammy "before he got her and I reckon was.curious to know if they was all true. Mammy says he found out mighty quick they was. It was mammy's second day on the plantation and Hark lowery acted like he was going to whip her for something she'd done or hadn't, "but mammy knocked him plumb through the open cellar door. He wasn't hurt, not even mad for mammy says he climbed out the cellar a'laughing, saying he was only fooling to see if she would fight. But mammy's troubles wasn't over then, for Mark lowery he got himself a new young wife (his first wife was dead), and mammy was round of the house most of the time after that. Eight away they had trouble. The Mistress was trying to make mammy hurry up with the work and she hit mammy with the broom stick. Mammy's mule temper boiled up all over the kitcken and the Master had to stop the fighting. He wouldn't whip mammy for her part in the trouble, so the Mistress she sent word to her father and brothers and they come to Mister lowery's place. !They was going to whip mamry, they was good and mad. Master was good and mad, too, and he warned 'em home. "Whip your own slaves." He told them. "Mine have to work M6L Oklahoma Writers1 Project -3~ if they1 re heat up they can!t do a days work* of this.11 Get on home - I111 take care And they left. My folks didn!t have no food troubles at Mark Lowery's like they did somewheres else. starved his slaves. I remember mammy told me about one master who almost Mighty stingy I reckon he was. Some of them slaves was so poorly thin they rihs would kinder rustle against each other like corn stalks a-drying in the hot winds. Bat they gets even one hog-killing time, and it was funny too, mammy said. They was seven hogs, fat and ready for fall hog-killing time. Just the day "before old master told off they was to he killed something happened to all them porkers. a-telling the master: One of the field hoys found them and come "The hogs is all died, now they won't he any meats for the winter. When the master gets to where at the hogs is laying, they!s a lot of Negroes standing round looking sorrow-eyed at the wasted meat* asks: The master "What1s'the illness with !em?" "Malitis." touch the hogs. They tell him, and they acts like they don't want to Master says to dress them anyway for they ain't no more meat on the place. He say? to keep all the meat for the slave families, hut that's "because he1s afraid to eat it hisself account of the hogs1 got malitis* tt Dohft you-all know what is malitis? Mammy would ask the children when she was telling of the seven fat hog& $a& seventy lean slaves, ind she would laugti, rememhefing; how they fooled the old Blaster so's to get all them good meats. "One of the strongest Negroes got up early in the morning, " Mammy would explain, ^long ffore the rising horn called the slaves from their cahins ;\ '. 1/v* , ' "iiiiiii ^1 '?%& |K:'' Oklahoma Writers' Projedt He skit ted to the hog pen with a heavy millet in his hand* When he tapped Mister Hog 'tween the eyes with that mallet *malitis! set in mighty quick, Wit it was a uncommon !disease!, even with hungry Negroes around all the time." Mammy had me three sisters and a brother while on the Lowery plantation. They was Lisa, Addie, Alice and Lincoln. It was a long time after the War and we was all freed "before we left old Master Lowery. Stayed right there where we was at home, working in the fields, living in the same, old cabins, just like before the War. Never did have no big troubles after the War, except one time the Ku E^ux Klan broke up a church meeting and whipped some of the Negroes. The preacher was telling about the Bible days when the Klan rode up. Kiey was all masked up and everybody crawled under the benches, when they shouted* ''We111 make you damn niggers wish you wasn't freei* 4^,;.|hQy, iust about did. The preacher got the worst whipping, blood was .running tram his nose and mouth and ears, and they left him laying on the floor. Eaey whipped the women just like the men, but Mammy and the girls wasn't touched none and we run all tjhe way back to the cabin. Layed down witii all our clothes on and tried to sleep, but we1 s too seairt to close our eyes. Maspy reckoned old Master Lowery ms a~riding wi^ night-f, else wefd got a flogging too* ^ y We first moved about a mile from Master Lowery1 s -g^^^^md^&r week we% a^ M:;|||^ ai3d she'd'sa^r; H Tesf ;,cShil^ren aad hfe ^i^i gi^e' : Oklahoma Writers1 Project -5- Hie old plantations gone, the old Liasters gone, the old slaves is gone, and I111 he a going some of these days, too, for I "been here a mighty long time and they a,inft nohody needs me now !cause I is too old for any good. 4A*f 350065 1 OldLahoma Writers f? Project Ex-Slaves * B UHOU GEORGB G. KIHG Age 83 yrs Tulsa, Oklahoma M Prayers for sale ### ' Prayers for sale ...n Uncle George chants in sing-song fashion as he roams around Tulsa*s Greenwood Negro district pockets filled with prayer papers that are soiled and dirty with constant handling* But they are potent, Uncle George tells those #10 fear the coming of some trouble, disaster or just ordinary misery, and there's a special prayer for each and every trouble - including one to keep away the "bill collector when the young folks forget to make payments on the radio, the furniture, the car, or the Spring outfit purchased months ago from the credit clothier. Its all in the Bible and the Bible is his workshop - f cause folks don11 know how to pray. He's mighty old, is Uncle George King, and he111 tell you that he was horn on two-hundred acres of Hell, but the whitefolks called it Samuel Hollfs plantation (six miles N#I of Lexington, South Carolina)* Kinder small for a plantation, Uncle George explains, but plenty room for that devil overseer to lay on the lash, and plenty roote for the old she-devil Mistress to whip his mammy til1 she was just a piece of living raw meatf The old Master talked hard words, but the Mistress whipped* of difference, and Uncle George ought to know, ! lot1 s cause hefs felt the lash layed on pretty heavy wlaen he was no older than kindergarten children of today, The Mistress owned the slaves and they couldnH be sold without he?-8aar~sp fhat*s the reason George was never sold, but the Master once tried 1J6& Oklahoma Writers1 Project -2- to sell him 'cause the beatings was breaking him do?m. H NoH, and used it for an excuse to whip his Mammy. Old Mistress said Uncle George remembers that, too, They crossed her wrists and tied them with a stout cord* They made her bend over so that her arms was sticking back between her legs and fastened the arms with a stick sofs she couldnft straighten up* He saw the Mistress pull his Mammy's clothe^s over her head sofs the lash would reach the skin. He saw the overseer Siay on the whip with hide busting blows that left her laying, all a shiver, on the ground, like a wounded animal dying from the chase. He saw the Mistress walk away, laughing, while his Mammy screamed and groaned - t&fc old Master standing there looking sad and wretched, like-he could feel the blows on Mamma's bared back and legs as much as she* The Mistress was a great believer in the power of punishment, and Uncle George remembers the old log cabin jail built before the War, right on the plantation, where runaway slaves were stowed away f till they would promise to behave themselves* The old jail was full up during most of the War. Three runaway slaves were still chained to its floor when the Master gave word the Negroes were free* They were Prince, Sanovey (his wife) and Henry, who were caught and whipped by the patrollers, and then brought back to the plantation for another beating before being locked in jail. The Mistress ordered them chained, and the overseer would come every morning with the same question: "Will you niggers promise not to run- away no more?11 But they wouldnft promise. One at a time the overseer would looseai t&# chains;, and lead them from the jail to cut them with powerful blows JL66 Oklahoma Writers1 Project -3- from the lash, then dr&g them hack to he chained until the next day when f more lickings were given cause they wouldn't promise. The jail was emptied on the day Master Roll called together all the men, women and children to tell them they wasnft slaves no more* Uncle George tells it this way: "The Master he says we are all free, "but it don't mean we is white. And it don't mean we is equal. Just equal for to wos-k and earn our own living and not depend on him for no more meats and clother." Food was scarce before the War; it was worse after the shooting and killing was over, and Uncle George says/' "There wasn't no corn "bread, no bacon - just trash eating trash, like when General Sherman marched down ' throiigh the country taking everything the soldiers could lug away, and "burning all along the way. "Wasn't nothing to eat after he march "by. Darkies searchVround the barns, maybe find some grains of corn in the manure, and they'd parch the grains - nothing else to eat, except-sometimes at night Mammy would skit out and steal scraps from the Master's house for the children. "She had lots of hungry mouths, too. six boys and a girl, Eliza. William and me, George. They was seven of us then, The boys was Wesley, Simeon, Moses, Peter, This pappy's name was Griffin. "But they was other paj&fys (Mammy told him) when Iva was born long before any of us, and Laura come next, but from a white daddy. Mammy lost them when she was sold around on the markets* "Che XLan they done lots of riding round the country* the come down to the old slave quartern each 'other, and called everybody outdoors. *~* * ?* : . - One night the cabins is all squared round They's looking for two women* Oklahoma Writers1 Project ~4~ ' "They picks fem out of the crowd right quick and say they been with white men. Says their children is "by white men, and they1 re going to get whipped sofs they'll remember to stay with their own kind. The women kick and scream, hut the mens grab them and roll them over a "barrel and let fly with the whip." It was a long time after the Civil War that Uncle George got his first schooling or attended regular church meetings. Like he says: "Getting up at four o'clock in the morning, hoeing in the fields all day, doing chores when they come in from the fields, and then piddling with the weaver *bil' nine or ten every night - it just didn't leave no time for reading and such, even if we was allowed to." And religion, that came later too, for during the old plantation days Uncle George's white folks didn't think a Negro needed religion - there wasn't a Heaven for Negroes anyhow. Finally, though, the Master gave them right to hold meetings on the plantation, and old Peter Coon was the preacher. The overseer was there with guards to keep the Negroes from getting too much riled up when old Peter started talking about Paul or some of the things in the Old Testament. That's all he would talk about; nothing !bout Jesus, just Paul and the Old Testament. His Mammy went to every meeting. Like he says: "She knew them good things was good for her children and she told us about the Bible." like his old Mammy, Uncle George is a firm believer in the power of the word. "Prayers are savingj Uncle George says, "But they's lots of folks' don't know how to pray." That's why he has prayers for sale - and he knows they are never failing, "If you tack 'em up on the wall and say 'em over and over every day theyfs sure to be answered." 168 OkCLahSSa TSrizerB* Project Ex-Slaves M&RgHA KI3TS Age 85 yrs. McAlester, Oklahoma &** "Ihey hung Jeff Davis to apple tree! They hung Jeff Davis to apple tree! [Ehey hung Jeff Davis to apple tree! While we go marching a sour a sour a sour on!" Dat was de song de Yankees sang when they marched by our house, They didn't harm us in any way, I guess de War was over thea fcause a few days after dat old Master say, "Matt", and I say, "Suh?" He say, "Come here. You go tell Henry I say come out here and to "bring the rest of the niggers with him." I went to the north door and I say, "Henry, Master Willis say ever one of you come out here," old Master. He say, "Henry", We all went outside and line up in front of Henry say, "Yes sah". one of you is free as free as I am. Old Master say, You all can leave or stay f Every round here if you want to," We all stayed on for a long time ! cause we didnft have no other home and didn!t know how to take keer of ourselves. I reckon, We was kind of scared finally I heard my mother was in Walker County. Alabama .and I left and went to live with her. My mother was Harriet Davis and she was horn in Virginia, know who my father was. a little girl, I don*t My grandmother was captured in Africa when she was A "big boat was down at the edge of a "bay an1 the people was all excited about it an1 some of the bravest went up purty close to look at it. The men on the boat told them to come on board and they could have the pretty red handkerchiefs, red and blue beads and big rings, went on board and the ship sailed away with them# any of her folks again* A lot of them My grandmother never saw Oklahoma Writers1 Project -3^ . 0 Q When I was about five years old they brought my grandmother, my mother and my two aunts and two uncles to Tuskaloosa from Payettesville, Alabama. We crossed a big river on a ferry boat. and sold us. A white man "cried11 me off just like I can remember it well, I was a animal or varmint or something. who will give me a bid on her. Ottiey put us on the "block" He said, "Here's a little nigger, She will make a good house gal someday. " Old man Davis give him $300.00 for me. I don't know whether I was afraid or not; I don't think I cared just so I had something to eat. Miss Davis' grandmother and one of my aunts and uncles. the rest of us. I was allus hungry. Old man Davis bought Uncle Henry looked after me when he could. I could see my mother once in awhile but not often. I had a purty easy time. I didn't have to work very hard 'till I was about ten years old. I started working in the field and I had to work in the weaving room too. We made all our own clothes. cotton and wool. Old Master bought our shoes. We made fancy cloth. could stripe the cloth or check it or leave it plain, and jeans to make mens suits out of. place* We fe also wove coverlids I could still do that if I had to. We a3\l went to church with the white folks. colored^ preachers. I spun and wove We didn't have no 5Jhe niggers would get happy and shout all over the Sometimes they'd fall out doors. The Big House was a double log, two story house, not very fine but awful comfortable. upstairs. Ihey was four big fireplace rooms downstairs and two Ihen they was two sort of shed rooms. across the front. Eaere was a big piazza Ehe kitchen was a way off from the house, seems like it was 200 feet at least. Our quarters were close by at the back. many slaves and they was nearly all my kinfdlks. He didn't have !Ehere was Aunt Enmy and Oklahoma Writers1 Project -3- Phillis, Uncles Henry, Mitchell, Louis and Andy, and the others were Uncle Logan and Uncle Nathan. They was old Mistress1 slaves when she done married* Old Master and old Mistress had three "boys, ELi, Bill and Dock. They had to go to war and old Mistress sho1 did cry. killed and she might not see !em any more. She say they might get I wonder why all dem white folks didnft think of that when they sold mothers away from they chillun. to he sold away from my mother. I had Two of her hoys was badly wounded hut they all come back. Abe Lincoln done everything he could for the niggers. best friend when he' got killed* We lost our l/^l 350013 Oklahoma Writers1 Froject Ex-SLaves SBOBGflB KYS Age 110 yrs. Fort Gibson, 0Kla I was horn in Arkansas under Mr, Abraham Stover, on a big farm about twenty miles north of Van Buren. I was plumb grown when the Civil War come along, but I can remember back when the Cherokee Indians was in all that part of the country# Joe Kye was my peppy1 s name what he was born under back in Garrison County, Virginia, and I took that name when I was freed, but I donft know whether he took it or not because he was sold off by old Master Stover when I was a child. I never have seen him since. I think he wouldnft mind good, leastways that what my mammy say. My mammy was named Jennie and I don't think I had any brothers or sisters, but they was a whole lot of children at the quarters that I played and lived with. I didnft live with mammy because she worked all the time, and us children all stayed in one house. It was a little one room log cabin, chinked and daubed, and you couldn't stir us with a stick. all ate out of it. When we went to eat we had a big pan and One what ate the fastest got the most. Us children wore homespun shirts and britches and little slips, and nobody but the big boys wore any britches* I wore just a shirt until I was about 12 years old, but it had a long tail down to my calves. Pour or five of us boys slept in fine bed, and it was made of hewed logs with r pe laced acrost it and a shuck mattress. We had stew made out of pork and potatoes, and sometimes greens and pot liquor, and we had ash cake mostly, but biscuits about once a month. In the winter time I had brass toed shoes made on the place, and a A^JQ Oklahoma Writers1 Project - 2 - cloth cap with ear flaps* The work I done was hoeing and plowing, and I rid a horse a lot for old Master because I was a good rider for him, like going to the mill* He would send me to run chores He never beat his negroes but he talked mighty cross and glared at us until he would nearly scare us to death sometimes* He told us the miles and we lived by them and didn't make trouble, but they was a neighbor man that had some mean negroes and he nearly beat them to death* We could hear them hollering in the field sometimes. They would sleep in the cotton rows, and run off, end then they would catch the cat~o-nine tails sure miff* He would chain them upf too, and keep them tied out to trees, and when they went to the field they would be chained together in bunches sometimes after they had been cutting up* We didnft have no place to go to church, but old Master didnft care if we had singing and praying, and we would tie our shoes on our backs and go down the road close to the white church and all set down and put our shoes on and go up close and listen to the service. Old Master was baptized almost every Sunday and cussed us all out on Monday* I didn't join the church until after freedom, and I always was a scoundrel for dancing* My favorite preacher was old Pete Conway* He was the only ordained colored preacher we had after freedom, and he married me* Old Master wouldnH let us take herb medicine, and he got all our medicine in Van Buren when we was sick. But I wore a buckeye on my neck just the same* When the War come along I was a grown man, and I went off to serve i*73 Oklahoma Writers1 Project - 3 - "because old Master was too old to go, "but he had. to send somebody anyways. I served as George Stover, "but every time the sergeant would call out "Abe Stover", I would answer "Here". They had me driving a mule team wagon that Old Master furnished, and I went with the Sesesh soldiers from Van Buren to Texarkana and "back a dozen times or more* of freedom. I was in the War two years, rigjit up to the day We had a hattle close to Texarkana and another Mg one near Van Buren, "but I never left Arkansas and. never got a scratch. One time in the Texarkana "battle I was behind seme pine trees and the bullets cut the limbs down all over me. I dug a big hole with my bare hands before I hardly knowed how I done it. One time two white soldiers named Levy and Briggs come to the wagon train and said they was hunting slaves for some purpose. Some of us black boys got scared because we heard they was going to Squire Mack and get a reward for catching runaways, so me and two more lit out of there. They took out after us and we got to a big mound in the woods and hid. Somebody shot at me and I rolled into some bushes. 2e ri& Up an& got down to look for me but I was on t*other side of his horse and he never did see me. When they was gone we went back to the wagons just as the regiment was pulling out and the officer didn't say nothing. They was eleven negro boys served in my regiment for their masters. The first year was mighty hard because we couldn't get enough to eat. Some ate poke greens without no grease and took down and died. How I knowed I was free, we was bad licked, I reckon. Anyways, we quit fighting and a Federal soldier come up to my wagon and say: mules?* w "Whose Abe Stover's mules," I says, and he tells me then, "Let me tell . >74 Oklahoma Writers1 Project - 4 - you, black hoy, you are as free now as old Abe Stover his own self!* When he said that I jumped on top of one of them mules1 back before I knowed anything! I married Sarah Richardson, February 10, 1870, and had only eleven children* Baptist* One son is a deacon and one grandson is a preacher* I am a good Before I was married I said to the galfs old man, "I'll go to the mourners bench if you111 let me have Salt* and sure nuff I joined up just a month after I got her* I am head of the Sunday School and deacon in the St* Paul Baptist church in Muskogee now* I lived about five miles from Tan Buren until about twelve years ago when they found oil and then they run all the negroes out and leased up the land* They never did treat the negroes good around there anyways* I never had a hard time as a slave, but I'm glad we was set free* Sometimes we can't figger out the best thing to do, but anyways we can lead our own life now, and I'm glad the young ones can learn and get somewhere these days* *f */f5 * Oklahoma Writers1 Project Bx-Slaves * fl2fa BIN LAWSON Age 84 yrs. Oklahoma City, Okla. I was horn in Danville, Illinois- De best I can get at my age I is 84 years old. My father dey tell me was name Dennis Lawson and died he- fore I was horn. My mother's name was Ann Lawson, who I saw once. I was given by her to my Mistress, Mrs. Jane Brazier, when a kid and she was too. My mother raised me, she and her son to manhood. sisters to my knowledge. I got no brothers or I was de only slave dey had and dey raised me to be humble and fear dem as a slave and servant. As I was de only slave I slept in de same room wid my Mistress and her son who was grown, her husband and father being dead. I worked on the farm doing general farm work, hoeing, plowing, harvesting the crop of wheat, corn, barley, oats, rice, peas, etc. To make uraase- and harvest the crops dey would hire poor white help and as dey was grown and 1-r-was a lad, dey kept me in a strain in order to keep up wid dem for if I didnft it was just too bad for my back. So's dere would be work for me to do during the bad days of winter dey built a pen under a shed and dey would lay a cloth on de ground covering the ground in the pen and wid small mesh wire on top of de pen on which de wheat was laid and wid a wooden, maul I would pounder out wheat all day long, even though dey could have thrashed it as dey did de biggest part of it. At meal time dey would give me what was left of de scraps off dey table in a plate, which I would eat most de time on de back porch in warm weather and in de kitchen in winter. For strainer I wore a lowell shirt and for winter I wore de same old lowell shirt only wid outing slips and a pair of brogan shoes or a pair of M^^M::^ &^&Ai^M^I Oklahoma Writers1 Project -2- old shoes dat was thrown*away by my Mistress1 son* Their house was a 3-room log house unpainted, wid only one bed room and a dining room and kitchen* The plantation had fbout 160 acres and was worked by my Mistress1 son and myself plus poor white hired help, my being de only slave, I was treated most harshly mongst a group of just white people and who seemed to think me de old work ox for all de hardest work. De nearest other Negro slaves were !bout 15 or 20 miles from me. When I was grown I ran away one night and walked and rode de rods under stage coaches to Paducah, Kentucky* I got me a job and worked as a roustabout on a boat where I learned to gamble wid dice* I fought and gambled all up and down de Mississippi Eiver, and in de course of time I had 'bout $3,000, but I lost it. I donft know de month or de year I was born in but I can 'member de sinking of de biggest circus show in de Mississippi River at Mobile, Alabama when I was 10 to 14 years old, I ain*t sure which. There wasn't no children for me to play with and it seem like I never was a child but was just always a man. I wasnft never told dat I was free, and I &id Lft know nothing !bout de War much dat broioght my freedom. Dey kept all of dat away from me and I couldn't read or write so I didn't know. I've been married only once. is Hattie Lawson. We have no children. wasn't nothing -unusual at our wedding* My wife is 54 years old, and her name Since we married after freedom there 177 Oklahoma writers* Project .iiClftA^ MJta l ' ' 2s3-SlaTesr^.^i^^i . 1IASY 1IMDSAT Age 91 yrs. Tulsa, Oklahoma. ^ (T) v / *- My slavery days wasn!t like most people-tell you about, f cause I was give to my young Mistress and sent away to Texas when I was jest a little girl, and I didn!t live on a big plantation a very long tine. I got an old-family Bible what say I was "horn on September-20, in 1845, but I donft know who put de writing in it unless it was my mammy1 s mistress. My mammy had de book when she die. My mammy come out to the Indian country from Mississippi two years before I was born* Love. She was the slave of a Ohickasaw part-breed name Sobe He was the kinsfolks of Mr. Benjamin Love, and Mr. Henry Love what bring two big bunches of the Chickasaws out from Mississippi to the Ohoctaw country when the Chickasaws sign up de treaty to leave Mississippi,' and the whole Love family settle * round on the Bed Biver below fort Washita. fhere whar I ?/as born. My mammy say dey have a terrible hard.time again the sickness when they first come out into that country, because it was low and swampy and all full of cane brakes, and everybody have the smallpox and the malaria and fever all the time. Lots of the Ohickasaw families nearly died off. Old Sobe Love marry her off to a slave named William, what, belong to a full-blood Ohickasaw man name Chick-a^lathe, and I was one of de children. ....'[: De children belong to the ow&e3* of, the mother, and me and my brother Pranklin, what we called "Bruner*1, was born under the name of Love and then old Master Sobe bought w pappy William, and we was all Love slaves then,. My mammy had two jaore girls, name Hetty and Hena. Hycsi$ngr name^was Mary, a^d I was named after her. v<- i" ofJi*t v ^ , . ;--:Y'T'4 Old Mistress Oklahoma Writers Project name -2- was Lottie, and they had a daughter name Mary* Old Master Sobe was powerful rich, and he had about a hundred slaves and four or five big pieces of that bottom land broke out for farms. He had niggers on all the placesrbut didnft have no overseers, jest hisself and he went around and seen that everybody behave and do they work right. Old Master Sobe was a mighty big man in the tribe, and so was all his kinfolks, and they went to Fort Washita and to Boggy Depot all the time on business, and leave the Negroes to look after old Mistress and the young daughter. She was almost grown along about that time, when I can first remember about things. , Cause my name was Mary, and so was my mammy's and my young Mistress1 too, Old Master Sobe called me Maiy~Ka-Chubbe to show which Mary he was talking about. Miss Mary have a black woman name Vici what wait on her all the time, and do the carding and spinning and cooking fround the house, and Vici belong to Miss Mary. I never did go fround the Big House, but jest stayed in the quarters with my mammy and pappy and helped in the field a little. Then one day Miss Mary run off with a man add married him, and old Master Sobe nearly went crazy! The man was name Bill Merrick, and he was a poor blacksmith and didnft have two pair of britches to his name, and old Master Sobe said he jest stole Miss Mary ' cause she was rich, and no other reason. 'Cause he was a white man and she was mostly Chickasaw Indian. Anyways old Master Sobe wouldn't even speak to Mr. Bill, and wouldn't let him set foot on the place. He jest reared and pitched around, and threatened to shoot him if he set eyes on him, and Mr. Bill took Miss Mary and left out for Te;;P \)X&i&?4$!!&M&M- iQ&&" ff^W^iP^ Oklahoma Writers* Project He was the slowest one white man I ever did see. He jest move !round like de dead lice falling off*n him all the time, and everytime he go to say anything he talk so slow that when he say one word you could walk from here to way over there "before he say de nexi? word. He donft look sick, and he was powerful strong in his arms, "but he act like he don!t feel good jest the same. I remember when the War come. big road, we heard about it. Mostly by the people passing !long the Pirst they was a lot of wagons hauling farm stuff into town to sell, and then purty soon they was soldiers on the wagons, and they was coming out into the country to git the' stuff and buying it right at the place they find it.' Then purty soon they commence to be little bunches of mens in soldier clothes riding up and down the road going somewhar. They seem like they was mostly young boys like, and they jest laughing and jollying and going on like they was on a picnic* "" ' Then, the soldiers come f round and got a lot of the white men and took them off to the War even.iffen they didn't want to go. MasterJBi11 never did want to go, fcause he had his wife and two little children, and anyways he was '.gitting all the work he could do fixing wagons and shoeing bosses, with all the traffic on de road at that time. Master Bill had, jest two bosses, for him and his wife to ride and to work to the buggy, and he had one old yoke of oxen and some more cattle. He got some kind of a.pa^eriii townpdhe - kept it with him all the time, and when the soldiers woul<| ome to -git.his hosses or his cattle he would jest draw that paper on Vem and they let 'em, alone. ( . ;- ., , !;i^';^i'k-\/-^-'V..vJ> ;':.,, '.--->\ 3y and by the people got so thick on the ..big;^?$^ body in sight all the time. They je$t keep a ^^^^^^^^^^^^^iM^i^^^MS^M gr Oklahoma Writers1 Project -5- 182 f cepting when it rain, and they git all hogged down and he strung all up and down the road camping. They kept Master Bill in the shop all the time, fixing the things they hust trying to git the wagons outfn the mud. They was whole families of them, with they children and they slaves along, and they was coming in from every place because the Yankees was gitting in their part of the country, they say* We all git mighty scared ah out the Yankees coming "but I don't reckon they ever git thafc, f cause I never seen nonef and we was right on the hig road and we would of seen them. They was a whole lot more soldiers in them brown looking jeans, round-about jackets and cotton britches a-faunching up and down the road on their hosses, though. Them hoss soldiers would come < Viling by, going east, all day and night, and the two-three days later on they would all come tearing by going west! Dey acted like dey didnft know whar dey gwine, but I reckon dey did. Den Master Mll/xit/Sick. I reckon he more wore out and worried than anything else, but he go down with de fever one &?y and it raining so hard Mistre3s and me and Vici canft neither one go nowhar to git no help. We puts peach tree poultices on his head and wash him off all the time, until it quit raining so Mistress can go out on de road, and then a doctor man come from one of the bunches of soldiers and see Master Bill. He say he going be ail right and jest keep him quiet, and go on. Mistress have to tend de children and Vici have to take care of Master Bill and look after the house, and dat leave me all by myself wid all the rest of everything around the place. I got to feed all the stock and milk the cows and work in the field too. Dat the first time I ever try to plow, and I nearly git killed, tool I got me Oklahoma Writers1 Project ~6~' a young yoke of oxens I "broke to pull the wagon, fcause Vici have to use the old oxens to work the field. I had to take the wagon and go 'bout ten miles west to a patch of woods Master Bill owned to git fire wood, . ' cause v/e lived right on a flat patch of prairie, and I had to chop and haul the wood by myself. I had to git postoak to "burn in the kitchen fire- place and willow for Master Bill to make charcoal out of to "burn in his "blacksmith fire. Well, I hitch up them young oxen to the plow and rthey wonft follow the row, and so I go git the old oxens. One of them old oxens didn't know me and took in after me, and I couldn't hitch f-em up. And then it begins to rain again. After the rain was quit I git the bucket and go milk the cows, and it is time to water the hosses too, so I starts to the house with the milk and leading one of the hosses. When I gits to the gate I drops the halter across my arm and hooks the bucket of milk on my arm too, and starts to open the gate. the flank, The wind blow the gate wide open, and it slap the hoss on Chat was when I nearly git killed! Out the hoss go through the gate to the yard, and down the big road, and my arm all tangled up in the halter rope and me dragging on the ground! The first jump knock the wind out of me and I can't git loose, and that hoss drag me down the road on the run until he meet up with a passel of soldiers and they stop him. The next thing I knowed I was laying on the back kitchen gallery, and some soldiers was pouring water on me with a bucket. My arm was broke, and I was stove up so bad that I have to lay down for a whole week, and Mistress and Tici have to do all the work. Jest as I gitting able to walk 'round here come some soldiers and 1 it-it &Z&r &ffl - * i Aa Vrtftlffi* ' Oklahoma Writers1 Project say they come to git Master Bill for the far* -7- He still in the "bed sick, and so they leave a parole paper for him to stay until he git well, and then he got to go into Bonham and go with the soldiers to blacksmith for them that got the cannons, the man said. Mistress take on and cry and hold onto the man's coat and "beg, hut it don't do no good* She say they don't belong in Texas hut they belong in the Chickasaw Nation, hut he say that don't do no good, 'cause they living in Texas now. Master Bill jest stew and fret so, one night he fever git way up and he go off into a kind of a sleep and about morning he died. My broke arm begin to swell up and hurt me, and I git sick with it again, and Missy git another doctor to come look at it. He say I got bad blood from it how come I git so sick, and he git out his knife out'n his satchel and bleed me in the other arm. The next day he come back and bleed me again two times, and the next day one more time, and then I git so sick I puke and he quit bleeding me. 'While I still sick Mistress pick up and go off to the Territory to her pappy and leave the children tha,r for Yici and me to look after. she come home for a day or two and go off again somewhere else. After while Then the next time she come home she say they been having big battles in the Territory and her pappy moved all his stuff down on the river, and she home to stay now. We git along the best we can for a whole winter, but we nearly starve to death, and then the next spring when we getting a little patch planted Mistress go into Bonham and come back and say we all free and the War over. She say, H You and Tici jest as free as I am, and a lot freer, I reckon, and they say I got to pay you if you work for me, but I ain't got no money to pay you. If you stay on with me and help me I will feed and home you and I can weave you some good dresses if you card and spin the cotton and wool*19 *!&& Oklahoma Writers' Project -8- Well, I stayed on, ' cause I didn't have no place to go, and I carded and spinned the cotton and wool and she make me just one dress. Vici didn't do nothing hut jest wait on the children and Mistress. Mistress go off again about a week, and when she come hack I see she got some money, hut she didn't give us any of it* After while I asked her ain!t she got some money for me:,, and she say no, ainft she giving me a good home? Den I starts to feeling like I aint treated right. Every evening I git done with the work and go. out in the hack yard /' * and Jest stand and look off to the west towards Bonham, and wish I was at that place or some other place* Den along come a nigger hoy and say he working for a family in Bonham and he git a dollar every week. He say Mistress got some kinfolks in Bonham and some of Master Sohe Love's niggers living close to there* So one night I jest put, that new dress in a bundle and set foot right down the big road a-walking west, and don't say nothing to nobody! Its ten miles into Bonham, ajid I gits in town about daylight. I keeps on being afraid, ~*cause I con't git it out'n my mind I still belong to Mistress. Purty soon some niggers tells me a nigger name Bruner Love living down west of Greenville, and I know that my brother Franklin, *ea\xse we. all called him Bruner* I don't remember how all I gits down to Greenville, but I know I walks most the way, and I finds Bruner. Him and his wife working on a farm, and they say my sister Hetty and my sister Eena what was little is living with my mammy ^ay back up on the Red Eiver* My pappy done died in time of the far and I didnft know it, Bruner taken me in a wagon a&d we went to my maEpy* and I lived with her until she died and Hetty was married* Mn&say. Then I married a boy name Henry His people was from Georgia^ and he live with them way west at Cedar -M$mj--'- !VlH^-|f^*mpji^ ^^TSSOWWT ^ T ^&Sr$t&&^ff2&^''*)tr7 F*W^V?>W^^"1&P^^^^ frwni**^ y* f***&^&PS^W^AA J?kX-'t^kh^^^Ml^ki^^^M Oklahoma Writers1 Project ~2~ I don't remembuh when de War broke out, but I remembuh seeing the soldiers with de blue uniforms on. I was afraid of 'em. Old mistress didn't tell us when he was free, but another white woman told my mother and I remembuh one day old mistress told my mother to git to that wheel and git to work, and my mother said, "I ainft gwineter, I'm jest as free as you air," So dat very day my mother packed up all our belongings and moved us to town, Sherman, Texas* She worked awful hard, doing day work for 50{ a day, and sometimes shefd work for food, clothes* or whatever she could git* I donft believe in conjuring tho-ugh I heard lotta talk 'bout it. Sometimes I ha,ve pains and aches in my hands, feel like sometime dat somebody puts dey hands on me, but I think jest de way my nerves is* I can't say much 'bout Abe Lincoln. de cullud folk being free. Jeff Davis? He was a republican in favor of Yeah, the boys usta sing a so#g 'bout im* Lincoln rides a fine hoss, Jeff Davis rides a mule, Lincoln is de President, Jeff Davis is de fool. Booker T. Washington - I guess he is a right good & He's for the cullud people I guess. I been a Christian thirty some odd years. odd years. Had to come when my husband did. I've been here some thirty He died in 1902. 18 I've ^forgot, but we went to de preacher and got married. We married in We did more than jump over de broom stick. In those days we went to chtirch with de white folks. Dey had church at eleven and the cullud folks at three, but all of us had white preachers. Our church is standing right there now, at least it was de last time I was there. 23jL Oklahoma Writers1 Project -3- I donft have a favorite song, theys so many good ones, but I like, "Bound for the Promised Land.11 Ifm a Baptist, my mother was a Baptist, and her white folks was Baptist. I have two daughters, Julia Goodwin and Bertha 3?razier, and four grandchildren, both of fems been separated. Dey do housework. /50<5 35i Oklahoma Writers1 Project Ex-Slaves SALOMON OLIVER Age 78 yrs. Tialsa, Oklahoma. John A. Miller owned the finest plantation in Washington Co-unty, Mississippi, about 12-mile east of Greenville. I was horn on this 20,000-acre plantation November 17 f 1859, "being one of about four hundred slave children on the place. About three hundred negro families living in box-type cabins made it seem like a small town. Built in rows, the cabins were kept whitewashed, neat and orderly, for the Master was strict about such things. Several large barns and storage buildings were scattered around the plantation. ALso, two cotton gins and two old fashioned presses, operated by horses and mules, made Miller1 s plantation one of the best equipped in Mississippi. i Master John was quite a character. all his time. The big plantation didnft occupy He owned a bank in Vicksburg and another in New Orleans, and only came to the plantation two or three times a year for a week or two visit. Things happened around there mighty quick when the Master showed up. If the slaves were not being treated right - out go the *hite overseer* The Master was a good man and tfied to hire good boss men. bad after the slave women* Fired! Master John was A yellow child show up every once in a *hile. Those kind always got special privileges because the Master said he didnH want his children whipped like the rest of them slaves My own Mammy, Mary, was the Master1 s own daughter! She married Salomon; Oliver (who took the same of Oliver after the fax), and the Master told all the slave drivers to leave her alone and not whip her. of her and caused trouble. y This made the overseers Jealotis John Santhers was one ef the white overseers who treated her had, and after I was bom. and got strong enough (I was a weakling for Oklahoma Writers Project -2- 234: three-four years after birth), to do light chores he would whip me just for the fun of it. up. It was fun for him but not for me. That is the one thing I wonft ever forget I hoped to whip him when I grew H e died about the end of the War so thatfs one thing I won't ever get to do. My mother was high-tempered and she knew about the Master1 s orders not to whip her. I guess sometimes she took advantage and tried to do things that maybe wasnft right. flogged her to death. But it did her no good and one of the ^hite men She died with scars on her back! Father use to preach to the slaves when a crowd of them could slip off into the woods. I donft remember much about the religious things, only just what Daddy told me when I was older. He was caught several times slipping off to the woods and because he was the preacher I guess they layed on the lash a little harder trying to make him give up preaching. Bation day was Saturday. Bach person was given a peck of corn meal, four pounds of wheat flour, four pounds of pork meat, quart of molasses, one pound of sugar, the same of coffee and a plug of tobacco. Potatoes and vegetables came from the family garden and each slave family was required to cultivate a separate garden. During the Civil War a battle was fought near the Miller plantation. The Yankees under General Grant came through the country. bales of Miller cotton. They burned 2,000 When the Yankee wagons crossed Bayou Greek the bridge gave way and quite a number of soldiers and horses were seriously injured. Tor many years after the War folks would find bullets in the ground. Some of the bullets were 'twins1 fastened together with a chain. Master Miller settled my father upon a piece of land after the War and we stayed on it several years, doing well. I moved to Muskogee in 1902, coming on to Shalsa in 1907, the same year Oklahoma was made a state. My six wives are all dead, ~ Liza, lizssie, JUlem, Oklahoma Writers1 Project lula, Elizabeth and Henrietta* -3- Six children, too. Nelson, Garfield, Cosmos - all good children. 2^*5 George, inna, Salomon, Theyrremember the Tulsa riot and donft aim ever to come hack to Oklahoma. When the riot started in 1922 (I think it was), I had a place on the corner of Pine and Owasso Streets. Two hundred of my people gathered at my place, "because I was so well known everybody figured we wouLdn't be molested. wrong. Two of my horses was shot and killed. Two of my boys, Salomon and Nelson, was wounded, one in the hip, the other in the shoulder* well alright. I was Some of my people wasn't so lucky. They wasn't bad and.got The dead wagon hauled them away! White men came into the negro district and gathered up the homeless. The houses were most all burned. No place to go except to the camps where armed whites kept everybody quiet. They took my clothes and all my money - $298.00 and the police couldn't do nothing about my loss when I reported it to them. That was a terrible time, but we people are better off today that any time during the days of slavery. We have some privileges and they are worth more than all the money in the worldl 350010 Oklahoma Writers1 Project Ex-SLaves 336 PHYLLIS PBTITB Age 83 yrs* Port Gibson, Okla. I was born in Rusk County, Texas, on a plantation about eight miles east of Belleview* There wasn11 no town where I was born, but they had a church* My mammy and pappy belonged to a part Cherokee named W* P* Thompson when * was born* He had kinfolks in the Cherokee Nation, and we all moved up here to a place on Fourteen-Mile Creek close to where Hulbert now is, f way before I was big enough to remember anything* Then, so I been told, old master Thompson sell my pappy and mammy and one of my baby brothers and me back to one of his neighbors in Texas name of John Harnage. Mammy1 s name was Letitia Thompson and pappy1 s was Hiley Thompson* My little brother was named Johnson Thompson, but I had another brother sold to a Vann and he always call hisself Harry Vann* His Cherokee master lived on the Arkansas river close to Webber1 s Palls and I never did know him -until we was both grown* My only sister was Patsy and she was borned after slavery and died at Wagoner, Oklahoma. I can just remember when Master John Harnage took us to Texas* went in a covered wagon with oxen and camped out all along the way* We Mammy done the cooking in big wash kettles and pappy done the driving of the oxen. I would set in a wagon and listen to him pop his whip and holler* Master John took us to his plantation and it was a big one, too* Tou could look from the field up to the Big House and any grown body in the yard look like a little body, it was so far away* We negroes lived in quarters not far from the Big House and ours was a single log house with a stick and dirt chimney* coal8 in the fireplace* We cooked over the hot Oklahoma Writers1 Project - 2- I just played around until I was about six years old I reckon, and then they put me up at the Big House with my mammy to work. She done all the cording and spinning and weaving, and I done a whole lot of sweeping and minding the baby* The baby was only about six months old I reckon* I used to stand by the cradle and rock it all day, and when I quit I would go to sleep right by the cradle sometimes before mammy would come and get me* The Big Hoxase had great big rooms in front, and they was fixed up nice, too, I remember when old Mistress Harnage tried me out sweeping up the front rooms* They had two or three great big pictures of some old people hanging on the wall. They was fall blftod Indians it look like, and I was sure scared of them pictures! I would go here and there and every which~a~way, and anywheres I go them big pictures always looking straight at me and watching me sweep] I kept my eyes right on them so I could run if they moved, and old Mistress take me back to the kitchen and say I canft sweep because I miss all the dirt* We always have good eating, iike turnip greens cooked in a kettle with hog skins and crackling grease, and skinned corn, and rabbit or possum stew* I liked big fish tolerable well too, but I was afraid of the bones in the little ones* That skinned corn aint like the boiled hominy we have today* To make it you boil some wood ashes, or have some drip lye from the hopper to put in the hot water* Let the corn boil in the lye water until the skin drops off and the eyes drop out and then wash that corn in fresh water about a dozen times, or just keep carrying water from the spring until you are wore out, like I did* Then you put the corn in a crock and set it in the 2*^7 Oklahoma Writers1 Project - 3 - spring, and you got good skinned corn as long as it last, all ready to warm up a little batch at a time. Master had a "big, long log kitchen setting away from the house, and we set a big table for the family first, and when they was gone we negroes at the house eat at that table too, but we don't use the china dishes* The negro cook was Tilda Chisholm. work. She and my mammy didn11 do no out- Aunt Tilda sure could make them corn-dodgers. Us children would catch her eating her dinner first out of the kettles and 1*1 en we say something she say: w Go on child, I jest tasting that dinner.* In the summer we had cotton homespun clothes, and in winter it had wool mixed in. They was dyed with copperas and wild indigo* My brother, Johnson %iompson, would get up behind old Master Harnage on his horse and go with him to hunt squirrels so they would go 'round on Master1 s side sofs he could shoot them. Master1 s old mare was named "Old Willow", and she knowed when to stop and stand real still so he could shoot. His children was just all over the place! them! He had two houses full of I only remember Bell, Ida, Maley, Mary and Will, but they was plenty more I don't remember. That old horn blowed fway before daylight, and all the field negroes had to be out in the row by the time of sun up* House negroes got up too, because old Master always up to see everybody get out t;> work. Old Master Harnage bought and sold slaves most all the time, and some of the new negroes always acted up and needed a licking. got beat up good,too! The worst ones They didnft have no jail to put slaves in because when the Masters got done licking them they didnft need no jail. J38 Oklahoma Writer*1 Project - 4 My husband was Goerge Petite, him when he was a little boy* He tell me his mammy was sold away from He looked down a long lane after her just as long as he could see her, and cried after her* He went down to the big road and set down by his mammy1 s barefooted tracks in the sand and set there until it got dark, and then he come on back to the quarters. I just saw one slave try to get away right in hand. with bloodhounds and brung him back in. and he was sick a long time. They caught him The hounds had nearly tore him upt I donft remember his name, but he wasn*t one of the old regular negroes. In Texas we had a church where we could go. I think it was $ white church and they just let the negroes have it when they got a preacher sometimes. My mammy took me sometimes, and she loved to sing them salva- tion songs. We used to carry news from one plantation to the other I reckon, 1 cause mammy would tell about things going on some other plantation and I know she never been there. Christmas morning we always got some brown sugar candy or some molasses to pull, and we children was up bright and early to get that * lasses pull. I tell youj And in the winter we played skeeting on the ice when the water froze over. No, I donft mean skating. and we didnft have them things. Thatfs when you got iron skates, We just get a running start and jump on the ice and skeet as far as we could go, and then ran some more. I nearly busted my head open, and brother Johnson said: "Try it again,n but after that I was scared to skeet any more. Mammy say we was down in Texas to get away from the War, but I didnft see any war and any soldiers. But one day old Master stay after he eat breakfast and when us negroes come in to eat he say: "After today I ainft 239 Oklahoma Writers1 Project your master any more. - 5 - You all as free as I am#w We just stand and look and donft know what to say about it. After while pappy got a wagon and some oxen to drive for a white man who was coming to the Cherokee Nation "because he had folks here. His name was Dave Mounts and he had a boy named John. We come with them and stopped at Port Gibson Tdiere my own grand mammy was cooking for the soldiers at the garrison. and I was named after her. Her name was Phyllis Brewer She had a good Cherokee master. My mammy was born on his place. We stayed with her about a week and then we moved out on Pour Mile Creek to live. She died on Pourteen-Mile Creek about a year later. When we first went to Pour Mile Creek I seen negro women chopping wood and asked them who they work for and I found out they didn't know they was free yet. After a while my pappy and mammy both died, and I was took care of by my aunt Elsie Vann. She took my brother Johnson too* but I don't know who took Harry Vann. I was married to George Petite, and I had on a white underdress and black high-top shoes, and a large cream colored hat, and on top of all I had a blue wool dress with tassels all around the bottom of it* dress was for me to eat the terrible supper in. wedding supper because we eat too much of it. That That what we called the Just danced all night, too! I was at Mandy Poster's house in Port Gibson, and the preacher was Eeverend Barrows. I had that dress a long time, but its gone now. I still got the little sun bonnet I wore to church in Texas* We had six children, but all are dead but George, Tish, and Annie now. 240 Oklahoma Writers1 Project -6- Yes, they tell me Abraham Lincoln set me free, and I love to look at his picture on the wall in the school house at Four Mile branch where they have church. My grcnd mammy kind of help start that church, and I think everybody ought to belong to some church, I want to say again my Master Harnage was Indian, but he was a good man and mighty good to us slaves, end you can see I am more than six feet high and they say I weigjas over a hundred and sixty, even if my hair is snow white. 241 50012 yles he raised from a baby, and Mister Irvin kept a store at de corner of de roads at our plantation. The 550 Oklahoma Writers1 Project -7- plantation covered about 300 or 400 acres I reckon, and they had about 25 slaves counting de children. The plantation was about 9 miles north of Red Mound, close to Lexington, Tennessee, and about a mile and a half from Parker1s Crossroads ?7here they had a big battle in de War. They wasnft no white overseer on the place, except Mister Irvin, and he stayed in de store or in town and didn't bother about the farm work. had a Negro overlooker who was my stepdaddy. We His name was Jordan, and he run away wid de Yankees about de middle of de War and was in a Negro Yankee regiment* After he left we jest worked on as usual because we was afraid not to. Several of de men got away like that but he was de only one that got in de army. They was a big house in de middle of de place and a settlement of Negro cabins behind and around it. We called it de settlement, but on other plantations where white folks lived there-too they called it de quarters. We always kept this big house clean and ready, and sometimes de white folks come out from town and stay a few days and hunt and fish and look over de crops. We all worked at farm work. Cotton and corn and tobacco mostly. We all laid off Sunday after noontime, but we didn't have no church nor preaching and we didnft hear anything fbout Jesus much until after de emancipation. I reckon old Master wasnH very religious, f bout the Holy Word. f cause he never tell us He jest said to behave ourselves and tell him when we wanted to marry, and not have but one wife. We had little garden patches and cotton patches we could work on Sunday and what de stuff brung we could sell and keep the money. let us have what we made that way on Sunday. soap and coal oil and such at de store. Old Master We could buy ribbons and hand Master Irvin was always honest f bout /wOJL Oklahoma Writers1 Project -8f- /2 && continuing de money, too* We didnft have no carders and spinners nor no weavers on de plantation* They cost too much money to buy just for 25 niggers, and they cost a lot more than field niggers* So we got our clothes sent out to us from in town, and sometimes we was give cloth from de store to make our clothes out of We got de shorts and seconds from de mill when we had wheat ground, and so we had good wheat "bread as well as corn pone, and de big smokehouse was on de place and we had all de meat we wanted to eat. Old Master sent out after de meat he wanted every day or so and we kept him in garden sass that way too* V We was right between de forks of Big Beaver and Little Beaeer and we could go fishing without getting far off de place* We couldnft go far away without a pass, though, and they wasn t nobody on the place to write us a pass, so we couldn't go to meeting and dances and sech* But de niggers on de other plantations could get passes to come to our plaice, and so we had parties sometimes there at our place* We always had them on Sundays, * cause in the evening we would be too tired to work if we set up, and the other masters wouldn't give passes to their niggers to come: over in de evening* We had a white doctor lived at de next plantation, and old Master had a contract with old Br* Brown to look after us. your arm. He had a beard as long as He come for all kinds of misery except bornings* wife who was a white woman lived down below us* or living on war land* fhen we had a mid- Shey was poor people renting Nearly all de white folks in that country been there a long time and their old people got de land from de government for fighting in the Bevoluionary War* Most all was from North Carolina way back* old Master's pappy was from dere in de first place* I think Oklahoma Writers1 Project -9J. Old Master had two sons named Newton and Willis* Newton was in de War and was killed, and Willis went to war later and was sick a long time and come home early * Old Master was too old to go* There was two daughters, Mary, de oldest, married a Holmes, and Miss Laura never did marry I donft think* My mammy's name was Jane, and she was l)orn on de 10th day of May in 1836* I know de dates cause old Master kept his hook on all his niggers de same as on his own family* Mammy was the nurse of_ all de children hut I think old Master sent her to de plantation about the time I was horn* donft think I had B^y pappy* I I think I was jest one of them things that happened sometimes in slavery days, hut I know old Master didn't have nothing to 4o with it Ifm too "black* Mammy married a man named Jordan when I was a little hahy* He was the overlooker and went off to de Yankees, when deWdome for foraging through dat country de first time* He served in de Negro regiment in de hat tie at Jort Filler and a lot of Sesesh was killed in dat battle, so when de War was over and Jordan come hack home he was a changed nigger and all de whites and a lot of de niggers hated him* to him* All fcepting old Master, and he never said a wort out of de way Jest told him to come on and work on de place as long as he wanted to* But Jordan had a hard time, and he brung it on his self I reckon* f Bout de first thing, he went down to Wildersville Schoolhouse, a- hout a mile from Wildersville, to a nigger and carpet bagger convention and took me ant mammy along* ever see* That was de first picnic and de first brass hand 1 De hand men was all white men and they still had on their blue soldier cl^es* 253 Oklahoma Writers1 Project -l i L ots of de niggers there had been in de tfction army too, and they had on parts of their army clothes* They took them out from under their coats and their wagon seats ad put them on lor de picnic* There was a saloon over in Wildersville, and a lot of them went over there hut they was scared to go in, most of thenu But a colored delegate named Taylor and my pappy went in and ordered a drink* She bartender didn't pay them no mind* Then a white man named Billy Britt walked up and throwed a glass of whiskey in Jordan*s face and cussed him for "being in de Yankee army* Then a white man from the North named Pearson took up the fight and him and Jordan j-umped on Billy Britt, hut de crowd stopped them and told jtappy to git on back to whar he come from* He got elected a delegate at de convention and went on down to Nashville and helped nominate Brownlow for governor* Then he couldnft come "back home for a while, but finally he did* Old Master was uneasy about de way things was going on, and he come out to de farm and stayed in de big house a while* One day in broad daylight he was on de gallery and down de road come f bout 20 bushwhackers in Sesesh clothes on horses and rid up to de (gate* Old Master knowed all of them, and Captain Clay Taylor, who had been de master of de nigger delegate, was at the head of them* They had Jordan Pyles tied with a rope and walked along on de ground betw|ixt two horses* n Whar you taking my niggertw, Old Master say* He run down off de gallery and out in de road* flHe aia*t your nigger no more you know that** old Captain Taylor holler back* *He -jeit as much my ni&ger as that Taylor Mgger was your nigger* 254 Oklahoma Writers1 Project -11- and you ain't laid hands on him! 255 Now you jest have pity on my nigger!" "Your nigger Jordan been in de Yankee army, and he was in de battle at Port Filler and help kill our white folks, and you know it!" Old Captain Taylor say, and argue on like that, but old Master jest take hold his bridle and shake his head* "No, Clay", he say, "that boy maybe didn*t kill Confederates, but you and him both know my two boys killed plenty Yankees, and you forgot I lost one of my boys in de War. Ainft that enough to pay for letting my nigger alone?" And old Captain Taylor give the word to turn Jordan loose, and they rid on down de road. That's one reason my stepdaddy never did leave old Master's place, and I stayed on dere till I was grown and had children. The Yankees come through past our place three-four times, and one time they had a big battle jest a mile and a half away at Parker1 s Crossroads. I was in de field hoeing, and I remember I hadn't watered the cows we had hid way down in de woods, so I started down to water them when I first heard de shooting. We had de stock hid down in de woods and all de corn and stuff hid too, 'cause the Yankees and the Sesesh had been riding through quite a lot, and either one take anything they needed iffen they found it. First I hear something way off say "Br-r-rtmipl Then again, and again. Then something sound like popcorn beginning to pop real slow. Then it git faster and I start for de settlement and de big house. All Master's folks was staying at de big house then, and couldnft git back to town 'count of de soldiers, so they all put on they good clothes, with de hoop skirts and little sunshades and the lace pantaloons and got in the buggy to go see de battle! They rid off and it wasn't long till all the niggers was following Oklahoma Writers1 Project -12- 5G "behind. We all got to a hill fbout a half a mile from the crossroads and stopped when we couldnft see nothing "but thick smoke all over de whole place* We could see men on horses come in and out of de smoke, going this way and that wayf and then some Yankees on horses broke through de woods right close to us and scattered off down through de field* One of de white officers rid up close and yelled at us and took off his hat, hut I couldnH hear nothing he said. Then he rid on and catch up with his men. turning off to one side. They had stopped and was He looked hack and waved his hat again for us to git away from that, and jest then he clapped his hand to his belly and fell off his hoss* Our white folks turned their buggy round and made it for home and no mistake! The niggers wasnft fur behind neither! They fit on back toward our plantation, and some of the fighting was inside it at one corner. 1 Tor three-four days after that they was burying soldiers round there, and some of de graves was on our old place* Long time afterwards people come and" moved all them to other grave- yards at Shiloh and Corinth and other places. They was about a hundred killed all around there* After de War I married Molly Timberlake and we lived on there ftil 1902, when we come to Indian Territory at Haskell* They wasnft no Haskell there then, d I helped to build dat town, doing carpenter work and the like* We had two boys, Bill and Jim Sick, and eight daughters, Sffie, Ida* Itta, Sva, Jessie, Tommie, Bennie and Timmie* Her real name is Timberlake after her mammy* They all went to school and graduated in the high schools* My wife has been dead about ten years* 350024 Oklahoma Writers1 Project Ec-Slaves 257 10-13-37 ^ A ss ^ GHOST RICHASDSOff Age 90 years Port Gibson, Okla* I was "born in the old Caney settlement southeast of Tahlequah on the hanks of Caney Creek* Off to the north we could see the "big old ridge of Sugar Mountain when the sun shine on him first thing'in the morning when we all getting up. I didnft know nothing else but some kind of war until I was a grown woman, because when I first can remember my old Master, Charley Hogers, was always on the lookout for somebody or other he was lined up against in the big feud* My master and all the rest of the folks was Cherokees, and theyfd t been killing each other off in the feud ever since long before I was horned, and jest because old Master have a big farm and three-four families of Negroes them other Cherokees keep on pestering his stuff all the time* Us children was always afeared to go any place lessrn some of the grown folks was along* We didnH know what we was srfeared of, but we heard the Master and Mistress keep talking fbout M another Party killing" and we stuck close to the places Old Mistress* name was Hancy Hogers, but I was a orphan after I was a big girl and I called her "Aunt" and HMamma,f like I did when I was little You see my own mammy was the house woman and I was raised in the Oklahoma Writers1 Project -2~ house, and I heard the little children call old mistress "mamma11 and so I did too. She never did make me stop. My pappy and mammy and us children lived in a one-room log cabin close to the creek bank and jest a little piece from old Master1 s house* My pappy1 s name was Joe Tucker and my mammy's name was Ruth Tucker. They belonged to a man named Tucker before I was born and he sold them to Master Charley Rogers and he just let them go on by the same name if they wanted to, because last nameji didnft mean nothing to a slave anyways. The folks jest called my pappy "Charley Rogers1 boy Joe.11 * I already had two sisters, Mary and Mandy, when I was bora," and purty soon I had a baby brother, Louis. took me along every day. Mammy worked at the Big House and When I was a little bigger I would help hold the iiank when she done the spinning and old Mistress done a lot of the weaving and some knitting. She jest set by the window and knit most all of the time. Iffhen we weave the cloth we had a big loom out on the gallery, and Miss Nancy tell us how to do it# Mammy eat at our own cabin, and we had lots of game meat and fish the boys get in the Caney Creek. Mammy bring down deer meat and wild turkey sometimes, that the Indian boys git on Sugar Mountain* Then we had corn bread, dried bean bread and green stuff outfn Master's patch. Mammy make the bean bread when we git short of corn meal and nobody going to the mill right away# She take and bile the beans and mash them up in some meal and that make it go a long ways. The slaves didnft have no garden fcause they work the old Master1 s garden and make enough for everybody to have some anyway* 258 Oklahoma Writers1 Project -3- When I was about 10 years old that feud got so had the Indians waw always talking ahout getting their horses and cattle killed and their slaves harmed. I was too little to know how "bad it was until one morning my own mammy went off somewhere down the road to git some stuff to dye cloth and she didnft come hack* Lots of the young Indian "bucks on "both sides of the feud would ride around the woods at night, and old Master got powerful oneasy about my mammy and had all the neighbors and slaves out looking for her, hut nobody find her. It was ahout a week later that two Indian men rid up and ast old master wasn*t his gal. Hnth gone. He says yes, and they take one of the slaves along with a wagon to show where they seen her. They find her in some hushes where she'd been getting bark to set the dyes, and she been dead all the time. Somebody done hit her in the head with a club and shot her through and through .with a bullet too. She was so swole up they couldnH lif her up and jest had -to make a-deep hole IN right along side of her and roll her 44 it she was so bad mortified. Old Master nearly go crazy he was so mad, and the young Cherokee men ride the woods every night for about a month, but they never catch on to who done it. I think old Master sell the children or give them out to somebody then, because I never see my sisters and brother for a long time after the Civil War, and for me, I have to go live with a new mistress that was a Cherokee neighbor. Her name was Hannah Boss, and she raised me until I was grown. I was her home girl, and she and me done a lo# of spinning and 259 Oklahoma Writers1 Project weaving too* -4~ I helped the cook and carried water and milked* the water in a home-made pegging set on my head. I carried Them peggings was kind of buckets made out of staves set around a bottom and didnft have no handle* I can remember weaving with Miss Hannah Boss* She would weave a strip of white and one of jrellow and one of brown to make it pretty* She had a reel that would pop every time it got to a half skein so she would know to stop and fill it up again* We used copperas and some kind of bark she bought at the store to dye with* It was cotton clothes winter and summer for the slaves, too, I111 tell you* When the Civil War come along we seen lots of white soldiers in them brown butternut suits all over the place* and about all the Indian men was in it too* Old master Charley Rogers1 boy Charley went along too* Then pretty soon - it seem like about a year - a lot of the Cherokee men come back home and say they not going back to the War with that General Cooper and some of them go off the Federal side because the captain go to the Federal side too* Somebody come along and tell me my own pappy have to go in the war and I think they say he on the Copper side, and then after while Miss Hannak tell me he git kilt over in Arkansas* r I was so grieved all the time I donft remember much what went on, but I know pretty soon my Cherokee folks had all the stuff they had et up by the soldiers and they was jest a few wagons and mules left* All the slaves was piled in together and some of the grown ones walking, and they took us way down across the big river and kept us in the bottoms a long time until the War was over* 260 Oklahoma Writers1 Project -& We lived in a kind of a camp, but I was too little to know where they got the grub to feed us with. Most all the Hegro men was off somewhere in the War. Then one day they had to bust up the camp and some Federal soldiers go with iis and we all start back home. We git to a place where all the houses is burned down and I ask what is that place* "Skullyville, child. Miss Hannah say: OJhat's where they had part of the War." All the slaves was set out when we git to Fort Gibson, and the soldiers say we all free now. at that place. They give us grub and clothes to the Negroes It wasnft no town but a fort place and a patch of big trees. Miss Hannah take me to her place and I work there until I was grown. I didnft git sxty money that I seen, but I got a good place to stay. Pretty soon I married Ban Lovely and we lived in a double log house here at Port Gibson. The^my second husband was Henry Richardson, but he's been dead for years, too. % We had six children, but they all dead but one* I didn't want slavery to be over with, mostly because we had the War I reckon. All that trouble made me the loss of my mammy and pappy, and I was always treated good when I was a slave* rather be at home like I was. When it was over I had None of the Cherokees ever whipped us, and my mistress give me some mighty fine rales to live by to git along in this world, too. The Cherokee didn't have no jail for Negroes and no jail for themselves either. If a man done a crime he come back to take his punishr* ment without being locked up* Oklahoma Writers1 Project -6 * None of the Negroes ran away when I was a child that I know of * We all had plenty to eat* The Negroes didn't hare no school and so I can't read and write, but they did have a school after the War, I hear# But we had a church made out of a brush arbor and we would sing good songs in Cherokee sometimes* I always got Sunday off to play, and at night I could go git a piece of sugar or something to eafr before I went to bed and Mistress didnft care* We played bread-and-butter and the boys played hide the switch* The one found the switch got to whip the one he wanted to* When I got sick they give me some kind of tea from weeds, and if I et too many roasting ears and swole up they biled gourds and give me the liquor off'n them to make me throw up* I've been a good church-goer all my life until I git too feeble, and I still underhand talk Cherokee language and love to hear songs and parts of the Bible in it because it make me think about the time I was a little girl before my mammy- and pappy leave me* 2fV2 Oklahoma Writers* Project rf e^ RID RICHARDSON Age 75 yrs. Oklahoma City, Oklahoma A \* & Ea-Slaves x I was "born July 21, 1862, at Grimes County, Texas. was my father's name, and Eliza Richardson my mother1 s. Smith Richardson My father came from Virginia. My mother she was "born in Texas. \ We lived in so many places round there I can't tell jest what, "but we lived in a log house most of the time. one quilt. We slept on' the flo1 on pallets on We ate corhbread, "beans, vegetables, and got to drink plenty milk. We ate rabbits, fish, possums and such as that but we didnft get no chicken. I don't have no fav'rite food, I don't guess. We wore shirts, long shirts slit up the side. pants was until I was 14. and I never wore no shoes. I didn't know what In Grimes County it ain!t even cold these days, I married in a suit made of broad cloth. It had a tail on the coat. Master Ben Hadley, and Mistress Minnie Hadley, they had three sons* Josh, Henry and Charley. Didn't have no overseer. We had to call all white folks, poor or rich, Mr. Master and Mistress. 2,000 acres. He had a big number of slaves, in the mornings by ringing a large bell. Master Hadley owned fbout They used to wake 'em up early They said they used to whip fem, drive fem, and sell fem away from their chillun, I'd hear my old folks talk about it. Say they wasn't no such a thing as going to jail. stood good for anything his nigger done. The mafeter If the master's nigger killed 'im another nigger, the old master stood good# They never had no schools for the Negro chillun. I can't remember the date of the first school - its in a book someplace but anyway I went to one of the first schools that was established for the education of Negro chillun. 263 Oklahoma Writers1 Project -3! You know Mr. Negro always was a church man, but he don't mean nothing. I don't have no fav'rite spiritual. All of them's good ones. Whenever they'd baptise they'd sing: "Harp Prom the Tone the Domeful Sound." Which starts like this* "Come live in man and view this ground where we must sho'ly lie." I'm a member of Tabernacle Baptist Church myself, and I think all people should be religious 'cause Jesus died for us all. The patrollers used to run after me but I'd jump 'em. have a permit to go from one plantation to another. They used to You had to go to old master and say, "I want to go to such and such a place.'1 And if you had a permit they didn't bother you. you going? The pateroller would stop you and say, "Where You got a permit to go to such and such a 3>lace?H yes suh, and show that pass. You'd say, Den he wouldn't bother you and if fen he did old master would git on ' em. When IQjffifi o'clock come which was bed time the slaves would go to their cabins and some of fem would go stealing chickens, hogs, steal sweet potatoes, and cook and eat ' em. Jest git in to all kind of devilment. Old master would give 'em Sadday afternoon off, and they'd have them Sadday night breakdowns. We played a few games such as marbles, mumble peg, and cards jest anything to pass off the time. Heahs one of the games we'd play an' I sho did like it too} She is my sweetheart as I stan^, Come ani stanj beside of me, Kiss her sweet anj Hug her near. On Christmas they'd make egg nog, drink whiskey and kiss their girls. Some wore charms to ward off the devil, but I don't believe in such. Oklahoma Writers* Project I do believe in voodoo like this: fool you. Don't believe in ghost. -3- People can put propositions up to you and Tried to see !em hut I never could. Old master didnft turn my father loose and tell !em we was free. They didn!t turn us jlloose ftil they got the second threat from President Lincoln. Good old Lincoln; they we4nt nothing like !im. Booker T. Washington was one of the finest Uegro Educators in the world, hut old Jefferson Davis was against the cullud man. I think since slavery is all over, it has been a benefit to the cullud man. He1 s got more freedom now. 2Q5 350011 Oklahoma Writers1 Project Ex-Slaves BUTTY BOBBRTSQN Age 93 yrs. Port Gibson, Oklahoma I was horn close to Webbers Palls, in the Canadian District of the Cherokee Nation, in the same year that my pappy was blowed up and killed in the big boat accident that killed my old Master* I nevsr did see my daddy excepting when I waa a baby and I only know what my mammy told me about him# He come from across the water when he was a little boy, and was grown when old Master Joseph Vann bought him, so he never did learn to talk much Cherokee. slave, and talked it good* My mammy was a Cherokee My husband was a Cherokee born negro, too, and when he got mad he forgit all the English he knowed. Old Master Joe had a mighty big farm and several families of negroes, and he was a powerful rich man. name was Sally* Pappy1 s name was Kalet Vann, and mammy1 s My brothers was name Sone and Prank. I had one brother and one sister sold vrtien I was little and I donft remember the names. other sisters was Polly, Buth and Liddie. My I had to work in the kitchen when I was a gal, and they was ten or twelve children smaller than me for me to look after, too. Sometime Young Master Joe and the other boys give me a piece of money and say I worked for it, and - reckon * did for I have to cook five or six times a day. Some of the Master1 s family was always going down to the river and back, and every time they come in I have to fix something to eat. Old Mistress had a good cookin1 stove, but most Oherokees had only a big fireplace and pot hooks. potatoes and plenty of fish and chicken. of green corn and beans too. We had meat, bread, rice, The spring time give us plenty I couldnft buy anything in slavery time, so I jest give the piece of money to the Vann children* I got all the clothes I need from old Mistress, and in winter I had high top shoes with 26G Oklahoma Writers1 Project brass caps on the toe. - 8 In the summer I wear them on Sunday, too* I wore loom cloth clothes, dyed in copperas what the old negro women and the old Cherokee women made* The slaves had a pretty easy time I think. Young Master Vann never very hard on us and he never whupped us, and old Mistress was a widow woman and a good Christian and always kind. I sure did love her. Maybe old Master Joe Vann was harder, I don11 know, but that was before my time. Young Master never whip his slaves, but if they donft mind*good he sell them off sometimes. running off. 2e sold one of my brothers and one sister because they kept Ehey wasnft very big either, but one day two Cherokees rode up and talked a long time, then young Master came to the cabin and said they were sold because mammy couldnft make them mind him. They got on the horses behind the men and went off. Old Master Joe had a big steam boat he called the Lucy Walker, and he run it up and down the Arkansas and the Mississippi and the Ohio river, old Mistress say. ^e went clean to Louisville, Kentucky, and back. My pappy was a kind of a boss of the negroes that run the boat, and they all belong to old Master Joe. Some had been in a big run-away and had been brung back, and wasnft so good, so he keep them on the boat all the time mostly. Mistress say old Master and my pappy on the boat somewhere close to Louisville and the boiler bust and tear the boat up. my pappy kept hollering, ttaun it to the bank! Some niggers say Hun it to the bank!* but it sunk and him and old Master died. Old Master Joe was a big man in the Cherokees, * hear, and was good to his negroes before I was born. My pappy run away one time, four or five years before I was born, mammy tell me, and at that time a whole lot of Cherokee slaves run off at once. They got over in the Creek country 267 Oklahoma Writers1 Project - 3 - and stood off the Cherokee officers that went to git them, bit pretty soon they give up and come home* Mammy say they was lots of excitement on old Master1 s place and all the negroes mighty scared, but he didnft sell my pappy off* He jest kept him and he was a good negro after that* He had to work on the boat, though, and never got to come home but once in a long while* Young Master Joe let us have singing and be baptized if we want to, but I wasnft baptized till after the War* But we couldn't learn to read or have a book, and the Cherokee folks was afraid to tell us about the letters and figgers because they have a law you go to jail and a big fine if you show a slave about the letters. When the War come they have a big battle away west of us, but I never see any battles* Lots of soldiers around all the time though* One day young Master come to the cabins and say we all free and can*t stay there less1:* we want to go on working for him just like wefd been, for our feed and clothes* a few days and go to Fort Gibson* Mammy got a wagon and we traveled around When we git to Fort Gibson they was a lot of negroes there, and they had a camp meeting and I was baptized* It was in the Grand Biver close to the ford, and winter time. Snow on the ground and the water was muddy and all full of pieces of ice. The place was all woods, and the Cherokees and the soldiers all come down to see the baptizing. We settled down a little ways above Fort Gibson. Mammy had the wagon and two oxen, and we worked a good size patch there until she died, and then I git married to Cal Bobertson to have somebody to take care of me. Cal Hobertson was eighty-nine years old when I married him forty years ago, right on tills porch. I had on my old clothes for the wadding, and I aint had any 68 Oklahoma Writers' Project - 4- good clothes since I was a little slave girl. Then I had clean warm clothes and I had to keep them clean"J too! I got my allotment as a Cherokee Preedman, and so did Oal, hat we lived here at this place "because we was too old to work the land ourselves* In slavery time the Cherokee negroes do like anybody else when they is a death - jest listen to a chapter in the Bible and all cry. had a good song I remember. We It was "Don't Gall the Boll, Jesus, Because I'm Coming Hem*," The only song I remember from thersoIdlers was; "Hang Jeff Davis to a Sour Apple Tree", and I remember that because they said he used to be at Tort Gibson one time, I don't know i&at he dene after that, I don't know about Bohert Lee, but I know about Lee's Creek, I been a good Christian ever since I was baptized, but I keep a little charm here on my neck anyways, to keep me from having the nose bleed. got a buckeye and a lead bullet in it, Its I had a silver dime on it, too, for a long time, but I took it off and got me a box of snuff, I'm glad the War's over and I am free to meet God like anybody else, and my grandchildren can learn to read and write. 369 350100 Oklahoma. Writers' Project Ex-slaves 2*70 , \$ ^ HARRIETT ROBINSON Age 95 yrs. 500 Block N. ffonshill Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, I was born September 1, 1842, in Bastrop, Texas, on Colorado River lly pappy was named Harvey Wheeler and my mammy was named Carolina Sims* My brothers and sisters was named Alex, Taylor, Mary, Cicero, Tennessee, Sarah, Jeff, Ella and Nora* We lived in cedar log houses wit IT dirt floors and double chimneys, and doors hung on wooden hinges. the walls and had one leg on the other. One side of our beds was bored in Them white folks give each nigger family a blanket in winter* I nussed 3 white chillun, Lulu, Helen Augusta, and Lola Sims. done this before that War that set us free. toting gravel in our aprons. We kids use to make extra money by They'd give us dimes and silver nickles. Our clothes was wool and cotton mixed. soles one-half inch thick. I We had red rustic shoes, Theyfd go a-whick a-whack. one seam and a right-hand pocket. The mens had pants wid Boys wore shirts. We ate hominy, mush, grits and pone bread for the most part. of them ate out of one tray with wooden spoons. Many All vittles for field hands was fixed together. Women broke in mules throwed lem down and roped fem. better!n men. They'd do it While mammy made some hominy one day both my foots was scalded and when they clipped them blisters, they jest put some cotton round them and catched all dat yellow Hater and made me a yellow dress out of it. This was f way back yonder in slavery, before the War, Whenever white folks had a baby born den all de old niggers had to come thoo the room and the master would be over 'hind the bed axicL he'd say, Oklahoma Writers1 Project -2- - "Here's a new little mistress or master you got to work for," You had to say, "Yessuh Master" and bow real low or the overseer would crack you. Them was slavery days, dog days, I remember in slavery time we had stages. jest as many wrecks as cars do today. Them devilish things had Only thing, we jest didn't have as many. My mammy "belonged to Master Colonel Sam Sims and his old mean wife Julia. My pappy belonged to Master Meke Smith 'and his good wife Harriett. was sho' a good woman. partners. I was named after her. Master Sam and Master Meke was Sver year them rich men would send so ma*ny wagons to New Mexico for different things. It took 6 months to go and come. Slaves was punijjhed by whip and starving. slave-holder. He lived close to us. Decker was sho1 a mean Master Sain didn't never whip me, but Miss Julia whipped me every day in the mawning. rible. She Daring the war she beat us so ter- She say, "Your master's out fighting and losing blood trying to save you from them Yankees, so you kin git your'n here." by my ears and butt my head against the wall. old Master told her, naw sir. Miss Julia would take me She wanted to whip my mother, but When his father done give my mammy to Master Sam, he told him not to beat her, and iff en he got to wliar he Jest had to, jest bring her back and place her in his yard from whar he got her. White folks didn't 'low you to read or write. come from Yirginny. words. for it*. Them what did know Mistress Julia used to drill her chillun in spelling any At every word them chillun missed, she gived me a lick 'cross the head Meanest woman I ever seen in my whole life. This skin I got now, it ain't my first skin. I was a little child. That was burnt off when Mistress used to have a fire made on the fireplace 2jji Oklahoma, Writers1 Project 2*7*2 -3- and she ma.de me scour the brass roamd it and my skin jest blistered. I jest had to keep pulling it off n me* We didnft had no church, though my pappy was a preacher. in the quarters. Our baptizing song was "On Jordan1 s Stormy Bank 1 stand" and "Hark ITrom The Tomb." at the graveyard. He preached Now all dat was before the TCar. We had all our fomerals Everybody, chillun and all picked up a clod of dirt and throwed in on top the coffin to help fill up the grave. baling 'bout niggers running away, didn't my ^step-pappy run a?/ay? Didn't my uncle Gabe run away? The frost would jest bite they toes most nigh off too, whiles they was gone. They put Uncle Isom (my step-pappy) in jail and while's he was in there he killed a white goardman. Then they put in the paper, "A nigger to kill", and our Master seen it and bought him. strengthed man, he was so strong. He was a double- He'd run off so help you God. They had the blood hounds after him once and he caught the hound what was leading and beat the rest of the dogs. The white folks run up on him before he loiowed it and made them dogs eat his ear plunb out. But donft you know he got away anyhow. One morning I was sweeping out the hall in the big house and somebody come aknocking on the front door and I goes to the door. rags all on his head. There was Uncle Isom wid He said, "Tell ole master heah I anu,f I goes to Master's door and says, "Master Colonel Sam, Uncle Isom said heah he am." 1 round to the kitchen and tell black mammy to give you breakfast," He say, "Go When he was thoo1 eating they give him 300 lashes and, bless my soul, he run off again. When we went to a party the nigger fiddlers v/ould play a chune dat went lak this: I fooled Ole Mastah 7 years Fooled the overseer three; Hand me down my banjo And I'll tickle your bei-lee. Oklahoma Writers1 Project -4~ We had the same doctors the white f oiks had and we wore asaf etida and garlic and onions to keep from taking all them ailments. I fmember the battle being fit. The white folks buried all the jewelry and silver and all the gold in the Blue Ridge Mountains, in Orange, Texa-s. Master made all us niggers come together and git ready to leaxre the Yankees was coming. ! nuff slavery. We took a steamer. f Now this was ^bn slavery time, sho* Then we got on a steamship and pulled out to GKJ-veston. he told the captain to feed we niggers. cause Then We was on the bay, not the ocean. We left Galveston and went on trains for Houston. One, my sister Liza, was mulatto and Master Colonel Sims1 son had 3 Chilian, by her. We never seen her no more after her last child was born. I found out tho"ugh that she wa.s in Canada. After the War, Master Colonel Sims went to git the mail and so he call Daniel Ivory, the overseer, and say to him, "Go round to all the quarters and tell all the niggers to come up, I got a paper to read to fem. They're free now, so you kin git you another job, * cause I ainft got no more niggers Y/hich is my ovm." gwine to the field. is free as me. Niggers come up from the cabins na.ppy-headed, jest lak they Master Colonel Sims say, "Caroline (thatfs my mammy), you Pa said bring you back and I*se gwiiia do jest that. So you go on and work and I'll pay you and your three oldest chillun $10.00 a month, a head and $4*00 fer Harriet," that*s me, and then he turned to the rest and say "Now all you*uns will receive $10.00 a head till the crops is laid by." Donft you know before he got half way thoo1, over half them niggers was gone. Them 3Qu Klux Klans come and ask for water with the false stomachs and make lak they was drinking three bucketsful. They done some terrible things, but God seen it all and marked it down. We didnft had no law, we had "bureau." Why, in them days iff en some- body stole anything from you, they had to pay you and not the Law. /wA5 Oklahoma Writers' Project -5- Now they done turned that round and you donft git nothing. One day whiles master was gone hunting, Mistress Julia told her brother to give Miss Harriett (me) a free whipping. killer. She was a nigger Master Colonel Sam come home and he said, "You infernal sons o* hitches don't you know there is 300 Yankees caairped out here and iff en they knowed youfd whipped this nigger the way you done done, they'd kill all us. If fen they find it out, I'll kill all you all." Old rich devils, I'm here, but they is gone. God choosed Abraham Lincoln to free us. It took one of them to free us sofs they couldn't say nothing. Doing one 'lection they sungt Clark et the watermelon 3D. D. Giddings et the vine I Clark gone to Congress An1 J. D. Giddings left behind. They hung Jeff Davis up a sour apple tree. They say he was a president, but he wasn't, he was a big senator man. Booker T* Washington wa& all right in his way, I guess, but Bruce and Fred Douglass, or big mens jest sold us back to the white folks. I married Haywood Telford and had 13 head of chillun by him. oldest daughter is the mammy of 14. My All my chillun but four done gone to heaven before me. I ^ined the church in Chapel Hill, fexas. of God sho' nuff. at Christmas time. I am born of the Spirit I played with him seven years and would go right on dancing How I got religion. Everybody ou&hta live right, though you won't have no friends iff en you do. Our overseer was a poor man. He was paid to be the head of punishment. old slavery days, dogs' days* Had us up before day and lak~a~that. I jest didn't like to think of them & * 350074 Oklahoma Writers' Project . $|&;^^ . . . de\gin ,,she;t-?d<)^->;;'a^' Oklahoma Writers1 Project _3 r 1 it lfc&hle to bust, but old Master jump dorm off'n his hoss and go 'round to de boiler and say, "Cuss fire to your black heart. Dat boiler all rightl Throw on some cordwood, cuss fire to your heart!" Old Brown start to de wood pile grumbling to hisself and old Master stoop down to look at de boiler again, and it blow right up and him standing right darl Old Master was blowed all to pieces, and dey jest find little bitsy chunks of his clothes and parts of him to bury* De wood pile blow down, and old Brown land way off in de woods, but he wasn't killed* !Two wagons of cotton blowed over, and de mules run away, and all de niggers was scared nearly to death !cause we laiowed de overseer gwine be a lot worse, now dat old Master gone* Before de War when Master was a young man de slaves didn't he.ve it so hard, my mammy tell me* He name was Fanny and her old mammy name v/as Nanny. & Gra,nelma NannlJ was alive during de War yet* How she come in de Jones family was dis way: old Mistress was #est a little girl, and her older brother bought Nanny end, give her to her, his name was Little John, anyw&ys we called him Master Little John, I think He drawed up a paper what say dat Nanny allus belong to Miss Betty and all de chillun Nanny ever have belong to her, too, end nobody canft take things like dat* f em for a debt and When Miss Betty marry/old Master he can't sell Nanny or any of her chillun neither* Dat paper hold good too, and grandmammy tell me about one time it hold good and keep my own mammy on de place* Grandmammy say mammy was jest a little gal and was playing out in de road wid three, four other little chillun when a white man and old Master rid up. The white man had a paper about some kind of a debt, and old Master say Oklahoma Writers1 Project -4- take his pick of de nigger chillun and give him "back de paper. Jest as Grandmammy go to de cahin door and hear him say dat de nan git off his hoss and pick up my mammy and put her up in front of him ajid start to ride off dov/n de road. Pretty soon Hr. Little John cone riding up and say something to old Piaster, and see grandmammy standing in de yard screaming and crying. He jest job de spur in his hoss and go kiting off down de road after dat white man. Mammy say he ketch up wid him jest as he git te Bois d! Arc Greek and start to wade de hoss across. Mr. Lit tie John holler to him to come "back wid dat little nigger 'cause de paper don't kiver dat child, 'cause she old Mistress1 own child, and when de man jest ride on, llr. Lit tie John throw his "big old long hoss-pistol down on him and make him come back. De man hopping mad, but he have to give over my mammy and take one de other chillun on de debt paper* Old Master alias kind of techy fbout old Mistress having niggers he can't trade or sell, and one day he have his whole family and some more white folks out at de plantation. He showing !em all de quarters when we all come in from de field in de evening,.and he call all de niggers up to let de folks see 'em. He make grandmammy and mammy and me stand to one side and den he say to the other niggers, "Dese niggers belong to my wife but you belong to me, and I!m de only one you is to call Master, a Dis is Tom, and Bryan, and Bob^and Miss Betty, and you is to. call 1 em dat, and donft you ever call one of fem Young Master or Young Mistress, cuss fire to your black hearts!" aM'bi4:.'.J^^t*esB|look *II^;^ c %rwfee to|||g|^^ ! ill de other white folks look kind of funny, shamed of old Mastery TOS; $$m&^ an | after de Oklahoma Writers1 Project I allus went "by-Jones, de name I. was horn under. Long about de middle of de War, after old Master was killed, desoldiers "begin coming * round de place and camping . Dey was Southern soldiers and dey say dey have to take de mules and most de corn to git along on. Jest go in de hams and cribs and take anything dey want, and us niggers didn't have no sweet Haters nor Irish 'taters to eat on when dey gone neither. One hunch come and stay in de v/oods across de road from de overseer1 s house, and dey was all on hosses. Dey lead de hosses down to Bois d1 Arc-Creek every morning at daylight and late every evening to git water. When we going to de field and when we coming in we allus" see dem leading hig hunches of hosses, Dey "bugle go jest *hout de time our old horn "blow in de morning and when we cone in dey eating supper, and we smell it and sho! git hungry! Before old Master died he sold off a whole lot of hosses and cattle,' and some niggers too. He had de seJes on de plantation, and white men from around dar come to hid, and some traders come. He had a hig stump whar he made de niggers stand while dey was "being.sold, and de men and hoys had to strip off to de waist to show dey muscle and if fen dey had any scars or hurt places, hut de women and gals didn't have to strip to de waist. De white men come up and look in de slave1 s mouth jest laic he was a nule or a hoss. . After old Master go, de overseer hold one sale, out mostly he jest trade wid de traders what come ty. He make de niggers git on de stump, through. De traders all had hig hunches of slaves.and dey have fem all strung out in a line going down de road. Some had wagons and de chillun could ride, hut not many/- Dey didn't chain or tie rem rc^se dey didnft have no place dey could ran to.:.anyw^ \ :">:.<-ZM-^en--.^i^t^^i^ Off; ^ndde"msj^ de mammy ^ m Oklahoma 7,rriters' Project -6- white folks didn't ca,re nothing 'bout how de slaves grieved when dey tore up a family. Old man Saunders was de hardest overseer of anybody. He would git :>iad and give a whipping some time and de slave wouldnft even know what it was about. My uncle Sandy was de lead row nigger, and he Y/as a good nigger and never would tech a drap of likker. One night some de niggers git hold of sone likker somehoY/, and dey leave de jug half full on de step of Sandy's cabin. Next morning old man Saunders come out in de field so mad he was pale. He j9st go to de lead row and tell Sandy to go wid him, a,nd start toward de woods along Bois d1 Arc Creek wid Sandy follering behind. De overseer always carry a big heavy stick, but ire didnft know he was so mad, ajid dey jest went off in de Y/oods. Purty soon we hear Sandy hollering and we know old overseer pouring in. on, den de overseer come back by his self and go *n up to de house. Come late evening he come and see what we done in de day1s work, and go back to de quarters wid us all. ?/hen he git to mammy's cabin, whar grandmainmy live too, he say to grandjnammy, "I sent Sandy down' in de woods to hunt a hoss, he gwine come in hungry purty soon. You better make him a extra hoe ceJeef H and he kind of laugh and go on to his house. Jest soon as he gone we all tell grandmaminy we think he got a whipping, and sho1 nuff he didn't come in. De next day some white boys find uncle Sandy what; dat overseer done killed him and throwed him in a little pond, and dey never done nothing to old man Saunders at allI When he go to whip a nigger he make him strip to de waist, and he take a cat-o-nine tails and bring de blisters, and den bust de blisters wid 3&0 Oklahoma Writers1 Project -7- a wide strap of leather fastened to a stick handle, ^8i I seen de "blood running out1!! many a hack, all de way from de neck to de waist! Many de time a nigger git blistered and cut up so dat we have to git a sheet and grease it wid lard and wrap fem up in it, aJid dey have to wear a ' * greasy cloth wrapped around dey "body under de shirt for three-four days after dey git a big whipping! Later on in de War de Yankees come in all around us ajid camp, and de overseer git sweet as honey in de comb! Nobody git a whipping all de time de Yankees dar! Dey come and took all de meat and corn and Haters dey want too, and dey tell us, "Why donH you poor darkeys take all de meat and molasses you w^nt? You made it and it's yourfm much as anybody si" and den we git a whipping iff en we do. But we know dey soon be gone, Some niggers run off and went wid de Yankees, but dey had to work jest as hard for dem, and dey didn't eat so good and often wid de soldiers. I never forget de day we was set freef Dat morning we all go to de cotton field early, and den a house nigger come out from old Mistress on a hoss and say she want de overseer to come into town, and he leave and go in. After while de old horn blow up at de overseer s house, and we all stop and listen, f cause it de wrong time of day for de horn* We start chopping again, and dar go de horn again. De lead row nigger holler "Hold up!" go on iV. And we all stop again. w tfe better Dat our horn," he holler at de head nigger, and de head nigger think so too, but he say he afraid we catch de devil from de overseer iffen we quit widout him dar, and de lead row man say maybe he back from town and blowing de horn hisself, so we line up and go in. When we git to de quarters we see all de old ones and de chillun up in de overseer's yard, so we go on up dar. De overseer setting on de end of Oklahoma Writers1 Project -8- < &2 de gallery wid a paper in his hand, and when we all come up he say come and stand close to de gallery. Den he call off everybody's aame and see we all dar. Setting on de gallery in a hide-bottom chair was a man we never see before* He had on a big broad black hat lak de Yankees wore but it din't have no yaller string on it lak most de Yankees had, and he was in store clothes dat wasn't homespun or jeans, and dey was black. His hair was plumb gray and so was his beard, and it come way down here on his chest, but he didnft look lak he was very old, 'cause his face Y/as king of fleshy and healthy looking. I- think we all been sold off in a bunch, and I notice some kind^of smiling, and I think they sho1 glad of it. De man say, "You darkies know what day dis isf" ^e talk kind, and smile fje all don't know of course, and we jest stand dat and grin. Pretty soon he ask again and de head man say, No, we don't know. "Well dis de fourth day of June, and dis is 1865, and I Y/ant you all to 'member de date, 'cause you allus going 'member de day. 3bday you is free, Jest lak I is, and Mr. Saunders and your Mistress and all us white people,Mde man say. M * come to tell you", he say/, cand I wants to be sho1 you all under- stand, 'cause you don't have to git up and go by de horn no more. You is your own bosses now, and you donft have to have no passes to go and come." We never did have no passes, nohow, but we knowed lots of other niggers on other plantations got 'enu "I wants to bless you and hope you always is happy, and tell you got all de right and lief dat any white people got"*, de man say, and den he git on his hoss and ride off. We all jest watch him go on down de road, and den we go up to Mr* Saunders and ask him what he want us to do. He jest grunt and say do lak we ^^^ES^S^ Oklahoma Wiiters1 Project .. ^ w& -" dara please, he reckon, "but git off dat place to do it, less'n any of us wants to stay and make de crop for half of what we make. Hone of us know whar to go, so we all stay, and he split up de fields and show us which part we got to v/ork in, and we go on lair we was, and rake de crop and git it in, "but dey ain't no inore horn after dat day. Borne de niggers lazy and don!t git in de field early, and dey git it took away from ten, "but dey plead around and git it "back and work better de rest of dat year. But we all gits fooled on dat first go-out! donft git half! When de crop all. in we Old Misix*ess sick in town, and de overseer ?;as still on de place and he charge us half de crop for de quarters and de mules and tools and grabl Ben he leave, -and we gits another white man, and he sets up a book, and give us half de next year, and take out for what we use up, hut we all got something left over after dat first go-out* Old Mistress never git well after she lose all her niggers, and one day de white boss tell us she jest drap over dead setting in her chair, and we know her heart jest broke. Next year de chillun sell off most de place and we scatter off, and I and mamaj go into Little Sock and do work in de town. Grandmammy done dead. I git married to John White in Little Hock, but he died 'and we didn!t have no chillun. Den in four, five years I marry Billy Howe. He was a Cherokee citizen and he had,belonged, to a Cherokee name Dave Howe, and lived east of 5!ahleq.uah before de War. ..We married in Little |^^, but he had land In de Cherokee Nation, and we come to east of Tahlequah and lived 'til/ he died, and den: I come to' .lijisfii.'.fe l|W' ii#.3roxiiigest' daiagliter'.. ;"..:&'I^ Lola Oklahoma Writers1 Project -10- &84 Lots of old people lak me say dat dey was happy in slavery, and. dat dey had de worst tribulations after freedom, but I knows dey didn't have no white master and overseer lak we all had on our place. Dey both dead now I reckon, and dey no use talking fbout de dead, but I know I been gone long ago i iff en dat white man Saunder didn t lose his hold on me. It was de fourth day of June in 1865 I begins to live, and I gwine take de picture of dat old man in de big black hat and long whiskers, setting on de gallery and talking kind to us, clean into my grave wid me* No, bless God, I ainft never seen no more black boys bleeding all up and down de back under a cat o1 nine tails, and I never y> by no cabin and hear no poor nigger groaning, all wrapped up in a lardy sheet no morel I hear my chill-on read about General Lee, and I know he was a. good man, I didn't know nothing about him den, but I know now he wasn*t fighting for dat kind of white folks* Maybe dey dat kind still yet, but dey don't show it up no more, and I got lots of white friends too* All my chillun and grandchillua been to school, and dey git along good, and I know we living in a better world, what dey ain't nobody "cussing fire to my black heartl" I sho* thank de good Lawd I got to see it* 350019 Oklahoma Writers1 Project Ex-Slaves MOBBIS SHBPPAHD Age 85 yrs# Jort Gibson, Okla. Old Master tell me I was borned in November 1852 , at de old home place about five miles east of Webbers Tails, mebbe kind of northeast, not far from de east bank of de Illinois River Master1 s name was Joe Sheppard, and he was a Cherokee Indian, slim and handsome. fall and He had black eyes and mustache but his hair was iron gray, and everybody liked him because he was so good-oatured and kind. I don't remember old Mistress1 name* My mammy was a Orossland negro before she come to belong to Master Joe and marry my pappy, and I think she come wid old Mistress and belong to her. Old Mistress was small and mighty pretty too, and she was only half Cherokee, She inherit about half a doaen slaves, and say dey was her own and old Master canft sell one unless she give him leave to do it* Dey only had two' families of slaves wid about twnnty in all, and dey only worked about fifty acres, so we sure did work every foot of it good* We git three or four crops of different things out of dat farm every year, and something growing on dat place winter and summer. Peppy*s name was Caeaar Sheppard and Mammy's name was Easter. both raised * round Webber's ffalls somewhere. Dey was I had two brothers, Silas and Qeorge, dat belong to Mr George Holt in Webber's Palls town, I got a pass and went to see dem sometimes, and dey was both treated mighty fine* The Big House was a double log wid a big hall and a stone chimney but no porches, wid two rooms at each end, one top side of de other. I thought it was mighty big and fine. Us slaves lived in log cabins dat only had one room and no windows so we kept de doors open most of de time* We had home-made wooden beds wid 285 Oklahoma Writers1 Project - 2 - &86 rope springs, and de little ones slept on trundle beds dat was home made too* At nigjht dem trundles was jest all over de floor, and in de morning we shove dem hack under de hig "beds to git dem outfn de way* No nails innone of dem nor in de chairs and tables* Nails cost hig money and old Master1 s blacksmith wouldnft make none 'cepting a few for old Master now and denf so we used wooden dowels to put things together* They was so many of us for dat little field we never did have to work hard* Up at five o'clock and hack in sometimes about de middle of de evening, long before sundown, unless they was a crop to git in before it rain or something like dat* When crop was laid by de slaves jest work f round at dis and dat and keep tol*able busy* mostly* I never did have much of a job, jest tending de calves We had about twenty calves and I would take dem out and graze 'em while some grown-up negro was grazing de cows so as to keep de cows milk* I had me a good blaze-faced horse for dat. One time old Master and another man come and took some calves off and Pappy say old Master taking dem off to sell* I didnft know what "sell" meait and I ast Pappy, *Is he going to bring f em back when he git through selling them?* I never did see no money neither, until time of de War or a little before* Master Joe was sure a good provider, and we always had plenty of corn pone, sow belly and greens, sweet potatoes, cow peas and cane molasses* even had brown sugar and cane molasses most of de time before de War* We Some- times coffee, too* Be clothes wasnH no worry neither* Everything we had was made by my Oklahoma Writers1 Project - 3 - folks. My aunt done de carding and spinning and my mammy done de weaving and catting and sewing, and my pappy could make cowhide shoes wid wooden pegs* Dey was for had winter only. Old Master bought de cotton in Ft. Smith because he didn't raise no cotton, hut he had a few sheep and we had wool-mix for winter. Everything was stripedy 'cause Mammy like to make it fancy. She dye wid copperas and walnut and wild indigo and things like dat and make pretty cloth. I wore a stripedy shirt till I was ahout eleven years old, and den one day while we was down in de Choctaw Country old Mistress see me and nearly fall offfn her horsei She holler, ^Blaster, you go right now and make dat Mg huck of a hoy some britches!tt We never put on de shoes until ahout late November when de frost begin to hit regular and split our feet up, and den when it git good and cold and de drop all gathered in anyways, they is nothing to do fcepting hog killing and a lot of wood shopping, and you don't git cold doing dem two things. De hog killing mean we gits lots of spare-ribs and chitlings, and somebody always git sick eating too much of dat fresh pork. I always pick a whole passel of maskatines for old Master and he make up sour wine, and dat helps J> out when we git the bowel complaint from eating dat fresh pork# If somebody bad sick he git de doctor right quick, and he don't let no negroes mess around wid no poultices and teas and sech things like cuppinghorns neither! Us Cherokee slaves seen lots of green corn shootings and de like of dat, but we never had no games of our own. to play any games. We was too tired when we come in We had to have a pass to go any place to have singing or praying, and den Hhmy was always a bunch of patrollers around to watch every- Q$7 Oklahoma Writers1 Project thing we done. 4 - Dey would come up in a bunch of about nine men on horses, and look at all our passes, and if a negro didn't have no pass dey wore him out good and made him go home, Dey didn't let us have much enjoyment* Eight after de War de Cherokees that had been wid the South kind of pestered the freedmen some, but I was so small dey never bothered me; jest de grown ones* Old Master and Mi stress kept on asking me did de night riders persecute me any but dey never did* Dey told me some of dem was bad on negroes but I never did see none of dem night riding like some said dey did. Old Master had some kind of business in Fort Smith, I think, f cause he used to ride in to dat town fbout every day on his horse* He would start at de crack of daylight and not git home till way after dark* When he get home he call my uncle in and ask about what we done all day and tell him what we better do de next day* My uncle Joe was de slave boss and he tell us what de Master say do* When dat Civil War come along I was a pretty big boy and I * remember it good as anybody* Uncle Joe tell us all to lay low and work hard and nobody bother us, and he would look after us* He sure stood good with de Cherokee neighbors we had, and dey all liked him* !There was Mr* Jim Collins, and Mr. Bell, and Mr* Dave Franklin, and Mr* Jim Satton and Mr* Blackburn that lived around close to us and dey all had slaves* Dey was all wid the South, but dey was a lot of dem Pin Indians all up on de Illinois Biver and dey was wid de North and dey taken it out on de slave owners a lot before de War and during it too* Dey would come in de night and hamstring de horses and maybe set fire to de barn, and two of f em named Joab Scarrel and Tom Starr killed my pappy one night just before de War broke out* ^88 Oklahoma Writers1 Project -5 I donft know what dey done it for, only to be mean, and I guess they was drunk* Them Pins was after Master all de time for a while at de first of de War, and he was afraid to ride into Fort Smith much* Dey come to de house one time when he was gone to Fort Smith and us children told dem he was at Honey Springs, hut they knowed "better and when he got home he said somebody shot at him and bushwhacked him all the way from Wilson1 s Bock to dem Wildhorse Mountains, hut he run his horse like de devil was setting on his tail and dey never did hit him* We told him fhout He never seen them neither* de Pins coming for him and he just laughed* When de War come old Master seen he was going into trouble and he sold off most of de slaves* In de second year of de War he sold my mammy and my aunt dat was Uncle Joefs wife and my two "brothers and my little sister. Mammy went to a mean old man named Peper Goodman and he took her off down de river, and pretty soon Mistress tell me she died fcause she can't stand de rough treatment* When Mammy went old Mistress took me to de Big House to help her, and she was kind to me like I was part of her own family* I never forget when they sold off some more negroes at de same time, too, and put dem all in a pen for de trader to come and look at* He never come until the next day, so dey had to sleep in dat pen in a pile like hogs* It wasn11 my Master done dat* He done already sold 'em to a man and it was dat man was waiting for de trader* It made my Master mad, hut dey didn't belong to him no more and he couldn't say nothing* The man put dem on a block and sold 'em to a man dat had come in on &89 Oklahoma Writers1 Project ~ 6 - a steamboat, and he took dem off on it when de freshet come down and de boat could go back to Fort Smith. It was tied up at de dock at Webbers Falls about a week and we went down and talked to my aunt and brothers and sister. De brothers was Sam and Eli* Old Mistress cried jest like any of de rest of us when de boat pull out with dem on it. Fretty soon all de young Cherokee menfolks all gone off to de Warf and de Fins was riding * round all de time, and it aint safe to be in dat part around Webber1 s Falls, so old Master take us all to Fort Smith where they was a lot of Confederate soldiers* We camp at dat place a while and old Mistress stay in de town wid some kinfolks. Sen old Master get three wagons and ox teams and take us all way down on Bed Biver in de Choc taw Nation. We went by Webber1 s Falls and filled de wagons* We left de furniture and only took grub and tools and bedding and clothes, f cause they wasn*t very big wagons and was only single-yoke. We went on a place in de Bed Biver bottoms close th Shawneetown and not far from de place #iere all de wagons crossed over to go into Texas. We was at dat place two years and made two little crops. One night a runaway negro come across from Texas and he had de blood hounds after him. His britches was all muddy and tore where de hounds had cut him up in de legs when he dumb a tree in de bottoms. e come to our house and Mistress aaid for us negroes to give him something to eat and we did. Then up come de man from Texas with 4e hounds and wid him was young Mr. Joe Vann and my uncle that belong to young Joe. Dey called young Mr. Joe "Little Joe Vann" even after he was grown on account of when he was a little boy before his pappy was killed* His pappy was old Captain wHch Oklahoma Writers1 Project - 7 - JoeM Vann, and he been dead ever since long before de War* My uncle belong to old Captain Joe nearly all his life* Mistress try to get de man to tell her *fao de negro belong to so she can buy him* but de man say he canft sell him and he take him on back to Texas wid a chain around his two ankles. Dat was one poor negro dat never got away to de North* and I was sorry for him cause I know he must have had a mean master, but none of us Sheppard negroes, I mean the grown ones, tried to git away* I never seen any figftting in de War, but I seen soldiers in de South army doing a lot of blacksmi thing flong side de road one day* Dey was fixing wagons and shoeing horses* After de War was over, old Master tell me I am free but he will look out after me fcause I am just a little negro and I aint got no sense* I know he is right* too* Well, I go ahead and make me a crop of corn all by myself and then I don't know what to do wid it. 1 I was afraid I would get cheated out of it cause I can11 figure and read, so I tell old Master about it and he bought it offfn me* We never had no school in slavery and it was agin the law for anybody to even show a negro de letters and figures, so no Cherokee slave could read* We all come back to de old place and find de negro cabins and barns burned down and de fences all gone and de field in crab grass and cockleburrs* But de Big Bouse aint hurt fcepting it need a new roof* De furniture is all gone, and some said de soldiers burned it up for firewood* Some officers stayed In de house for a while and tore everything up or took it off* Master give me over to de National Freedmen's Bureau and I was bound out to a Cherokee woman name Lizzie McGee. Zhen one day one of my uncles ^91 Oklahoma Writers1 Project - 8 - named Wash Sheppard come and tried to git me to go live wid him. He say he wanted to git de family all together agin* He Had run off after he was sold and joined de North army and discharged at Fort Scott in Kansas, and he said lots of freedmen was living close to each other up by Ooffeyville in de Coo-ee-scoo-ee District* I wouldn't go, so he sent Isaac and Joe Vann dat had been two of old Captain Joe's negroes to talk to me* Isaac had "been Young Joefs driver, end he told me all about how rich Master Joe was and how he would look after us negroes. Dey kept after me fbout a year, hut I didnft go anyways* But later on I got a freedmanfs allotment up in dat part close to Ooffeyville. and I lived in Ooffeyville a i&ile hut I didn't like it in Kansas* I lost my land trying to live honest and pay my debts. I raised eleven children just on de sweat of my hands and none of dem ever tasted anything dat was stole* When I left Mrs* McOee's I worked about three years for Mr* Sterling Scott and Mr* Hoddy Reese. Mr. Reese had a big flock of peafowls dat had belonged to Mr. Scott and I had to take care of dem* Whitefolks. I would have to tromp seven miles to Mr. Scott1 s house two or three times a week to bring back some old peafowl dat had got out and gone back to de old place! Poor old Master and Mistress only lived a few years after de War. Master went plumb Hind after he move hack to Webher's Palls and so he move up on de Illinois Eiver 'hout three miles from de Arkansas, and there old Mistress take de white swelling and die and den he die pretty soon. I went to see dem lots of times and they was always glad to see me. I would stay around ahout a week and help em, and dey would try to git Oklahoma Writers1 Project - 9 - me to take something but I never would. make anymore and dem so old. Dey didn't have much and couLdnft Old Mistress had inherited some property from her pappy and dey had de slave money and when dey turned everything into good money after de War dat stuff only come to about six thousand dollars in good money, she told me. Dat just about lasted fem through until dey died, I reckon* By and by I married Nancy Hildebrand what lived on Greenleaf Creek, 'bout four miles northwest of Gore. She had belonged~to Joe Hildebrand and he was kin to old Steve Hildebrand dat owned de mill on Flint Creek up in de Going Snake District. She was raised up at dat mill, but she was boraed in Tennessee before dey come out to de Nation. Her master was white,, but he had married into de Nation and so she got a freedmenfs allotment too. She had some land close to Catoosa and some down on Greenleaf Creek. We was married at my home in Coffeyville, and she bore me eleven children and then went on to her reward. A long time ago I came to live wid my dau^iter Emma here at dis place, but my wife just died last year. She was eighty three. I reckon I wasn't cut out on de church pattern, but I raised my children right. We never had no church in slavery, and no schooling, and you had better not be caught wid a book in your hand even, so I never did go to church hardly any. Wife belong to de church and all de children too, and I think all should look after saving their souls so as to drive de nail in, and den go about de earth spreading kindness and hoeing de row clean so as to clinch dat nail and make dem safe for Glory. Of course I hear about Abraham Lincoln and he was a great man, but I was told mostly by my children when dey come home from school about him. I ^93 Oklahoma Writers1 Project - lO - *94: always think of my old Master as de one dat freed me, and anyways Abraham Lincoln and none of his North people didn11 look after me and "buy my crop right after I was free like old Master did* Dat was de time dat was de hardest and everything was dark and confusion* 350099 Oklahoma Writers1 Project Sbc-Slaves $9*5 JUtfDREW A\fe\3$ SIMMS Age 80 ^v Sapulpa, OKLa. My parents come over on a slave ship from Africa about twenty year "before I was "born on the William Driver plantation down in Florida. My folks didn't know each other in Africa hut my old Mammy told me she was captured "by Negro slave hunters over there and "brought to some coast town where the white buyers took her and carried her to America. She was kinder a young gal then and was sold to some white folks vihen the boat landed here'. my pappy* Dunno who they was. The sane thing happen to Must have been about the same time from the way they tells it. Maybe they was on the boat, I dunno. A They was traded around and then mammy was sold to William Driver. The plantation was down in Florida. close by. Another white folks had a plantation Mister Simms was the owner. Bill Simms - that's the name pappy kept after the War. Somehow or other mammy and pappy meets first thing happens they is in love. thing happen is me. round the place and the Thatfs what mammy say. They didnft get married* for- them to have a baby. ! And the next The Master's say it is alright They never gets married, even after the War. Just jumped the broomstick and goes to living with somebody else I reckon. Then when I was four year old along come the War and Master Driver takes up his slaves and leaves the Florida country and goes way out to Texas. Mammy goes along, I goes along, all the children goes along. I don't remember nothing about the trip but I hears mammy talk about it when I gets older* Texas, that was the place, down near Fairfield. learn to do the chores. That's where I But the work was easy for the Master was kind as old Mammy, herself and he never give me no hard jobs that would wear me down* Oklahoma Writers1 Project ~*3^ All the slaves on our place was treated good* whip. All the time. They didnH The Master feeds all the slaves on good clean foods and lean meats so!s they "be strong and healthy. Master Driver had four children, Mary, Julia, Prank and George. Every one of them children kind and good just the old Master. never mean and could I find some of rim! f They was em now hard times would leave me on the Theyfd help this old man get catched up on his eating! Makes me think of the old song we use to sing: Donft mind working from Sun to Sun, Iffen you give me my dinner 1?hen the dinner time comes! Nowadays I gets me something to eat when I can catch it. trouble is sometimes I don't catch! The But that ainft telling about the slave days. In them times it was mostly the overseers and the drivers who was the mean ones. They caused all the misery. caused troubles too. There was other whitefolks Sneak around where there was lots of the black children on the plantation and steal them. Take them poor children away off and sell them. There wasn't any Sunday Schooling. There was no place to learn to read and write - no big brick schools like they is now. say we can teach ourselves but we can!t do it. place next door to Mister Driver. The old Master Old Ham Bowman owned the If he catch his slaves toying with the pencil, why, he cut off one of their fingers. Then I reckon they lost interest in education and get their mind back on the hoe and plow like he say for them to do. I didnft see no fighting during of the War. If they was any Yankees soldiering around the country I donft remember nothing of it. 296 Oklahoma Writers1 Project -3- Long time after the War is over, about 1885, I meets a gal named Angeline. We courts pretty fast and gets married. The wedding was a sure enough affair with the preacher saying the words juSt like the whitefolks marriage* We is stire married. The best thing we do after that is raise us a family. old fashioned families. Big funs! twelve of them still living. gets a one! One of them Seventeen children does we have and Wants to know they names? I ain!t never for- There was Lucy, Bill, Ebbie, Cora, Minnie, George, Frank, Kizzie, Uecie, Andrew, Joe, Sammie, David, Fannie, Jacob, Bob send Myrtle. All good children. Just like their old pap:^y who's tried to care for fem just like the old Master takes care of their old daddy when he was a boy on that plantation.down Texas way. When the age comes on a man I reckon religion gets kind of meanful* Thinks about it morefn when hefs young and busy in the fields. in the Bible and what it says to do* the voodoo. I don!t believe in it. telling or charms* alone! I believes Some of the Colored folks takes to Neither does I believe in the fortuae I aims to live by the Bible and leave the rabbit foots QfXy 350078 Oklahoma Writers1 Project Ex-Slaves pod 10-19-38 718 words LIZA SMITH Age 91 Muskogee, Oklahoma Both my majamy and pappy was brought from Africa on a slave boat and sold on de Richmond (Va,) slave market* know* What year dey come over I don't My mammy was Jane Masonf belonging to Frank Mason; pappy was Frank Smith, belonging to a master wid de same name, I mean, my pappy took his Masterfs name, and den after my folks married mammy took de name of Smith, but she stayed on wid de Masons and never did belong to my pappy fs master. Den, after Frank Mason took all his slaves out of de Virginia county, mammy met up wid another man, Ben Humphries, and married him. In Richmond, dat's where I was bora, f bout 1847, de Master said; and dat make me more dan 90-year old dis good year* I had two brothers named Webb and Norman, a half-birother Charley, and two half-sisters, Mealey and Ann, was born a slave and so was wy son. Me, I His father, Toney, was one of de Mason slave boys; de Master said I was 'bout 13-year old when de boy was born* Frank Mason was a young man when de War started, living wid his mother, Dey had lots of slaves, maybe a hundred, and dey always try to take good care of 'em; even after de War was over he worried fbout trying to get us settled sofs we wouldn't starve, De Master had overseer, but dere was no whuppings. All de way from Richmond to a place dey call Waco, fexas, we traveled by ox-wagon and boats, and den de Master figures we all be better off over in Arkansas and goes to Pine Bluff, What wid all de running 'round de slaves was kept clean and always wid plenty to eat and good clothes to wear, De Master was a plenty rich man and Oklahoma Writers1 Project Liza Smith -3- ' 299 Wrs, done what his mother, 4fihsr Betsy Mason, told him when we all left de Big Mansion, way "back dere in Richmond* De Mistress said, M Frank, you watch over dem Negroes cause dey's good men and women; keep dera cleanJM Datfs what he done, up until we was freed, and den times was so hard nobody wanted us many Negroes around, and de work was scarce, too* Hard times! Folks don!t know what hard times is* When a Negro get sick de master would send out for herbs and roots. Den one of de slaves who knew how to cook and mix fem up for medicine use would give de doses* All de men and women wore charms, something like beads, and if dey was any good or not I donft know, but we didnft have no bad diseases like after dey set us free* I was at Pine Bluff when de Yankees was shooting all over de place* De fighting got so hot we all had to leave; datfs the way it was all de time for us during de War running away to some place or de next place, and we was all glad when it stopped and we could settle down in a place* We was back at Waco when de peace come, but Master Frank was away from home when dat happen. It was on a Sunday when he got back and called all de slares up in de yard and counted all of dem, young and old* The first thing he said was, M You men and women is all free* Ifm going back to my own mammy in old Virginia, but I ainft going back until all de old people is settled in cabins and de young folks fix up wid tents*11 Den he kinder stopped talking. Seem now like he was too excited to talk, or maybe he was feeling bad and worried *bout what he going to do wid all of us* Pretty soon he said, You men and women, can't none of you tell anybody I ainft always been a good master* Old folks, have I ever treated you mean?* He asked* Everybody shout, No, siri11 And Master Frank smiled; den he told us he was going Oklahoma Writers1 Project Liza Smith -3- *round and find places for us to live* He went to see Jim Tinsley, who owned some slaves, about keeping us* Tinsley said he had cabins and could fix up tents for extra ones, if his own Negroes was willing to share up with us* out* Dat was the way it worked We stayed on dere for a while, but times was so hard we finally get dirty and ragged like all de Tinsley Negroes* But Master Prank figure he done the best he could for us* After he go back to Virginia we never hear no more of him, but every day I still pray if he has any folks in Richmond dey will find me someway before I die* Is dere someway I could find dem, you s'pose? 350090 * . \ 4 Oklahoma Writers1 Project 1;. Ix-Slaves 300 M i*m LOU SMITH Age 83 yrs. Platter, Okla. Sho', I remembers de slavery days! tell you lots of things about dem days. I was a little gal but I can My job was missing de younguns. took keer of them from daylight to dark. I I'd have to sing them to sleep too* I'd sing: By-lo Baby Bunting Daddy's gone a-htinting To get a rabbit skin To wrap Baby Bunting in." Sometimes I'd sing: "Rocb-a-bye baby, in a tree top When de wind blows your cradle'11 rock. When de bough breaks de crad'll fall Down comes "baby cradle'n all." My father was Jackson Longacre and he was born in Mississippi. mother, Caroline, was born in South Carolina. My father belonged to Huriah Longacre. niggers. My Both of them was born slaves. He had a big plantation and lots of He put up a lot of his slaves as security on a debt and he took sick and died so they put them all on de block and sold them. mother (my grandma) was sold together. My father and his My old Mistress bought my grandmother and old Mistress1 sister bought my grandma's sister. These white women agreed that they would never go off so far that the two slave women couldnft see each other. They allus kept this promise. A Mr. Covington offered old Master $700 for me when I was about ten years old, but he wouldn't sell me. He didn't need to for he was rich as cream and my, how good he was to us. Young Master married Miss Jo Arnold and old Master sent me and my mother over to live with them. I was small when I was took out of old man f/ *. Oklahoma Writers1 Project McWilliams1 yard. 2- It was his wife that bought my grandmother and my father. My mother's folks had always belonged to his family, They all moved to Texas and we all lived there until after the surrender* Miss Jo wasnlt a good Mistress and mother and me wasnH happy* When young Master was there he made her treat us good but when he was gone she made our lives a misery to us. She was what we called a "low-brow." been used to slaves and she treated us like dogs. She never had She said us kids didn't need to wear any clothes and one day she told us we could jest take1 em off as it cost too much to clothe us. I was jest a little child but I knowed I oughten to go without my clothes. We wore little enough as it was. we just wore one garment, a sort of slip without any sleeves. In stammer Well, anyway she made me take off my clothes and I just crept off and cried. Purty soon young Master come home. He wanted to know what on earth I was doing without ray dress on. told him, and my goodness, but he raised the roof. I He told her if she didnft treat us better he was going to take us back to old Master. I never did have any more good times 'cepting when I'd get to go to visit at old Master*s. Hone of our family could be sold and that was why old Master just loaned us to young Master. When old Master died, dey put all our names in a hat and all the chilluns draw out a name. This was done to 'vide us niggers satisfactory. Young Master drawed my mother1 s name and they all agreed that I should go with her, so back we went to Miss Jo. She wouldn't feed us niggers. me set in a corner like a little dog. had to feed me. She'd make I got so hungry and howled so loud they When the surrender come, I was eleven years old, and they told us we was free* I ran off and hid in the plum orchard and I said over'n over. "I*se free, I*se free; I ain't never going back to Miss Jo." My mother come out and got me and in a few days my father came and lived with us. worked for young Master and the crops was divided with him. He Miss Jo died and 301 -3~ Oklahoma Writers1 Project we lived on there. My mother took over the charge of the house and the chillun for yoimg Master and we was all purty happy after that. They was a white man come into our settlement and bought a plantation and some slaves, years old* Vfy, hut he treated them had. One day he sent him on a errand. He owned a hoy ahout fifteen On the way home he got off his mule and set down in the shade of a tree to rest. went home. He fell asleep and the mule When he woke, up he was scared to go home and he stayed out in de woods for several days. Finally they caught him and took him home and his master heat him nearly to death. He then dug a hole and put him in it and piled corn shucks all around him. This nearly killed him 'cause his body was cut up so with the whip. One of the niggers slipped off and went to the jining plantation and told about the way the hoy was being treated and a bunch of white men came over and made him take the child out and doctor his wounds. This man lived there about ten years and he was so mean to his slaves 'til all the white men round who owned niggers finally went to him and told him they would just give him so long to sell out and leave. They made him sell his slaves to people there in the community, and he went back north. My mother told me that he owned a woman who was the mother of several chillun and when her babies would get about a year or two of age he'd sell them and it would break her heart. She never got to keep them. When her fourth baby was born and was about two months old whe just studied all the time about how she would have to give it up and one day she said, MI just decided Ifm not going to let old Master sell this baby} he just ainft going; to dp it." She got up and give it something out of a bottle and purty soon it was dead. Course didn't nobody tell on her or hefd of beat her nearly to death. There wasnH many folks that was mean to their slaves. Old Master's boys played with the nigger boys all the time. go swimming, fishing and hunting together. They'd One of his boys name was Robert 302 Oklahoma Writers1 Project _4_ but everybody called him Bud. turn them loose. trap. They all would catch rabbits and mark them and One day a boy come along with a rabbit he had caught in a Old Master1 s boy noticed that it had Bud's mark on it and they made him turn it loose. Old Master was his own overseer, but my daddy was the overlooker. He was purtjr hard on them too, as they had to work just like they never got tired. The women had to do housework, spinning, sewing and work in the fields too. mother was housewoman and she could keep herself looking nice. My My, she went around with her hair and clothes all Jenny*Lynned*up all the time until we went to live with Miss Jo. She took all the spirit out of poor mother and me too. I remember she allus kept our cabin as clean and neat as a pin. When other niggers come to visit her they would say, "My you are Buckry Niggers (meaning we tried to live like white folks).11 I love to think of when we lived with old Master. time. Our cabin was nice and had a chimbley in it. We had a good Mother would cook and serve our breakfast at home every morning and dinner and supper on Sundays. We'd have biscuit every Sunday morning for our breakfast. That was something to look forward to. We all went to church every Sunday. We would go to the /$hite folks church in the morning and to our church in the evening. Bill McWilliams, /5ld Master's oldest boy, didn!t take much stock in church. He owned a nigger named Bird, who preached for us. Bill said, "Bird, you canft preach, you can't read, how on earth can you get a text out of the Bible when you can't even read? How'n hell can a man preach that don't know nothing?" Bird told him the Lord had called him to preach and he'd put the things in his mouth that he ought to say. One night Bill went to church and Bird preached the hair-raisingest 303 Oklahoma Writers' Project sermon you ever heard. -5- Bill told him all right to go and preach and he gave 3ird a horse and set him free to go anywhere he wanted to and preach. Old Master and old Mistress lived in grand style. driver of their carriage. Boh was the My, hut he was always slick and shiny. up in front with his white shirt and "black clothes. martin (oird) with a white "breast. Hefd set He looked like a ID lack The nurse set in the hack with the chillun. Old Master and Mistress set together in the front seat. Old Master and Mistress would come down to the quarters to eat Qr Christinas dinners sometimes and also "birthday dinners^' \ - when they done that. entertain them. It was sho1 a hir day They eat first, and the niggers would sing and dance to Old Master would walk fround through the quarters talking to the ones that was sick or too old to work. him to whip much. to spin and weave. He was awful kind. Once he &S?ipped a woman for stealing. I never knowed She and mother had She couldn't or didn't work as fast as Ma and wouldnft have as much to show for her days work. She'd steal hanks of mafs thread so she couldnft do more work than she did. She!d also steal old Master's to- hacco. He caught, up with her and whipped her. I never say any niggers on the "block hut I remember once they had a sale in town and I seen them pass our house in gangs, the little ones in wagons and others walking* I've seen slaves who run away from their masters and they'd have to work in the field with a hig hall and chain on their leg. They'd hoe out to the end of the chain and then drag it up a piece and hoe on to the end of the row. Times was awful hard during the War. salt. We actually suffered for some We'd go to the smoke house where meat had heen salted down for years, dig a hole in the ground and fill it with water. After it would stand for a while wefd dip the water up carefully and strain it and cook our food in it. 304 Oklahoma Writers1 Project -6- We parched corn and meal for coffee* parched okra for coffee. We used syrup for sugar* 305 Some folks When the War was over you'd see men, women and chillun walk out of their cabins with a bundle under their arms* just going nowhere in particular. stayed on at the plantation* All going by in droves, My mother and father didnft join them; we I run off and got married when I was twenty. never did want me to get married. My husband died five years ago. Ma I never had no chillun* I reckon I'm a mite superstitious. If a man comes to your house first on New Years you will have good luck; if a woman is your first visitor you111 have bad luck* age. When I was a young woman I knowed I'd be left alone in my old I seen it in my sleep; I dreamed I spit every tooth in my head right out in my hand and something tell me I would be a widow. That's a bad thing to dream about, losing your teeth* Once my sister was at my house. setting on the porch. She had a little baby and we was They was a big pine tree in front of the house, and we seen something that looked like a big bird light in the tree. and say that's a sign my baby is going to die. weeks. She begun to cry Sho1 nuff it just lived two Another time a big owl lit in a tree near a house and we heard it holler. The baby died that night. It was already sick, we's setting up with it. I don't know where they's hants or not but I'se sho heard things I couldn't see* We allus has made our own medicines. We used herbs and roots. If you'll take poke root and cut it in small pieces and string it and put it 'round a baby's neck it will cut teeth easy. corn shucks will cure chills and malaria. A tea made out of dog fennel or It'll make 'em throw up. We used to take button snake root, black snake root, chips of anvil iron and whiskey and make a tonic to cure consumption. It would cure it too. 350037 Oklahoma Writers' Project Ex-Slaves 10-13-37 ft JAMES SOUTHALL Age 82 years, Oklahoma City, Okla. I was "bom in Clarksville, Tenn. mother was Hagar Southall. My father was Wesley and my Our owner was Dr. John Southall, an old man. Father always belonged to him hut he "bought my mother when she was a young girl and raised her. She never knew anything '"bout her people hut my fathers mother lived with us in de quarter's at Master Southall^. Master John never sold any of his slaves. We was known as "Free Niggers." Master said he didn!t "believe it was right to own human beings just because dey was black, and he freed all his slaves long before de War. He give !em all freedom papers and told dem da^dey was as free as he was and could go anywhere dey wanted. Dey didn't have no where to go so we all stayed on wid him. though to know we could go where we pleased f It was nice thout having to get a pass and could come back when we pleased even if we didn't take advantage of it. He told his slaves dat dey could stay on at his farm but dey would have to work and make a living for deyselves and families. Old Master managed de farm and bought all de food and clothes for us all. Everybody had to work, but dey had a good time. We had good clothes, plenty of food and good cabins. was known as Georgia bedsteads. We had what Dey was wooden bedsteads wid holes bored in de side pieces and in de foot and head-boards. Hopes was laced back and forth across and this took de place of both slats and springs. De ropes would git loose and we had what was called a "following-pin" to tighten ! em wid. We'd take a block of wood wid a notch in it and catch de rope 306 Oklahoma Writers1 ^roject -3 - slid hold it till de following-pin could be driven in and den wefd twist de ropes tight again. We had grass or cotton "beds and we slept good, too. We had tin plates "but no knives or forks so we et with e *-fingers* Old Master was a doctor and we had good attention vftien we was sick. We had no wish to take advantage of our freedom for we was a lot better off even than we is now and we knowed it. We never had to worry about anything. De quarters was about a half mile from de "Big House" as we called fester John's house. It really wasn't such a big house as it had only four or five rooms in it. It was a common boxed house, painted white and wid a long gallery across de front. big to us. Maybe it wa,s de gallery dat made it look so We liked to set on de steps at night and listen to Mastef John talk and to hear old Mistress and de girls sing* dem and fairly make de woods ring. Sometimes we'd join in wid Everybody thought dey was crazy to let us have so much freedom but dey wasn't nothing any of us black folks wouldn't a-done' for that family. He never employed any overseers as he done his own overseeing. tell de older hands what he wanted done and dey would see it was done. was never punished. He'd le J*ast if fen dey didn't work dey didn't have nothing to eat and wear and de hands what did work wouldn't divide wid 'em if fen dey didn't work. Old Master sho' was wise fer he knowed if fen we was ever set free dat we would have to work and he sure didn't bide no laziness in his hands* Dey got up 'bout four o'clock in de morning and was at work as soon as dey could see. Dey would work and sing as happy as you please. We used to hear stories fbout how slaves was punished but we never saw any of it. Dey would punish fem by whupping 'em or by making fem stand on one foot for a long time, tie 'em t?) by de thumbs as high as dey could reach and by making 'em do hard tasks and by going without food for two-three 4 30? Oklahoma Writers1 Project ~3- days. Niggers was very religious and dey had church often* Dey would annoy de white folks wid shouting and singing and praying and dey would take cooking pots and put over dey mouths so de white folks couldn't hear 'em* Dey would dig holes in de ground too, and lie down when dey prayed* Old Master let us have church in de homes. eve ^Wednesday night. We had prayer-meeting All our cullud preachers could read de Bible. He 141 dem teach us how to read if fen we wanted to learn. In de evening when we was through wid our work dey would gather at one of de cabins and visit and sing or dance. peanuts, hickory nuts, and tell ghost stories. We'd pop aorn, eat walnuts, We didn*t have any music instruments so de music we danced by wasn't so very good. Everybody sang and one or two would beat on tin pans or beat bones together. Us boys played marbles. de middler ever time. I got to be a professional. I could hit We made a square and put a marble in each corner and one in de middle and got off several feet from de ring and shot at de marbles. If fen you hit de middler you got de game. I could beat 'em all. Old Master kept u through de War. through in droves lak Coxsey's Army. We saw Yankee soldiers come We wasn't afraid for ourselves but we was afraid dey would catch old Master or one of de boys when dey would come home on a furlough. We'd hep 'em git away and just swear dat dey haflnft been home a-tall. After de war we stayed until old Master died. It broke us all up for we knowed we had lost de; best friend dat we ever had or ever would have. H#w&g a s 3$ of father to ail of us. Old Mistress went to live with her ^Bi^^^J^^ we scarfed wandering fround. |ed^ ^ Some folks from de Horth come I guess dey was afraid dat we'd hap ,?,^?,-./,'k' '^^M^kiSk-kTM^'1'''-''^--'' >':'' '^^^^^^^^.%^^^^^. We lived in a sort of bondage for a long ^M9'^'^'t'. \ afcl iK^t&\te'ifkd Oklahoma Writers1 Project -4- De white folks in de South as well as de cullud folks lost de best friend dey had when Abe Lincoln was killed. He was God's man and it y/as a great loss when he died. God created us all free and equal. Som^jrhere along de road we lost out. Cullud folks would have been better off iff en dey had been left alone in Africa. We'd a-had better opportunities. compensation fer what we have suffered. We should have some Yes, we could be sent back and we'd like it if dey would help us to get started out* again. Dat's where our forefathers come from. I learned a long time ago dat dey was nothing to charms. could a rabbit's foot bring me good luck? dat. I believes in dreams though. How De Bible teaches me better'n I've seen de end of time in my dreams. Saw de great trouble we going through right now, years ago in a dream. It's clear in my mind how de world is coming to a end. I believe all Christians should all join up together as dat makes 'em stronger. I believe in praying fer what we want and need. a licensed preacher in de Baptist church. I'm I've been a member for forty years but have just been a licensed preacher about ten years. ^09 Oklahoma Writers' Project Ex-Slaves 310 BEAUREGARD TENNEYSON Age 87 yrs. West Tulsa, Okla. My mother and father just about stocked Jess Tenneyson's plantation with slaves. That's a fact. The old folks had one big family - twenty-three Children was the number. With the old folks that make twenty-five (there were only five more slaves), so I reckon they done mighty well by Master Jess. The Master done well by them, too. Master Jess and Mistress Lula was Christian peoples. They raised their two sons, Henry and George, the same way. There was so many of us children I don't remember all the names. Three of the boys was named after good southern gentlemen who soldiered in the War. Price, Lee and Beaugard. Beaugard is me. Proud of that name just like I'm proud of the Master's name. My folks named Patrick and Harriett. Mother worked round the house And father was the field boss. They was close by the Master all the time. The plantation was down in Craig County, Texas. Nine hundred acre it was. They raise everything, but mostly corn and cotton. Big times when come the harvest. Master fix up a cotton gin right on the place. It was an old-fashioned press. Six horses run it with two boys tromping down the cotton with their feets. In the fall time was the best of all. Come cotton picking time, all the master from miles around send in their best pickers - and how they'd work., sometimes pick the whole crop in one day! The one who picked the most win a prize. Then come noon and the big feast, and at night come the dancing. Something like that when the corn was ready. All the folks have the Oklahoma Writers1 Project biggest time* Log rollings* -2- 311 Clearing the new ground for planting* the trees, burning the bresh, making ready for the plow* Cutting The best worker wins hisself a prize at these log rollings, too* Them kind of good times makes me think of Christmas* Didn't hare ,no Christmas tree, but they set up a long pine table in the house and that plank table was covered with presents and none of the Negroes was ever forgot on that day* Master Jess didnft work his slaves like other white folks done* Wasn't no four o'clock wake-up horns and the field work started at seven o'clock* Quitting time was five o'clock - just about union hours nowadays* The Master believed in plenty of rest for the slaves and they work better that way, too. One of my brother took care of the Master's horse while on the plantation* did brother* When the Master join in with rebels that horse went along* So Master need them both and my brother mighty pleased when he get to go* When Master come back from the War and tell us that brother is dead, he said brother was the best boy in all the army* The Tenneyson slaves wasn't bothered with pat rollers, neither the Klan* The Master said we was all good Negroes - nobody going to bother a good .Negro. We was taught to work and have good manners* And to be honest* doing them three things will keep anybody out of trouble* Just ^^^^^^^^^r^^^^mj^> m^^?^m^m^s * * 'T*1 ^^IJSnjT^rer,^ j^'^grf^-'TSPFS^^ 35QQ68, ioma writers Oklahoma Writers1 Project s?5Ts 2x~Slaves WILLIAM WALTERS Age 85 yrs. TuLsa, Oklahoma. Mammy jinn (that was my mother) was owned by Mistress Betsy, and lived on the Bradford plantation in Relaford County, Tennessee, when I was "born in 1852. Ky daddy, Jim Walters, then lived in Hashville, where my mammy carried me when she ran away from the Mistress after the Rebs and Yanks started to fight. My daddy died in Nashville in 1875. We were runaway slaves. The slipper-offers were often captured, hut Mammy Ann and her little hoy William"(that's me) escaped the sharp eyes of the patrollers and found refuge with a family of northern symphatizers living in Hashville.Hashville was a fort town, filled with trenches and barricades. Bight across the road from where we stayed was a vacant block used by the Rebs as an emergency place for treating the wounded, I remember the boom of cannons one whole day, and I heard the rumble of army wagons as they crossed through the town. But there was nothing to see as the fog of powder smoke became thicker with every blast of Sesesh cannon* When the smoke fog cleared away I watched the wounded being carried to the clearing across the road - fighting men with arms shot off, legs gone, faces blood smeared - some of them just laying, there cussing God and Man with their dying breath! Those were awful times. Yet I have heard many of the older .Negroes say the old days were better. Such talk always seemed to me but an .expression of sentiment for' some |?^:d,:;Q|d^ v&ske^y.^ mmm leg-roe s tare ^ $$E;|$^ wit|i/i^i0:r^i: Ol&ahoma Writers1 Project ' ''^'^:MWi^Mf:M^^^^ -i^TiS ii But I've.always heen proud of my freedom, and proud of my old mother who faced death for her freedom and mine when she escaped from the Bradford plantation a long time "before freedom came to the Negro race as a whole. M;$ Oklahoma Writers' "Project Ex-Slaves 570 words 10-19-1938 MARY FRANCES TOBB Grand daughter of Sarah Vest, aged 92, (deceased) McAlester, Okla. I've heard my grandmother tell a lot of her experiences during slavery. She remembered things well as she was a grown woman at the time of the Y/ar of the Rebellion. Her home was at Sedalia, Mo., and her owner was Baxter West, a prominent fanner and politician. He was very kind and good to his slaves. He provided them with plenty of food and good clothes. . He would go to town and buy six or eight bolts of cloth at a time and the women could pick out two dresses apiece off it. These would be their dresses for dressing up. They wove the cloth for their every- day clothes. The men wore jeans suits in winter. and old. He bought shoes for all his slaves, young He had about twenty slaves counting the children. > My grandmother was a field hand. She plowed and hoed the crops in the summer and spring, and in the winter she sawed and cut cord wood just like a man. She said it didn!t hurt her as she was as strong as an ox. She couM spin and weave and sew. She helped make all the cloth for their clothes and in the spring one of the jobs for the women was to weave hats for the men. They used oat-straw* grass, and cane which had been split and dried and soaked in hot water until it was pliant, and they wove it into hats. The women wore a cloth tied around their head. They didn11 have many matches so they always kept a log heap burning to keep a fire* It was a common thing for a neighbor to come in to borrow a coal of fire as their fire had died out. On wash days all the neighbors would send several of their women to the creek 314 Oklahoma Writers1 Project to do the family wash. Mary Frances Webb -3- 315 They all had a regular picnic of it as they would wash and spread the clothes on the bushes and low branches of the trees to dry* They would get to spend the day together* They had no tubs or wash boards* wooden paddle. They had a large flat blobk of wood and a They!d spread the wet garment on the block, spread soap on it and paddle the garment till it was clean. They would rinse the clothes in the creek, Iheir soap was made from lye, dripped from ashes, and meat scraps. The slaves had no lamps in their cabins. In winter they would pile wood on the fire in their fireplace and have the light from the fire. The colored men went with their master to the army. They made regular soldiers and endured the same hardships that the white soldiers did. They told of one battle when so many men were killed that a little stream seemed to be running pure blood as the water was so bloody. After the war the slaves returned home with their masters and some of the older ones stayed on. with them and helped them to rebuild their farms. None of them seemed to think it strange that they had been fighting on the wrong side in the army as they were following their white folks* Those who stayed with their old master were taught, to read and write and were taught to handle their own business and to help themselves in every way possible to take their -place in life. 350025 Oklahoma Writers1 Project Ex-Slaves 31G 10-14-37 $$ BASTSR WELLS ^ ^(3* ^ " Age 83 Colbert, Okla. I was born in Arkansas, in 1854, "but we moved to Texas in 1355 heard fem tell about de trip to Texas. De grown folks rode in wagons and carts but de chaps all walked dat was big enuff their guns and hunted all de way. I!ve De men walked and toted Dey had plenty of fresh game to eat. My mother's name was Nellie Bell. I had one sister, Liza. I never saw my father; in fact, I never heard my mammy say anything about him and I donft guess I ever asked her anything about him for I never thought anything about not having a father. I guess he belonged to another family and when we moved away he was left behind and he didn't try to find us after de War. My mammy and my sister and me belonged to young Master Jason Bell. We was his onliest slaves and as he waonlt married and lived at home wid his parents we was worked and bossed by his father, Gapfn William Bell and his wife, Miss Mary. After we moved to Texas, old Master built a big double log house, weather-boarded on de inside said out. It was painted white. Dey was a long gallery clean across de front of de house and a big open hall between de two front rooms. Dey was three rooms on each side of de hall and a wide gallery across de back. De kitchen set back from de house and dey was a board walk leading to it* Vines was planted on each side of de walk in de summer time. f round de gallery and De house was on a hill and set Oklahoma Writers1 Project ~3* hack from de "big road about a quarter of a mile and dey was big oak and pine trees all fround de yard. We had good quarters. We had purty flowers, too. Dey was log cabins, but de logs was peeled and square-adzed and put together with white plaster and had shuttered windows and pine floors Our furniture was home made but it was good ajnd made our cabins comfortable. Old Master give us our allowance of staple food and it had to run usf too. We could raise our own gardens and in dat way^ we had purty plenty to eat. Dey took good care of us sick or well and old Mistress was awful good to us. My mammy was de cook. I remember old Master had some purty strict rules and one of !em was if fen you burnt de bread you had to eat it. day mammy burnt de bread. purty bad. One She was awful busy and forgot it and it burnt She knowed dat old Master would bo mad and she'd be punished so she got some grub and her bonnet and 3he lit out. She hid in de woods and cane brakes for two weeks and dey couldn't find her either* One of de women slipped food out to her. finally she come home and old Master give her a k whipping but he didn't hurt her none. He was g^ad to git her back. She told us dat she could'a slipped off to de North but she didn't want to leave us children. She was afraid young Master would be mad and sell us and we'd a~had a hard time so she come back. I don't know wke*e she ever burnt de bread any more or not. Once one of de men got his 'lowance and he decided he'd have de meat all cooked at once so he come to our cabin and got mammy to cook it for him. She cooked it and he took it home. and et de meat all up. One day he was at work and a dog got in He didn't have much food for de rest of de week. had to make out wid parched corn* He 31/7 Oklahoma Writers1 Project -3* We all kept parched corn all de time and went fround eating it* It was good to fill you up if fen you was hungry and was nourishing, too. When de niggers cooked in dere own cabins dey put de food in a sort of tray or trough and everybody et together* Dey didn't have no dishes. We alias ate at de Big House as mammy had to do de cooking for de family. I never had to work hard as old Master wanted us to grow up strong. Hefd have mammy boil Jerusalem Oak and make a tea for us to drink to cure us of worms and we!d run races and get exercise so-we would be healthy* Old Mispress and old Master had three children* dead between Master Jason and Miss Jane. age, named Arline* Dey was two children Dey was a little girl *hout my We played together all de time* We used to set on de steps at night and old Mistress would tell us ahout de stars* She!d tell us and show us de Big Dipper, Little Dipper, Milky Way, Ellen1 s Yard, Jobfs Oof fin, and de Seven Sisters. I can show !em to you and tell you all ahout f em yet. I scared Arline and made her fall and break her leg twice. One time we was on de porch after dark one night and I told her dat I heard something and I made like I could see it and she couldnU so she got scared and run and hung her toe in a crack and fell of$de high porch and "broke her leg* Another time while de War was going on we was dressed up in long dresses playing grown-ups* We had playhouses under some big castor-bean "bushes* We climbed up on de fence and jest for fun I told her dat I seen some Yankees coming. She started to run and got tangled up in her long.dress and fell and broke her leg again. It nigh broke my heart for I loved her and she laved me and she didnft tell on me either time* I used to visit her after she was married and wefd sure have a good visit talking *hout 3JL8 Oklahoma Writers1 Project de things we used to do* -4- 310 We was separated when we was about fifteen and didn't see/iother any more till we was "both married and had children* I went to visit her at Bryant, Brazos County, Texas and I ain*t seen her since* I don't know w&ece she is still living or not* I f members hearing a man say dat once he was a nigger trader* buy and trade or sell fem like they was stock* Hefd He become a Christian and never sold any more* Our young Master went to de War and got wounded and come home and died* Old Master den took full charge of us and when de War ended he kept us because he said we didnft have no folks and he said as our owner was dead we wasn!t free* Mother died about a year after de War, and some white folks took my sister but I was afraid to go* Old Master told me if fen I left him he would cut my ears off and I*d starve and I don5t know what all he did tell me he1 d do* I must arbeen a fool but I was afraid to try it* I had so much work to do and I never did git to go anywhere* I reckon he was afraid to let me go off de place for fear some one would tell me what a fool I was, so I never did git to go anywhere but had to work all de time* I was de only one to work and old Mistress and de girls never had done no work and didn!t know much about it* I had a harder time 4e& when we was slaves* I got to wanting to see my sister so I made up my mind to run off* One of old Master1 s motherless nephews lived with him and I got him to go with me one night to the potato bank and I got me a lap full of potatoes to eat so I wouldn't starve like old Master said I would* went nearly to a house where some white folks lived* Dis white boy I went to de house and told fem I wanted to go to where my sister was and dey let me stay fer a few days and sent me on to my sister* Oklahoma Writers1 Project ~5~ I saw old Master lots of times after I run away "bait he wasn't mad at me* I heard him tell de white folks dat I lived wid dat he raised me and I sure woul&nft steal nor tell a lie. I used to steal "brown sugar lumps whem mammy would "be cooking hut he didn!t know 'bout dat* On holidays we used to allus have big dinners, Specially on Christmas, and we allus had egg-nog. We allus had hog-jowl and peas on New Years Day f cause if fen you'd have dat on New Years Day you'd have good luck all de year. If fen you have money on New Years1 Day you will have money all de year. My husband, Lewis Wells, lived to be one-hundred and seven years old. He died five years ago. never could* He could see witches, spirits and ghosts but I Dere are a few things dat Ifve noticed and dey never fail. Dogs howling and scritch owls hollering is allus a warning. was sick and we didn't think she was much sick. right outside de house. My mother A dog howled and howled Old Master say, "Nellie gonna die.*1 Sure nuff she died dat night. Another time a gentle old mule we had got after de children and run ! em to do house and den he lay down and wallow and wallow* One of our children was dead !fore a week. One of our neighbors say his dog been gone fbout a week. He was walking and met de dog and it lay down and stretch out on de ground and measure a grave wid his body. could. He made him git up and he went home jest as fast as he When he got dere one of his children was dead. If fen my left eye quiver I know I'm gwineter cry and if fen both my eyes quiver I know I gwinter laugh till I cry. quiver* I donft like for my eyes to O/wO Oklahoma Writers1 Project -6~ We has allus made our own medicine* astood &e chills and fevers . in it to cure malaria* and swallowed 'em. 3 5jL If fen we hadn't we never could We made a tea out'n bitter weeds and bathed We also made bread pills and soaked fem in dis tea After bathing in dis tea we'd go to bed and kiver up and sweat de malaria out. Horse mint and palm of crystal (Castor-bean) and bullnettle root boiled together will make a cure fer swelling. Jest bathe de swollen part in dis hot tea. Anvil dust and apple vinegar will cure dropsy. dust to a quart of vinegar. One tea cup of anvil Shake up well and bathe in it. It sure will cure de worse kind of a case* God worked through Abraham Lincoln and he answered de prayers of dem dat was wearing de burden of slavery. We cullud folks all love and honor Abraham Lincoln's memory and don't you think we ought to? I love to hear good singing. My favorite songs are: "Am I A Soldier Of The Cross1,' an "How Can I Live In Sin and Doubt My Savior's Love.n to de Baptist church* I belongs 350016 Oklahoma Writers1 Project Sx-Slaves Revision of story sent In 8-13-37. JOHN WHITB Age 121 years Sand Springs, Okla. Of all my Mammy*s children I am the first born and the longest living. The others all gone to join Mammy* She was named Mary White, the same name as her Mistress, the wife of my first master, James White. About my pappy. I never hear his name and I never see him, not even when I was the least child around the old Master1 s place *way back there in Georgia morefn one-hundred twenty years agoi Mammy try to make it clear to me about my daddy. She married like the most of the slaves in them days. he was a slave on another plantation. something from Master White. One day he come for to borrow He sees a likely looking gal, and the way it work out that gal was to be my Mammy. After that he got a paper saying it was all right for him to be off his own plantation. to Master Whites. He come a1 courting over After a while he talks with the Master. marry the gal, Mary. Says he wants to The Master says it!s all right if it's all right with Mary and the other white folks. He finds out it is and they makes ready for the wedding. Mary says a preacher wedding is the best but Master say he can marry them just as good. There wasn!t no Bible, just an old Almanac. read something out of that. Thatfs all and they was married. Master White The wedding was over! Bveiy night he gets a leave paper from his Master and come ver to be with his wife, Mary. The next morning he leaves her to work in the fields. one night Mammy says he don't come home. next. Then The next night is the same, and the From then on Mammy donft see him no more - never find out what happen Oklahoma Writers1 Project -2- to my pappy* When I was horn Mammy named me John, John White* blackest ^ite1 boy she ever seel old* She tells me I was the I stays with her till I was eleven year The Master wrote down in the book when * was bcmf April 10, 1816, and I know it's right* Mammy told me so, and M aster told me when I was eleven and he sold me to Sarah Davenport* Mistress Sarah lived in Texas. to folks all over the country* Master White always selling and trading I hates to leave on account of Mammy and the good way ^aster White fared the slaves - they was good people. I has to go just the same. leaving. Mammy cry but The tears are on my face a long time after the I was hoping all the tiae to see Mammy again, but that's the last time. We travels and travels on the stage coach* Once we cross the Big Eiver (Mississippi) on the boat and pick up with the horses on the other side* new outfit and we rides some more* A Seems like we going to wear out all the horses before we gets to the place* The Davenport plantation was way north of Linden, Texas, up in the Bed River country. Thatfs where I stayed for thirty-eight year* drug through the hackles by the meanest master that ever lived* There I was The Mistress was the best white woman I ever knew but Master Presley used his whip all the time, reason or no reason, and I got scars to remember by* I remembers the house* across the front* live in there* A heavy log house with a gallery dear The kitchen was back of the house* I work in there and I It wasnH built so good as the Master1 s house* The cold winds in the winter go through the cracks between the log like the walls was somewheres else, and I shivers with the misery all the time* The cooking got to be my job. The washing too. Washday come around 323 Oklahoma Writers1 Project -3- and I fills the tuh with clothes. Puts the tub on my head and walks half a mile to the spring where I washes the clothes* Then I make ash soap right "by the spring. streaks in the clothes. Sometimes * ran out of soap* I learns to "be careful about I learns "by the hull whip. a soapy streak in his shirt. t&24 One day the Master finds Then he finds me. The Military Boad goes by the place and the M aster drives me down the road and ties me to a tree. First he tears off the old shirt and then he throws the hull whip to me. When he is tired of heating me more torture is a-coming. The salt water cure. folks called it* the bleeding cuts* It donft cure nothing "but thatfs what the white here's at you,tt the Master say* and slap the salt water into *Herefs at you!11 Ihe blisters burst every time he slap me with the brine. Then I was loosened to stagger back into the kitchen* The Mistress couldnH do nothing about it fcept to lay on the grease thick, with a kind word to help stop the misery* Bation time was Saturday night* meal and such to last out the week* Every slave get enough fat pork, corn I reckon the Master figure it to the last bite because they was no leavings over* Most likely the shortage catch them] Sometimes they'd borrow, sometimes I'd slip somethings from out the kitchen* The single women folks was bad that way* thing extra from the kitchen. I favors them with some- Then they favors me - at night when the oveiv seer thinks everybody asleep in they own places! I was always back to my kitchen bed long before the overseer give the get-up-knock* I hear the knock* he hear me answer* Then he blow the horn and shout the loud call* AHE TOU UP, and everybody know it was four o'clock and pour out of the cabins ready for the chores. Oklahoma Writers1 Project -4-. Sometimes the white folks go around the slave quarters for the night* Wot on the Davenport plantation, "but some others close around* The slaves talked about it amongst themselves. After a while they'd be a new baby. Yellow* When the child got old enough for chore work the master would sell him (or her). No difference was it his own flesh and blood - if the price was right! I traffic with lots of the women, but never marries. was free after the War* Not even when I I sees too many married troubles to mess up with Huch doings! Sometimes the master sent me alone to the grinding mill* yellow corn, hitch in the oxen, I was ready to go. load in the I gets me fixed up with a pass and takes to the road. That was the trip I like best, bresh* back. ^n the way was a still* Off in the If the still was lonely I stop, not on the way to but on the way Mighty good whiskey, tool Maybe I drinks too much, then I was sorry. Not that I swipe the whiskey, just sorry because I gets sick! Then I figures a woods camp meeting will steady me up and I goes. The preacher meet me and want to know how is my feelings. * says * is low with the misery and he say to join up with the Lord* 1 never join because he donft talk about the Lord. Just about the Master and Mistress. How the slaves must obey around the plantation - how the white folks know what is good for the slaves* Nothing about obeying the Lord and working for him. I reckon the old preacher was worrying more about the bull nfcip than he was the Bible, else he say something about the Lord! But I always bbeys the Lord - that's why I is still living! The slaves would pray for to get out of bondage. Some of them say the 825 Oklahoma Writers1 Project Lord told them to ran away. -& Gret to the North. Cross the Bed Biver. Over there would he folks to guide them to the Free State (Kansas). The Lord never tell me to run away. * never tried itf maybe, because mostly they was caught by patrollers and fetched back for a flogging - and I had whippings enough already! Before the Civil War was the fighting with Mexico* on they way south passed on the Military Boad. Some of the troops Wasnft any fighting around Linden or Jefferson during the time* They was lots of traveling on the Military Boad. Most of the time you could see covered wagons pulled by mules and horses, and sometimes a crawling string of wagons with oxen on the pulling end. Prom up in Arkansas come the stage coach along the road. Antonio. To San The drivers bring news the Mexicans just about all killed off and the white folks say Texas was going to join the Union. The country1 s going to be run different they say, but I never see no difference* Maybe, because I ain't white folks. Wasn't many Mexicans around the old plantation. Indians. Cherokees and Ohoctaws. Come and go. Lots of Living in mud huts and cabin shacks. I never see them bother the whites, it was the other way arotod. During the Civil War, when the Bed Biver was bank high with muddy water, the Yankee18 made a target of Jefferson. That was a small town down south of Linden* Down the river come a flat barge with cannon fastened to the deck* The Yankee soldiers stopped acroww the river from Jefferson and the shooting started* When the cannon went to popping the folks went arunning - hard to tell who run the fastest, the whites or the blacks! Almost the town was wiped out. Buildings was smashed and big trees out through with the cannon balls. o 2G Oklahoma Writers1 Project -6- And all the time the Yankee drums was a~beating and the soldiers sing* ing: We'll hang Jeff Davis on a sour apple tree. As we go marching on] Before the Civil War everybody had money. negroes. money. The white folks, not the Sometimes the master take me to the town stores. They was full of Cigar boxes on the coxmter, boxes on the shelf, all filled with money. Not the crinkley paper kind, but hard, jingley gold and silver! Not like these scaree times] After the War I stay on the plantation ftil a soldier man tells me of the freedom. The master never tell us - negroes working just like before the War, That*s when I leave the first time. Jefferson, Slip off, saying nothing, to There I found some good white folks going to Mew Orleans, place we go is Shreveport, by wagon. Jirst They took me because I fix up with them to do the cooking. On to the Big River (Mississippi) and boards a river steamboat for New Orleans, Lots of negroes going down there - to work on the canal. The ufaole town was built on logs covered with dirt. itself right out of the swamp. for the hills. Sometimes the water get high and folks run When I got there almost was I ready to leave. I like Texas the best. mil below Linden, He says, Trying to raise Back to Jefferson is where I go, Fifteen^twenty Almost the first person I see was Master Davenport, M Black rascal, you is coming with mefH And I do. He tried to keep his slaves and just laugh when I tell him about the freedom, I worked for food and quarters Hil his meanness come cropping out again. That wasn't long and he threatened me with the whip and the buck and gag. The buck and gag was maybe worse, I got to feeling that iron stick in o T? Oklahoma Writers1 Project -7- y mouth, fastened around ay head with chains, pressing hard on my tongue, $o drinking, no eating, no talking! So I slip off again. hands and knees! That night I goes through Linden. Crawling on my Keeping in the dark spots, hiding from the whites, 'til I pass the last house, then my feets hurries me to Jefferson, where I gets a ride to Arkansas. In Busselville is where I stop. There I worked around in the yards, cutting the grass, fancying the flower beds, and earned a little money for clothes and eats, with some of it spent for good whiskey. That was the reason I left Arkansas. tell where was a man's whiskey still. Whiskey. She law got after me to I just leave so9s I won't hare to tell. But while I was making a little money in fiueselville, I lose out on some big money, account some white folks beat me to it. I was out in the hills west of town, walking along the banks of a little creek, when I heard a voice. Queer like. I called out who is that talking and I hears it again. *G to the white oak tree and you will find Ninety Thousand Dollars!* Thatfs what I hear. I look around, nobody in sight, but I see the tree* A big white oak tree standing taller than all the rest 9 round about. Under the tree was a grave. An old grave. I scratch around but finds no money and thinks of getting some help. I done some work for a white man in town and told him about the voice. He promised to go with me, but the next day he took two white mens and dug around the tree. Then he says they was nothing to find. To this day I know better. around someplace! ? know wherever theyfs a ghost, money is That1* what the ghost comes back for. Somebody dies and leaves buried money. The ghost watches over it til it &28 Oklahoma Writers1 Project sees somebody it likes* -8- 3S9 Shea ghost shows himself - lets know he's around* Sometimes the ghost tells where is the money buried, like that time at Husselville* That ain't the only ghost I've seen or heard* 7ard where I is living now* A woman* I see one around the Some of these times she111 tell me where the buried money is* Maybe the ghost woman thinks I is too old to dig* all these long years* But I been a-digging Tor a bite to eat and a sleep-under cover* I reckon pretty soon she's going to tell where to dig* then old Uncle John won't have to dig for the eats no mere! When she does, 350072 1 Oklahoma Writers Project AMG 161937 Ex-Slaves * CHABLET WILLIAMS Age 94 yrs. Tttl8a Qkia - Iffen I could see "better out*n my old eyes, and I had me something to work with and de feebleness in my back and head would let me flonef I would have me plenty to eat in de kitchen all de time, and plenty tobaccy in my pipe, too, "bless God! And dLey wouldnH he no rain trickling through de holes in de roof, and no planks all fell out*n de flof on de gallery neither, f cause dis one oia nigger knows everything about making all he need to git along! Old Master done showed him how to git along in dis world, jest as long as he live on a plantation, but living in de town is a different way of living, and all you got to have is a silver dime to lay down for everything you want, and I donft git de dime very often. But I aint give up! On de days wiien I donft Nothing like dat! feel so feeble and trembly I jest keep patching f round de place. I got to keep patching so as to keep it whar it will hold de winter out, in case I git to see another winter. Iffen I donft, it don*t grieve me none, * cause I wants to see old Master again anyways. I reckon maybe I111 jest go up an ask him what he want me to do, and he'll tell me, and iffen I don't know how he!ll show me how, and I!ll try to do i ^ to please him. And when I git it done I wants to heal? him grumble like he used to and say, "Charley, you ain! t got no sense but you is a good boy. Dis here ain!t very good but it111 do, I reckon. Git yourself a little piece o1 dat brown sugar, but donft let no niggers see you eating it if you do I'll whup your black behind!* Dat ainU de way it going be in Heaven, I reckon, but I ca&*t set here on dis old rottendy g&llery and think of no way I better like to have itj 33Q Oklahoma Writers1 Project -2- I was a great "big hulking "buck of a "boy when de War come along and "bust up everything, and I can fmember hack when everybody was living peaceful and happy, and nobody never had no notion about no war. I was horned on the Seventh of January, in 1343, and was old enough to vote when I got my freedom, but I didn't take no stock in all dat politics and goings on at dat time, and I didn't vote till a long time after old Master passed away, but I was big enough before de far to remember everything pretty plain. Old Master name was John Williams, and old Mistress name was Miss Betty, and she was a Campbell before she married. Young Missy was named Betty after her mommy, and Young Master was named Prank, but I don't know who after* Our overseer was Mr. Simmons, and he was mighty smart and had a lot of patience, but he wouldn't take no talk nor foolishness. He didn't whup nobody very often, but he only had to whup 'em jest one time! He never did whupia nigger at de time the nigger done something, but he would wait till evening and have old Master come and watch him do it. He never whupped very hard 'cept when he had told a nigger about something and promised a whupping next time and the nigger done it again. !Then that nigger got what he had been hearing 'boutj De plantation was about as big as any. I think it had about three hundred acres, and it was about two miles northwest of Monroe, Louisiana. Then he had another one not so big, two three miles south of the big one, kind of down in the woodsy part along the White river bottoms. He had another overseer on that place and a big passel of niggers, but I never did go down to that one* That was where he raised most of his corn and shoats, and lots of sorghum cane. Our plantation was up on higher groundf and it was more open country f 331 Oklahoma Writers1 Project -3~ "but still they was lots of woods all around and lots of the plantations had been whacked right out of de new ground and was fall of stumps. Master1 s place was more open, though, and all in the fields was good plowing. The big road runned rigjit along past our plantation, and it come from Shreveport and run into Monroe. There wasn't any town at Monroe in them days, jest a little cross roads place with a general store and a big hide house. I think there was about two big hide houses, and you could smell that place a mile before you got into it. Old Master had a part in de store, I think. De hide houses was jest long sheds, all open along de sides and kivered over wid cypress clapboards. Down below de hide houses and de store was jest a little settlement of one or two houses, but they was a school for white boys. Somebody said there was a place where they had been an old fort, but I never did see it* Everything bought en we got come from Shreveport, and was brung in by the stage and the freighters, and that was only a little coffee or gunpowder, or some needles for the sewing, or some strap iron for the blacksmith, or something like dat. We made and raised everything else we needed right on the place. I never did even see any quinine till after I was free. My mammy knowed jest what root to go out and pull up to knock de chills right outfn me. And de bellyache and de running off de same way, too. Our plantation was a lot different from some I seen other placesf like way east of there, around Vicksburg. Some of them was fixed up fancier but dey didn't have no more comforts than we had. Old Master come out into that country when he was a young man, and they &idn!t have even so much then as they had when I was a boy. I think he Oklahoma Writers1 Project i^i. come from Alabama or Tennessee, and way "back his Deople had come from Virginia* or maybe Korth Carolina, l cause he knowed all about tobacco on the place. Cotton and tobacco was de long crops on his "big place, and of course lots of horses and cattle and mules. De "big house was made out*n square hewed logs, and chinked wid little rocks and daubed wid white clay, and kivered wid cypress clapooards. I remember one time we put on a new roof, and de niggers hauled up de cypress logs and sawed dem and frowed out de clapboards.by hand. De house had two setting rooms on one side and a big kitchen room on de other, wid a wide passage in between, and den about was de sleeping They wasnft no stairways !cepting on de outside. rooms. Steps run up to de sleeping rooms on one side from de passageway and on de other side from clean outside de house. Jest one big chimbley was all he had, and it v/as on de kitchen end, and we done all de cooking in a fireplace dat was purty nigh as wide as de whole room. In de sleeping rooms dey wasn!t no fires 'cepting in brazers made out of clay, and we toted up charcoal to burn in ?em when it was cold mornings in de winter. Dey kept warra wide de bed clothes and de Icnitten clothes dey had. Master never did make a big gallery on de house, but our white folks would set out in de yard under de big trees in de shade. They was long benches made out'n hewed logs and all padded wid gray moss and corn shuck padding, and dey set pretty soft. too. All de furniture in de house was home-made, De beds had square posts as big around as my shank and de frame was mortised into !em, and holes bored in de fraiae and home-made rope laced in to make it springy. Den a great big mattress full of goose feathers and two three comforts as thick as my foot wid carded wool inside! places! Dey didnTt need no fire- 333 Oklahoma Writers1 Project -5-L De quarters was a little piece from de big house, and dey run along "both sides of de road dat go to de fields* All one-room log cabins, hut dey was good and warm, and every one had a little open shed at de side whar we sleep in de siunmer to keep cool. They was two or three wells at de quarters for water, and some good springs in de branch at de "back of de fields. You could ketch a fish now and den in dat branch, but Young Master used to do his fishing in White River, and take a nigger or two along to do de work at his camp. It wasn!t very fancy at de Big House, but it was mighty pretty jest de same, wid de gray moss hanging from de big trees, and de cool green grass all over de yard, and I can shet my old eyes and see it jest like it was before de War come along and bust it up# I can see old Master setting out under a big tree smoking one of his long cheroots his tobacco nigger made by hand, and fanning hisself wid his big wide hat another nigger platted outfn young inside corn shucks for him, and I can hear him holler at a big bunch of white geeses 7?hatfs gitting in his flower beds and see ! em string off behind de old gander towards de big road. When de day begin to crack de whole plantation break out widff all kinds of noises, and you could tell what going on by de kind of noise you hear. Come de daybreak you hear de guinea fowls start potracking down at de edge of de woods lot, and den de roosters all start up de ducks finally wake up and jine in. f round de barn and You can smell de sow belly frying down at the cabins in de "row", to go wid de hoecake and de buttermilk. Den purty soon de wind rise a little, and you can hear a old bell donging way on some plantation a mile or two off, and den more bells at other places and maybe a horn, and purty soon younder go old Master's old ram horn 334 Oklahoma Writers1 Project -6- wid a long toot and den some short toots, and here come de overseer down de row of cabins, hollering right and left, and picking de ham out'n his teeth wid a long shiny goose quill pick. Bells and hornsJ Bells for dis and horns for dat! All we knowed was go and come "by de "bells and horns! Old ram horn blow to send us all to de field. We all line up, about seventy-five field niggers, and go "by de tool shed and git our hoes, or maybe go hitch up de mules to de plows and lay de plows out on de side so de overseer can see if fen de points is shart. Any-plow gits broke or de point gits bungled up on de rocks it goes to do blacksmith nigger, den we all git on down in de field. Den de anvil start dangling in de blacksmith shop; dingi Tank! M TankJ Deling- Deling-ding! ", and dat ole bull tongue gitting straightened out I Course you canft hear de shoemaker awling and pegging, and de card spinners, and de old macimy sewing by hand, but maybe you can hear de old loom going "frump, frump", and you know it all right iff en your clothes do be wearing out, 'cause you gwine git new britches purty soon! We had about a hundred niggers on dat place, young and old, and about twenty on de little place down below, fe could make about every kind of thing but coffee and gunpowder dat our whitefolks and us needed* U?hen we needs a hat we gits inside cornshucks and weave -one out, and makes horse collars de same way. Jest tie two little soft shucks together and begin plaiting. All de cloth fceptin de Mistress1 Sunday dresses come from de sheep to de carders and de spinners and de weaver, den we dye it wid "butternut" and hickory bark and indigo and other things and set it wid copperas. Leather tanned on de place made de shoes, and I never see a store boughten wagon wheel 335 Oklahoma Writers1 Project -7- cepting among de stages and de freighters along de big road. We made purty, long back-combs out'n cow horn, and knitting neddles out!n second hickory. Split a young hickory and put in a big wedge to prize it open, then cut it down and let it season, and you got good bent grain for wagon hames and chair rockers and such. It was jest like dat until I was grown, and den one day come a neighbor man and say we in de War* Little while young Master Frank ride over to Vicksburg and jine de ^. Sesesh army, but old Master jest go on lak nothing happen, and we all donft hear nothing more until long come some Sesesh soldiers and take most old Master's hosses and all his wagons. I bin working on de tobacco, and when I come back to de barns everything was gone* I would go into, de woods and git good hickory and burn it till it was all coals and put it out wid water to make hickory charcoal for curing de tobacco. I had me some charcoal in de fire trenches under de during houses, all full of new tobacco, and overseer come and say bundle all de tobacco up and he going take it to Shreveport and sell it befo1 de soldiers take it too. After de hosses all gone and most de cattle and de cotton and de tobacco gone too, here come de Yankees and spread out all over de whole country. Dey had a big camp down below our plantation. One evening a big bunch of Yankee 6fficers come up to de Big House and old Master set out de brandy in de yard and dey act purty nice. Next day de whole bunch leave on out of dat part* When de hosses and stuff all go old Master sold all de slaves but about four, but he kept my pappy and mammy and my brother Jimmie and my sister Betty. She was named after old Mistress. was Sally. Pappy1 s name was Charley and mammy1 s De niggers he kept didn11 have much work without any, hosses and 336 Oklahoma Writers1 Project ~8-^ wagons, but de blacksmith started in fixing up more wagons and he kept them hid in de woods till they was all fixed. Den along come some more Yankees, and dey tore everything we had up, and old Master was afeared to shoot at them on account his womenfolks,' so he tried to sneak the fambly out but they kotched him and brung him back to de plantation. We niggers didn!t know dat he was gone -until we seen de Yankees bringing dem back. De Yankees had done took charge of everything and was camping in de "big yard, and us was all down at de quarters scared to death, but dey was jest letting us alone.It was night when de white folks tried to go away, and still night when de Yankees brung dem back, and a house nigger.come down to de quarters wid three four mens in blue clothes and told us to come up to de Big House. De Yankees didn't seem to be mad wid old Master, but jest laughed and talked wid him, but he ditto11 take de jokes any too good. Den dey asked him eouid he dance and he said no, and dey told him to dance or make us dance, Dar he stood inside a big ring of dem mens in blue clothes, wid dey brass buttons shining in de light from de fire dey had in front of de tents, and he jest stiod and said nothing, and it look lak he wasnft wanting to tell us to dance. So some of us young bucks jest step up and say we was good dancers, and we start shuffling while de rest of de niggers pat* Some nigger women go back to de quarters and git de gourd fiddles and de clapping bones made out!n beef ribs, and bring dem back so we could have some music. We git all warmed up and dance lak we never did dance befo1! I sped! we invent some new steps dat nightj 3^f Oklahoma Writers1 Project -9- We act laic we dancing for de Yankees, but we trying to please Master and old Mistress more than anything, and purty soon he begin to smile a little and we all feel a lot better* Next day de Yankees move on away from our place, and old Master start git ting ready to move out* We git de wagons we hid, and de whole passel of us leaves out for Shreveport. Jest left de old place standing like it was. In Shreveport old Master git his cotton and tobacco money what he been afraid to have sent back to de plantation when he sell his stuff, and we strike out north through Arkansas. Dat was de awfullest trip any man ever make! We had to hide from everybody until we find out if dey Yankees or Sesesh, and we go along little old back roads and up one mountain and down another, through de woods all de way. After a long time we git to the Uisscnffirj line, anpL kind of cut off through de corner of dat state into Kansas. I don't know how we ever git across some of dem rivers but we did* /Dey nearly always would be some soldiers around de fords, and dey would help us find de best crossing. Sometimes we had to unlodd de wagons and dry out de stuff what all got wet, and camp a day or two to fix up again. Purty soon we git to Port Scott, and that was whar de roads forked ever whichaways. One went on north and one east and one went d^wn into de Indian country. It was full of soldiers coming and going back and forth to Arkansas and Fort Gibson* We took de road on west through Kansas, and made for Colorado Springs. Jort Scott was all run down, and the old places whar dey used to have de soldiers was all fell in in most places. Jest old rackety walls and leaky roofs, and a big pole fence made outfn poles sot in de ground all tied together, 338 Oklahoma Writers1 Project -10^ "but it was falling down too* Ihey was lots of wagons all around what "belong to de army, hauling stuff for de soldiers, and some folks tol^: old Master he couldnft make us niggers go wid him, hut we said we wanted to anyways, so we jest went on west across Kansas. When we got away on west we come to a fork, and de best road went kinda south into Mexico,and we come to a little place called Clayton, Mexico whar we camped a while and then went north. Dat place is in Hew Mexico now, but old Master jest called it Mexico. Somebody showed me whar it is on de map, and it look lair it a long ways off'n our road to Colorado Springs, but I gaess de road jest wind off down dat ?/ays at de time we went over it. It was jest two or three houses made out!n mud at dat time, and a store whar de soldiers and de Indians come and done trading. About dat time old Master sell off some of de stuff he been taking along, f cause de wagons loaded too heavy for de mountains and he figger he better have de money than some of de stuff, I reckon. On de way north it was a funny country. We jest climb all day long git ting up one side of one bunch of mountains, and all de nigger men have to push on de wheels while de mules pull and den scotch de wheels while de mules rest. Everybody but de whitefoiks has to walk most de time. Down in de valleys it was warm like in Louisiana, but it seem lak de sun aint so hot on de head, but it look lak every time night come it ketch us up on top of one of dem mountains,* and it almost as cold as in de winter time! All de niggers had shoes and plenty warm clothes and we wrop up at night in everything we can git. Oklahoma Writers1 Project -12- Yie git to Port Scott, again, and den de Yankee officers come and ask all us niggers iffen we want to leave old Master and stay dar and work, all free now. ! cause we Old Master say we can do what we ple&se about it. A few of de niggers stay dar in Port Scott, hut most of us say we gwine stay wid old Master, and we donft care iffen we is free or not. When we git hack to Monroe to de old place us niggers git a hig surprise. We didn!t hear ahout it, hut some old Master1 s kinfolks hack in Virginia done come out dar an fix de place up and kept it for him while we in Colorado, and it look *bout as good as when we left it. He cut it up in chunks and put us niggers out on it on de halves, but he had to sell part of it to git de money to git us mules and tools and found to run on. Den after while he had to sell some more, and he seem lak he git old mighty fast. Young Master bin in de hig battles in Virginia, and he git hit, and den he git sick, and when he come home he jest lak a old man he was so feeble. About dat time they was a lot of people coming into dat country from de North, and dey kept telling de niggers dat de thing for dem to do was to be free, and come and go whar dey please. Dey try to git de darkeys to go and vote but none us folks took much stock by what dey say. Old Master tell us plenty time to mix in de politics when de youngans git educated and know what to do. Jest de same he never mind iffen we go to de dances and de singing and sech. He allus lent us a wagon iffen we want to borry one to go in, too. Some de niggers what work for de white folks from de North act purty uppity and big, and come pestering * round de dance places and try to talk up ructions amongst us, bp.t it donft last long. De Ku Eluckers start riding 'round at night, and dey pass de word Oklahoma Writers1 Project -13- dat de darkeys got to have a pass to go and come fend to stay at de dances, Dey have to git de pass from de white folks dey work for, and passes writ from de Northern people wouldn11 do no good. Dat de way de Kluckers keep the darkies in line, De IQuckers jest ride up to de dance ground and look at everybody1 s passes, and iffen some darkey dar widout a pass or got a pass from de wrong man dey run him home, and iffen he talk big and won't go home dey whop him and make him go. Any nigger out on de road after dark liable to run across de Kluckers, and he better have a good pass! All de dances got to bust ufc at about !leven ofclock, too. One time I seen three-four Kluckers on hosses, all wrapped up in white, and dey was making a black boy git home* was trotting down de road ahead of 'em# Dey was riding hosses and he Ever time he stop and start talking dey pop de whip at his heels and he start trotting^on. He was so made he was crying, but he was git ting on down de road jest de same. I seen f em coming and I gits out my pass young Master writ so I could show it, but when dey ride by one in front jest turns in his saddle and look back at tother men and nod his head, and they jest ride on by widout stopping to see my pass. Dat man knowed me, I reckon. I looks to see iffen I knowed de hoss, but de Kluckers sometime swapped dey hosses !round amongst em,.so de hoss maybe wasnft hisn. Dey wasn!t very bad fcause de niggers !round dar wasn't bad, but i hear plenty of darkeys git whopped in other places f cause dey act up and say dey don't have to take off dey hats in de white stores and such* Any nigger dat* behave hisself and don't go running 'round late at night and drinking never had no trouble* wid de Kluckers. Young Mistress go off and git married, but I don't remember de name Oklahoma Writers1 Project -14- 'cause she live off somewhar else, and de next year, I think it was, my x>appy and mammy go on a place about five miles away owned by a man named Mr. Bumpus, and I go 1long wid my sister Betty and brother JTimmie to help !em. I live around dat place and ne?er marry till old mammy and pappy both gone, and Jimmie and Betty both married and I was gitting about forty year old myself, and den I go up in Kansas and work around till I git married at last. I was in Fort Scott, and I married Mathilda Black in 1900, and she is 73 years old now and was bom in Tennessee* "We went to Pittsburgh Kansas, and lived from 1907 to 1913 when we come to Talsa. Young Master1 s children writ to me once in a while and telled me how dey gitting flong up to about twenty year ago, and den I never heard no more about * em. I never had no children, and it look laic my wife going outlive me, so my mainest hope when I go&s on is seeing Mammy and Pappy and old Master. Old overseer, I speck, was too devilish mean to be tharj Course I loves my Lord Jesus same as anybody, but you see I never hear much about Him until I was grown, and it seem laic you got to hear about religion vshen you little to soar it up and put much by it. Nobody could read de Bible when I was a boy, and dey asn!t no white preachers talked to de niggers. We had meeting sometimes, but de nigger preacher jest talk about bein a good nigger and "doing to please de Master," and I allus thou^it he meant to please old Master, ai-d I allus wanted to do dat anyways. So dat de reason I allus remember de time old Master pass on. It was about two years after de War, and old Master teen mighty porely all de time. One day we was working in de Bumpus field and a nigger come on a mule and say old Mistress like to have us go over to de old place 1 cause old Master mighty low and calling mine and Pappy1 s and Mammy1 s name. Oklahoma Writers1 Project ~15- . 3^3 Old man Bumpus say go right ahead. When we git to de Big House old Master setting propped up in de bed and you can see he mighty low and outfn his head. He been talking about gitting de oats stacked, ' cause it seem to him laic it gitting gloomy-dark, and it gwine to rain, and hail gwine to ketch de oats in de shocks* Some nigger come running up to de back door wid an old horn old Mistress^sent him out to hunt up, and he blowed it so old Master could hear it* Den purty soon de doctor come to de door and say old Master wants de bell rung 'cause de slaves should ought to be in from de fields, it gitting too dark to work* ! cause Somebody git a wagon tire and beat on it like a bell ringing, right outside old Master1 s window, and den we all go up on de porch and peep in. Every body was snuffling kind of quiet, f cause we can't help it. We hear old Master say, "Dat's all right, Simmons. niggers working in de rain. good. I don't want my Go down to de quarters and see dey all dried off Dey ain't got no sense but dey all good niggers." Everybody around de bed was crying, and we all was crying too. Den old Mistress come to de door and say we can go in and look at him if we want to. He was still setting t>ropped up, but he was gone. I stayed in Louisiana a long time after dat, but I didn't care nothing about it, and it look lak I'm staying a long time past my time in dis world, 'cause I don't care much about staying no longer only I hates to leave Mathilda. But any time de Lord want me I'm ready, and I likes to think when He ready He going tell old Master to ring de bell for me to come 6n in. 350017 Oklahoma Writers1 Project Ex-Slaves SARAH WILSON Age 87 yrs. Port Gibson, Okla. I was a Cherokee slave and now I am a Cherokee freedwoman, and "besides that I am a quarter Cherokee my own self* And this is the way it is. I was "born in 1850 along the Arkansas river about half way "between Fort Smith and old Port Coffee and the Skullyville "boat landing on the river. The farm place was on the north side of the river on the old wagon road what run from Port Smith out to Port Gibson, and that old road was like you couldnft hardly call a road when I first remember seeing it. The ox teams bog down to they "bellies in some plac^p, and the wagon wheel mighty nigh bust on the big rocks in some places. I remember seeing soldiers coming along that old road lots of times, and freighting wagons, and wagons what we all know carry mostly wiskeyf and that was "breaking the lawf tool Them soldiers catch the man with that whiskey they sure put him up for a long time, less'n he put some silver in they hands. Thatfs what my Uncle Nick say* That Uncle Nick a mean Negro, and he ought to know about that. Like I tell you, I am quarter Cherokee. she belong to old Master Ben Johnson. My mammy was named Adeline and Old Master Ben bring my grandmammy out to that Sequoyah district way back when they call it Arkansas, mammy tell me* and God only know who my mammy1 s pa is, but mine was old Master Benfs boy, Ned Johnson. i. Old Master Ben come from Tennessee when he was still a young man, and he bring a whole passel of slaves and my mammy say they all was kin to one another* all the slaves I mean. He was a white man that married a Cherokee 3^4 Oklahoma Writers1 Project woman, and he was a devil on this earth* -3- I don't want to talk about him none* White folks was mean to us like the devilf and so I jest let them pass* When I say ay brothers and sisters I mean ay half brothers and sistersf you know, but maybe some of them was ay whole kin anyways I don't know* They was Lottie that was sold off to a Starr because she wouldn't have a baby9 and Sd9 Bave9 Benf Jim and Wed* ]ty name is Sarah now but it was Annie until I was eight years old* Vfy old Mistress1 name was Annie and she name me that, and Mammy was afraid to change it until old Mistress died, then she change it* She hate old Mistress and that name too* Lottie's name was Annie, too9 but Mammy changed it in her own mind but she was afraid to say it out loud9 arfeared she would get a whipping* When sister was sold off Mammy tell her to call herself Annie when she was leaving but call herself Lottie when she git over to the Starrs* And she done it too* I seen her after that and she was called Lottie all right* The Hegroes lived all huddled up in a bunch in little one-room log cabins with stick and mud chimneys* We lived in one, and it had beds for us children like shelves in the wall* Mammy used to help us up into them* Graadmammy was mighty old and Mistress was old too* Grandmammy set on the Master's porch and minded the baby mostly* I think it was Tonng Master's* He was married to a Cherokee girl* They was several of the boys but only one girl, Hide* She old Master's boys were Aaron, John, led, Cy and Wathan* They lived in a double log house made out of square hewed logs, and with a double fireplace out of rock where they warmed theirselves on one side and cooked on the other* fhey had a long front porch where they set most of the time in the summer, and slept on it too* 345 Oklahoma Writers1 Project -3- There was over a hundred acres in the Master1 s farm, and it was all bottom laud too, and maybe you think he let them slaves off easy! from daylight to dark* Work They all hated him and the overseer too, and hefore slavery ended my grandmammy was dead and old Mistress was dead and old Master was mighty feehle and Uncle Kick had run away to the North soldiers and they never got him back* He run away once before, about ten years be- fore I was born, Mammy say, but the Cherokees went over i* the Creek Nation and got him back that time* The way he made the Negroes work so hard, old Master must have been trying to get rich* When they wouldn't stand for a whipping he would sell them* I saw him sell a old woman and her son* Must have been my aunt* She was always pestering around trying to get something for herself, and one day she was cleaning the yard he seen her pick up something and put it inside her apron* He flew at her and cussed her, and started like he was going to hit her but she just stood right up to him and never budged, and when he come close she just screamed out loud and run at him with her fingers stuck out straight and jabhed him in the belly* belly, too, and it hurt him* he set out to sell her* He had a big soft He seen she wasn't going to be afraid, and He went off on his horse to get some men to come and bid on her and her boy* and all us children was mighty scared about it* They would have hangings at Fort Smith courthouse, and old Master would take a slave there sometimes to see the hanging, and that slave would come hack and tell us all scary stories about the hanging* One time he whipped a whole bunch of the men on account of a fight in the quarters* and then he took them all to Fort Smith to see a hanging* He i34t) Oklahoma Writers1 Project tied them all in the wagon9 and when they had seen the hanging he asked them if they was scared of them dead men hanging up there They all said yes,*, of course, "but y old uncle Nick was a bad Negro and he said, "No, I aint ar feared of them nor nothing else in this world" t and old Master junped on him while he was tied and heat him with a ropef and then when they got home he tied old Nick to a tree and took his shirt off and poured the cat-o-nine~ tails to him until he fainted away and fell over like he was dead* I never forget seeing all that blood all over my uncle, and if I could hate that old Indian any more I guess I would, hut I hated him all I could already I reckon* Old Master wasnft the only hellion neither* Old Mistress just as hadf and she took most of her wrath out hitting us children all the time* was afraid of the grown Negroes* She Afraid of what they might do while old Master was away, but she beat us children all the time* She would call me, "Come he ire AnnieF and I wouldn't know what to do* If I went when she called "Annie* my mammy would beat me for answering to that name, and if I didnft go old Mistress would beat me for that# fhat made me hate both of them, and I got the devil in me and I wouldnH come to either one* My grandmammy minded the Master1 s yard, and she set on the front porch all the time, and when I was called I would run to her and she wouldnH let anybody touch me* When I was eight years old old Mistress died, and Grandmaxmqy told me why old Mistress picked on me so* blood* She told me about me being half Mister Ned's Then I knowed why Mister Ned wotad say, "Let her along, she got big big blood in her*, and then laugh* Oklahoma Writers' Project -5- 348 Young Mister Ned was a devil, too. When his mammy died he went out and "blanket married." I mean he brung in a half white and half Indian woman and just lived with her. The slaves would get rations every Monday morning to do them all week. The Overseer would weigh and measure according to how many in the family, and if you run out you just starve till you get some more. We all know the overseer steal some of it for his own self but we can't do anything, so we get it from the old Master some other way. One day I was carrying water from the spring and I run up on Grandmammy and Uncle Nick skinning a cow. "What you-all doing?", I say, and they say keep my mouth shut or they kill me. They was stealing from the Master to piece out down at the quarters with. Old Master had so many cows he never Did count the difference. I guess I wasn't any worse than any the rest of the Negroes, but I was bad to tell little lies. I carry scars on my legs to this day where Old Master whip me for lying, with a rawhide quirt he carry all the time for his horse. When I lie to him he just jump down off'n his horse and whip me good right there. In slavery days we all ate sweet potatoes all the time. When they didn't measure out enough of the tame kind we would go out in the woods and get the wild kind. They growed along the river sand betaween where we lived And Wilson's Rock, out west of our place. Then we had boiled sheep and goat, mostly goat, and milk and wild greens and corn pone. I think the goat meat was the best, but I aint had no teeth for forty years now, and a chunk of meat hurts my stomach. So I just eats Oklahoma Writers' Project -6- grits mostly* Besides hoeing in the field, chopping sprouts, shearing sheep, carrying water, cutting firewood, picking cotton and sewing I was the one they picked to work Mistress1 little garden where she raised things from seed they got in Tort Smith* Green peas and beans and radishes and things like that* If we raised a good garden she give me a little of itf and if we had a poor one I got a little anyhow even when she didnH give it* For clothes we had homespun cotton all the year round, but in winter we had a sheep skin jacket with the wool left on the inside* Sometimes sheep skin shoes with the wool on the inside and sometimes real cow leather shoes with wood peggings for winter, but always barefooted in summer, all the men and women too# Lord, I never earned a dime of money in slave days for myself but plenty for the old Master* He would send us out to work the neighbors field and he got paid for it, but we never did see any money* I remember the first money I ever did see* It was a little while after we was free, and I found a greenback in the road at Fort Gibson and I didnft know what it was* Mammy said it was money and grabbed for i'$, but I was still a hell cat and I run with it* I went to the little sutler store and laid it down and pointed to a pitcher I been wanting* The man took the money and give me the pitcher, but I donft know to this day how moch money it was and how much was the pitcher, but I still got that pitcher put away* Itfs all blue and white stripedy* Most of the work I done off the plantation was sewing* I learned from my Granny and I loved to sew* That was about the only thing I was industrious in* When I was just a little bitsy girl I found a steel needle in the yard that belong to old Mistress* fcftr mammy took it and I cried* She put it in her 349 Oklahoma Writers1 Project dress and started for the field* ~7U I cried so old Mistress found out why and made Mammy give me the needle for my own# We had some neighbor Indians named Starr, and Mrs. Starr used me sometimes to sew* She had nine boys and one girl, and she would sew vop all they clothes at once to do for a year* She would cut out the cloth for about a week, and then send the word around to all the neighbors, and old Mistress would send me becauss she couldnft see good to sew* They would have stacks of drawers, shirts, pants and some dresses all cut out to sew up* I was the only Negro that would set there and sew in that bunch of women, and they always talked to me nice and when they eat I get part of it too, out in the kitchen* One Negro girl, Eula Davis, had a mistress sent her too, one timef but she wouldn*t sew. She didnH like me because she said I was too white and she played off to sptfte the white people* She got sent home, too* When old Mistress die I done all the sewing for the family almost* I could sew good enough to go out before I was eight years old, and when I got to be about ten I was better than any other girl on the place for sewing* I can still quilt without my glasses, and I have sewed all night long many a time while I was watching Young Master1 s baby after old Mistress died* They was over a hundred acres in the plantation, and I donft know how many slaves, but before the War ended lots of the men had run away* Uncle Nick went to the North and never come home, and Grandmammy died about that time* We was way down across the Red river in Texas at that time, close to Shawneetown of the Choctaw Nation but just across the river on the other side in Texas bottoms* Old Master took us there in covered wagons when the o50 Oklahoma Writers1 Project -8- Yankee soldiers got too close by in the first part of the War. He hired the slaves out to Texas people because he didnH make any crops down there, and we all lived in kind of camps* That's how some of the men and my uncle Nick got to slip off to the north that way. Old Master just rant and rave all the time we was in Texas# Thatfs the first time I ever saw a doctor. Before that when a slave sick the old women give them herbs, but down there one day old Master whip a Negro girl and she fall in the fire, and he had a doctor come out to fix her up where she was burnt. I remember Qrsuiny giving me clabber milk when I was sick, and when I was grown I found out it had had medicine in it. Before freedom we didn't have no church, but slipped around to the other cabins and had a little singing sometimes. Couldn't have anybody show us the letters either, and you better not let them catch you pick up a book even to look at the pictures, for it was against a Cherokee law to have a Negro read and write or to teach a Negro Some Negroes believed in buckeyes and charms but I never did Old Master had some good boys, named Aaron, John, Ned, Cy and Nat and they told me the charms was no good. Their sister Nicie told me too, and said when I was sick just come and tell her. They didnH tell us anything about Christmas and New Year though, and all we done was work. When the War was ended we was still in Texas, and when old Master got a letter from Fort Smith telling him the slaves was free he couldnft read, and Young Miss read it to hinu devil out of her. He went wild and jumped on her and beat the Said she was lying to him. It hear about killed him to let us loose, but he cooled down after awhile and said he would help us all 35i Oklahoma Writers1 project -9* get hack home if we wanted to come* Mammy told him she could bear her own expenses* I remember I didnft know what 'expenses* wasf and I thought it was something I was going to have to help carry all the way back* It was a long time after he knew we was free before he told us* tried to keep us, I reckon, but had to let us go* He He died pretty soon after he told us, and some said his heart just broke and some said some Negroes poisoned him* I didnU know which* Anyways we had to straggle back the best way we could, and me and mammy just got along one way and another till we got to a ferry orer the Bed River and into Arkansas* Fort Smith* Then we got some rides and walked some until we got to They was a lot of Negro camps there and we stayed awhile and then started out to Tort Gibson because we heard they was giving rations out there* Mammy knew we was Cherokee anyway, I guess* That trip was hell on earth* Nobody let us ride and it took us nearly two weeks to walk all that ways, and we nearly starved all the time* We was skin and bones and feet all bloody when we got to the Port* We come here to Four Mile Branch to where the Negroes was all setting down, and pretty soon Mammy died* I married Oliver Wilson on January second, 1878* He used to belong to Mr* DeWitt Wilson of Tahlequah, and I think the old people used to live down at Wilson Bock because my husband used to know all about that place and the place where I was borned* Old Mister DeWitt Wilson give me a pear tree the next year after I was married, and it is still out in my yard and bears every year* I was married in a white and black checkedy calico apron that 1 washed Oklahoma Writers1 Project *10- for Mr* Tim Walkerfs mother Lizsie all day for, over close to Ft* Gibson, and I was sure a happy woman nhen I married that day* Him and me both got our land on our Cherokee f reedman blood and I have lived to bury ay husband and see two great grandchildren so far* I bless God about Abraham Lincoln* pictures of him in Tort Smith for a Jew* I remember when my mammy sold If he give ma my freedom I know he is in Heaven now* I heard a lot about Jefferson Davis in my life* During the War we hear the Negroes singing the soldier song about hand Jeff Davis to a apple tree, and old Master tell about the time we know Jeff Davis* Old Master way Jeff Davis was just a dragoon soldier out of lort 9it>so& when lie bring his family out here from Tennessee, and while they was on the road from Fort Smith to where they settled young Jeff Davis and some more dragoon soldiers rid up and talked to him a long time* and Jeff Davis say* she said, He say my grandmamsy had a bundle on her head, "Where you going AuntyT" and she was tired and mad and M I donft know, to Hell I reckon", and all the white soldiers la&gftsd at her and made her that much madder* I Joined the four Mile Branch ctaireh in 18v9 and Sam Solomon was a Creek negro and the first preacner I ever heard preach* Everybody ought to be in the church and ready for that better home on the other side* All the old slaves I know are dead excepting two, and I will be going pretty soon I reckon, but Ifm glad I lived to see the day the Negroes get the right treatment if they work good and behave themselves right* They donft have to have no pass to walk abroad no more, and they can all read and write now, but it's a tarnation shame some of them go and read the wrong kind of things anyways* Oklahoma Writers1 Project. 32x-Slaves 10-19-38 1,534 words TOM W. WOODS Age 83, Alderson* Okla. lady, if de nigger hadn't been set free dis country wouldn't ever been what it is now! Poor white folks wouldn't never had a chance. De slave holders had most of de money and de land and dey wouldn't let de poor white folks have a chance to own any land or anything else to speak of. Dese white folks wasn't much better off dan we was. Dey had to work hard and dey had to worry *bout food, clothes and shelter and we didn't. Lots of slave owners wouldn11 allow dem on deir farms among deir slaves without orders from de overseer. I don't know why, unless he was afraid dey would stir up discontent among de niggers. Dere was lots of "under- ground railroading11 and I rekon dat was what Old Master and others was afraid of. Us darkies was taught dat poor white folks didnft amount to much* Course we knowed dey was white and we was black and dey was to be respected for dat, but dat was about all. White folks as well as niggers profited by/JSmancipation. Lincoln was a friend to all poor white folks as well as black ones and if he could a1 lived things would a1been different for ever1 body. Dis has been a good old world to live in. I always been able to make a purty good living and de only trouble I ever had has been sickness and death* I*ve had a sight of dat kind of trouble. and eight children. I*ve outlived two wives I had 13 brothers and sisters and I was de oldest* and Pk de only one left. - :Iisi*s here at night by Djiyself and gits to wondering wfa&t de gswl^ord 354 -s- is sparing me for. 355i I reckon it1 s for some good reaan, and I'd like to Ifm not tired of living yetl live to "be a hundred if &e wants me to* I was "born in Florence, Alabama. and my mammy was Frances Fester* My father1 s name was Thomas Woods Mammy belonged to Wash Foster and father was owned by moses Woods, who lived on an adjoining plantation* ,He worked for his Master ever1 day but spent each night, wid us* He wa3.ked !bout a mile to his work ever1 day* Master Wash was a poor man when he married Miss Sarah Watkins of Richmond, Virginia* Her father was as rich as cream, he owned 7 plantations and 200 slaves to each plantation* When Master Wash and Miss Sarah got married her father give her 50 slaves* Ever1 body said Miss Mary jest married Master Wash because he was a purty boy, and he sure was a fine looking man. He was good and kind to all his slaves when he was sober, but he was awful crabbed and cross when he was drunk, and he was drunk most of de time. He was hard to please and sometimes he would whip de slaves* seeing Master Wash whup two men once* He give Miss Sarah was de best woman in de world* f I remember em S00 lashes. It takes a good woman to live wid a drunkard. Iwo of the men ran away one time and was gone till dey got.tired of staying away* Master Wash wouldn11 let anyone hunt fem* When dey finally come home he had dem strapped in stocks and den deir bodies bared to de waist and he sure did ply de lash* I guess he whupped !em harder dan he would if he hadn't been so full of whisky. He never did sell any of his slaves. faiher give fem aiid deir increase. He kept the 50 dat Miss Sarah1 s He bought some ever1 time dey had a sale. He owned Wo plantations and dey was about a hundred slaves on each one. -3- $giB Him and his family lived in town* Me and a boy named John was sized and put to work when we was about nine or ten years old* We was so bad dey had to put us to work as dey couldn*t do any thing else with us. Wefd chase de pigs and ride da calves and to punish us dey made us tote water to de hands* Dey was so many hands, to water dat it kept us busy running back and forth with de water. De next, year dey put me to plowing and him to hoeing. We made regular hands from den on. * If we had behaved ourselves we wouldn't a 'had to go to work till we was fourteen or fifteen anyway* Slave owners was awful good to deir nigger chaps for dey wanted * em to grow up to be strong men and women* Dey was about thirty children on our plantation. Two women looked after us and took care of us till our parents come in from de field* #ey cooked for us and always gave us our supper and sent us home to our parents for de ni^it* Our food was placed on a long table in a trough. and four of us eat out of one trough* bread. Each child had a spoon Our food at night was mostly milk and At noon we had vegetables, bread, meat and milk* better food than he did his field hands* He gave us more and He said he dicta* t want none of us to be stunted in our growing* o He bought our shoes for us but cl th for our clothes was spun and wove right there on de} f arm* pants* In summer us boys wore long tailed shirts and no Ifve plowed dat way a many a day. We was $Lad to see it git warm in de spring so we could go barefooted and go wid out our pants* Our overseers lived near de quarters and every morning about four o1 clock