Read Ebook: Slave Narratives: A Folk History of Slavery in the United States from Interviews with Former Slaves Volume X Missouri Narratives by United States Work Projects Administration

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Slave Narratives

Volume X: Missouri Narratives

SLAVE NARRATIVES

TYPEWRITTEN RECORDS PREPARED BY

THE FEDERAL WRITERS' PROJECT

ASSEMBLED BY

THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS PROJECT

WORK PROJECTS ADMINISTRATION

FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA

SPONSORED BY THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS

WASHINGTON 1941

VOLUME X

MISSOURI NARRATIVES

Prepared by the Federal Writers' Project of

the Works Progress Administration

for the State of Missouri

Handwritten note

Transcriber's note

INFORMANTS

? James Monroe Abbot ? Betty Abernathy ? Hannah Allen ? W.C. Parson Allen ? Charles Gabriel Anderson ? Jane Baker ? Mary A. Bell ? William Black ? George Bollinger ? Annie Bridges ? Betty Brown ? Steve Brown ? Richard Bruner ? Robert Bryant ? Alex Bufford ? Harriet Casey ? Joe Casey ? Lula Chambers ? Emmaline Cope ? Peter Corn ? Ed Craddock ? Isabelle Daniel ? Henry Dant ? Lucy Davis ? Mary Divine ? Mary Douthit ? John Estell ? Smoky Eulenberg ? Ann Ulrich Evans ? James Goings ? Rachael Goings ? Sarah Frances Shaw Graves ? Emily Camster Green ? Lou Griffin ? Louis Hamilton ? Fil Hancock ? Dave Harper ? Clara McNeely Harrell ? Joe Higgerson ? Delia Hill ? Louis Hill ? Rhody Holsell ? Henry Johnson ? Hannah Jones ? Emma Knight ? Harriet Lee ? Mattie Lee ? Wes Lee ? Perry McGee ? John McGuire ? Eliza Madison ? Drucilla and Richard Martin ? Hattie Matthews ? Letha Taylor Meeks ? Wylie Miller ? Lewis Mundy ? Malinda Murphy ? Margaret Nickens ? Eliza Overton ? Delicia Ann Wiley Patterson ? Marilda Pethy ? Susan Rhodes ? Charlie Richardson ? Madison Frederick Ross ? Alice Sewell ? Perry Sheppard ? Frank Sides ? Mollie Renfro Sides ? Jane Simpson ? Clay Smith ? Gus Smith ? Ann Stokes ? Edward Taylor ? Tishey Taylor ? Louis Thomas ? Jane Thompson ? Sarah Waggoner ? Minksie Walker ? James Wilson ? Mintie Gilbert Wood ? Ellaine Wright ? Sim Younger

Sarah Frances Shaw Graves Drucilla and Richard Martin

James Monroe Abbot

"I's born on December 25, 1854. My muthuh wuz Allie Ann Lane. Aftuh 'mancipation I tuk my daddies name Abbot--he wuz Anthony Abbot, an' belonged to Ole' Joe Abbot, a neighbor. Our Mastuh wuz Joe Lane an' our Missus wuz Jane Knox Lane. Dey had a girl, Barbara Ellen, an' two boys, Tom en' Ed. Latuh years dey had more boys but I nevuh knowd dem.

"De white folks house wuz big, wid porches, an flowers all aroun', an sweet locust trees in de do' yard. Dis wuz up in Perry County, a few miles fum Seventy Six Landing.

"When Ole Mastuh died, dat wuz de fathuh ob young Mastuh Joe--he war sick a long time. Dar he lay fum openin' o' spring, 'bout de time flies cum, 'til wheat-sowin' time in de fall. An' it's de God's trufe, all dat time he made me stan' side o' his bed--keepin' de flies offen him, I wuz jes seben year ole but dere I had tuh stan, day en night, night en day. Co'se I'd sleep sumtimes wen he wuz sleepin'. Sumtimes when I'd doze, my bresh ud fall on he's face, den he'd take he's stick an' whack me a few across de haid an' he'd say, 'Now I dare you to cry.' I cried, but he didden see me do it.

"Aftuh de buryin' was over, Young Joe an' Jane stood dar on de porch an' dey call de darkies up one at a time. Fust dey calls ma Grampa an' young Joe says, 'Yo ole Mastuh's daid. Now I's you' Mastuh, an' Miss Jane here is your Missus. Do you unnerstand dat?' Grampa say 'Yessir' an pass on. Nex' he call Lucy, den Aunt Hanna. To each one he says de same, 'I's yore Mastuh and Miss' Jane here is yore New Missus'--sum ob' em says 'Yessir', sum ob' em jes kinda bows dey haid an' pass on. Wen he call mah Muthuh up an' say de same tuh her--she look at him a minit den she say, 'I know'd yuh all dese year as Joe an' her as Jane, an' I ain't gonna start now callin' you Mastuh or Missus. I'll call you Joe an' Jane like I allus done,' an' she walked away.

"One time 'fore dat she puddin near kill young Joe. She wuh hoeing corn in de field an he cum ridin'--I spect he war jes tryin' to be smaht but he tells her to swallow dat tobbaccy she got in huh mouth. She don' pay him no mind an' he tell her agin. Den she say, 'You chewing tobaccy? Whyn't yuh swaller dat?' Dat make him mad and he take a double rope en whack her cross de sholders. Den she grab huh fingers roun' his throat, an his face wuh all black es my own 'fore dey pulls her offen him. Den Ole Mastuh try tuh whup her, but he couldn' by hisself, so he sends fo' three nigger-buyers dat's close by. When one o' em tells muthuh to put her han's togedder so he tie em, she grab him by de collar an' de seat o' he's pants an knock's his haid agin a post like a battern' ram. Den Ole Mastuh say, 'Men, yo' better go on home. I don' want my cullud folks to git hurt.' He said it like dat.

"My Muthuh wuz big an' strong. She nevuh worked in de house none but dey warn't nothin' on de place dat she couldn' do. She cud cut down a big tree en chop off a rail length an' use a wedge an' maul an' make rails as good as anybody. Pore Muthuh, she shore did have a hard time. Dey warn't never nuthin' for her but work hard all de time, she neveh came in fum de fiel' 'til dark, den had to feed wid a lantern.

"George Swan, a neighbor used tuh whup ole Felix with a cat-o'-nine-tails til we'd hear him holler over at our place.

"I 'member one time de snow wuz a foot deep an I had tuh gathuh corn. I wuz barefooted an' barehanded. Mah feet hurt so bad an' mah hands got so stiff I couldn' work mah fingers, but ah had tuh keep on breakin' off de corn. Dat night mah feet crack open an' nex' mahnin' when I had tuh make de fires I lef' a track o' blood across de' flo.' Dey shore wuz mean to us but God Bless you, dey's all daid an' gone an' de Lawd has spared me.

"Wen de war cum, lots o' cullud men went off to fight fo de Government. Young Mastuh Joe nevuh went but whenever de sojers cum aroun' Mastuh Joe couldn' nevuh be foun.'

"Dey wuz a battle a few mile away an' dey said you couldn' walk on de groun' wifout steppin on daid men.

"Wen de war wuz over dey didden want us to know 'bout it. Dey want to keep us es long es dey could. But it cum out in de papers dat de Guvment men wuz gonna cum round an' see so dey had tuh turn us loose.

"Abe Lincoln wuz de honestest President we evuh had. Ef it warn't fo' him we'd still be in bondage.

"If you puts two hoss-shoes above youh door--one up an' one down--it'll shore catch de wiches if dey tries tuh come through.

"One time it wuz in de evenin' I wuz puttin hay in de pen fo de hosses at night, an I see a big white light a-cummin' up de lane jes a little above de top o' de fence. It wuz big an' shiny white. I wuzn' rightly skeered but I stood dere watchin' it. It cum up an followed de' fence to de road. I watched to see did it go to de graveyard, an' shure nuf it did. It meant sumpin' but I don' know whut. An den one day, 'bout noon I seed sumpin. I wuz out side dar an a little dog cum towards me. It wo' a bright collar, shinin' like, an' pretty. I ain't nevuh seed nuthin' like it. I goes to it an calls, 'Heah puppy, heah puppy.' It stan dere n' look at me fir a minit den turn an' jump ovuh dat ten rail fence an' is lost in de tall weeds. Now you know no natchel puppy could jump ovuh a ten-rail fence. I goes in an tells Hanna de cook 'bout it an' she say, 'Lawd ha' mercy! dat's a token fo' sumpin. I don' know whut--mebby somebody gonna die, but it sho' is a token.'"

Betty Abernathy

"My muthuh brought me to Cape Girardeau in 1862, an' I was 'bout ten yeah ol' at dat time. Huh name was Malissa Abernathy an' she tole' me that 'Ole Massa' John Abernathy was mah daddy. 'Ole Massa' was mean to his cullud folks and so was 'Ole Missis Willie'.

"We lived up in Perry County. The white folk had a nice big house an' they was a number of poor little cabins fo' us folks. Ours was one room, built of logs, an' had a puncheon floor. 'Ole 'Massa' had a number of slaves but we didden' have no school, 'ner church an' mighty little merry-makin'. Mos'ly, we went barefooted the yeah 'round.

"My muthuh an' some of the othuh women done the weavin' an' sewin'. I learned to spin, I could fill broaches and spin as good as any of 'em. One time 'Ole' Tom Johnson, the 'nigger-buyer' come up frum Little Rock. He was go'in to buy muthuh an' her family, and take us to Arkansas, but 'bout that time they was so much talk 'bout freein' the slaves, he was 'fraid to.

"Mostly we had right fair eatin's. We didn't go into the big house much, jes' on cleanin' days an' such like.

"Ole Massa' often hired his cullud folks out to neighbuh farmuh an' he didden' care how they was treated. One time my two brothers was hired out an' in the evenin' they came an' tole muthuh they was goin' to run away 'cause they's treated so mean. She begged 'em not to come there to hide 'cause they'd find 'em 'shore, an' most likely kill 'em right before her eyes. They got away an' 'Ole Massa' come to the cabin to search fo' 'em. When muthuh tole him she didn't know where they was, he tied a rope 'round huh neck, an' tied the other end to the raftuhs. Then he beat her to make her tell.

"Aftuh this we was treated so mean that a neighbor helped us escape. We-all got in a big wagon, 'bout ten or twelve of us, an' druv us to the Cape, where they's sojers who'd protect us.

"I remembuh when we got there, they put us in a long, low, frame house, that stood on the cornuh where Mr. Hecht now lives. Here we lived fo' a long time. Muthuh an' I had no trouble findin' work to do. She hired me out fo' twenty-five cents a week an' I was so proud to be earnin' money that I nevuh thought 'bout learnin' to read or write."

Hannah Allen

One of the oldest ex-slaves encountered in Missouri is "Aunt" Hannah Allen of Fredericktown, who claims she is 107 years old. According to Madison County records, Aunt Hannah gave her age as 82 when she made application for a marriage license in Fredericktown in 1912.

In spite of her extreme age, Aunt Hannah is able to do all of the work around her house and she frequently walks up town and back, a distance of several blocks. Her eyesight is very good and even at her advanced age she does not have to wear glasses. She claims her grandfather was a white man and she attributes her unusual health to several causes. She was well treated as a slave during her younger years when she was under the ownership of a family named Bollinger. She is childless and has been content to live on the same spot during the last 71 years. Being a Negro, she naturally does not take life seriously but as she expresses it "jes' lives it like it comes".

In reviewing the incidents which she was able to recall on the occasion of the writer's recent visit to her home, she outlined her story as follows:

"Down in Pocahontas, Arkansas, a man had 400 slaves and de boss would allow an old colored man to have meetins every Saturday night and of a Friday night dey would have a class meeting. Several of dem got religion right out in de field and would kneel down in de cornfield. De boss went home and told his wife he thought de slaves was losin' their minds 'cause dey was all kneeling down in de field. De boss' daughter also got religion and went down to de mourners' bench. De colored church finally made de boss and his whole family get religion. De old white mistress would sing and pray while she washed dishes, milked de cows, and made biscuits. So dey called de doctor and he come and said dat God had got a hold on her.

"One of de darkies had a baby out in de field about eleven o'clock one morning. De doctor come out there to her. She was sick a long time 'cause she got too hot before de chile was born. After dis happened de boss got to be a better man. Dis old boss at first would not let the darkies have any church meetins.

"On Sunday dere at home de colored folks could get all de water dat ran from de maple trees. De slaves would get through their work for de boss and den dere would sometimes be three days when dey could work for themselves. Den dey would get paid for working for others and den buy clothes. Dey had de finest boots.

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