Chapter X: Part 10

"My mother name was Hannah Hadnot and my daddy was Ruffin Hadnot and he used to carry the mail from Weiss Bluff to Jasper. They waylay him 'long the road in 1881 and kill him and rob the mail.

"Luke Hadnot was our old massa. He good to my grandma and give her license for a doctor woman. Old massa must of thought lots of her, 'cause he give her forty acres of land and a home fer herself. That house still standin' up there in Jasper, yet.

"Grandma used to sing a li'l song to us, like this:

"'One mornin' in May,
I spies a beautiful dandy,
A-rakin' way of de hay.
I asks her to marry.
She say, scornful, 'No.'
But befo' six months roll by
Her apron strings wouldn't tie
She wrote me a letter,
She marry me then,
I say, no, no, my gal, not I.'

"Grandma git de bark offen de thorn tree and bile it with turpentine for de toothache. She used herbs for de medicine and they's good.

"Old missy was tall and slim, a rawbone sort of woman. Her name was Matilda Hadnot. Massa have as big a still as ever I seed and dey used to make everything there. They has it civered with boards they rive out the woods. There wasn't no revenuers in dem days.

"Us gits de groceries by steamboat and the wagons go down the old Bevilport Road to the steamboat landin'. That the Ang'leen River. One the biggest boats was own by Capt. Bryce Hadnot, the 'Old Grim.'

"I 'member back durin' the war the people couldn't git no coffee. They used to take bran and peanuts and okra seed and sich and parch 'em for coffee. It make right drinkable coffee. They gits sugar from the store or the sugar cane. When they buy it, it's in a big, white lump what they calls 'sugar loaf.' When they has no sugar they uses the syrup to sweeten the coffee and they call syrup 'long sweetenin' and sugar, 'short sweetenin'.

"Us has lots of dances with fiddle and 'corjum player. Us sing, 'Swing you partner, Promenade.' Another li'l song start out:

"'Dinah got a meat skin lay away,
Grease dat wooden leg, Dinah.
Grease dat wooden leg, Dinah.
Shake dat wooden leg, Dinah,
Shake dat wooden leg, Dinah.'

I 'members this song:

"'Down in Shiloh town,
Down in Shiloh town,
De old grey mare come
Tearin' out de wilderness.
Down in Shiloh town,
O, boys, O,
O, boys, O,
Down in Shiloh town.'

"I's seed lots of blue gum niggers and they say iffen they bite you dey pizen you. They hands diff'rent from other niggers. Now, my hand's right smart white in the inside, but blue gum nigger hand is more browner on the inside.

"I used to have a old aunt name Harriett and iffen she tell you anythin' you kin jes' put it down it gwineter come out like she say. She have the big mole on the inside her mouth and when she shake her finger at you it gwine happen to you jes' like she say. That what they call puttin' bad mouth on them and she sho' could do it.

"I's had 12 chillen. My first husban was Anthony Adams and the last Alfred Kindred. I only got three chillen livin' now, though. One of the sons am the outer door guard of the lodge here in Beaumont.

420311

NANCY KING, 93, was born in Upshur County, Texas, a slave of
William Jackson. She and her husband moved to Marshall, Texas, in
1866. Nancy now lives with her daughter, Lucy Staples.

"I was borned and raised on William Jackson's place, jus' twelve miles east of Gilmer. I was growed and had one child at surrender, and my mother told me I was a woman of my own when Old Missie sot us free, jus' after surrender, so you can figurate my age from that.

"My first child was borned the January befo' surrender in June, and I 'members hoeing in the field befo' the war come on. Massa William raised lots of cotton and corn and tobacco and most everything we et. I never worked in the field, 'cept to chase the calves in, till I was most growed. Massa was good to us. Course, I never went to school, but Old Missie sent my brother, Alex, two years after the war, with her own chillen.

"I was married durin' the war and it was at church, with a white preacher. Old Missie give me the cloth and dye for my weddin' dress and my mother spun and dyed the cloth, and I made it. It was homespun but nothin' cheap 'bout it for them days. After the weddin' massa give us a big dinner and we had a time.

"Massa done all the bossin' his own self. He never whipped me, but Old Missie had to switch me a little for piddlin' round, 'stead of doin' what she said. Every Sat'day night we had a candy pullin' and played games, and allus had plenty of clothes and shoes.

"I seed the soldiers comin' and gwine to the war, and 'members when Massa William left to go fight for the South. His boy, Billie, was sixteen, and tended the place while massa's away. Massa done say he'd let the niggers go without fightin'. He didn't think war was right, but he had to go. He 'serts and comes home befo' the war gits goin' good and the soldiers come after him. He run off to the bottoms, but they was on hosses and overtook him. I was there in the room when they brung him back. One of them says, 'Jackson, we ain't gwine take you with us now, but we'll fix you so you can't run off till we git back.' They put red pepper in his eyes and left. Missie cried. They come back for him in a day or two and made my father saddle up Hawk-eye, massa's best hoss. Then they rode away and we never seed massa 'gain. One day my brother, Alex, hollers out, 'Oh, Missie, yonder is the hoss, at the gate, and ain't nobody ridin' him.' Missie throwed up her hands and says, 'O, Lawdy, my husban' am dead!' She knowed somehow when he left he wasn't comin' back.

"Old Missie freed us but said we had a home as long as she did. Me and my husban' stays 'bout a year, but my folks stays till she marries 'gain.

"My brother-in-law, Sam Pitman, tells us how he put one by the Ku Kluxers. Him and some niggers was out one night and the Kluxers chases them on hosses. They run down a narrow road and tied four strands of grapevine 'cross the road, 'bout breast high to a hoss. The Kluxers come gallopin' down that road and when the hosses hit that grapevine, it throwed them every which way and broke some their arms. Sam used to laugh and tell how them Kluxers cussed them niggers.

"Me and my husban' come to Marshall the year after surrender, and I is lived here every since. My man works on farms till he got on the railroad. I's been married four times and raised six chillen. The young people is diff'rent from what we was, but diff'rent times calls for diff'rent ways, I 'spect. My chillen allus done the best they could by me.

420272

SILVIA KING, French Negress of Marlin, Texas, does not know her
age, but says that she was born in Morocco. She was stolen from her
husband and three children, brought to the United States and sold
into slavery. Silvia has the appearance of extreme age, and may be
close to a hundred years old, as she thinks she is, because of her
memories of the children she never saw again and of the slave ship.

"I know I was borned in Morocco, in Africa, and was married and had three chillen befo' I was stoled from my husband. I don't know who it was stole me, but dey took me to France, to a place called Bordeaux, and drugs me with some coffee, and when I knows anything 'bout it, I's in de bottom of a boat with a whole lot of other niggers. It seem like we was in dat boat forever, but we comes to land, and I's put on de block and sold. I finds out afterwards from my white folks it was in New Orleans where dat block was, but I didn't know it den.

"We was all chained and dey strips all our clothes off and de folks what gwine buy us comes round and feels us all over. Iffen any de niggers don't want to take dere clothes off, de man gits a long, black whip and cuts dem up hard. I's sold to a planter what had a big plantation in Fayette County, right here in Texas, don't know no name 'cept Marse Jones.

"Marse Jones, he am awful good, but de overseer was de meanest man I ever knowed, a white man name Smith, what boasts 'bout how many niggers he done kilt. When Marse Jones seed me on de block, he say, 'Dat's a whale of a woman.' I's scairt and can't say nothin', 'cause I can't speak English. He buys some more slaves and dey chains us together and marches us up near La Grange, in Texas. Marse Jones done gone on ahead and de overseer marches us. Dat was a awful time, 'cause us am all chained up and whatever one does us all has to do. If one drinks out of de stream we all drinks, and when one gits tired or sick, de rest has to drag and carry him. When us git to Texas, Marse Jones raise de debbil with dat white man what had us on da march. He git de doctor man and tell de cook to feed us and lets us rest up.

"After 'while, Marse Jones say to me, 'Silvia, am you married?' I tells him I got a man and three chillen back in de old country, but he don't understand my talk and I has a man give to me. I don't bother with dat nigger's name much, he jes' Bob to me. But I fit him good and plenty till de overseer shakes a blacksnake whip over me.

"Marse Jones and Old Miss finds out 'bout my cookin' and takes me to de big house to cook for dem. De dishes and things was awful queer to me, to what I been brung up to use in France. I mostly cooks after dat, but I's de powerful big woman when I's young and when dey gits in a tight [Handwritten Note: 'place?'] I helps out.

"'Fore long Marse Jones 'cides to move. He allus say he gwine git where he can't hear he neighbor's cowhorn, and he do. Dere ain't nothin' but woods and grass land, no houses, no roads, no bridges, no neighbors, nothin' but woods and wild animals. But he builds a mighty fine house with a stone chimney six foot square at de bottom. The sill was a foot square and de house am made of logs, but dey splits out two inch plank and puts it outside de logs, from de ground clean up to de eaves. Dere wasn't no nails, but dey whittles out pegs. Dere was a well out de back and a well on de back porch by de kitchen door. It had a wheel and a rope. Dere was 'nother well by de barns and one or two round de quarters, but dey am fixed with a long pole sweep. In de kitchen was de big fireplace and de big back logs am haul to de house. De oxen pull dem dat far and some men takes poles and rolls dem in de fireplace. Marse Jones never 'low dat fire go out from October till May, and in de fall Marse or one he sons lights de fire with a flint rock and some powder.

"De stores was a long way off and de white folks loans seed and things to each other. If we has de toothache, de blacksmith pulls it. My husband manages de ox teams. I cooks and works in Old Miss's garden and de orchard. It am big and fine and in fruit time all de women works from light to dark dryin' and 'servin' and de like.

"Old Marse gwine feed you and see you quarters am dry and warm or know de reason why. Most ev'ry night he goes round de quarters to see if dere any sickness or trouble. Everybody work hard but have plenty to eat. Sometimes de preacher tell us how to git to hebben and see de ring lights dere.

"De smokehouse am full of bacon sides and cure hams and barrels lard and 'lasses. When a nigger want to eat, he jes' ask and git he passel. Old Miss allus 'pend on me to spice de ham when it cure. I larnt dat back in de old country, in France.

"Dere was spinnin' and weavin' cabins, long with a chimney in each end. Us women spins all de thread and weaves cloth for everybody, de white folks, too. I's de cook, but times I hit de spinnin' loom and wheel fairly good. Us bleach de cloth and dyes it with barks.

"Dere allus de big woodpile in de yard, and de big, caboose kettle for renderin' hawg fat and beef tallow candles and makin' soap. Marse allus have de niggers take some apples and make cider, and he make beer, too. Most all us had cider and beer when we want it, but nobody git drunk. Marse sho' cut up if we do.

"Old Miss have de floors sanded, dat where you sprinkles fine, white sand over da floor and sweeps it round in all kinds purty figgers. Us make a corn shuck broom.

"Marse sho' a fool 'bout he hounds and have a mighty fine pack. De boys hunts wolves and painters (panthers) and wild game like dat. Dere was lots of wild turkey and droves of wild prairie chickens. Dere was rabbits and squirrels and Indian puddin', make of cornmeal. It am real tasty. I cooks goose and pork and mutton and bear meat and beef and deer meat, den makes de fritters and pies and dumplin's. Sho' wish us had dat food now.

"On de cold winter night I's sot many a time spinnin' with two threads, one in each hand and one my feets on de wheel and de baby sleepin' on my lap. De boys and old men was allus whittlin' and it wasn't jes' foolishment. Dey whittles traps and wooden spoons and needles to make seine nets and checkers and sleds. We all sits workin' and singin' and smokin' pipes. I likes my pipe right now, and has two clay pipes and keeps dem under de pillow. I don't aim for dem pipes to git out my sight. I been smokin' clost to a hunerd years now and it takes two cans tobaccy de week to keep me goin'.

"Dere wasn't many doctors dem days, but allus de closet full of simples (home remedies) and most all de old women could git med'cine out de woods. Ev'ry spring, Old Miss line up all de chillen and give dem a dose of garlic and rum.

"De chillen all played together, black and white. De young ones purty handy trappin' quail and partridges and sech. Dey didn't shoot if dey could cotch it some other way, 'cause powder and lead am scarce. Dey cotch de deer by makin' de salt lick, and uses a spring pole to cotch pigeons and birds.

"De black folks gits off down in de bottom and shouts and sings and prays. Dey gits in de ring dance. It am jes' a kind of shuffle, den it git faster and faster and dey gits warmed up and moans and shouts and claps and dances. Some gits 'xhausted and drops out and de ring gits closer. Sometimes dey sings and shouts all night, but come break of day, de nigger got to git to he cabin. Old Marse got to tell dem de tasks of de day.

"Old black Tom have a li'l bottle and have spell roots and water in it and sulphur. He sho' could find out if a nigger gwine git whipped. He have a string tie round it and say, 'By sum Peter, by sum Paul, by de Gawd dat make us all, Jack don't you tell me no lie, if marse gwine whip Mary, tell me.' Sho's you born, if dat jack turn to de laft, de nigger git de whippin', but if marse ain't makeup he mind to whip, dat jack stand and quiver.

"You white folks jes' go through de woods and don't know nothin'. Iffen you digs out splinters from de north side a old pine tree what been struck by lightnin', and gits dem hot in a iron skillet and burns dem to ashes, den you puts dem in a brown paper sack. Iffen de officers gits you and you gwine have it 'fore de jedge, you gits de sack and goes outdoors at midnight and hold de bag of ashes in you hand and look up at de moon--but don't you open you mouth. Nex' mornin' git up early and go to de courthouse and sprinkle dem ashes in de doorway and dat law trouble, it gwine git tore up jes' like de lightnin' done tore up dat tree.

"De shoestring root am powerful strong. Iffen you chews on it and spits a ring round de person what you wants somethin' from, you gwine git it. You can git more money or a job or most anythin' dat way. I had a black cat bone, too, but it got away from me.

"I's got a big frame and used to weigh a hunerd pounds, but day tells me I only weighs a hunerd now. Dis Louis Southern I lives with, he's de youngest son of my grandson, who was de son of my youngest daughter. My marse, he knowed Gen. Houston and I seed him many a time. I lost what teeth I had a long time ago and in 1920 two more new teeth come through. Dem teeth sho' did worry me and I's glad when dey went, too.

List of Transcriber's Corrections:

List of Illustrations: 285 (#290#)

Page 2: come (wooden dishes. Some de knives and forks was make out of bone. Dey had beef and pork and turkey and #some# antelope.)

Page 4: bit (all through dat house. I takes de lantern and out in de hall I goes. Right by de foot de stairs I seed a woman, #big# as life, but she was thin and I seed right through her. She jes' walk on down dat hall and pay me no mind. She make de sound)

Page 7: was that a (slavery, 'cause massa give me a sack of molasses candy once and some biscuits once and that #was a# whole lot to me then.)

Page 9: kepps (daren't tell them 'cept on the sly. That I done lots. I tells 'em iffen they #keeps# prayin' the Lord will set 'em free. But since them days I's done studied some and I preached all over Panola and Harrison County and)

Page 18: bit (piles, one for de big house and de bigges' pile for de slaves. When dey git it all hauled it look like a #big# woodyard. While dey is haulin', de women make quilts and dey is wool quilts. Course, dey ain't made out of shearin' wool,)

Page 19: sich (Course, I hears some talk 'bout bluebellies, what dey call de Yanks, fightin' our folks, but dey wasn't fightin' round us. Den one dey mamma took #sick# and she had hear talk and call me to de bed and say, 'Lucinda, we all gwine be free soon and not)

Page 24: neber ("I seem jes' punyin' away, de doctors don' know jes' what's wrong wid me but I #never# was use to doctors anyway, jes' some red root tea or sage weed and sheep)

Page 29: was ("After #war# was over, old massa call us up and told us we free but he 'vise not leave de place till de crop was through. Us all stay. Den)

Page 30: suddent (for justice. One man, he look jus' like ordinary man, but he spring up 'bout eighteen feet high all of a #sudden#. Another say he so thirsty he ain't have no water since he been kilt at Manassas Junction. He ask)

Page 42: (what lives at West Columbia. Massa Kit on one side Varney's Creek and Massa Charles on de other side. Massa Kit have a #African# woman from Kentucky for he wife, and dat's de truth. I ain't sayin' iffen she a)

Page 43: goiin' (Where you gwine to go? I's #goin'# down to new ground, For to hunt Jim Crow.')

Page 71: hus' ("We lived in a log house with dirt floors, warm in winter but sho' hot in summer, no screens or nothin', #jus'# homemade doors. We had homemade beds out of planks they picked up around. Mattresses nothin', we had shuck beds.)

Page 72: bit (whole sack of pure gold and silver, and say bury it in de orchard. I sho' was scart, but I done what she said. Dey was more gold in a #big# desk, and de Yanks pulled de top of dat desk and got de gold. Miss Jane had a purty gold ring on)

Page 79: of (the place, they still go up to the big house for a pass. They jus' can't understand 'bout the freedom. Old Marse #or#Missus say, 'You don't need no pass. All you got to do is jus' take you foot in you hand and go.')

Page 84: ahd ("They had a church this side of New Fountain #and# the boss man 'lowed us to go on Sunday. If any of the slaves did join, they didn')

Page 99: of (cornmeal mush and corn hominy and corn grits and parched corn for drink, 'stead of tea #or# coffee. Us have milk and 'lasses and brown sugar, and some meat. Dat all raise on de place. Stuff for to eat and wear, dat)

Page 114: Pennslyvania (my sister and got in the soldier business. The gov'ment give me $30.00 a month for drivin' a four-mule wagon for the army. I druv all through #Pennsylvania# and Virginia and South Carolina for the gov'ment. I was a——what)

Page 116: Sue ("My mother sold into slavery in Georgia, or round dere. #She# tell me funny things 'bout how dey use to do up dere. A old white man think so much of)

Page 123: turpentime (doctor. When us chillun git sick dey git yarbs or dey give us castor oil and #turpentine#. Iffen it git to be a ser'ous ailment dey sen' for de reg'lar doctor. Dey uster)

Page 130: Missisippi (Hedwig, Bexar Co., Texas, the son of slave parents bought in #Mississippi# by his master, William Gudlow.)

Page 133: Hallejujah! (crossin' and walkin' and ridin'. Everyone was a-singin'. We was all walkin' on golden clouds. #Hallelujah!#)

Page 140: tey ("I's too old to make any more visits, but I would like to go back to Old Georgia once more. If Missy Mary was 'live, I'd #try#, but she am dead, so I tries to wait for old Gabriel blow he horn. When he blow he)

Page 141: 1959 ("When I's a gal, I's Rosina Slaughter, but folks call me Zina. Yes, sar. It am Zina dat and Zina dis. I says I's born April 9, #1859#, but I 'lieve I's older. It was somewhere in Williamson County, but I don't)

Page 145: mercy me (when we got a chance to see young folks on some other place. The patterrollers cotched me one night and, Lawd have #mercy on me#, they stretches me over a log and hits thirty-nine licks with a rawhide loaded with rock, and every time they hit)

Page 147: ot ("I's farmed and makin' a livin' is 'bout all. I come over here in Madison County and rents from B.F. Young, clost #to# Midway and gits me a few cows. I been right round here ever since. I lives round with my chillen now,)

Page 158: Whnen ("#When# surrender come massa calls all us in de yard and makes de talk. He tells us we's free and am awful sorry and show great worryment. He say)

Page 166: live (is cared for by a married daughter, who #lives# on Lizzie's farm.)

Page 171: nand (to tell the people to be prepared, 'cause the tides of war is rollin' this way, #and# all the thousands of millions of dollars they spend agin it ain't goin' to stop it. I live to tell people the word Gawd speaks through me.)

Page 195: wuarters ('bout fightin' and the overseer allus tended to her. One day he come to the #quarters# to whip her and she up and throwed a shovel full of live coals from the fireplace in his bosom and run out the door. He run her all over)

Page 199: tann ("After breakfast I'd see a crew go here and a crew go dere. Some of 'em spin and weave and make clothes, and some #tan# de leather or do de blacksmith work, and mos' of 'em go out in de field to work. Dey works till dark and den)

Page 200: botin' ("No, I's never voted, 'cause I done heared 'bout de trouble dey has over in Baton Rouge 'bout niggers #votin'#. I jus' don't like trouble, and for de few years what am left, I's gwine keep de record of stayin' 'way from it.)

Page 221: be ("Old massa he never clean hisself up or dress up. He look like a vagrant thing and #he# and missy mean, too. My pore daddy he back allus done cut up from the whip and bit by the dogs. Sometime when a woman big)

Page 235: stockn's (and I come in with two li'l pickininnies for flower gals and holdin' my train. I has on one Miss Ellen's dresses and red #stockin's# and a pair brand new shoes and a wide brim hat. De preacher say, 'Bill, does you take dis woman to be you lawful)

Page 236: dey (jes' kep' right on livin' in de old home after freedom, like old Marse done 'fore freedom. He pay de families by de #day# for work and let dem work land on de halves and furnish dem teams and grub and dey does de work.)

Page 242: iplot ("My daddy am de gold #pilot# on de old place. Dat mean anything he done was right and proper. Way after freedom, when my daddy die in Beaumont,)

Page 254: wat ("I never heered much 'bout no #war# and Marse Greenville never told us we was free. First I knows was one day we gwine to de fields and a man)

Page 258: Bermingham ("My company am moved to #Birmingham# and builds breastworks. Dey say Gen. Lee am comin' for a battle but he didn't ever come and when I been back)

Page 258: to (a three hundred pound hawg in de pen, what die from de heat. We done run to Massa Rodger's house. De riders gits #so# bad dey come most any time and run de cullud folks off for no cause, jus' to be orn'ry and plunder de home. But one)

Page 273: coudn't (through a crack and pull the calf's head down nearly to the ground where he #couldn't# suck. Of course, the old cow would hang around right close)

Page 278: McNeely ("I was in the Ranger service for about a year with Captain #McNelly#, or until he died. I was his guide. I was living thirty-five miles)

Page 287: whay (have the big mole on the inside her mouth and when she shake her finger at you it gwine happen to you jes' like she say. That #what# they call puttin' bad mouth on them and she sho' could do it.)