Chapter VII: Part 7

"'Let de sun of salvation shine square on you face,
Fight de battles of de Lawd, fight soon and fight late,
And you'll allus find de latch to de golden gate.
No use for to wait till tomorrow,
De sun mustn't sot on you sorrow,
Sin's sharp as a bamboo briar,
Ask de Lawd for to fotch you up higher.'

"Dem songs was de gateway to enter, de pearly gateway. All de niggers git on de mourners' bench and git saved."

Willie Williams

*Willie Williams, 78, was born a slave to Mr. William Maddox, who owned about 90 slaves, including Willie's parents, five brothers and a sister. The plantation was in Vermillion Parish, La., near Sparta. In 1867 Mr. Maddox took Willie, who was still working for him, to Texas. Willie now lives in Fort Worth.*

"Dis nigger am 78 years old, and I's born in slavery, down in old Louisiana. Marster William owned me, and he am de father of Marster Ed Maddox what now runs de Maddox Milk and Ice Company here in Fort Worth. I knowed him when him and dis nigger am tiny chiles. I goes and visits with him often and we talks 'bout old times and sich. We laughs 'bout some things and de tears come in de eyes 'bout some things. Him allus give dis nigger de quarter or de half dollar for old times sake.

"Marster William owns sich a big plantation dat it was miles and miles 'round and had 'bout 90 grown nigger slaves. I 'members it well and sho' am glad for to tell yous 'bout it and how dey does. De marster have a two-story house for his family and de place look like a town with all de buildings. Dere was de nigger quarters with 30 cabins and de nursery for de young niggers, de sheds and de smokehouse for de meat. Den dey have de gin and de mill for to grin' de grist, de spinning house and de shoe shop.

"Marster have a nigger what make de shoes out of hides tanned dere off de cattle what am killed for meat. Him makes good shoes, they las' a long time, but they sure is tough on de feets.

"Marster William raises de corn and rice and wheat and barley and vegetables and honey, and lots of cotton. Dey works animals, de mules and de oxen, but I seed de niggers hitched to de plow sometimes. But de marster allus took good care of his niggers and him feeds plenty good victuals. Every Sunday dey measures out de rations, 'cept de vegetables. But if what dey give am not 'nough, we'uns calls for more. De marster wants for we'uns to have plenty.

"All us am given de pass for to go to de church or to de party and dere's a place near de quarters for de dance and sich. Some fool niggers sneaks off without de pass sometimes and gits catched by de patter rollers and gits couple passes from de whup.

"One time de niggers puts one on dem patter rollers. Dere am de dance and some niggers has no pass and de patter rollers am a-comin'. De niggers 'cide to best 'em and one gits de pan of hot ashes and when dem patter rollers comes to de door de ashes am thrown in de face. De niggers all rush out and knocks de rollers down, and de niggers am gone. Dats once de niggers 'prise de rollers.

"On dat plantation dere am sort of hospital fix for to care for de sick. Dey uses herbs and sich and sometimes calls de doctor. De small chillens is kep' dere and de marster sho' am 'ticular 'bout dem. Lots of times he look dem over and say, 'Dat one be worth a t'ousand dollars,' or 'Dat one be a whopper.' You see, 'twas jus' like raisin' young mules.

"On dat plantation, dere am no weddin' 'lowed for to git married. Dey jus' gits married, but some not 'lowed to git married, 'cause de marster anxious to raise good, big niggers, de kind what am able to do lots of work and sell for a heap of money. Him have 'bout ten wenches him not 'low to git married and dey am big, strong women and de doctor 'xamine dem for de health. Den de marster picks out de big nigger and de doctor 'xamine him, too. Dat nigger do no work but watch dem womens and he am de husban' for dem all. De marster sho' was a-raisin' some fine niggers dat way.

"As for de whippin', dey gives dat punishment. Dey straps de nigger over de barrel but de marster don't 'low for to draw de blood.

"Durin' de War, dere am de shortage of food and one time we is 'bliged eat all de chickens, and 'twarnt hard to do. We hunts de wild hawg and wild turkey and de deer and sich.

"When freedom come, dey tell all us niggers we's free and we can stay or leave and work for wages if we stay. Three year after freedom de marster sells de plantation and comes to Fort Worth and I and five other niggers still with him. I works for him 'til he dies, 'bout 50 year ago."

Lulu Wilson

*Lulu Wilson, blind, bedridden Negro, does not know her age, but believes that she is ninety-seven. She was born near the Mammoth Cave, in Kentucky. Lulu owns a little home at 1108 Good Street, Dallas, Texas.*

"Course I's born in slavery, ageable as I am. I'm a old time, slavery woman and the way I been through the hackles, I got plenty to say 'bout slavery. Lulu Wilson says she knows they ain't no good in it and they better not bring it back.

"My paw warn't no slave. He was a free man, 'cause his mammy was a full blood Creek Indian. But my maw was born in slavery, down on Wash Hodges' paw's place, and he give her to Wash when he married. That was the only woman slave what he had and one man slave, a young buck. My maw say she took with my paw and I's born, but a long time passed and didn't no more young'uns come, so they say my paw am too old and wore out for breedin' and wants her to take with this here young buck. So the Hodges sot the nigger hounds on my paw and run him away from the place and maw allus say he went to the free state. So she took with my step-paw and they must of pleased the white folks what wanted niggers to breed like livestock, 'cause she birthed nineteen chillen.

"When I's li'l I used to play in that big cave they calls Mammoth and I's so used to that cave it didn't seem like nothin' to me. But I was real li'l then, for soon as they could they put me to spinnin' cloth. I 'members plain, when I was li'l there was talk of war in them parts, and they put me to spinnin' and I heared 'em say it was for sojers. They marched round in a li'l, small drove and practices shootin'.

"Now, when I was li'l they was the hardes' times. They'd nearly beat us to death. They taken me from my mammy, out the li'l house built onto they house and I had to sleep in a bed by Missus Hodges. I cried for my maw but I had to work and wash and iron and clean and milk cows when I was most too li'l to do it.

"The Hodges had three chilluns and the olderes' one they was mean to, 'cause she so thickheaded. She couldn't larn nothin' out a book but was kinder and more friendly like than the rest of the lot. Wash Hodges was jes' mean, pore trash and he was a bad actor and a bad manager. He never could make any money and he starved it out'n the niggers. For years all I could git was one li'l slice of sowbelly and a puny, li'l piece of bread and a 'tater. I never had 'nough to stave the hongriness out'n my belly.

"My maw was cookin' in the house and she was a clink, that am the bes' of its kind. She could cuss and she warn't 'fraid. Wash Hodges tried to whop her with a cowhide and she'd knock him down and bloody him up. Then he'd go down to some his neighbor kin and try to git them to come help him whop her. But they'd say, 'I don't want to go up there and let Chloe Ann beat me up." I heared Wash tell his wife they said that.

"When maw was in a tantrum, my step-paw wouldn't partialise with her. But she was a 'ligious woman and 'lieved time was comin' when niggers wouldn't be slaves. She told me to pray for it. She seed a old man what the nigger dogs chased and et the legs near off him. She said she was chased by them bloody hounds and she jus' picked up a club and laid they skull open. She say they hired her out and sold her twice but allus brung her back to Wash Hodges.

"Now, Missus Hodges studied 'bout meanness more'n Wash done. She was mean to anybody she could lay her hands to, but special mean to me. She beat me and used to tie my hands and make me lay flat on the floor and she put snuff in my eyes. I ain't lyin' 'fore Gawd when I say I knows that's why I went blind. I did see white folks sometimes what spoke right friendly and kindly to me.

"I gits to thinkin' now how Wash Hodges sold off maw's chillun. He'd sell 'em and have the folks come for 'em when my maw was in the fields. When she'd come back, she'd raise a ruckus. Then many the time I seed her plop right down to a settin' and cry 'bout it. But she 'lowed they warn't nothin' could be done, 'cause it's the slavery law. She said, 'O, Lawd, let me see the end of it 'fore I die, and I'll quit my cussin' and fightin' and rarin.' My maw say she's part Indian and that 'countable for her ways.

"One day they truckled us all down in a covered wagon and started out with the fam'ly and my maw and step-paw and five of us chillun. I know I's past twelve year old. We come a long way and passed through a free State. Some places we druv for miles in the woods 'stead of the big road, and when we come to folks they hid us down in the bed of the wagon. We passed through a li'l place and my maw say to look, and I seed a man gwine up some steps, totin' a bucket of water. She say, 'Lulu, that man's your paw.' I ain't never think she's as consid'ble of my step-paw as of my paw, and she give me to think as much. My step-paw never did like me, but he was a fool for his own young'uns, 'cause at the end of the wars when they sot the niggers free, he tramped over half the country, gatherin' up them young'uns they done sold 'way.

"We went to a place called Wadefield, in Texas, and settled for some short passin' of time. They was a Baptist church next our house and they let me go twict. I was fancified with the singin' and preachin'. Then we goes on to Chatfield Point and Wash Hodges built a log house and covered it with weather boarding and built my maw and paw quarters to live in. They turned in to raisin' corn and 'taters and hawgs. I had to work like a dog. I hoed and milked ten cows a day.

"Missus told me I had ought to marry. She said if I'd marry she'd togger me up in a white dress and give me a weddin' supper. She made the dress and Wash Hodges married me out'n the Bible to a nigger 'longin' to a nephew of his'n. I was 'bout thirteen or fourteen. I know it warn't long after that when Missus Hodges got a doctor to me. The doctor told me less'n I had a baby, old as I was and married, I'd start in on spasms. So it warn't long till I had a baby.

"In 'twixt that time, Wash Hodges starts layin' out in the woods and swamps all the time. I heared he was hidin' out from the war and was sposed to go, 'cause he done been a volunteer in the first war and they didn't have no luck in Kentucky.

"One night when we was all asleep, some folks whooped and woke us up. Two sojers come in and they left more outside. They found Wash Hodges and said it was midnight and to git 'em something to eat. They et and some more come in and et. They tied Wash's hands and made me hold a lamp in the door for them to see by. They had some more men in the wagon, with they hands tied. They druv away and in a minute I heared the reports of the guns three or four times. Nex' day I heared they was sojers and done shot some conscripts in the bottoms back of our place.

"Wash Hodges was gone away four years and Missus Hodges was meaner'n the devil all the time. Seems like she jus' hated us worser than ever. She said blobber-mouth niggers done cause a war.

"Well, now, things jus' kind of drifts along for a spell and then Wash Hodges come back and he said, 'Well, now, we done whop the hell out them blue bellies and that'll larn 'em a lesson to leave us alone.'

"Then my step-paw seed some Fed'ral sojers. I seed them, too. They drifted by in droves of fifty and a hundred. My step-paw 'lowed as how the Feds done told him they ain't no more slavery, and he tried to pint it out to Wash Hodges. Wash says that's a new ruling, and it am that growed-up niggers is free, but chillun has to stay with they masters till they's of age.

"My maw was in her cabin with a week old baby and one night twelve Klu Kluxses done come to the place. They come in by ones and she whopped 'em one at a time.

"I don't never recall just like, the passin' of time. I know I had my little boy young'un and he growed up, but right after he was born I left the Hodges and felt like it's a fine, good riddance. My boy died, but he left me a grandson. He growed up and went to 'nother war, and they done somethin' to him and he ain't got but one lung. He ain't peart no more. He's got four chillun and he makes fifty dollars a month. I'm crazy 'bout that boy and he comes to see me, but he can't holp me none in a money way. So I'm right grateful to the president for gittin' my li'l pension. I done study it out in my mind for three years and tell him, Lulu says if he will see they ain't no more slavery, and if they'll pay folks liveable wages, they'll be less stealin' and slummerin' and goin's on. I worked so hard. For more'n fifty years I waited as a nurse on sick folks. I been through the hackles if any mortal soul has, but it seems like the president thinks right kindly of me, and I want him to know Lulu Wilson thinks right kindly of him."

Wash Wilson

*Wash Wilson, 94, was born a slave of Tom Wilson, in Louisiana, near the Ouachita Road. Wash and his family were purchased by Bill Anderson, who brought them to Robertson Co., Texas. Wash lives in Eddy, Texas.*

"I was 'bout eighteen years old when de Civil war come. Us calls it de Freedom War. I was born in Louisiana, clost to de Ouachita Road, and Marse Tom Wilson owned mammy and us chillen. But Marse Bill Anderson he come from Texas to buy us from Marse Tom. Marse Tom, he 'lowed de gov'ment gwine let dem damn Yankees give de South a whuppin' and dere wasn't gwine be no slaves nowhere. But Marse Bill say we's a likely bunch of chillen and mammy am a grand cook, so guess he take de resk.

"Marse Tom starts to Texas where he had a passel of land. Us was sold on de block to him, 'cause Marse Tom say he gwine git all he done put in us out us, iffen he can 'fore de Yanks take dis country.

"Mammy was named Julia Wilson. Sis Sally was oldest of us chillen, den brudder Harry and me. Marse Bill he had 27,000 acres of land in Robertson County what he git for fightin' Indians and sech. He lived in seven mile of Calvert, Texas, and dat where he brunged us and de supplies and sech. Us traveled in ox carts and hoss back, and de mos' us niggers walked.

"Us was sot free on de road to Texas. Us camp one night and some folks come talk with Marse Bill. De next mornin' he told us, 'Boys, you's free as I is.' Us was only 'bout sixteen mile from where us gwine and Marse Bill say, 'All what want to stay with me can.' Us didn't know nobody and didn't have nothin' and us liked Marse Bill, so all us stayed with him. When we got to his place us did round and 'bout, clearin' new ground and buildin' cabins and houses. Dere was three log houses but us had to build more.

"My pappy name was Bill Wilson. All my folks am dead now, but on de plantation in Louisiana we had a good time. Mammy could cook and spin and weave. Dey raised cotton and sugar cane and corn.

"Dere wasn't many Indians when us come, in our part de country. All I ever saw jes' steal and beg. Dere was plenty wild turkeys and wild hawgs and deer and prairie chickens.

"On Marse Bill's place every quarters had its barn and mule, but Marse and he wife, Miss Deborah, lived in de quality quarters. Round dem was de blacksmith shop and smokehouse and spinnin' house and Marse Bill have a li'l house jus' for he office. De cookhouse was a two-room house side de big house with a covered passage to de dinin' room. De milk house was de back part de cook house.

"In de smokehouse was hams and sides of hawg meat and barrels of syrup and sugar and lard, and bushels of onions, and de 'tater room was allus full. Dey dug a big place and put poles and pieces of cane and lumber cross, like a top, and put dirt and leaves and banked de dirt round de 'tater room. Dey'd leave a place to crawl in, but dey kep' it tight and dem 'taters dey kep' most all winter.

"Dey was hayricks and chicken roosties and big lye hoppers where us put all de fireplace ashes. Come de rain and de water run through dat hopper into de trough under it, and dat make lye water. De women put old meat skins and bones and fat in de big, iron pot in de yard and put in some lye water and bile soap. Den dey cut it when it git cold and put it on de smokehouse shelves to dry. Dat sho' fine soap.

"Mammy worked in de kitchen mostly and spin by candlelight. Dey used a bottle lamp. Dat a rag or piece of big string, stuck in de snuff bottle full of tallow or grease. Later on in de years, dey used coal oil in de bottles. Sometimes dey wrap a rag round and round and put it in a pan of grease, and light dat for de lamp. Dey used pine torches, too.

"De black folks' quarters was log cabins, with stick and dirt chimneys. Dey had dere own garden round each cabin and some chickens, but dere wasn't no cows like in Louisiana. Dere was lots of possums in de bottoms and us go coon and possum huntin'. I likes cornbread and greens, cook with de hawg jowls or strip bacon. Dat's what I's raised on. Us had lots of lye hominy dem days. Marse Bill, he gwine feed everybody good on his place. Den us had ash cake, make of corn meal. Us didn't buy much till long time after de War.

"Us had poles stuck in de corner and tied de third pole cross, to make de bed. Dey called 'Georgia Hosses'. Us filled ticks with corn shucks or crab grass and moss. Dey wasn't no cotton beds for de niggers, 'cause dey wasn't no gins for de long time and de cotton pick from de seed by hand and dat slow work. De white folks had cotton beds and feather beds and wool beds.

"Marse Bill allus had de doctor for us iffen de old woman couldn't git us well. All de seven families Marse Bill done buy in Louisiana stayed round him and he family till dey all dead, white and cullud. I's de onlies' one left.

"Us piled 'bout a hundred or two or maybe three hundred bushels corn outside de shed. Us have corn shuckin' at night and have de big time. De fellow what owned de corn, he give a big supper and have all de whiskey us want. Nobody got drunk, 'cause most everybody carry dey liquor purty well. After shuckin' us have ring plays. For music dey scratch on de skillet lids or beat bones or pick de banjo. Dere be thirty to fifty folks, all cullud, and sometimes dey stay all night, and build de big fire and dance outdoors or in de barn.

"Dere wasn't no music instruments. Us take pieces a sheep's rib or cow's jaw or a piece iron, with a old kettle, or a hollow gourd and some horsehairs to make de drum. Sometimes dey'd git a piece of tree trunk and hollow it out and stretch a goat's or sheep's skin over it for de drum. Dey'd be one to four foot high and a foot up to six foot 'cross. In gen'ral two niggers play with de fingers or sticks on dis drum. Never seed so many in Texas, but dey made some. Dey'd take de buffalo horn and scrape it out to make de flute. Dat sho' be heared a long ways off. Den dey'd take a mule's jawbone and rattle de stick 'cross its teeth. Dey'd take a barrel and stretch a ox's hide 'cross one end and a man sot 'stride de barrel and beat on dat hide with he hands, and he feet, and iffen he git to feelin' de music in he bones, he'd beat on dat barrel with he head. 'Nother man beat one wooden side with sticks. Us 'longed to de church, all right, but dancin' ain't sinful iffen de foots ain't crossed. Us danced at de arbor meetin's but us sho' didn't have us foots crossed!

"When de niggers go round singin' 'Steal Away to Jesus,' dat mean dere gwine be a 'ligious meetin' dat night. Dat de sig'fication of a meetin'. De masters 'fore and after freedom didn't like dem 'ligious meetin's, so us natcherly slips off at night, down in de bottoms or somewheres. Sometimes us sing and pray all night.

"I voted till I's 'bout forty five year old, den I jes' kinder got out de habit.

"I got married in a suit of doeskin jeans, ain't none like dem nowadays. I married Cornelia Horde and she wore a purty blue gingham de white folks buyed and made for her. Us had six chillen, Calvin and Early and Mary and Fred and Frank.

"Iffen you knows someone workin' a conjure trick 'gainst you, jes' take some powdered brick and scrub the steps real good. Dat'll kill any conjure spell, sho'. De bes' watchdog you can get for de hoodoo is a frizzly chicken. Iffen you got one dem on de place, you can rest in peace, 'cause it scratches up every trick lay down 'gainst its owner. Iffen you see dat frizzly chicken scratchin' round de place, it a sho' sign you been conjured. A frizzly chicken come out he shell backwards, and day why he de devil's own.

"De old folks allus told me to make a cross inside my shoe every mornin' 'fore leavin' de house, den ain't no conjurer gwine git he conjure 'gainst you foots. Iffen you wear you under clothes wrong side out, you can't be conjured. 'nother way am to put saltpetre in de soles you shoes. Iffen you wears a li'l piece de 'peace plant' in you pocket or you shoe, dat powerful strong 'gainst conjure. A piece of de Betsy bug's heart with some silver money am good. But iffen you can't git none dose, jes' take a piece newspaper and cut it de size of you shoe sole and sprinkle nine grains red pepper on it. Dere ain't no hoodoo gwine ever harm you den, 'cause he'd have to stop and count every letter on dat newspaper and by dat time, you gwine be 'way from dere.

"Iffen you want to find de conjure tricks what done been sot for you, jes' kill you a fat chicken and sprinkle some its blood in da conjure doctor's left palm. Den take you forefinger and hit dat blood till it spatter, and it gwine spatter in da direction where dat trick am hid. Den when you find de trick, sprinkle a li'l quicksilver over a piece of paper and put da paper on de fire, and dat trick gwine be laid forever.

"Old folks done told me how to make a conjurer leave town. Make up a hick'ry fire and let it burn down to coals. Den you take up two live coals. One dese gwine be you, and de other gwine be de luck. Take up one dead coal, and dat you enemy. Den you jes' keep 'wake till de rooster crow or midnight. Dat am de end of de day. Now you chunk de live coal what am you to de south, de warm country; den throw de other live coal to de east; den chunk de dead coal, you enemy, to de north, de cold country. Nothin' of de conjurer can't git over fire, and 'fore de week out, dat conjurer be leavin'.

"A old Indian who used to hang round Marse Bill's place say to git de best of a conjurer, git some clay from da mouth a crawfish hole, and some dirt from a red ant's hole. Mix dem and wet dem with whiskey or camphor. Git some angleworms and boil dem and add de worm water to de clay and dirt. Iffen you rubs de conjured pusson with dis, he trouble done go 'way."

Willis Winn

*Willis Winn claims to be 116 years old. He was born in Louisiana, a slave of Bob Winn, who Willis says taught him from his youth that his birthday was March 10, 1822. When he was freed Willis and his father moved to Hope, Arkansas, where they lived sixteen years. Willis then moved to Texarkana and from there to Marshall, where he has lived fourteen years. Willis lives alone in a one-room log house in the rear of the Howard Vestal home on the Powder Mill Road, north of Marshall, and is supported by an $11.00 per month old age pension.*

"The onliest statement I can make 'bout my age is my old master, Bob Winn, allus told me if anyone ask me how old I is to say I's borned on March the tenth, in 1822. I's knowed my birthday since I's a shirt-tail boy, but can't figure in my head.

"My pappy was Daniel Winn and he come from Alabama, and I 'member him allus sayin' he'd like to go back there and get some chestnuts. Mammy was named Patsy and they was nine of us chillen. The five boys was me and Willie and Hosea and two Georges, and the gals was Car'lina and Dora and Anna and Ada, and all us lived to be growed and have chillen.

"Massa Bob's house faced the quarters where he could hear us holler when he blowed the big horn for us to git up. All the houses was made of logs and we slept on shuck and grass mattresses what was allus full of chinches. I still sleep on a grass mattress, 'cause I can't rest on cotton and feather beds.

"We et yellow bread and greens and black-eyed peas and potlicker and sopped 'lasses. Us and the white folks all cooked in fireplaces. A big iron pot hung out in the yard for to bile greens and hog jowl and sich like. We didn't know nothing 'bout bakin' powder and made our soda from burnt cobs. That's jes' as good soda as this Arm and Hammer you get in the store. We et flour bread Sundays, but you daren't git cotch with flour dough 'cept on that day. Mammy stole lots of it, though. She rolled it up and put it round her head and covered it with her head-rag. Wild game was all over the country, buffalo and bears and panthers and deer and possum and coon. The squirrels 'most run over you in the woods. We et at a long, wooden trough and it was allus clean and full of plenty grub. We used buffalo and fish bones for spoons, and some et with they hands. The grub I liked best was whatever I could git.

Us slaves didn't wear nothing but white lowell cloth. They give us pants for Sunday what had a black stripe down the leg. The chillen wore wool clothes in winter, but the big folks wore the same outfit the year round. They didn't care if you froze.

"I can show you right where I was when the stars fell. Some say they covered the ground like snow, but nary one ever hit the ground. They fell in 'bout twelve feet of the ground. The chillen jumped up and tried to cotch them. I don't 'member how long they fell, but they was shootin' through the air like sky-rockets fer quite a spell.

"Missy Callie had one gal and two boys and Massa Bob had three overseers. He didn't have nigger drivers, but had his pets. We called them pimps, 'cause they was allus tattlin' when we done anything. His place was jes' as far as you could let your eyes see, 'bout 1,800 or 1,900 acres, and he owned more'n 500 niggers.

"I still got the bugle he woke us with at four in the mornin'. When the bugle blowed you'd better go to hollerin', so the overseer could hear you. If he had to call you, it was too bad. The first thing in the mornin' we'd go to the lot and feed, then to the woodpile till breakfast. They put our grub in the trough and give us so long to eat. Massa hollered if we was slow eatin'. 'Swallow that grub now and chaw it tonight. Better be in that field by daybreak.' We worked from see to can't.

"I's seed many a nigger whipped on a 'buck and gag' bench. They buckled 'em down hard and fast on a long bench, gagged they mouth with cotton and when massa got through layin' on that cowhide, the blood was runnin' off on the ground. Next mornin' after he whip you, he'd come to the quarters when you git up and say, 'Boy, how is you feelin'? No matter how sore you is, you'd better jump and kick you heels and show how lively you is.' Massa hated me to he dying day, 'cause I told missy 'bout him whippin' a gal scandously in the field, 'cause she want to go to the house to her sick baby. Missy Callie didn't whip us, but she'd twist our nose and ears nearly off. Them fingers felt like a pair of pinchers. She stropped on her guns and rode a big bay horse to the field.

"Massa had a gin and I hauled cotton to Port Caddo, on Caddo Lake. I druv eight mules and hauled eight bales of cotton. Massa followed me with two mules and two bales of cotton. I usually had a good start of him. The patterrollers has cotched me and unhitched my mules and druv 'em off, leavin' me in the middle of the road. They'd start back home, but when they overtook massa they stopped, 'cause he druv the lead mules. He fetched 'em back and say, 'Willis, what happen?' He sho' cussed them patterrollers and said he'll git even yet.

"They was sellin' slaves all the time, puttin' 'em on the block and sellin' 'em, 'cordin' to how much work they could do in a day and how strong they was. I's seed lots of 'em in chains like cows and mules. If a owner have more'n he needed, he hit the road with 'em and sold 'em off to 'joinin' farms. None of 'em ever run off. They couldn't git away. I's seed too many try it. If the patterrollers didn't cotch you, some white folks would put you up and call your massa. They had a 'greement to be on the watch fer runaway niggers. When the massa git you back home and git through with you, you'd sho' stay home.

"In slavery time the niggers wasn't 'lowed to look at a book. I larned to read and write after surrender in the jail at Hot Springs, in Arkansas.

"They give us cake at Christmas and eggnog and 'silly-bug'. Eggnog is made from whites of eggs and 'silly-bug' from yallers. You have to churn the whiskey and yallers to make 'silly-bug'.

"Corn shuckin's was the things them days. I liked to see 'em come. They cooked up guineas and ducks and chickens and sometimes roast a pig. Massa kept twenty, thirty barrels whiskey round over the place all the time, with tin cups hangin' on the barrels. You could drink when you want to, but sho' better not git drunk. Massa have to watch he corners when cornshuckin' am over, or us niggers grab him and walk him round in the air on their hands.

"When some of the white folks died every nigger on the place had to go to the grave and walk round and drap in some dirt on him. They buried the niggers anyway. Dig a ditch and cover 'em up. I can show you right now down in Louisiana where I was raised, forty acres with nothin' but niggers buried on 'em.

"I 'member lots 'bout the war but can't tell you all, 'cause every war have its secrets. That war had four salutes, and you'd better give the right one when you meet the captain. I's heared the niggers sing, 'Gonna hang Jeff Davis to a sour apple tree.' My pappy fought in the last battle, at Mansfield, and so did Massa Bob.

"When the 'Federates come in sight of Mansfield they was carryin' a red flag, and kept it raised till surrender. When the Yanks come in sight they raised a white flag and wanted the 'Federates to surrender, but they wouldn't answer. It wasn't long till the whole world round there smelt like powder. Guns nowadays jus' goes 'pop-pop', but them guns sounded like thunder.

"After surrender, massa freed the men and missy freed the women, but he didn't let us loose when he ought. They wasn't no places 'vided with niggers as I heared 'bout. Niggers in Louisiana say Queen Elizabeth sent a boatload of gold to America to give the free men, but we never seed any of it. Massa give us each a barrel meal, a barrel flour, a side of meat and ten gallons 'lasses and tell us we can work for who we pleases. Daddy bought two cows and a horse and eight hawgs and a goat from massa on credit and we moved and made three crops.

"The Yanks stayed round Louisiana a long time after surrender. They come to white folks houses what hadn't freed they slaves and busted they meal and flour barrels and burn they meat and say, 'If we have to face you 'gain, we'll sweep you from the cradle up.'

"I's been cotched by them Ku Kluxers. They didn't hurt me, but have lots of fun makin' me cut capers. They pulls my clothes off once and make me run 'bout four hunerd yards and stand on my head in the middle the road.

"They is plenty niggers in Louisiana that is still slaves. A spell back I made a trip to where I was raised, to see my old missy 'fore she died, and there was niggers in twelve or fourteen miles of that place that they didn't know they is free. They is plenty niggers round here what is same as slaves, and has worked for white folks twenty and twenty-five years and ain't drawed a five cent piece, jus' old clothes and somethin' to eat. That's the way we was in slavery.

"Bout four years after surrender pappy say he heared folks say gold was covering the ground at Hope, Arkansas, so we pulled up and moved there. We found lots of money where they'd been a big camp, but no gold. We lived there sixteen years, then I came to Texarkana and worked twelve years for G.W. George Fawcett's sawmill. I never married till I was old, in Little Washington, Arkansas, and lived with my wife thirty-six years 'fore she died. We raised eighteen chillen to be growed and nary one of 'em was ever arrested.

"I was allus wild and played for dances, but my wife was 'ligious and after I married I quieted down. When I jined the church, I burned my fiddle up. I allus made a livin' from public road work since I left Texarkana, till I got no count for work. The only time I voted was in Hope, and I voted the 'publican ticket and all my folks got mad.

"If it wasn't for the good white folks, I'd starved to death. 'Fore I come here to the Vestals, I was livin' in a shack on the T. & P. tracks and I couldn't pay no rent. I was sick and the woman made me git out. Master Vestal found me down by the tracks, eatin' red clay. I'd lived for three days on six tomatoes. I et two a day. Master Vestal went home and his wife cooked a big pot of stew, with meat and potatoes, and fetched it to me. Then they built a house down behind their back yard and I's lived with 'em ever since.

"I allus say the cullud race started off wrong when they was freed and is still wrong today. They had a shot to be well off, but they can't keep money. You give one a bank of money and he'll be busted tomorrow. I tells young niggers every day they ought to come down where they'll have some sense. I serves the Lord at home and don't meddle with 'em."

Rube Witt

*Rube Witt, 87, was a slave of Jess Witt of Harrison County, Texas. He enlisted in the Confederate Army at Alexandria, La., and was sent to Mansfield, but his regiment arrived after the victory of the North. He worked for his master for a year after the war, then moved to Marshall and worked for Edmund Key, Sr., pioneer banker and civic leader. Rube cooked for eighteen years at the old Capitol Hotel in Marshall, and took up preaching as a side line. He and his wife live at 707 E. Crockett St., in Marshall. They receive a $15.00 pension.*

"I was born on the Jess Witt place, right here in Harrison County, on the tenth day of August, in 1850, and allus lived in and round Marshall. My father and mother, Daniel and Jane, was bred and born in Texas, and belonged to the Witts. I had five brothers, named Charlie and Joe and George and Bill and Jim, and six sisters, named Mary and Susan and Betsy and Anna and Effie and Lucinda. They all lived to be growed but I'm the onliest chile still livin'.

"Master Witt had a big place, I don't recall how many acres. He didn't have so many slaves. Slavery was a tight fight. We lived in li'l cabins and slept on rough plank beds and et bacon and peas and pa'ched corn. We didn't hardly know what flour bread was. Master give us one outfit of clothes to a time and sometimes shoes. We worked all day in the fields, come in and fed the stock and did the chores and et what li'l grub it took to do us and went to bed. You'd better not go nowhere without a pass, 'cause them patterrollers was rolling round every bush.

"My missus was named Kate and had two chillen. The Witts had a good set of niggers and didn't have to whip much. Sometimes he give us a light brushin' for piddlin' round at work. I seed plenty niggers whipped on ole man Ruff Perry and Pratt Hughes places, though. They was death on 'em. Lawyer Marshall used to whip his niggers goin' and comin' every day that come round.

"I 'members white folks sayin' war was startin' 'bout keepin' slaves and then I seed 'em mendin' the harness and wagons to go and fight. I was the houseboy for the Witts durin' the war and 'bout time it was over I enlisted at Alexandria as a soldier and they sent me to Mansfield. The Yanks had done won the victory when our reg'ment got there. They turned us loose to git home the best we could. I come back to the Witts and master calls up all the slaves and says we was free, but if we stayed and worked for him we'd have plenty to eat and wear, and if we left, it'd be root, hawg or die. Most of 'em left but I stayed a year. You'd ought to seed 'em pullin' off them croaker-sack clothes when master says we's free.

"I come to Marshall with my mother and the whole state was under United States law. The 8th Regiment of Illinois was at Marshall for two years after the war, and no man, black, white or red or what is you, darsn't git cotched after dark without a pass. When they'd stop you, if you couldn't give the U.S. sign, 'Grant's Friend,' they'd shoot the devil out of you. You didn't pass 'less you knowed the sign.

"The Confederates had a big gun powder mill on Mill's Creek, two and a half miles north of Marshall and it stayed operatin' two or three years. But Gen. Atichon and Capt. Bishop and Lt. Rives and a bunch of Yanks tried to capture it and the Confederates blowed it up.

"When I was 'bout sixteen my mother hires me out to a Mr. Acorns, who was refugeed from Georgia to Marshall. Ole man Acorns was a mile of hell anywhere you met him and he nearly beat me to death and I run away. His son and him and 'nother man starts after me and I has to light a shuck. We sho' had some race down that hill over where the new water tower is in Sunny South, but they didn't cotch me. The white folks round here didn't 'lieve us niggers was free then.

"Then I goes to work for Mr. Edmond Key, Sr., and stays with him till I'm growed. I used to help chase rabbits where the court house is now. I recalls the Buzzard Roost Hotel and some stores was on that square then.

"I cooks for the old Capitol Hotel eighteen years, then I quit and tries railroadin', but it didn't take long to decide to go back to the cook apron. I allus made a livin' from cookin' and preachin', and I've preached forty-five years. The only times I voted was for high sheriff once and for President Garfield and President Grant.

"I marries in 1915 and my wife is still with me. I'm too stove up with rhumatis' now to work and her and me gits $15.00 a month from the government."

Ruben Woods

*Ruben Woods, hale and strong despite his 84 years, was born a slave of the John Woods family in Taladiga County, Alabama. He served as houseboy in their home until he was 21, then came to Tyler, Texas, with one of his master's children. He now lives in El Paso, Texas.*

"I'se de oldest of seven chillen. My father was John Woods, mother Laura Woods. She was a cook for de marster's family on de plantation. We lived in a log house, logs was hewed in de woods. De marster's house was plastered inside. He had 1,000 acres plantation and 96 slaves. He took good care of 'em. Onct a week dey would come and dey allowanced 'em out pervisions. Not fine stuff; no, dey didn' gib 'em nothin' like dat ham and such. Dey would gib you enough flour for biscuit for Sunday mornin' and dey gib potatoes. I tell you how dey done dat; ev'ry family, he had a basket and when dey blow de ho'n in de evenin' ev'ry chile dat was big enough come and he know his basket and take it home.

"De quarters was all in rows. You had to have a pass frum de massa to go from one place to anudder or the pateroller would ketch you and whop you. Overseers whopped 'em, too.

"You worked frum time you could see 'till dark. You couldn' git outta dat, no suh, time you coul' see de stuff in de fiel', you was out workin.'

"Ole man Woods was a powerful good man. He wouldn' raise cotton for sale, only jus' enough for de women to make clothes. He raised hogs and cattle. I 'member Ben Averit; he had a big plantation over on de island. Took boatloads of slaves and work 'em hard. We'd hear de boats go over, clop-clop.

"We'd take two yoke of oxen with co'n and wheat to de mill, stay all day, den bring it back to give ev'rybody. I go to mill lots of times and allus drive oxen. In hot weather, dey run off to de creek. What you talkin' erbout, when it gits hot and dey smell dat water, dey travel!

"I 'member stagecoach. Had erbout six or eight hosses to 'em. Driver'd blow bugle for stops jus' like trains. Dey didn' have much trains dem days.

"When de war comes, we had soldiers. I se'ed 'em drillin' and marchin'. I se'ed dem hep-hep-hep! Yes, ma'am, when de Yanks come we was a runnin' and a squattin' like partridges a hidin'. Dem guns was a firin' and shootin' dem cannon, spoilin' fiel's and killin' hawgs. Wasn't no fun. Drums a beatin'. It was excitable, yes, ma'am. We had to run and hide. We all run up to whut dey call a cave and down in dat cave we had eats. All come what could git in dere. De soldiers try to roun' 'em up, but not dem niggers. All run from one place to anudder.

"I learned to read and write after freedom. Dey not allow you no book larnin'. Obey your marster and missus, dat's all.

"I 'member jist as well as dat I'se sittin' here, when freedom come. Marster had 'em all come near de gate and he say, 'You all is free as I am now.' He hollered and cried. It tickled me to see him cry. And den he say, 'But now iffen you want to, all kin stay and finish up de crop. I'll feed you.' Some, dey go to de neighbors. Dey didn' know whut to do. Dey hadn' been taught to do for demselves. But dey couldn' whop 'em no more. I stayed 'till I was 21.

"No, ma'am, I never coul' sing, but I 'member one song. It went dis way:

'1821--Jesus work is jus' begun;
1822--Jesus brought de sinner through;
1823--Jesus sot de prisoner free;
1824--Jesus preached 'mong de poor;
1825--Jesus brought de dead to life;
1826--Jesus had all things fixed;
1827--Jesus rose and went to Heben;
1828--Jesus made de plain way straight;
1829--Jesus turned de blood to wine.'

"We played hide-a-hoop. And hide-a-switch. We do dis; you'se huntin' switch and gittin' hot, gittin' col', dey take after you, dey have a base to go to. Den if dey ketch dem dey whop 'em.

"We played 'Anthony Over,' wid thread balls. We throw dat ball over de house. If dey don' ketch it, dey's out. Dat's de way dey had de sport."

Willis Woodson

*Willis Woodson does not know his age, but looks very aged. He was born in Whiterock, but he does not know its location, except that it was somewhere east of the Mississippi River. Willis now lives in Tyler, Texas.*

"I'm borned at a place called Whiterock, but don't rightly 'member no other name, but it was a long, long way from here, though. I was the prop'ty of Marse Richards, but he sold me and my maw and a lot of darkies to Marse Ike Isom. Maw said Marse Ike done pay $500 for me, cheap 'cause I's purty little and couldn't do much work.

"Marse Isom moved to Texas and everybody holped load de wagons, and we starts real early in a cold mornin'. De old womens and little chillens rode in de wagons, but de men walked. We traveled real slow, though, and it wasn't no worse'n plowin' all day. One Marse Isom's sons rid behind on a big, white hoss, and seed none of the darkies runned off. At night we fixes a supper and goes to bed and all de niggers is chained together and slept on straw beds. The white men tooked turns guardin' dem with guns.

"We gits to de new farm, long ways from where we lives befo', and starts clearin' land. When we gits settled, Old Miss picks me to be nuss to her chillen. Maw didn't work in de field. She say she done been hurt when she got a whippin' when she ain't growed, and her back ain't good no more. Old Miss say, 'Eva, you come in de kitchen and make some chittlin's, and iffen you cooks good, you can work in my kitchen.' Maw, she make dem chitlin's and dey's damn good, so she gits to cook den.

"Marse and Old Miss lives in de big house, with boards outside, 'steadin' logs. It have big rooms, lots of dem, and a big fireplace all 'cross de side one room. Me and 'nother boy has to bring in logs to build de fire, him totin' one end and me totin' one end. I stays in de house, so I gits good clothes and shoes, too. Some dem niggers didn't have hardly no clothes, though,

"De mostest fun I ever got was when Marse Isom 'lows me to be footman. He gits me a uniform, most like a sojer's, 'ceptin' mine am red with black stripes down de pants. I 'member it jist like yesterday, de first time I puts it on. Marse give a cel'bration at he house and de doorman am sick, so I has to be it. He give me dat suit and say to hurry put it on. Den he make me come to de front door and let him in over and over, so as to git de hang of it. He told me to take his hat and cane and put dem up, and to say, 'Thank you,' and 'Dis way, please,' and not to say no more to nobody, and I didn't. After dat night I opens de door lots of times, but mostest I wears dat suit when I takes de white folks to church, while dey listens to preachin' and I holds de hosses.

"I never did see no niggers whipped, but I done see dat whip hangin' in de barn. It a big, long thing, lots bigger'n a horsewhip, and I know it must have been used, 'cause it all wore out at one end.

"All de fun we has am huntin' and fishin'. We can go any night if we gits a permit from Marse Isom. Sometimes at night, he lets all de big niggers git together 'hind de cabins and make a big bonfire. Den we sings all de songs we knows, till nine o'clock, den Marse rings de bell, to cut out all de noise.