(Princess Quango Hennadonah Perceriah)
1110 Oakwood Avenue, Raleigh, North Carolina.
I was eighteen years old in 1875 but I wanted to get married so I gave
my age as nineteen. I wish I could recall some of the ole days when I
was with my missus in Orange County, playing with my brothers and other
slave children.
I was owned by Mr. Franklin Davis and my madam was Mrs. Bettie Davis. I
and my brother used to scratch her feet and rub them for her; you know
how old folks like to have their feet rubbed. My brother and I used to
scrap over who should scratch and rub her feet. She would laugh and tell
us not to do that way that she loved us both. Sometimes she let me sleep
at her feet at night. She was plenty good to all of the slaves. Her
daughter Sallie taught me my A B C's in Webster's Blue Back spelling
Book. When I learned to Spell B-a-k-e-r, Baker, I thought that was
something. The next word I felt proud to spell was s-h-a-d-y, shady, the
next l-a-d-y, lady. I would spell them out loud as I picked up chips in
the yard to build a fire with. My missus Bettie gave me a blue back
spelling book.
My father was named James Mason, and he belonged to James Mason of
Chapel Hill. Mother and I and my four brothers belonged to the same man
and we also lived in the town. I never lived on a farm or plantation in
my life. I know nothing about farming. All my people are dead and I
cannot locate any of marster's family if they are living. Marster's
family consisted of two boys and two girls--Willie, Frank, Lucy and
Sallie. Marster was a merchant, selling general merchandise. I remember
eating a lot of brown sugar and candy at his store.
My mother was a cook. They allowed us a lot of privileges and it was
just one large happy family with plenty to eat and wear, good sleeping
places and nothing to worry about. They were of the Presbyterian faith
and we slaves attended Sunday school and services at their church. There
were about twelve slaves on the lot. The houses for slaves were built
just a little ways back from marster's house on the same lot. The Negro
and white children played together, and there was little if any
difference made in the treatment given a slave child and a white child.
I have religious books they gave me. Besides the books they taught me,
they drilled me in etiquette of the times and also in courtesy and
respect to my superiors until it became a habit and it was perfectly
natural for me to be polite.
The first I knew of the Yankees was when I was out in my marster's yard
picking up chips and they came along, took my little brother and put him
on a horse's back and carried him up town. I ran and told my mother
about it. They rode brother over the town a while, having fun out of
him, then they brought him back. Brother said he had a good ride and was
pleased with the blue jackets as the Yankee soldiers were called.
We had all the silver and valuables hid and the Yankees did not find
them, but they went into marster's store and took what they wanted. They
gave my father a box of hardtack and a lot of meat. Father was a
Christian and he quoted one of the Commandments when they gave him
things they had stolen from others. 'Thou shalt not steal', quoth he,
and he said he did not appreciate having stolen goods given to him.
I traveled with the white folks in both sections of the country, north
and south, after the _War Between the States_. I kept traveling with them
and also continued my education. They taught me to recite and I made
money by reciting on many of the trips. Since the surrender I have
traveled in the north for various Charitable Negro Societies and
Institutions and people seemed very much interested in the recitation I
recited called "When Malinda Sings".
The first school I attended was after the war closed. The school was
located in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, and was taught by a Yankee white
woman from Philadelphia. We remained in Chapel Hill only a few years
after the war ended when we all moved to Raleigh, and I have made it my
home ever since. I got the major part of my education in Raleigh under
Dr. H. M. Tupper[1] who taught in the second Baptist Church, located on
Blount Street. Miss Mary Lathrop, a colored teacher from Philadelphia,
was an assistant teacher in Dr. Tupper's School. I went from there to
Shaw Collegiate Institute, which is now Shaw University.
I married Aaron Stallings of Warrenton, North Carolina while at Shaw.
He died and I married Rev. Matthews Anngady of Monrovia, west coast of
Africa, Liberia, Pastor of First Church. I helped him in his work here,
kept studying the works of different authors, and lecturing and
reciting. My husband, the Rev. Matthews Anngady died, and I gave a lot
of my time to the cause of Charity, and while on a lecture tour of
Massachusetts in the interest of this feature of colored welfare for
Richmond, Va., the most colorful incident of my eventful life happened
when I met Quango Hennadonah Perceriah, an Abyssinian Prince, who was
traveling and lecturing on the customs of his country and the habits of
its people. Our mutual interests caused our friendship to ripen fast and
when the time of parting came, when each of us had finished our work in
Massachusetts, he going back to his home in New York City and I
returning to Richmond, he asked me to correspond with him. I promised to
do so and our friendship after a year's correspondence became love and
he proposed and I accepted him. We were married in Raleigh by Rev. J. J.
Worlds, pastor of the First Baptist Church, colored.
P. T. Barnum had captured my husband when he was a boy and brought him
to America from Abyssinia, educated him and then sent him back to his
native country. He would not stay and soon he was in America again. He
was of the Catholic faith in America and they conferred the honor of
priesthood upon him but after he married me this priesthood was taken
away and he joined the Episcopal Church. After we were married we
decided to go on an extensive lecture tour. He had been a headsman in
his own country and a prince. We took the customs of his people and his
experiences as the subject of our lectures. I could sing, play the
guitar, violin and piano, but I did not know his native language. He
began to teach me and as soon as I could sing the song _How Firm A
Foundation_ in his language which went this way:
Ngama i-bata, Njami buyek
Wema Wemeta, Negana i
bukek diol, di Njami,
i-diol de Kak
Annimix, Annimix hanci
Bata ba Satana i-bu butete
Bata ba Npjami i bunanan
Bata be satana ba laba i wa--
Bata ba Njami ba laba Munonga
We traveled and lectured in both the north and the south and our life,
while we had to work hard, was one of happiness and contentment. I
traveled and lectured as the Princess Quango Hennadonah Perceriah, wife
of the Abyssinian Prince. I often recited the recitation written by the
colored poet, Paul Lawrence Dunbar _When Malinda Sings_ to the delight of
our audiences.
* * * * *
The following incidents of African life were related to me by my husband
Quango Hennadonah Perceriah and they were also given in his lectures on
African customs while touring the United States.
The religion of the Bakuba tribe of Abyssinia was almost wholly Pagan
as the natives believed fully in witchcraft, sorcery, myths and
superstitions. The witch doctor held absolute sway over the members of
the tribe and when his reputation as a giver of rain, bountiful crops or
success in the chase was at stake the tribes were called together and
those accused by the witch doctor of being responsible for these
conditions through witchery were condemned and speedily executed.
The people were called together by the beating of drums. The witch
doctor, dressed in the most hellish garb imaginable with his body
painted and poisonous snake bone necklaces dangling from his neck and
the claws of ferocious beasts, lions, leopards and the teeth of vicious
man-eating crocodiles finishing up his adornment, sat in the middle of
a court surrounded by the members of the tribe. In his hand he carried a
gourd which contained beads, shot, or small stones. He began his
incantations by rattling the contents of the gourd, shouting and making
many weird wails and peculiar contortions. After this had gone on for
sometime until he was near exhaustion his face assumed the expression of
one in great pain and this was the beginning of the end for some poor
ignorant savage. He squirmed and turned in different directions with his
eyes fixed with a set stare as if in expectancy when suddenly his gaze
would be fixed on some member of the tribe and his finger pointed
directly at him. The victim was at once seized and bound, the doctor's
gaze never leaving him until this was done. If one victim appeased his
nervous fervor the trial was over but if his wrought-up feelings desired
more his screechings continued until a second victim was secured. He had
these men put to death to justify himself in the eyes of the natives of
his tribe for his failing to bring rain, bountiful crops and success to
the tribe.
The witch doctor who sat as judge seemed to have perfect control over
the savages minds and no one questioned his decisions. The persons were
reconciled to their fate and were led away to execution while they
moaned and bade their friends goodbye in the doleful savage style.
Sometimes they were put on a boat, taken out into the middle of a river
and there cut to pieces with blades of grass, their limbs being
dismembered first and thrown into the river to the crocodiles. A drink
containing an opiate was generally given the victim to deaden the pain
but often this formality was dispensed with. The victims were often cut
to pieces at the place of trial with knives and their limbs thrown out
to the vultures that almost continuously hover 'round the huts and
kraals of the savage tribes of Africa.
In some instances condemned persons were burned at the stake. This form
of execution is meted out at some of the religious dances or festivities
to some of their pagan gods to atone and drive away the evil spirits
that have caused pestilences to come upon the people. The victims at
these times are tortured in truly savage fashion, being burned to death
by degrees while the other members of the tribe dance around and go wild
with religious fervor calling to their gods while the victim screeches
with pain in his slowly approaching death throes. Young girls, women,
boys and men are often accused of witchcraft. One method they used of
telling whether the victim accused was innocent or guilty was to give
them a liquid poison made from the juice of several poisonous plants. If
they could drink it and live they were innocent, if they died they were
guilty. In most cases death was almost instantaneous. Some vomited the
poison from their stomachs and lived.
The Bakubas sometimes resorted to cannibalism and my husband told me
of a Bakuba girl who ate her own mother. Once a snake bit a man and he
at once called the witch doctor. The snake was a poisonous one and the
man bitten was in great pain. The witch doctor whooped and went through
several chants but the man got worse instead of better. The witch doctor
then told the man that his wife made the snake bite him by witchery and
that she should die for the act. The natives gathered at once in
response to the witch doctor's call and the woman was executed at once.
The man bitten by the snake finally died but the witch doctor had
shifted the responsibility of his failure to help the man to his wife
who had been beheaded. The witch doctor had justified himself and the
incident was closed.
The tribe ruled by a King has two or more absolute rules. The Kings
word is law and he has the power to condemn any subject to death at any
time without trial. If he becomes angry or offended with any of his
wives a nod and a word to his bodyguard and the woman is led away to
execution. Any person of the tribe is subject to the King's will with
the exemption of the witch doctor. Executions of a different nature than
the ones described above are common occurrences. For general crimes the
culprit after being condemned to death is placed in a chair shaped very
much like the electric chairs used in American prisons in taking the
lives of the condemned. He is then tied firmly to the chair with thongs.
A pole made of a green sapling is firmly implanted in the earth nearby.
A thong is placed around the neck of the victim under the chin. The
sapling is then bent over and the other end of the thong tied to the end
of the sapling pole. The pole stretches the neck to its full length and
holds the head erect. Drums are sometimes beaten to drown the cries of
those who are to be killed. The executioner who is called a headsman
then walks forward approaching the chair from the rear. When he reaches
it he steps to the side of the victim and with a large, sharp,
long-bladed knife lops off the head of the criminal. The bodies of men
executed in this manner are buried in shallow holes dug about two feet
deep to receive their bodies.
The rank and file of the savage tribes believe explicitly [HW
correction: implicitly] in the supernatural powers of the witch doctor
and his decisions are not questioned. Not even the King of the tribe
raises a voice against him. The witch doctor is crafty enough not to
condemn any of the King's household or any one directly prominent in the
King's service. After an execution everything is quiet in a few hours
and the incident seems forgotten. The African Negroes attitude towards
the whole affair seems to be instinctive and as long as he escapes he
does not show any particular concern in his fellowman. His is of an
animal instinctive nature.
The males of the African tribes of savages have very little respect for
a woman but they demand a whole lot of courtesies from their wives,
beating them unmercifully when they feel proper respect has not been
shown them. The men hunt game and make war on other tribes and the women
do all the work. A savage warrior when not engaged in hunting or war,
sleeps a lot and smokes almost continuously during his waking hours.
Girls are bought from their parents while mere children by the payment
of so many cows, goats, etc. The King can take any woman of the tribe
whether married or single he desires to be his wife. The parents of
young girls taken to wife by the King of a tribe feel honored and fall
on their knees and thank the King for taking her.
The prince of a tribe is born a headsman and as soon as he is able to
wield a knife he is called upon to perform the duty of cutting off the
heads of criminals who are condemned to death by the King for general
crimes. Those condemned by the witch doctor for witchcraft are executed
by dismemberment or fire as described above.
* * * * *
My husband was a cannibal headsman and performed this duty of cutting
off persons heads when a boy and after being civilized in America this
feature of his early life bore so heavily upon his mind that it was
instrumental in driving him insane. By custom a prince was born a
headsman and it was compulsory that he execute criminals. He died in an
insane ward of the New Jersey State Hospital.
[Footnote 1: [HW: ]Dr. Henry M. Tupper, a Union Army chaplain, who
helped to start Shaw University in 1865.]
N. C. District: No. 2 [320126]
Worker: T. Pat Matthews
No. Words: 1051
Subject: JANE ARRINGTON
Story Teller: Jane Arrington
Editor: Geo. L. Andrews
[TR: Date Stamp "AUG 4 1937"]
JANE ARRINGTON
84 years old
302 Fowle Street
Raleigh, N. C.
I ort to be able to tell sumpin cause I wus twelve years old when dey
had de surrender right up here in Raleigh. If I live to see dis coming
December I will be eighty five years old. I was born on the 18th of
December 1852.
I belonged to Jackson May of Nash County. I wus born on de plantation
near Tar River. Jackson May never married until I wus of a great big
girl. He owned a lot of slaves; dere were eighty on de plantation before
de surrender. He married Miss Becky Wilder, sister of Sam Wilder. De
Wilders lived on a jining plantation to where I wus borned.
Jackson May had so many niggers he let Billy Williams who had a
plantation nearby have part of 'em. Marster Jackson he raised my father
and bought my mother. My mother wus named Louisa May, and my father wus
named Louis May. My mother had six chilluns, four boys and two girls.
The boys were Richard, Farro, Caeser, and Fenner. De girls Rose and
Jane. Jane, dats me.
We lived in log houses with stick an' dirt chimleys. They called 'em
the slave houses. We had chicken feather beds to sleep on an' de houses
wus good warm comfortable log houses. We had plenty of cover an' feather
pillows.
My grandmother on my mother's side told me a lot of stories 'bout
haints and how people run from 'em. Dey told me 'bout slaves dat had
been killed by dere marster's coming back and worryin' 'em. Ole Missus
Penny Williams, before Jackson May bought mother, treated some of de
slaves mighty bad. She died an' den come back an' nearly scared de
slaves to death. Grandmother told all we chillun she seed her an' knowed
her after she been dead an' come back.
John May a slave wus beat to death by Bill Stone an' Oliver May. Oliver
May wus Junius May's son. Junius May wus Jackson May's Uncle. John May
come back an' wurried both of 'em. Dey could hardly sleep arter dat. Dey
said dey could hear him hollerin' an' groanin' most all de time. Dese
white men would groan in dere sleep an' tell John to go away. Dey would
say, 'Go way John, please go away'. De other slaves wus afraid of 'em
cause de ghost of John wurried 'em so bad.
I wurked on de farm, cuttin' corn stalks and tendin' to cattle in
slavery time. Sometimes I swept de yards. I never got any money for my
work and we didn't have any patches. My brothers caught possums, coons
and sich things an' we cooked 'em in our houses. We had no parties but
we had quiltin's. We went to the white folks church, Peach Tree Church,
six miles from de plantation an' Poplar Springs Church seven miles away.
Both were missionary Baptist Churches.
There were no overseers on Jackson May's plantation. He wouldn't have
nary one. Billy Williams didn't have none. Dey had colored slave
foremen.
After wurkin' all day dere wus a task of cotton to be picked an' spun
by 'em. Dis wus two onces of cotton. Some of de slaves run away from
Bill Williams when Marster Jackson May let him have 'em to work. Dey run
away an' come home. Aunt Chaney runned away an' mother run away. Marster
Jackson May kept 'em hid cause he say dey wus not treated right. He
wouldn't let 'em have 'em back no more.
I never saw a grown slave whupped or in chains and I never saw a slave
sold. Jackson May would not sell a slave. He didn't think it right. He
kept 'em together. He had eighty head. He would let other white people
have 'em to wurk for 'em sometimes, but he would not sell none of 'em.
If dey caught a slave wid a book you knowed it meant a whuppin', but de
white chillun teached slaves secretey sometimes. Ole man Jake Rice a
slave who belonged to John Rice in Nash County wus teached by ole John
Rice's son till he had a purty good mount of larnin'.
We did not have prayer meeting at marster's plantation or anywhur.
Marster would not allow dat.
When I wus a child we played de games of three handed reels, 'Old Gray
Goose', 'All Little Gal, All Little Gal, All Little Gal remember me'. We
took hold of hands an' run round as we sang dis song.
We sang 'Old Dan Tucker'. Git outen de way, ole Dan Tucker, Sixteen
Hosses in one stable, one jumped out an' skined his nable an' so on.
Dr. Mann and Dr. Sid Harris and Dr. Fee Mann and Dr. Mathias looked
arter us when we wus sick. Mother and de other grown folks raised herbs
dat dey give us too. Chillun took a lot of salts.
Jackson May wus too rich to go to de war. Billy Williams didn't go, too
rich too, I reckons. I remember when dey said niggers had to be free. De
papers said if dey could not be freedom by good men dere would be
freedom by blood. Dey fighted an' kept on fightin' a long time. Den de
Yankees come. [HW correction: New paragraph] I heard dem beat de drum.
Marster tole us we wus free but mother an' father stayed on with
Marster. He promised 'em sumptin, but he give 'em nothin'. When de crop
wus housed dey left.
Father and mother went to Hench Stallings plantation and stayed there
one year. Then they went to Jim Webbs farm. I don't remember how long
they stayed there but round two years. They moved about an' about among
the white folks till they died. They never owned any property. They been
dead 'bout thirty years.