*William Mathews, 89, was born a slave on the Adams plantation, in
Franklin Parish, Louisiana. He was driver of the family carriage. After
William was freed he supported himself by hiring out as a field hand and
by making and selling baskets. Since 1931 he has lived with his
daughter, Sarah Colburn, at 812-1/2 41st St., Galveston, Texas.*
"Course I can 'lect 'bout slavery. I is old and my eyesight am gone, but
I can still 'lect. I ain't never forgit it.
"My massa, old Buck Adams, could out-mean de debbil heself. He sho'
hard--hard and sneaky as slippery ellum. Old Mary Adams, he wife, was
'most as hard as he was. Sometimes I used to wonder how dere chillen
ever stood 'em. Old Buck Adams brung my mammy and daddy from South
Car'lina to work in de fields and my daddy's name was Economy Mathews
and my mammy's name Phoebe. Simmons was her name 'fore she marry. I is
born on old Buck's place, on December 25th, in 1848. Dat plantation was
in Franklin Parish, somewhere round Monroe, in Louisiana.
"Me and Bill Adams raised together. When he shoot a deer I run home like
greased lightnin' and git de hoss. Sometimes he'd shoot a big hawg and
I'd skin him.
"When I got big 'nough I'd drive dere carriage. I was what dey calls de
'waitin' boy.' I sot in dat buggy and wait till dey come out of where
dey was, and den driv 'em off. I wasn't 'lowed to git out and visit
round with de other slaves. No, suh, I had to set dere and wait.
"De slaves git out in de fields 'fore sun-up and work till black dark.
Den dey come home and have to feel dere way in de house, with no light.
My mammy and daddy field hands. My grandma was cook, and have to git in
de cook pot 'bout four o'clock to git breakfas' by daylight. Dey et by
candles or pine torches. One de black boys stand behin' 'em and hold it
while dey et.
"De clothes we wore was made out of dyed 'lows.' Dat de stuff dey makes
sackin' out of. Summer time us go barefoot but winter time come, dey
give you shoes with heels on 'em big as biscuits.
"De quarters is back of de big house and didn't have no floors. Dey sot
plumb on de ground and build like a hawg pen. Dey cut down timber and
stake it up at de corners and fill it in with timber with de bark on it.
Dere was split log houses and round log houses and all sech like dat.
Dey have only fifty slaves on dat place, and it a big place, big 'nough
for a hundred. But what dey do? Dey take de good slaves and sell 'em.
Dat what dey do. Den dey make de ones what am left do all de work. Sell,
sell, all de time, and never buy nobody. Dat was dem.
"Every Sat'day evenin' us go to de pitcher poke. Dat what dey calls it
when dey issues de rations. You go to de smokehouse and dey weigh out
some big, thick rounds of white pork meat and give it to you. De syrup
weighed out. De meal weighed out. Dey never give us no sugar or coffee.
You want coffee, you put de skillet on de fire and put de meal in it and
parch it till it most black, and put water on it. Mammy make salt water
bread out of a li'l flour and salt and water.
"Sometimes, dey make de slaves go to church. De white folks sot up fine
in dere carriage and drive up to de door and git de slaves out of one
cabin, den git de slaves out of de nex' cabin, and keep it up till dey
gits dem all. Den all de slaves walks front de carriage till dey gits to
church. De slaves sit outside under de shade trees. If de preacher talk
real loud, you can hear him out de window.
"If a cullud man take de notion to preach, he couldn't preach 'bout de
Gospel. Dey didn't 'low him do dat. All he could preach 'bout was obey
de massa, obey de overseer, obey dis, obey dat. Dey didn't make no
passel of fuss 'bout prayin' den. Sometimes dey have prayin' meetin' in
a cabin at night. Each one bring de pot and put dere head in it to keep
de echoes from gittin' back. Den dey pray in de pot. Dat de Gawd's
truth!
"Like I done said, massa sol' de good slaves in Monroe. Nobody marry in
dem days. A gal go out and take de notion for some buck and dey make de
'greement to live together. Course, if a unhealthy buck take up with a
portly gal, de white folks sep'rate 'em. If a man a big, stout man, good
breed, dey gives him four, five women.
"Sometimes dey run 'way. It ain't done dem no good, for de dawgs am put
on dey trail. If you climb de tree, dem dogs hold you dere till de white
folks comes, and den dey let de dogs git you. Sometimes de dogs tore all
dey clothes off, and dey ain't got nary a rag on 'em when dey git home.
If dey run in de stream of water, de dogs gits after 'em and drowns 'em.
Den Nick, de overseer, he whop 'em. He drive down four stakes for de
feets and hands and tie 'em up. Den he whop 'em from head to feets. De
whip make out a hide, cut in strips, with holes punch in 'em. When dey
hits de skin it make blisters.
"All kind of war talk floatin' round 'fore de Yankees come. Some say de
Yankees fight for freedom and some say dey'll kill all de slaves. Seems
like it must have been in de middle of de war dat de Yankees come by. We
hears somebody holler for us to come out one night and seed de place on
fire. Time we git out dere, de Yankees gone. We fit de fire but we had
to tote water in buckets, and de fire burn up de gin house full of
cotton and de cotton house, too, and de corn crib.
"De Yankees allus come through at night and done what dey gwine to do,
and den wait for more night 'fore dey go 'bout dere business. Only one
time dey come in daylight, and some de slaves jine dem and go to war.
"All de talk 'bout freedom git so bad on de plantation de massa make me
put de men in a big wagon and drive 'em to Winfield. He say in Texas
dere never be no freedom. I driv 'em fast till night and it take 'bout
two days. But dey come back home, but massa say if he cotch any of 'em
he gwine shoot 'em. Dey hang round de woods and dodge round and round
till de freedom man come by.
"We went right on workin' after freedom. Old Buck Adams wouldn't let us
go. It was way after freedom dat de freedom man come and read de paper,
and tell us not to work no more 'less us git pay for it. When he gone,
old Mary Adams, she come out. I 'lect what she say as if I jes' hear her
say it. She say, 'Ten years from today I'll have you all back 'gain.'
Dat ten years been over a mighty long time and she ain't git us back yit
and she dead and gone.
"Dey makes us git right off de place, jes' like you take a old hoss and
turn it loose. Dat how us was. No money, no nothin'. I git a job workin'
for a white man on he farm, but he couldn't pay much. He didn't have
nothin'. He give me jes' 'nough to git a peck or two of meal and a li'l
syrup.
"I allus works in de fields and makes baskets, big old cotton baskets
and bow baskets make out of white oak. I work down de oak to make de
splits and make de bow basket to tote de lunch. Den I make trays and mix
bowls. I go out and cut down de big poplar and bust off de big block and
sit down 'straddle, and holler it out big as I wants it, and make de
bread tray. I make collars for hosses and ox whops and quirts out of
beef hide. But I looses my eyesight a couple years back and I can't do
nothin' no more. My gal takes care of me.
"I come here in 1931. Dat de first time I'm out of Franklin Parish. I
allus git along some way till I'm blind. My gal am good to me, but de
days am passin' and soon I'll be gone, too."