*Susan Merritt, 87, was born in Rusk Co., Texas, a slave of Andrew Watt.
A year after she was freed, Susan moved with her parents to Harrison
Co., and stayed on their farm until she married Will Merritt. They
reared fifteen children. Susan has little to say of her life from 1865
to the present, stating that they got along on the farm they worked on
shares. Since her husband's death Susan lives with a son, Willie, west
of Marshall, Texas, on the Hynson Springs Road.*
"I couldn't tell how old I is, but does you think I'd ever forgit them
slave days? I 'lieve I's 'bout 87 or more, 'cause I's a good size gal
spinnin all the thread for the white folks when they lets us loose after
surrender.
"I's born right down in Rusk County, not a long way from Henderson, and
Massa Andrew Watt am my owner. My pappy, Bob Rollins, he come from North
Carolina and belonged to Dave Blakely and mammy come from Mississippi.
Mammy have eleven of us chillen but four dies when they babies, but
Albert, Hob, John, Emma, Anna, Lula and me lives to be growed and
married.
"Massa Watt lived in a big log house what sot on a hill so you could see
it 'round for miles, and us lived over in the field in little log huts,
all huddled along together. They have home-made beds nailed to the wall
and baling sack mattresses, and us call them bunks. Us never had no
money but plenty clothes and grub and wear the same clothes all the year
'round. Massa Watt made our shoes for winter hisself and he made
furniture and saddles and harness and run a grist mill and a whiskey
still there on the place. That man had ev'ything.
"The hands was woke with the big bell and when massa pulls that bell
rope the niggers falls out them bunks like rain fallin'. They was in
that field 'fore day and stay till dusk dark. They work slap up till
Saturday night and then washes their clothes, and sometimes they gits
through and has time for the party and plays ring plays. I 'member part
the words to one play and that, 'Rolling river, roll on, the old cow die
in cold water ... now we's got to drink bad water 'cause old cow die in
cold water,' but I can't 'member more'n that. It's too long ago.
"When the hands come in from the field at dusk dark, they has to tote
water from the spring and cook and eat and be in bed when that old bell
rings at nine o'clock. 'Bout dusk they calls the chillen and gives 'em a
piece of corn pone 'bout size my hand and a tin cup milk and puts them
to bed, but the growed folks et fat pork and greens and beans and sich
like and have plenty milk. Ev'ry Sunday massa give 'em some flour and
butter and a chicken. Lots of niggers caught a good cowhiding for
slippin' 'round and stealin' a chicken 'fore Sunday.
"Massa Watt didn't have no overseer, but he have a nigger driver what am
jus' as bad. He carry a long whip 'round the neck and I's seed him tie
niggers to a tree and cowhide 'em till the blood run down onto the
ground. Sometimes the women gits slothful and not able to do their part
but they makes 'em do it anyway. They digs a hole, 'bout body deep, and
makes them women lie face down in it and beats 'em nearly to death. That
nigger driver beat the chillen for not keepin' their cotton row up with
the lead man. Sometimes he made niggers drag long chains while they
works in the field and some of 'em run off, but they oughtn't to have
done it, 'cause they chase 'em with hounds and nearly kilt 'em.
"Lots of times Massa Watt give us a pass to go over to George Petro's
place or Dick Gregg's place. Massa Petro run a slave market and he have
big, high scaffold with steps where he sells slaves. They was stripped
off to the waist to show their strengt'.
"Our white folks have a church and a place for us in the back. Sometimes
at night us gather 'round the fireplace and pray and sing and cry, but
us daren't 'low our white folks know it. Thank the Lawd us can worship
where us wants nowadays. I 'member one song we allus sing:
"'I heard the voice of Jesus callin'
Come unto me and live
Lie, lie down, weepin' one
Res' they head on my breast.
"'I come to Jesus as I was
Weary and lone and tired and sad,
I finds in him a restin' place,
And he has made me glad.'
"Us have two white doctors call Dr. Dan and Dr. Gill Shaw, what wait on
us when we real sick. Us wore asafoetida bags 'round the neck and it
kep' off sickness.
"I stay mos' the time in the big house and massa good but missy am the
devil. I couldn't tell you how I treated. Lots of times she tie me to a
stob in the yard and cowhide me till she give out, then she go and rest
and come back and beat me some more. You see, I's massa nigger and she
have her own niggers what come on her side and she never did like me.
She stomp and beat me nearly to death and they have to grease my back
where she cowhide me and I's sick with fever for a week. If I have a
dollar for ev'ry cowhidin' I git, I'd never have to work no more.
[Illustration: _Susan Merritt_]
"Young missy Betty like me and try larn me readin' and writin' and she
slip to my room and have me doin' right good. I larn the alphabet. But
one day Missy Jane cotch her schoolin' me and she say, 'Niggers don't
need to know anything,' and she lams me over the head with the butt of a
cowhide whip. That white woman so rough, one day us makin' soap and some
little chickens gits in the fire 'round the pot and she say I let 'em do
it and make me walk barefoot through that bed of coals sev'ral times.
"I hears 'bout freedom in September and they's pickin' cotton and a
white man rides up to massa's house on a big, white hoss and the
houseboy tell massa a man want see him and he hollers, 'Light,
stranger.' It a gov'ment man and he have the big book and a bunch papers
and say why ain't massa turn the niggers loose. Massa say he tryin' git
the crop out and he tell massa have the slaves in. Uncle Steven blows
the cow horn what they use to call to eat and all the niggers come
runnin', 'cause that horn mean, 'Come to the big house, quick.' That man
reads the paper tellin' us we's free, but massa make us work sev'ral
months after that. He say we git 20 acres land and a mule but we didn't
git it.
"Lots of niggers was kilt after freedom, 'cause the slaves in Harrison
County turn loose right at freedom and them in Rusk County wasn't. But
they hears 'bout it and runs away to freedom in Harrison County and they
owners have 'em bushwhacked, that shot down. You could see lots of
niggers hangin' to trees in Sabine bottom right after freedom, 'cause
they catch 'em swimmin' 'cross Sabine River and shoot 'em. They sho' am
goin' be lots of soul cry 'gainst 'em in Judgment!"