*Lee Pierce, 87, was born a slave of Evans Spencer, in Marshall, Texas.
Lee was sold to a trader in 1861, and bought by Henry Fowler, of Sulphur
Springs, Texas. Lee remained with his master until 1866, then returned
to Marshall. When he became too old to work, he went to live with a son,
in Jefferson, Tex.*
"My name am Lee Anderson Pierce, borned on the fifteenth of May, in
1850, up in Marshall, and 'longin' to Marse Evans Spencer, what was a
surveyor. I never knowed my pappy. He died 'fore I was borned. Mammy was
Winnie Spencer and Old Marse's folks fetched her to Texas from
Greenwood, what am over in Mississippi.
"When I was 'bout eleven year old, Marse Spencer done got in debt so bad
he had to sell me off from mammy. He sold me to a spec'lator named
Buckley, and he taken me to Jefferson and drapped me down there with a
man called Sutton. I had a hard time there, had to sleep on the floor on
hot ashes, to keep warm, in wintertime. I nussed Marse Sutton's kids
'bout a year, den Buckley done got me 'gain and taken me to de nigger
trader yard in Marshall. I was put on de block and sold jes' like a cow
or horse, to Marse Henry Fowler, what taken me to Sulphur Springs. I
lived with him till after surrender.
"Marse Fowler worked 'bout a hundred and fifty acres of land and had
sev'ral cullud families. He done overseeing hisself, but had a black man
for foreman. I seed plenty niggers whopped for not doin' dey tasks. He'd
whop 'em for not pickin' so many hundreds of cotton a day, buckle 'em
down hawg fashion and whop 'em with a strap. Us never stopped work no
day, lessen Sunday, and not then iffen grass in the field or crops
sufferin'.
"Most time we et bacon and cornbread and greens. Sometimes we'd git deer
meat to eat, 'cause a old man named Buck Thomas am clost friend to Marse
Fowler and a big hunter. We got our own fish when we wasn't workin'.
"The first work I done was herdin' sheep. I never done much field work,
but I was kep' busy with them sheep and other jobs round the place. The
cullud folks had big breakdowns Saturday night and a good time then and
on Christmas, but all the res' the time us jus' worked.
"On Christmas we never got nothin but white shorts. Them was for
biscuits and they was jus' like cake to the niggers in slavery time.
Marse Fowler didn't have too much regard for he black folks. Two
families of them was stolen niggers. A spec'lator done stole them in
Arkansas and fotch them to Texas.
"I didn't know much 'bout the war, 'cause I'm only ten year old when it
starts, and the white folks didn't talk it with us cullud folks. Long
'bout the end of the war a big Yankee camp was at Jefferson right where
the courthouse is now, but I wasn't 'lowed to go there and never did
know nothin' 'bout it.
"I stayed with Marse Fowler till the Ku Klux got to ragin'. The Yankees
run it out of business. That Ku Klux business started from men tryin' to
run the niggers back to they farms. They near all left they masters and
didn't have nothin' or nowheres to go. The cullud folks was skeered of
them Kluxers. They come round the house and had some kind of riggin'
so's they could drink sev'ral buckets of water.
"A cullud man at Jefferson, named Dick Walker, got up a cullud militia
to keep the Klux off the niggers. The militia met here in the old
African Methodist Church. Marse Fowler done git up a bunch of thirty men
to break up that cullud militia, and he org'ized his bunch at our place.
I holped saddle the hosses the night they went to take the church. Ben
Biggerstaff, he was one the main white leaders. They kilt sev'ral of the
militia and wounded lots more. That's after the Yankees done leave.
"I hired out to Col. King, a Yankee officer in Sulphur Springs, and
works for him one year. I was makin' $25.00 a month. Land was sellin'
for twenty-five cents an acre but I wouldn't buy none. That same land am
worth a fortune now. But I left and come back to Jefferson.
"I never found my mammy until 1870. She was workin' in a cafe in
Terrell. Judge Estes of Jefferson and some white men done been to Dallas
and stopped where she was workin'. She asked 'em if they knowed Lee
Pierce and the Judge said he did. When she done tell him how long it am
since she seed me, he put her on the train and sent her to Jefferson.
"I was here when Jay Gould tried to git them to let him put his railroad
through this town and they told him they didn't need a railroad. Then
they done somethin' on Red River what done take all the water out of Big
Cypress and the town went down to nothin'. Cullud folks run this town
'bout them times. Paul Matthews, a cullud man, was county judge, and
Bill Wisham was sheriff.
"I think the younger race of our folks has more 'vantages for prosper'ty
than what we had. Most of them am makin' good use of it. Some ain't got
no principle or ambition, but lots of them are 'spectable people."