*Laura Redmoun was born about 1855, a slave of the Robertson family, in
Jonestown (now absorbed by Memphis) Tennessee. Laura is a quaint, rotund
figure of a woman, a living picture of a comic opera mammy. She lives at
3809 Mayo St., Dallas, Texas.*
"The funny thing 'bout me is, I's a present to the white folks, right
off. They's lookin' for my mammy to have a baby and, Gawd bless, I's
borned twins, a boy and a girl. When I's six months old, Miss Gusta, my
old missy's daughter, marries Mr. Scruggs, and I's give to her for a
weddin' present.
"Miss Gusta am proud of me and I slep' right on the foot of her bed. We
lived at 144 Third Exchange Street in Memphis. She didn't have but two
slaves, me and Lucy, the cook. Law, I didn't know I was no slave. I
thunk I's white and plumb indiff'ent from the niggers. I's right
s'prised when I finds out I's nigger, jus' like the other black faces!
"I had good times and jes' played round and got in devilment. Sometimes
Mr. Scruggs say, 'I's gwine whip dat brat,' but Miss Gusta allus say,
'No you ain't gwine lay you hands on her and iffen you does I'm gwine
quit you.' Miss Gusta was indiff'ent to Mr. Scruggs in quality. He
fooled her to marry him, lettin' on he got a lot of things he ain't.
"I seen sojers all toggered up in uniforms and marchin' and wavin'.
Plenty times they waves at me, but I didn't know what it's all 'bout.
"Miss Gusta allus took me to church and most times I went to sleep by
her feet. But when I's 'bout eight the Lawd gits to workin' right inside
me and I perks up and listens. Purty soon the glory of Gawd 'scended
right down on me and I didn't know nothin' else. I run away up into the
ridges and crosses a creek on a foot log. I stays up 'round them caves
in tall cane and grass where panthers and bears is for three days 'fore
they finds me. They done hear me praisin' Gawd and shoutin', 'I got
Jesus.' When they finds me I done slap the sides out my dress, jes'
slappin' my hands down and praisin' the Lawd. That was a good dress,
too. I heared tell of some niggers wearin' cotton but not me--I weared
percale.
"They done take me home and Miss Gusta say, 'You ain't in no fittin'
condition to jine a church right now. You got to calm down 'siderable
first.' But when I's nine year old she takes me to the Trevesant St.
Baptist church and lets me jine and I's baptised in the Mississippi
river right there at Memphis.
"Bout that time the Fed'rals come into Memphis and scared the daylights
out of folks. Miss Gusta calls me and wrops my hair in front and puts
her jewelry in under the plaits and pulls them back and pins them down
so you couldn't see nothin'. She got silverware and give it to me and I
run in the garden and buries it. I hid it plenty good, 'cause we like to
never found it after the Fed'rals was gone. They come right up to our
house and Mr. Scruggs run out the back door and tried to leap the rail
fence in the backyard. He cotched the seat of his pants on the top rail
and jes' hung there a-danglin' till the Fed'rals pulls him down. He hurt
his leg and it was a bad place for a long time. When I seed him hangin'
there I cut a dido and kep' screamin', 'Miss Gusta, he's a-dyin',' and
them Fed'rals got plumb tickled at me.
"They went in the smokehouse and got all the sugar and rice and strowed
it up and down the streets and not carin' at all that victuals was
scarcer than hen's teeth in them parts!
"Then Miss Gusta done tell me I wasn't no slave no more, but, shucks,
that don't mean nothin' to me, 'cause I ain't never knowed I was one.
"In them times the Ku Klux got to skullduggerin' round and done take Mr.
Scruggs and give him a whippin' but I never heared what it had to do
about. He don't like them none, noways, and shets hisself up in the
house. He a curious kind of man, it 'pear to me, iffen I's to tell the
plain out truth. I don't think he was much but kind of trashy.
"When I's seventeen Miss Gusta sickened and suffered in her bed in
terrible fashion. She begs the doctors to tell her if she's a-dyin' so
she could clear up business 'fore she passed away. She took three days
and fixed things up and told me she didn't want to leave me friendless
and lone. She wanted me to git married. I had a man I thunk I'd think
well of marryin' and Miss Gusta give me away on her bed at the weddin'
in her room. She told my husband not to cuff me none, 'cause I never
been 'bused in my life, and to this day I ain't never been hit a lick in
my life.
[Illustration: _Laura Redmoun_]
"My first baby was born the year of the big yellow fever in New Orleans.
I had six chillen but they all died when they's little from creepin'
spasms. I advertises round in the papers and finds my mammy and she come
and lived with me. She's in a pitiful shape. 'Fore the ceasin' of war
her master done sold her and the man what bought her wasn't so light on
his niggers. She said he made her wear breeches and tote big, heavy logs
and plow with oxes. One of the men knocked her on back of the head with
a club and from that day she allus shook her head from side to side all
the time, like she couldn't git her mind straight. She told me my paw
fell off a bluff in Memphis and stuck a sharp rock right through his
head. They wrapped him in a blanket and buried him. That's all I ever
knowed 'bout him.
"My husband was a good man and a good worker. We farmed and I worked for
white folks. We took a notion to come to Texas and I been in these parts
ever since.
"I don't have no complaint to make. I seen some hard times, but I's able
to do a little work and keep goin'. They is so many mean folks in the
world and so many good ones, and I'm mighty proud to say my white folks
was good ones."