*Irella Battle Walker, 86, was born a slave at Craft's Prairie, Texas.
Her parents, Mesheck and Becky Battle, belonged to Mr. Battle, but were
sold while Irella was a baby to Tom Washington, of Travis County. Irella
learned her A B C's from an o1d slave, Jack James, although it was
against the rules. This was the only schooling she ever had. Irella
receives a monthly old age pension of eight dollars. She lives at 2902
Cole St., Austin, Texas.*
"My name was Irella Battle and I was borned on August 15th, in 1851,
down at Craft's Prairie, in Bastrop County. I was 86 years old last
August, and I'm blind in one eye.
"Mammy's name was Becky Battle and she was a field worker, and dat about
de most work she have to do, 'cept on rainy days. She had five girls and
one boy and I'm de youngest and de only livin' one now. Daddy was
Mesheck Battle and when I'm a baby in mammy's arms, us sold to Massa
Washington.
"Daddy had to do field work. I never knowed him do nothin' but farm. He
sho' make us behave and whop us if we didn't. Massa was purty good. De
massas dem times, some was good and some was bad, and about de most of
dem was bad. I had to he'p round de big house and dey purty good to me.
But when I still little I went to de fields. Dey give me a sack what de
slaves make to pick cotton in. Dey spin de thread and make cloth on de
loom and stitch it and make cotton sacks. Dey short for us chillen and
de older folks had a short one to pick in and a big sack to empty in. I
could pick about a hundred fifty pounds a day when I's twelve. Israel
Roberts could pick five hundred a day. Us never got no money for
pickin', only food and clothes and a place to stay at night. Old man
Jonas watched us chillen and kept us divin' for dat cotton all de day
long. Us wish him dead many a time.
"De plantation had a hoss-power gin and some days our rows of cotton
tooked us right to de gin house and we'd look up and watch de slave boys
settin' on de lever and drivin' dem hosses round and round.
"De cabins was log and mud and stick chimney. When one dem chimneys
catch fire us git on top and throw water on it.
"In summer us go barefoot, but dere shoemakers what make shoes for
winter. When a beef killed, de hide kept and cleaned and put in de
tannin' trough. When de leather ready, de shoes make in de little shoe
shop, and when dem shoes git dry dey hard as a rock. Daddy make us rub
tallow or fried grease meat or any other kind grease into dat hard shoe
leather, and it make dem soft, but when de dew and sun git on dem again
dey's hard again. Times de coyotes steal dem greased shoes and make off
with dem. Dat act'ly happen a lot of times.
"Old man Jack James work at day and have night school at night. He have
long boards for benches and let dem down by ropes from de rafters, and
have blue back spellers. He point to de letters with de long broom straw
and dat's how we larn our A B C's. I can read purty good, when my eyes
let me, but I can't write nothin'.
"If it rained we had to shuck and shell corn or pull weeds in de yard,
and it was a big one, too. De women spin thread for de looms, two of dem
and a spinnin' wheel in every cabin.
"Us have beds de men make and take wore out clothes and breeches and
piece dem and stuff with cotton for quilts. When it cold us keep fire
all night long. De plates am tin and a big gourd dipper to drink water
with. De men make dere own cedar water pails.
"De week's rations for a growed person run like three pounds bacon and a
peck cornmeal and some home-made 'lasses. No flour and no coffee, but us
parch bran or wheat and make coffee. Each night dey give a pint of sweet
milk. But de chillen all et in a special place in de kitchen.
"One mornin' Massa Washington call us all and he read from de big paper.
He say, 'You is free to live and free to die and free to go to de devil,
if you wants to.' He tell us if we gather he crops he'd pay us for it.
Den he turned and walked away and started cryin'. All de families stays
but one man. De highest price massa pay anybody was about $15.00, but
dat seem like a lot of money to folks what wasn't used to gittin' any
money at all.
"Finally my folks moved on a farm on Onion Creek, in Travis County, on
rented land from Nat Watters and Dr. Shears, and farm on de third and
fourth. We stays about six years and raises cotton and corn.
"But when I's twenty years old I marries Joe Walker and us move to
Bastrop County, add I stays dere till he dies in 1932. Us have eleven
chillen and nine of dem still livin'. I gits a pension, nine dollars de
month, and it sho' am a help now I's old and nearly blind."