*Litt Young was born in 1850, in Vicksburg, Miss., a slave of Martha
Gibbs, on whose property the old battleground at Vicksburg was located.
Litt was freed in 1865, in Vicksburg, and was refugeed by his owner to
Harrison Co., Texas. He was freed again on June 19, 1866, and found work
as a sawmill hand, a tie cutter and a woodcutter during the construction
of the Texas & Pacific Railroad from Marshall to Texarkana. The
remainder of his life, with the exception of five years on a farm, has
been spent as a section hand. Litt lives alone on the Powder Mill Road,
two and a half miles north of Marshall, and is supported by a $12.00
monthly pension from the government.*
"I's born in 1850 in Vicksburg, and belonged to Missy Martha Gibbs. Her
place was on Warner Bayou and the old battlefield was right there in her
field. She had two husbands, one named Hockley and he died of yellow
fever. Then she marries a Dr. Gibbs, what was a Yankee, but she didn't
know it till after the war.
"Massa Hockley bought my daddy from a nigger trader up north somewheres,
but my mammy allus belonged to the Gibbs family. I had a sister and two
brothers, but the Gibbs sold them to the Simmons and I never seed 'em
any more.
"Old Missy Gibbs had so many niggers she had to have lots of quarters.
They was good houses, weatherboarded with cypress and had brick
chimneys. We'd pull green grass and bury it awhile, then bile it to make
mattresses. That made it black like in auto seats. Missy was a big, rich
Irishwoman and not scared of no man. She lived in a big, fine house, and
buckled on two guns and come out to the place most every morning. She
out-cussed a man when things didn't go right. A yellow man driv her down
in a two-horse avalanche. She had a white man for overseer what live in
a good house close to the quarters. It was whitewashed and had glass
windows. She built a nice church with glass windows and a brass cupola
for the blacks and a yellow man preached to us. She had him preach how
we was to obey our master and missy if we want to go to Heaven, but when
she wasn't there, he come out with straight preachin' from the Bible.
"Good gracious, what we had to eat. They give us plenty, turnip greens
and hog-jowl and peas and cornbread and milk by the barrels. Old women
what was too old to work in the field done the cookin' and tended the
babies. They cooked the cornbread in a oven and browned it like cake.
When they pulled it out, all the chillen was standin' round, smackin'
they lips. Every Christmas us got a set white lowell clothes and a pair
brogan shoes and they done us the whole year, or us go naked.
"When that big bell rung at four o'clock you'd better get up, 'cause the
overseer was standin' there with a whippin' strap if you was late. My
daddy got a sleepin' most every morning for oversleeping. Them mules was
standin' in the field at daylight, waitin' to see how to plow a straight
furrow. If a nigger was a 500 pound cotton picker and didn't weigh up
that much at night, that was not gitting his task and he got a whipping.
The last weighin' was done by lightin' a candle to see the scales.
"Us have small dances Saturday nights and ring plays and banjo and
fiddle playin' and knockin' bones. There was fiddles make from gourds
and banjoes from sheep hides. I 'member one song, 'Coffee grows on white
oak trees, River flows with brandy-o.' That song was started in
Vicksburg by the Yankee soldiers when they left to go home, 'cause they
so glad war was over.
"Missy have a big, steam sawmill there on Warner Bayou, where the
steamboats come up for lumber. It was right there where the bayou
empties in the Mississippi. I 'member seein' one man sold there at the
sawmill. He hit his massa in the head with a singletree and kilt him and
they's fixin' to hang him, but a man promised to buy him if he'd promise
to be good. He give $500 for him.
"Dr. Gibbs was a powerful man in Vicksburg. He was the 'casion of them
Yanks takin' 'vantage of Vicksburg like they done. 'Fore the war he'd
say to missy, 'Darling, you oughtn't whip them poor, black folks so
hard. They is gwine be free like us some day.' Missy say, 'Shut up.
Sometimes I 'lieve you is a Yankee, anyway.'
"Some folks say Dr. Gibbs was workin' for the North all the time 'fore
the war, and when he doctored for them durin' the war, they say they
knowed it. The 'Federates have a big camp there at Vicksburg and cut a
big ditch out at the edge of town. Some say Gen. Grant was knowin' all
how it was fixed, and that Dr. Gibbs let him know.
"The Yankees stole the march on the 'Federates and waited till they come
out the ditch and mowed 'em down. The 'Federates didn't have no chance,
'cause they didn't have no cannon, jus' cap and ball rifles. The main
fight started 'bout four in the morning and held on till 'bout ten. Dead
soldiers was layin' thick on the ground by then. After the fight, the
Yanks cut the buttons off the coats of them that was kilt.
"I seed the Yankee gunboats when they come to Vicksburg. All us niggers
went down to the river to see 'em. They told us to git plumb away,
'cause they didn't know which way they was gwine to shoot. Gen. Grant
come to Vicksburg and he blowed a horn and them cannons began to shoot
and jus' kept shootin'. When the Yankees come to Vicksburg, a big, red
flag was flyin' over the town. Five or six hours after them cannons
started shootin' they pulled it down and histed a big, white one. We saw
it from the quarters.
[Illustration: _Litt Young_]
"After surrender the Yanks arrested my old missy and brought her out to
the farm and locked her up in the black folks church. She had a guard
day and night. They fed her hard-tack and water for three days 'fore
they turned her a-loose. Then she freed all her niggers. 'Bout that time
Massa Gibbs run out of corn to feed he stock and he took my daddy and a
bunch of niggers and left to buy a boatload of corn. Missy seized a
bunch us niggers and starts to Texas. She had Irishmen guards, with
rifles, to keep us from runnin' 'way. She left with ten six-mule teams
and one ox cook wagon. Them what was able walked all the way from
Vicksburg to Texas. We camped at night and they tied the men to trees.
We couldn't git away with them Irishmen havin' rifles. Black folks
nat'rally scart of guns, anyway. Missy finally locates 'bout three miles
from Marshall and we made her first crop and on June 19th, the next year
after 'mancipation, she sot us free.
"Dr. Gibbs followed her to Texas. He said the Yanks captured his niggers
and took his load of corn as they was comin' down the Tennessee River,
where it jines the Mississippi. Me and mammy stayed in Texas, and never
did see daddy 'gain. When us freed the last time us come to Marshall and
I works in a grist mill and shingle mill. I cut ties for 15c apiece. I
cut wood for the first engines and they paid me $1.25 a cord. I got
where I cut three cords a day. I helped clear all the land where
Texarkana is now. When the railroads quit using wood, I worked as
section hand for $1.25 a day. I farmed five years and never made a cent
and went back to the railroad.
"I marries in Marshall so long ago I done forgot. I raises six gals and
has three sets grandchillen. They's all livin' 'cept one. Since my wife
died and I's too ailing to work, I's been kept by the pension.
"They had provost law in Marshall when us come to Texas. I allus voted
when they let us. These young niggers ain't like what us was.
Penitentiaries was made for the white folks, but the young niggers is
keepin' 'em full."