*Interview with Mary A. Bell,*
*St. Louis, Missouri.*
*(Written by Grace E. White.)*
_She Loves Army Men_
The subject of this sketch is Mary A. Bell, 85 years old, living in a
4-room frame cottage at 1321 Argus Street, St. Louis County, Missouri.
Mary Bell has a very light complexion, light brown eyes, mixed gray
hair, very long and straight. She has fine features. She is quite bent,
and shows her years, but is cheerful. She is living in the same yard
with her daughter who is married and lives next door with her family,
Mrs. Virginia Miller and six children. Her story follows:
"I was born in Missouri, May 1, 1852 and owned by an old maid named Miss
Kitty Diggs. I had two sisters and three brothers. One of my brothers
was killed in de Civil War, and one died here in St. Louis in 1919. His
name was Spot. My other brother, four years younger than I, died in
October, 1925 in Colorado Springs.
"Slavery was a mighty hard life. Kitty Diggs hired me out to a
Presbyterian minister when I was seven years old, to take care of three
children.
"I nursed in dat family one year. Den Miss Diggs hired me out to a baker
named Henry Tillman to nurse three children. I nursed there two years.
Neither family was nice to me. De preacher had a big farm. I was only
seven years old so dey put me on a pony at meal time to ride out to de
field and call de hands to dinner. After the meals were finished, I
helped in de kitchen, gathered the eggs, and kept plenty busy. My father
was owned by de Lewis family out in the country, but Miss Diggs owned my
mother and all her children. I never attended school until I came to St.
Louis. When Abraham Lincoln was assassinated I had never been to school.
Dat same year I attended school at Benton Barracks and went about six or
seven months with de soldiers. There was no Negro school in St. Louis at
dat time. The next school I attended was St. Paul Chapel, 11th and Green
Streets. I went dere about six months. De next place I went to school
was 18th and Warren. I went there about two years. My next school was
23rd and Morgan, now Delmar Boulevard, in a store building. I went dere
between two and three years. I was very apt and learned fast. My father
at de time I was going from school to school, was a nurse in Benton
Barracks and my mother taken in washing and ironing. I had to help her
in de home with de laundry.
"I married at de age of twenty-two and was de mother of seven children,
but only have two now living, my daughter dat lives next door and in de
same yard with me, and a son in the Philippine Islands. I have eight
grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.
"I so often think of de hard times my parents had in dere slave days,
more than I feel my own hard times, because my father was not allowed to
come to see my mother but two nights a week. Dat was Wednesday and
Saturday. So often he came home all bloody from beatings his old nigger
overseer would give him. My mother would take those bloody clothes off
of him, bathe de sore places and grease them good and wash and iron his
clothes, so he could go back clean.
"But once he came home bloody after a beating he did not deserve and he
run away. He scared my mother most to death because he had run away, and
she done all in her power to persuade him to go back. He said he would
die first, so he hid three days and three nights, under houses and in
the woods, looking for a chance to cross the line but de patrollers were
so hot on his trail he couldn't make it. He could see de riders hunting
him, but dey didn't see him. After three days and three nights he was so
weak and hungry, he came out and gave himself up to a nigger trader dat
he knew, and begged de nigger trader to buy him from his owner, Mr.
Lewis, because Marse Lewis was so mean to him, and de nigger trader knew
how valuable he was to his owner. De nigger trader promised him he would
try to make a deal with his owner for him, because de nigger trader
wanted him. So when dey brought father back to his owner and asked to
buy him, Mr. Lewis said dere wasn't a plantation owner with money enough
to pay him for Spot. Dat was my father's name, so of course that put my
father back in de hands of Marse Lewis. Lewis owned a large tobacco
plantation and my father was de head man on dat plantation. He cured all
de tobacco, as it was brought in from the field, made all the twists and
plugs of tobacco. His owner's son taught him to read, and dat made his
owner so mad, because my father read de emancipation for freedom to de
other slaves, and it made dem so happy, dey could not work well, and dey
got so no one could manage dem, when dey found out dey were to be freed
in such a short time.
"Father told his owner after he found out he wouldn't sell him, dat if
he whipped him again, he would run away again, and keep on running away
until he made de free state land. So de nigger trader begged my father
not to run away from Marse Lewis, because if he did Lewis would be a
ruined man, because he did not have another man who could manage de
workers as father did. So the owner knew freedom was about to be
declared and my father would have de privilege of leaving whether his
owner liked it or not. So Lewis knew my father knew it as well as he
did, so he sat down and talked with my father about the future and
promised my father if he would stay with him and ship his tobacco for
him and look after all of his business on his plantation after freedom
was declared, he would give him a nice house and lot for his family
right on his plantation. And he had such influence over de other slaves
he wanted him to convince de others dat it would be better to stay with
their former owner and work for him for their living dan take a chance
on strangers they did not know and who did not know dem. He pleaded so
hard with my father, dat father told him all right to get rid of him.
But Lewis had been so mean to father, dat down in father's heart he felt
Lewis did not have a spot of good in him. No place for a black man.
"So father stayed just six months after dat promise and taken eleven of
de best slaves on de plantation, and went to Kansas City and all of dem
joined the U.S. Army. Dey enlisted de very night dey got to Kansas City
and de very next morning de Pattie owners were dere on de trail after
dem to take dem back home, but de officers said dey were now enlisted
U.S. Soldiers and not slaves and could not be touched.
"In de county where I was raised de white people went to church in de
morning and de slaves went in de afternoon. I was converted at the age
of fourteen, and married in 1882. My husband died May 27, 1896 and I
have been a widow every since. I do get a pension now, I never started
buying dis little old 4-room frame dwelling until I was sixty-four years
old and paid for it in full in six years and six months.
"I am a member of St. Peter's A.M.E. Church in North St. Louis. I told
you my father's name was Spot, but that was his nickname in slavery. His
full name was Spottwood Rice and my son's full name is William A. Bell.
He is enlisted in de army in de Philippine Islands. I love army men, my
father, brother, husband and son were all army men. I love a man who
will fight for his rights, and any person that wants to be something."