*Interview with Mrs. Mattie Lee,*
*aged 78, Fredericktown, Missouri.*
*Interviewed by J. Tom Miles.*
"My mother was a slave in Franklin Parish, Louisiana, 'bout 200 miles
from New-Orleans. I was born in 1862. My mother's name was Caroline Head
by marriage. She was born in slavery. Her home was in Mississippi first
and she emigrated to Louisiana 'cause de land was worn out. I had seven
brothers and sisters and all are gone but me. My mother was separated
from my father two times. My mother was married three times due to being
moved around. My brother's father was sent into a free state under some
consideration. Bush Baker was my mother's boss. De boss had two
plantations. De morning I was going to be born de overseer began to
fight my mother and a colored man took a hoe and said if the man hit her
again he would knock his brains out. The overseer had been at this place
for four years and had not been paid. Mother was confined in de field
and dey got her to de house. If Baker had been thar he would have killed
de overseer. Three men came up to kill de overseer with guns for beatin'
my mother and de overseer had to leave. My mother never did get over her
troubles dat morning. Mrs. Baker said it would be better for mother to
work in de field 'cause mother could then take better care of her
children.
"Mrs. Baker was kind and tended de children when dey was sick. Mrs.
Baker took us to Texas during de war 'cause she was afraid the Union
soldiers would take her slaves away from her. After peace was declared
de soldiers came and told de white people dat de slaves was free. But we
never did leave Mrs. Baker's place. After de war was over Mrs. Baker
took us back to Louisiana. We traveled with a team of oxen and three
teams of mules with wagons. Some of Mrs. Baker's slaves staid in Texas
and never did come back from Texas. Dis was in 1865.
"I can 'member de home place. De county road went close to de front
gate. Mrs. Eliza Baker had a beautiful yard and after de war she would
have us come and stay in de yard to be protected from de jay-hawkers. De
high water would come past de fence and we would play in de water. One
time a jay-hawker come and git one of de children in a skiff and den we
yelled and de mastah come out with his pistol and hit de jay-hawker over
de head. So de jay-hawker turned de child over again. So we did not play
down in de water no more.
"De mistress had a long table out in de front yard under de smokehouse
shed and here all us children had our food. It was good food. Mrs. Baker
had a fig nursery in de front yard and we would go and pick washtubs of
figs. Some were dried and others were put up. Mrs. Baker had a
plantation of 1,800 acres. On week ends we would dance and they would
always be getting married. We had a colored man on de place who could
read and he did de marrying. De only school I ever went to was to a
night school here fer a short time. Dey would tell me a story 'bout 'de
bear an de Grand-ma' an 'bout 'little Riden' Hood'. Dey use to tell us
some awful yarns. Dey would kill over 100 head of hogs every year and
cure it, and I can't get used to buyed meat today. Mrs. Baker would take
anyone in de wagon to church dat wanted to go. My aunt went to church
but would not be baptized.
"I 'member when de Ku Klux Klan started out when dey would dress up in
white and dey had a noise like 'O-O' 'O-O'. But we were not 'fraid of
dem 'cause we knew dey would be killed if dey come on de place. I think
a lot of Abe Lincoln. I have often thought how hard it was to give up
his life, fer de United States. But Christ died for to save de world and
Lincoln died to save de United States. And Lincoln died more Christ like
den any other man dat ever lived.
"Dere was an old colored man on de place and he would drive Jeff Davis
'round and would keep Davis in his house and feed him. This was when
Jeff Davis was a boy, and a orphan. Jeff Davis gave dis colored man,
Montgomery, a lot of land. It's a good thing dat slavery is over.
Anything wants a privilege outside and not in a coop. Slaves could not
be natural when they was dis way. Everybody wants to do somethin' with
demselves.
"I staid in Louisiana till 1875 and got mad and left and went to Madison
Parish, Louisiana. It was not de white people dat made me leave here but
it was my father. Den I went to Vicksburg for seven months, den to St.
Louis on a mail boat. It cost me $8.50 to come from Vicksburg to St.
Louis. I found work in St. Louis in a little while. Never did have to
worry 'bout where I was going to sleep. I left Madison Parish 'cause we
had a flood when de levee broke.
"I came to St. Louis in 1883 and did all kinds of house work. I got a
dollar a day. Den I came to Fredericktown 'cause I wanted to own a home.
You were never sure dat you could have a sure claim to land in St.
Louis. It was a 'quick Claim'. We lived one mile above Fredericktown and
had seven or eight acres. I married in Fredericktown and have no
children. My husband has been dead since 1908. I made my way fine by
washin' and ironing an made $18 a week since my husband died. I paid
$985 for dis house."