*An Interview with Drucilla Martin,*
*age 102, and Richard Martin,*
*age 92, Poplar Bluff, Missouri.*
"I'se half Indian and I look it too, and if I wo' gold rings in my ears
and nose I would look just like my mammy did 'cause she was full blooded
Indian. I don' know what kind, but she was big and tall and had black
hair, she could sit on it and it was as coa'se as a mule's tail. She
carried a tom-hawk and eve'y one stepped to one side when they met her
on the turn-pike. She wus from Giles County, Tennessee. Giles County,
Hear Me! And her name was 'Eirar-Lu Ellen'. My father's name was Spencer
Johnson, don't guess I seed much ob him 'cause mammy and him wasn't
married.
"We stayed on, for Mars Pinter, (Mr. Pointer), from the time I 'member
'till the war closed, and we wus free; and you had better never let Mars
hear you call us slaves. He'd not stand for it; hear me! We didn't farm,
'xactly; Mars Pinter owned the iron works and most of his people worked
in there. Best I 'member we did raise our eats and that wus all 'cause
the nearest trading post wus Nashville, Tennessee, and that wus a long
way, them days.
"I had nine brothers and sisters, and they wus: Monroe Henderson; he wus
the House servant, Jefferson, Ida, Felia, Laura, Izora, and I don'
'member the other two; guess they died when they wus babies, but all we
was named the same names as Mars Pinter kids; and we played with them,
hear me! we played with them.
"Then when I wus big 'nuf I wus put to cardin' wool and cotton, we
wusn't paid no money for our work we didn' need none; we had ever'thin'
we needed, and plenty of good stuff to eat, and good warm cloths to
ware.
"Them 'nigger' boys wus so proud to 'long to Mars Pinter that they would
break up white rocks and scatter them on the turn-pike, and make nice,
white shiny walks for Misses. When the carriage was ordered out for a
drive, first mammy walk out with a white cloth, rub it over the
carriage--huh; better not find a speck of dirt on the carriage.
"Mammy allus taught all her white and dark children, when interin' the
presence of elders, to make your' 'obedience', (bow), and then, sit
quiet.
"Men, them days wore long hair too, but sometime they cut it off, if it
got too long and hot. They would turn a milk crock down over their haid
and even it off some.
"We didn' know nothin' much about the war, we didn't want to leave
Marse, and that wus all the difference it made us. I do 'member 'Ol'
Jeff Davis, come to 'Marse' and say: 'Gib me them niggers and I will
carry them down to Fort Pillow and hide them in the cave until this is
over'; then 'Marse' run them off, and said: 'better not put any of my
people in a cave, they worked for me and made all my money: I gwine to
do right by these people.'
"Where we lived we never heard tell of a 'form school, never needed
nothin' lake that; didn't know what one wus.
"One thing I does 'member well, and would like to know if anyone else
was there and 'members it. I went with my 'Missie Pinter' to see them
hang John Brown, he was a 'Whig'; they brought him from the Culpeper
County Court House, in Virginia, and hung him to a beechwood tree, at
Harper's Ferry; on the bank of the James River. Now they sing 'Hung him
to a sour apple tree', but that ain't right. I saw it and I know.
"I said a while ago we wusn't paid no money, but I did know what it wus
'cause 'Marse' never put lock or key on his cellar-door, and he kept
food and his money in small barrels down there and we could play wif it
and never once did anyone try and take any of it.
"I learned to iron too, and there wus two women stood there ironing
every day, they sho' could make them purty lace 'broidery underskirts
stand alone.
"My mammy was in full charge of the house, and all the 'Marse' children,
and when they pass her, she say: 'Lif yo' dress', then if'n she see
little spot dirt or wrinkle, make dem take off all de clothes and
change. Den she say 'Take off you shoe', smell their feet, Huh! She call
'Lisa, bring that foot tub', then she would wash and dry their feet and
put on clean stockings. Mammy wus clean as a new pin.
"When I got any size to notice I wus dum-confounded to hear my mammy
talk up to the white boys comin' to court 'Missie Pinter's' girls. Mammy
meet them at de door and say: 'What you want?' They say: 'I come to call
on Mis ----'. She say, 'What you got makes you think got right to call
on my fine daughter? What you own? Can you hire her work done? Do you
think my daughter is gwin' to marry any' por' white trash, and have to
work hard all her life?' Then if'n he couldn' give a good account for
himsef, mammy would swing her tom-hawk and yell: 'Be-gone, don' come
back'. 'Nother thing a young man had better not come courtin' in his
shirt sleeve, better have on his coat or mammy would 'back' in he haid.
"Then after the war wus over, and we wus free, it wusn't hard to find
work. I wus allus honest and religious, 'longed to the Southern Babtist
Church. I got work among the rich white people and traveled with them.
Then I worked as laundress in the U.S. Marine Hospital, in St. Louis,
for seven years; when George Washington was President. I worked on the
'Chas. P. Shoto' steamboat as chamber-maid, and made lots of trips to
Florida. I was maid for Mrs. Busch, in St. Louis, and they wus powerful
rich, they made that beer up there.
"Richard says, he wus bawn May 8, 1845, on the corner of Beale and Main
Streets, Memphis, Tenn. And I wus bawn May 8, 1835, in Giles County,
Tenn. We neither one had much bad treatment but we is glad slavery is
over."
*Interview with Richard and Drucilla Martin,*
*Poplar Bluff, Missouri.*
Called on and talked to Richard and Drucilla Martin, old time negroes,
who were slaves. They talked fluently, really enjoying talking about the
'good days' as they put it, as they say their master was good to them.
Richard is rather short and wears a beard, which is snow white. He
claims to be something better than ninety years old, he says about
ninety-four or five, and Drucilla is ten years older than Richard.
About four or five years ago their home which they owned was destroyed
by fire, and having no insurance, they have since been living in a poor
substitute for a house made of pieces of tin, wood, and old boxes, built
under the branches of a tree.
Richard was in a hurry to go to town and see if their old age pension
checks had come yet and invited us to come back some other time.
Drucilla said she was the slave of John Pointer. Her mother who was part
Indian wore a ring in her nose and carried a tomahawk, had ten children,
and mothered the ten children of her master's wife. Drucilla does not
remember much about her father, as he was the slave of another family.
Although Drucilla does not have any education, she can quote verse after
verse from the Bible. She told some gruesome stories of how some of the
masters treated their slaves. She said there never was a book printed
that really told how some, or in fact the majority of the slaves were
beaten and abused. To most masters they were not any more than stock.
She said some of the young girls were beaten until they would die. Some
of the little colored babies that were born out in the field or on the
road were left to starve or be eaten up by the hogs.
Drucilla said some times their master would rent them out to other white
men to work them if he didn't have anything for them to do. Some masters
would put their feed out in troughs for them just as they were feeding
cattle. Some would give them cotton seed to eat. She said they would go
home and cry and tell their master how they were treated and their
master would tell them they wouldn't have to go work for any one that
did them like that.
In 1865 when the slaves were freed, Drucilla said she felt all out in
the world as if she did not have a place to go and their master was
afraid to let them stay with him even though they begged to stay, as it
was then against the law. She was sent to St. Louis to do servant work,
for a white family, that was very wealthy, and she stayed with them for
twenty years. Drucilla has been married twice, and is the mother of ten
children, but knows of only one daughter, or rather, she was the last
one she has heard from out of the three that she thinks are still
living, and that was fifty years ago.
[Illustration: _Drucilla and Richard Martin_]
Drucilla Martin was a slave in Giles County, Tennessee; Richard Martin
was a slave in Memphis, Tennessee.
The aged old couple are going to receive $8.00 apiece per month old age
pension, and a check for $80.00 back pay. When worker asked Drucilla
what she was going to do with her pension money, she said she was going
to build a little house, "As Mammy is tired living in that shack".
When we got up to leave, the old Negro mammy ran out and fell down and
kissed our feet. There were two workers stumbling along trying to get
down the rocky path that leaves the little shack, with their eyes full
of tears, and the muscles of their throats tightened, until they could
only wave back, as the feeble voice was heard to ring out over the hill,
"Honey chiles come back to see mammy some more, and she'll give yo all
somethin' out of her garden."