*Interview with Mrs. Tishey Taylor,*
*age 77, Poplar Bluff, Missouri.*
"I wusn't very old during slave time but I worked, yes sir, I did, and
my por 'mammy chile', it wus from daylight ta' dark, and on good light
nights it wus way up in the night. Mah mammy's name was 'Katie',
Katie-Cherry, an ma father wus William Walturf, or somethin' like 'at,
never did know good 'cause he never stayed wif us in our cabin no how
and we never knowed him much.
"Shap Phillips wus our marster and he brought my parents 'fore I wus
bawn, frum Frank Parker, (we jus said 'Ol Parker',) and brought us from
Woofalton to New Madrid County. 'Ol Man Shap', (that what we call him,)
had two sons, one name 'Amos' and one name 'Little Murry'. I took care
'Little Murry' fer ma, 'Task' and I warn't much biggner him but did I
let him git hurt? Not me chile!
"'Ole Man Shap' owned 'bout two, three hundred us slaves and he had
cabins built all over and around his plantation. This house is por nuf'
but then we jes had one little room and 'irt floos and no windas,
sometime jus holes out.
"Some them slaves cooks in their cabin, not what they wanted but what
'Marse' gibd 'em, most times wus beans an' 'tators and corn bred and
milk, and some times 'round hog killin' time he pass out the 'jowl
meat'.
"I jest don' 'member but it seems we did eat three times a day. I wus
allays so glad to hear dat bell ring else a horn blow. Youse seed that
kind of shell like calded 'Konk horn'--and could that 'nigger' blow
lowd!
"Mammy cooked in the big house for 'Marse', and then som' time when her
work was done in there she was took to the fields and lef' me and my
brother and sister by our selves 'till she come and som' time when she
did com' she would run in scared-like and lock de door and motion us
quiet and say, 'Dey will think I'se sleep'. I didn't understand all that
stuff den but fore long I did understan' what I'se tellin yu.
"'Nother thing our beds wus poor stuff, but mammy said she wus allays
'dog tired' and could 'a slep on the ground. They wus straw ticks and
hard. Law no, chile, we didn't known what springs wus.
"One day I 'member bad, 'Ol Man Shap' sol' granma, she was mammy's mammy
and all we ever hear, she was sol' down souf. We knowed not to do no
takin' on for if'n we did the hide would got tooken off us.
"Mammy used to card wool and cotton and spin, then she would weave
goods. I 'member one time, I wus little, I played 'rat under de loom'. I
would crawl up and grab mammy and say 'e-e-e-k', and pinch her. She say,
'I'll puts a stop to that "rat" bothering me when I got work to do!'
That didn' stop me but she sho' make me wish it had the nex' time I do
it.
"I never knowed Sunday from Monday, 'cept on Sunday the white man come
and we are called out under the brush arbor, didn' have no work in the
fiel' at day, and he stand up 'fore us and preach out a little
green-back book; I didn't know what it was then, but I knows now it was
a Bible. I 'member every 'preach day' he say, 'Mind you not to steal
from Missis or Marster'. He was plenty strong on that part.
"Well do I 'member dat 'nigger' overseer, big, 'smart aleck'; he wus
called de 'nigger driver'. He say 'hurry up there, you get the hide
split on you lazy back'. I wusn't hardly big enouf but the bigger ones
when they wus gib a task to do, they better do it in a hurry else they
would get the 'hide split' and some time salt put on.
"I never had no book larnin' 'cept two, three times when Miss Fanny La
Forge, she wus the white school teacher, and she tried to larn me, she
didn' have much time and couldn' do much with it. But I allays says,
'Give me good ol' common horse sense', and not braggin, Miss, but I have
got that; always did have. Mos' these educated ones are smarty, big
head, smarty, and I never did want to be that way 'tall.
"If they wus jails then fo us slaves I never seed one, jes whippin' fo'
punishin', some one wus gittin' it all the time.
"'Ole Parker' like mammy and all her people and he tol' 'Ol Man Shap'
if'n he lashed my mammy and her family he would com' and take us back,
'cause we wus good and didn't need no punishment but that was the only
reason that we wusn't lashed like the rest of them.
"I was tellin' you about Sunday meetin', none of us had a Bible 'cept
the white man, and I don't know where he got it from. I never did have
one 'cept once and it burned up in my house in Advance. I liked to look
through it but I didn't know a word it said.
"Times it seems I can hear them sing, I didn't sing much at the meetin'
'cause I was too little, but the others sang, 'Hark From the Tomb', and
'I am a Soldier of the Cross'. When the preacher man shook he haid and
stomp his feet and yell, I say to mammy: 'What that man mammy? What he
doin?' And she say: 'Hush', and put her hand over my mouf. I knowed
plenty well to stay hushed too. Any babtising went on I never seed any
of it, never knowed nothin' 'bout anything lak that then.
"The older ones had some fun too about that time, maybe once week or
more some one get 'mission' from his Marster and gib a 'hoe down!'
(calls dance now.) Any one that went from all the close plantations got
'mission' from the Marster or overseer to go but they had to be home at
a certain time or they would wish they hadn't went and some time they
would slip off and go out mission', if ever they wus caught they got
'it', and plenty of it. I heard sister say, 'Mammy I would like to go to
the hoedown tonight'. Mammy say: 'Think you can come back in time?'
Sister say, 'Don' know mammy,' then mammy say, 'Better save your sef
chile'. Then sister say, 'Well, I better go to bed then'. But you could
hear the fiddle and the hollerin' all over, and 'twas hard to stay 'way.
"At Christmas time we knowd 'bout that and both of mammy's owners gib
her a good time. 'Ol Man Shap' alluys gib us a pair of stockings and
some candy and apples. For the men folks they sometimes get whiskey. New
Year's was 'bout the same and I don' 'member no other holidays.
"When we got sick they was a white doctor way off somewhere that would
come, if he wus sent fo', but mos' de time 'Old Uncle Nee John' and
'Uncle Jake' would conjure us; they was called 'Voo-Doo's'. One time
sister stepped up in the meat house do'r and hurt her foot, don' know
how, Mammy tell Marster and he say, 'Tell Jake he come', an' I wus
allus' 'fraid of him and he say to sister, 'Gal, get up and walk'. She
say: 'I cain't.' He set back down and go 'M-m-m-m-m', for a longtime and
than say: 'Gal, I say get up and walk'. She say: 'I can't'. I was so
scared and mammy say to me, 'Set still there Gal, he ain't gwine to hurt
you no how', but he look so wild and mean and the next time he mumble
words over her foot she get up and walk. He have us wear a dime around
our necks fo' somethin'; don' know what tho'. I was allus such a fool
'bout money. I just liked to wear it and didn' care.
"When some one died we didn't know what wus don' with 'em but sometime
they wus took out in the night and I heard some wus hauled off in a
little push-thing and throwed in the river and some wus put in a hole
with their clothes on.
"'Bout that time we begin to hear stories of bein' set free. The slaves
sang at their work all day.
"'Thank God Almity, I'll be free some day', (there are 'bout all the
words I can 'member). They sang this over and over and made a pretty
song too. Nearer time for us to be freed, the owners get meaner all the
time. Some took their slaves down in the cane brakes and hid them;
others wus kept working. 'Ol Man Shap' tell some, 'When you get free I
give you home and pay you for your work'. I guess he would too if'n he
had stayed there.
"Them 'Blue Coats' (Northern Soldiers), wus lots meaner than the 'Brown
Coats (Gray), in the South. Them 'Blue Coats' come in and steal your
chickens and cook them over your fireplace and eat them right 'fore your
eyes. I 'member one time the 'Brown Coats' come and wanted sister. I
squalled like a panther. During and after the war, them 'Guerillas' was
a sight, dey steal, kill, and tear up, everywhere. The 'K.K.K.' was a
powerful, mean, bunch and dey would com' ater night and take people out
and whip them; ah didn't know what for.
"I well 'member the day we wus freed, every one sang, 'Thank God Almity,
I'm free at last, free at last, free at last, thank God _Almity_, I'm
free at last, I'm free at last.'
"'Ol Man Shap' was mad and he whipped some of his slaves and de took him
to de town jail, last I seed of him he wus sittin' in the town jail
winder, maybe died there, I don' know. After we wus free there wus
plenty of work, they couldn't whip nobody and had to pay us for the
work. Mammy cooked for Mr. Hunter and 'Riley' and 'Dalton'. She kept me
with her 'till I got 'old 'nouf to cook and then I lef' and got a job
away from der somewhere.
"I got married 'bout 40-50 years ago to 'Baltimore' here. He is 105
years old now. He tells me his old Miz' thought he was an '_Angle_' and
he wus almost 36 years old when the war broke out. He wus from
Lotterville County, Tennessee. He tell me people just thought bountiful
of him and they seemed to be a welcome all over the world for him.
"He says he was called one of the finest barbers in the world, all was a
natural gift and 'man out of sight'; he barbered thousands and
thousands. His mother wus from Georgia and her name was 'Liza' and she
married Jim Taylor. Me and 'Baltimore' had eleven children since we been
married. They was Charlie, he dead, Martha, living, and not got any
kids, and Tony, dead, and Louisa and Gussie, dead. How many that--five?
Rosie dead, and left six children, part of them are here, 'Little
Baltimore' and Henry are dead, Roosevelt is living and here at home and
Robert is in a C.C. Camp, but David works in a fine hotel in St. Louis,
don' know what one the name is.
"'Ol Man Abe Lincoln' was a fine ol' man, and I liked him, he never
freed us; but tol' us how. But 'Booker', and Jefferson Davis wusn't no
friend to the colored man that I knowed anything 'bout.
"It is best to be free if you carry your self right you'll be free all
you days. I belongs to the Saints Church, t'aint the 'Holy Roller' and I
allys wus 'ligious but I don' know much 'bout stuff, never put no study
on it.
"Ise just a poor old 'nigger' slave that is waitin' for the Good Lord to
come and take me home and it won't be long chile; no, 'Granny' ain't got
long."