suit and two pairs of shoes, a winter pair and a summer pair. Yes'm, my
mammy, she spin the cotton, yes'm picked right on the plantation, yes'm,
cotton picking was fun, believe me! As I was saying, Mammy she spin and
she wears the cloth, and she cut it out and she make our clothes. That's
where I git my taste to sew, I reckon. When I first come to Baltimore, I
done dressmaking, 'deed I did. I sewed for the best fam'lies in this
yere town. I sewed for the Howards and the Slingluffs and the Jenkinses.
Jest the other day, I met Miss C'milla down town and she say. 'Alice,
ain' this you? and I say, 'Law me, Miss C'milla', and 'she say, 'Alice,
why don' you come to see Mother? She ain' been so well--she love to see
you....'
"Well, as I was a saying, we didn't work so hard, them days. We got up
early, 'cause the fires had to be lighted to make the house warm for the
white folks, but in them days, dinner was in the middle of the day--the
quality had theirs at twelve o'clock--and they had a light supper at
five and when we was through, we was through, and free to go the
quarters and set around and smoke a pipe and rest.
"Yes'm they taught us to read and write. Sunday afternoons, my young
mistresses used to teach the pickaninnies to read the Bible. Yes'm we
was free to go to see the niggers on other plantations but we had to
have a pass an' we was checked in an' out. No'm, I ain't never seen no
slaves sold, nor none in chains, and I ain't never seen no Ku Kluxers.
"I live with the Wakefiel's till I was 'leven and then Marse Wakefiel'
give me to my young mistress when she married and went to North Carolina
to live. And 'twas in North Carolina that I seed Sherman, 'deed I did!
I seed Sherman and his sojers, gathering up all the hogs and all the
hosses, and all the cows and all the little cullud chillen. Them was
drefful days! These is drefful days, too. Old man Satan, he sure am on
earth now.
"Yes'm, I believes in ghos'ses. I ain't never seed 'em but I is feel
'em. I live once in a house where a man was killed. I lie in my bed and
they close in on me! No'm, I ain't afraid. The landlord say when I move
out, 'you is stay there longer than anybody I ever had.' 'Nother house
I live in (this was in North Carolina too), it had been a gamblin'
house and it had hants. On rainy nights, I'd lie awake and hear "drip,
drip ... drip, drip...." What was that? Why, that was the blood a
dripping ... Why on rainy night? Why, on rainy nights, the blood gets
a little fresh...!"
Maryland
Sept. 4, 1937
Rogers
PERRY LEWIS, Ex-slave.
Reference: Personal interview with Perry Lewis, ex-slave,
at his home, 1124 E. Lexington St., Baltimore.
"I was born on Kent Island, Md. about 86 years ago. My father's name was
Henry and mother's Louise. I had one brother John, who was killed in the
Civil War at the Deep Bottom, one sister as I can remember. My father
was a freeman and my mother a slave, owned by Thomas Tolson, who owned a
small farm on which I was born in a log cabin, with two rooms, one up
and one down.
"As you know the mother was the owner of the children that she brought
into the world. Mother being a slave made me a slave. She cooked and
worked on the farm, ate whatever was in the farmhouse and did her share
of work to keep and maintain the Tolsons. They being poor, not having a
large place or a number of slaves to increase their wealth, made them
little above the free colored people and with no knowledge, they could
not teach me or any one else to read.
"You know the Eastern Shore of Maryland was in the most productive slave
territory and where farming was done on a large scale; and in that part
of Maryland where there were many poor people and many of whom were
employed as overseers, you naturally heard of patrollers and we had them
and many of them. I have heard that patrollers were on Kent Island and
the colored people would go out in the country on the roads, create a
disturbance to attract the patrollers' attention. They would tie ropes
and grape vines across the roads, so when the patrollers would come to
the scene of the disturbance on horseback and at full tilt, they would
be throwing those who would come in contact with the rope or vine off
the horse; sometimes badly injuring the riders. This would create hatred
between the slaves, the free people, the patrollers and other white
people who were concerned.
"In my childhood days I played marbles, this was the only game I
remember playing. As I was on a small farm, we did not come in contact
much with other children, and heard no children's songs. I therefore do
not recall the songs we sang.
"I do not remember being sick but I have heard mother say, when she or
her children were sick, the white doctor who attended the Tolsons
treated us and the only herbs I can recall were life-everlasting boneset
and woodditney, from each of which a tea could be made.
"This is about all I can recall."
Maryland
Sept. 7, 1937
Rogers
RICHARD MACKS, Ex-slave.
Reference: Personal interview with Richard Macks, ex-slave,
at his home, 541 W. Biddle St., Baltimore.
"I was born in Charles County in Southern Maryland in the year of 1844.
My father's name was William (Bill) and Mother's Harriet Mack, both of
whom were born and reared in Charles County--the county that James
Wilkes Booth took refuge in after the assassination of President Lincoln
in 1865. I had one sister named Jenny and no brothers: let me say right
here it was God's blessing I did not. Near Bryantown, a county center
prior to the Civil War as a market for tobacco, grain and market for
slaves.
"In Bryantown there were several stores, two or three taverns or inns
which were well known in their days for their hospitality to their
guests and arrangements to house slaves. There were two inns both of
which had long sheds, strongly built with cells downstairs for men and a
large room above for women. At night the slave traders would bring their
charges to the inns, pay for their meals, which were served on a long
table in the shed, then afterwards, they were locked up for the night.
"I lived with my mother, father and sister in a log cabin built of log
and mud, having two rooms; one with a dirt floor and the other above,
each room having two windows, but no glass. On a large farm or
plantation owned by an old maid by the name of Sally McPherson on
McPherson Farm.
"As a small boy and later on, until I was emancipated, I worked on the
farm doing farm work, principally in the tobacco fields and in the woods
cutting timber and firewood. I slept on a home-made bed or bunk, while
my mother and sister slept in a bed made by father on which they had a
mattress made by themselves and filled with straw, while dad slept on a
bench beside the bed and that he used in the day as a work bench,
mending shoes for the slaves and others. I have seen mother going to the
fields each day like other slaves to do her part of the farming. I being
considered as one of the household employees, my work was both in the
field and around the stable, giving me an opportunity to meet people
some of whom gave me a few pennies. By this method I earned some money
which I gave to my mother. I once found a gold dollar, that was the
first dollar I ever had in my life.
"We had nothing to eat but corn bread baked in ashes, fat back and
vegetables raised on the farm; no ham or any other choice meats; and
fish we caught out of the creeks and streams.
"My father had some very fine dogs; we hunted coons, rabbits and
opossum. Our best dog was named Ruler, he would take your hat off. If my
father said: 'Ruler, take his hat off!', he would jump up and grab your
hat.
"We had a section of the farm that the slaves were allowed to farm for
themselves, my mistress would let them raise extra food for their own
use at nights. My father was the colored overseer, he had charge of the
entire plantation and continued until he was too old to work, then
mother's brother took it over, his name was Caleb.
"When I was a boy, I saw slaves going through and to Bryansville town.
Some would be chained, some handcuffed, and others not. These slaves
were bought up from time to time to be auctioned off or sold at
Bryantown, to go to other farms, in Maryland, or shipped south.
"The slave traders would buy young and able farm men and well-developed
young girls with fine physiques to barter and sell. They would bring
them to the taverns where there would be the buyers and traders, display
them and offer them for sale. At one of these gatherings a colored girl,
a mulatto of fine stature and good looks, was put on sale. She was of
high spirits and determined disposition. At night she was taken by the
trader to his room to satisfy his bestial nature. She could not be
coerced or forced by him [TR: 'by him' lined out] so she was attacked by
him. In the struggle she grabbed a knife and with it, she
sterilized[HW:?] him and from the result of injury he died the next day.
She was charged with murder. Gen. Butler, hearing of it, sent troops to
Charles County to protect her, they brought her to Baltimore, later she
was taken to Washington where she was set free. She married a Government
employe, reared a family of 3 children, one is a doctor practicing
medicine in Baltimore and the other a retired school teacher, you know
him well if I were to tell you who the doctor is. This attack was the
result of being goodlooking, for which many a poor girl in Charles
County paid the price. There are several cases I could mention, but they
are distasteful to me.
"A certain slave would not permit this owner to whip him, who with
overseer and several others overpowered the slave, tied him, put him
across a hogshead and whipped him severely for three mornings in
succession. Some one notified the magistrate at Bryantown of the
brutality. He interfered in the treatment of this slave, threatening
punishment. He was untied, he ran away, was caught by the constable,
returned to his owner, melted sealing wax was poured over his back on
the wounds inflicted by him, when whipping, the slave ran away again and
never was caught.
"There was a doctor in the neighborhood who bought a girl and installed
her on the place for his own use, his wife hearing of it severely beat
her. One day her little child was playing in the yard. It fell head down
in a post hole filled with water and drowned. His wife left him;
afterward she said it was an affliction put on her husband for his sins.
"During hot weather we wore thin woolen clothes, the material being made
on the farm from the wool of our sheep, in the winter we wore thicker
clothes made on the farm by slaves, and for shoes our measures were
taken of each slave with a stick, they were brought to Baltimore by the
old mistress at the beginning of each season, if she or the one who did
the measuring got the shoe too short or too small you had to wear it or
go barefooted.
"We were never taught to read or write by white people.
"We had to go to the white church, sit in the rear, many times on the
floor or stand up. We had a colored preacher, he would walk 10 miles,
then walk back. I was not a member of church. We had no baptising, we
were christened by the white preacher.
"We had a graveyard on the place. Whites were buried inside of railing
and the slaves on the outside. The members of the white family had
tombstones, the colored had headstones and cedar post to show where they
were buried.
"In Charles County and in fact all of Southern Maryland tobacco was
raised on a large scale. Men, women and children had to work hard to
produce the required crops. The slaves did the work and they were driven
at full speed sometimes by the owners and others by both owner and
overseers. The slaves would run away from the farms whenever they had a
chance, some were returned and others getting away. This made it very
profitable to white men and constables to capture the runaways. This
caused trouble between the colored people and whites, especially the
free people, as some of them would be taken for slaves. I had heard of
several killings resulting from fights at night.
"One time a slave ran away and was seen by a colored man, who was
hunting, sitting on a log eating some food late in the night. He had a
corn knife with him. When his master attempted to hit him with a whip,
he retaliated with the knife, splitting the man's breast open, from
which he died. The slave escaped and was never captured. The white
cappers or patrollers in all of the counties of Southern Maryland
scoured the swamps, rivers and fields without success.
"Let me explain to you very plain without prejudice one way or the
other, I have had many opportunities, a chance to watch white men and
women in my long career, colored women have many hard battles to fight
to protect themselves from assault by employers, white male servants or
by white men, many times not being able to protect, in fear of losing
their positions. Then on the other hand they were subjected to many
impositions by the women of the household through woman's jealousy.
"I remember well when President Buchanan was elected, I was a large boy.
I came to Baltimore when General Grant was elected, worked in a livery
stable for three years, three years with Dr. Owens as a waiter and
coachman, 3 years with Mr. Thomas Winanson Baltimore Street as a butler,
3 years with Mr. Oscar Stillman of Boston, then 11 years with Mr. Robert
Garrett on Mt. Vernon Place as head butler, after which I entered the
catering business and continued until about twelve years ago. In my
career I have had the opportunity to come in contact with the best white
people and the most cultured class in Maryland and those visiting
Baltimore. This class is about gone, now we have a new group, lacking
the refinement, the culture and taste of those that have gone by.
"When I was a small boy I used to run races with other boys, play
marbles and have jumping contests.
"At nights the slaves would go from one cabin to the other, talk, dance
or play the fiddle or sing. Christmas everybody had holidays, our
mistress never gave presents. Saturdays were half-day holidays unless
planting and harvest times, then we worked all day.
"When the slaves took sick or some woman gave birth to a child, herbs,
salves, home liniments were used or a midwife or old mama was the
attendant, unless severe sickness Miss McPherson would send for the
white doctor, that was very seldom."
Maryland
Dec. 21, 1937
Rogers
TOM RANDALL, Ex-slave.
Reference: Personal interview with Tom Randall,
at his home, Oella, Md.
"I was born in Ellicott City, Howard County, Maryland, in 1856, in a
shack on a small street now known as New Cut Road--the name then, I do
not know. My mother's name was Julia Bacon. Why my name was Randall I do
not know, but possibly a man by the name of Randall was my father. I
have never known nor seen my father. Mother was the cook at the Howard
House; she was permitted to keep me with her. When I could remember
things, I remember eating out of the skillets, pots and pans, after she
had fried chicken, game or baked in them, always leaving something for
me. When I grew larger and older I can recall how I used to carry wood
in the kitchen, empty the rinds of potatoes, the leaves of cabbages and
the leaves and tops of other plants.
"There was a colored man by the name of Joe Nick, called Old Nick by a
great many white people of me city. Joe was owned by Rueben Rogers, a
lawyer and farmer of Howard County. The farm was situated about 2-1/2
miles on a road that is the extension of Main Street, the leading street
of Ellicott City. They never called me anything but Tomy or Randy, other
people told me that Thomas Randall, a merchant of Ellicott City, was my
father.
"Mother was owned by a man by the name of O'Brien, a saloon or tavern
keeper of the town. He conducted a saloon in Ellicott City for a long
time until he became manager, or operator, of the Howard House of
Ellicott City, a larger hotel and tavern in the city. Mother was a fine
cook, especially of fowl and game. The Howard House was the gathering
place of the formers, lawyers and business men of Howard and Frederick
Counties and people of Baltimore who had business in the courts of
Howard County and people of western Maryland on their way to Baltimore.
"Joe could read and write and was a good mechanic and wheelright. These
accomplishments made him very valuable to Rogers' farm, as wagons,
buggies, carriages, plows and other vehicles and tools had to be made
and repaired.
"When I was about eight or nine years old Joe ran away, everybody saying
to join the Union Army. Joe Nick drove a pair of horses, hitched to a
covered wagon, to Ellicott City. The horses were found, but no Nick,
Rogers offered a reward of $100.00 for the return of Nick. This offer
drew to Ellicott City a number of people who had bloodhounds that were
trained to hunt Negroes--some coming from Anne Arundel, Baltimore,
Howard and counties of southern Maryland, each owner priding his pack as
being the best pack in the town. They all stopped at the Howard House,
naturally drinking, treating their friends and each other, they all
discussed among themselves the reward and their packs of hounds, each
one saying that his pack was the best. This boasting was backed by cash.
Some cash, plus the reward on their hounds. In the meantime Old Joe was
thinking, not boasting, but was riding the rail.
"Old Joe left Ellicott City on a freight train, going west, which he
hopped when it was stalled on the Baltimore and Ohio railroad a short
distance from the railroad station at Ellicott City. Old Joe could not
leave on the passenger trains, as no Negro would be allowed on the
trains unless he had a pass signed by his master or a free Negro, and
had his papers.
"At dawn the hunters left the Howard House with the packs, accompanied
by many friends and people who joined up for the sport of the chase.
They went to Rogers' farm where the dogs were taken in packs to Nick's
quarters so they could get the odor and scent of Nick. They had a
twofold purpose, one to get the natural scent, the other was, if Old
Nick had run away, he might come back at night to get some personal
belongings, in that way the direction he had taken would be indicated by
the scent and the hounds would soon track him down. The hounds were
unleashed, each hunter going in a different direction without result.
Then they circled the farm, some going 5 miles beyond the farm without
result. After they had hunted all day they returned to the Howard House
where they regaled themselves in pleasures of the hotel for the evening.
"In June of 1865 Old Nick returned to Ellicott City dressed in a uniform
of blue, showing that he had joined the Federal Army. Mr. Rueben Rogers
upon seeing him had him arrested, charging him with being a fugitive
slave. He was confined in the jail there and held until the U.S. Marshal
of Baltimore released him, arresting Rogers and bringing him to
Baltimore City where he was reprimanded by the Federal Judge. This story
is well known by the older people of Howard County and traditionally
known by the younger generation of Ellicott City, and is called 'Old
Nick: Rogers' lemon.'"
Maryland
Sept. 28, 1937
Stansbury
DENNIS SIMMS, Ex-slave.
Reference: Personal interview with Dennis Simms, ex-slave,
September 19, 1937, at his home, 629 Mosher St., Baltimore.
Born on a tobacco plantation at Contee, Prince Georges County, Maryland,
June 17, 1841, Dennis Simms, Negro ex-slave, 628 Mosher Street,
Baltimore, Maryland, is still working and expects to live to be a
hundred years old.
He has one brother living, George Simms, of South River, Maryland, who
was born July 18, 1849. Both of them were born on the Contee tobacco
plantation, owned by Richard and Charles Contee, whose forbears were
early settlers in the State.
Simms always carries a rabbit's foot, to which he attributes his good
health and long life. He has been married four times since he gained his
freedom. His fourth wife, Eliza Simms, 67 years old, is now in the
Providence Hospital, suffering from a broken hip she received in a fall.
The aged Negro recalls many interesting and exciting incidents of
slavery days. More than a hundred slaves worked on the plantation, some
continuing to work for the Contee brothers when they were set free. It
was a pretty hard and cruel life for the darkeys, declares the Negro.
Describing the general conditions of Maryland slaves, he said: "We would
work from sunrise to sunset every day except Sundays and on New Year's
Day. Christmas made little difference at Contee, except that we were
given extra rations of food then. We had to toe the mark or be flogged
with a rawhide whip, and almost every day there was from two to ten
thrashings given on the plantations to disobedient Negro slaves.
"When we behaved we were not whipped, but the overseer kept a pretty
close eye on us. We all hated what they called the 'nine ninety-nine',
usually a flogging until fell over unconscious or begged for mercy. We
stuck pretty close to the cabins after dark, for if we were caught
roaming about we would be unmercifully whipped. If a slave was caught
beyond the limits of the plantation where he was employed, without the
company of a white person or without written permit of his master, any
person who apprehended him was permitted to give him 20 lashes across
the bare back.
"If a slave went on another plantation without a written permit from his
master, on lawful business, the owner of the plantation would usually
give the offender 10 lashes. We were never allowed to congregate after
work, never went to church, and could not read or write for we were kept
in ignorance. We were very unhappy.
"Sometimes Negro slave runaways who were apprehended by the patrollers,
who kept a constant watch for escaped slaves, besides being flogged,
would be branded with a hot iron on the cheek with the letter 'R'."
Simms claimed he knew two slaves so branded.
Simms asserted that even as late as 1856 the Constitution of Maryland
enacted that a Negro convicted of murder should have his right hand cut
off, should be hanged in the usual manner, the head severed from the
body, divided into four quarters and set up in the most public places of
the county where the act was committed. He said that the slaves pretty
well knew about this barbarous Maryland law, and that he even heard of
dismemberments for atrocious crimes of Negroes in Maryland.
"We lived in rudely constructed log houses, one story in heighth, with
huge stone chimneys, and slept on beds of straw. Slaves were pretty
tired after their long day's work in the field. Sometimes we would,
unbeknown to our master, assemble in a cabin and sing songs and
spirituals. Our favorite spirituals were--_Bringin' in de sheaves_, _De
Stars am shinin' for us all_, _Hear de Angels callin'_, and _The Debil
has no place here_. The singing was usually to the accompaniment of a
Jew's harp and fiddle, or banjo. In summer the slaves went without shoes
and wore three-quarter checkered baggy pants, some wearing only a long
shirt to cover their body. We wore ox-hide shoes, much too large. In
winter time the shoes were stuffed with paper to keep out the cold. We
called them 'Program' shoes. We had no money to spend, in fact did not
know the value of money.
"Our food consisted of bread, hominy, black strap molasses and a red
herring a day. Sometimes, by special permission from our master or
overseer, we would go hunting and catch a coon or possum and a pot pie
would be a real treat.
"We all thought of running off to Canada or to Washington, but feared
the patrollers. As a rule most slaves were lazy."
Simms' work at Contee was to saddle the horses, cut wood, and make fires
and sometimes work in the field.
He voted for President Lincoln and witnessed the second inauguration of
Lincoln after he was set free.
Maryland
12/6/37
Rogers
JIM TAYLOR (UNCLE JIM), Ex-slave.
Reference: Personal interview with Jim Taylor,
at his home, 424 E. 23rd St., Baltimore.
"I was born in Talbot County, Eastern Shore, Maryland, near St. Michaels
about 1847. Mr. Mason Shehan's father knew me well as I worked for him
for more than 30 years after the emancipation. My mother and father both
were owned by a Mr. Davis of St. Michaels who had several tugs and small
boats. In the summer, the small boats were used to haul produce while
the tugs were used for towing coal and lumber on the Chesapeake Bay and
the small rivers on the Eastern Shore. Mr. Davis bought able-bodied
colored men for service on the boats. They were sail boats. I would say
about 50 or 60 feet long. On each boat, besides the Captain, there were
from 6 to 10 men used. On the tugs there were more men, besides the mess
boy, than on the sail boats.