Mr. Howard seems to be a very kind old man, lives in the house for aged
colored people (The Alpha Home).
He has no relatives, except a brother. He seems well satisfied living in
the home.
Submitted January 10, 1938
Indianapolis, Indiana
Grace Monroe
Dist. 4
Jefferson County
SLAVE STORY
MR. MATTHEW HUME, A FORMER SLAVE
Mr. Hume had many interesting experiences to tell concerning the part
slavery had played in his family. On the whole they were fortunate in
having a good master who would not keep an overseer who whipped his
"blacks".
His father, Luke Hume, lived in Trimble County Kentucky and was allowed
to raise for himself one acre of tobacco, one acre of corn, garden
stuff, chickens and have the milk and butter from one cow. He was
advised to save his money by the overseer, but always drank it up. On
this plantation all the slaves were free from Saturday noon until Monday
morning and on Christmas and the Fourth of July. A majority of them
would go to Bedford or Milton and drink, gamble and fight. On the
neighboring farm the slaves were treated cruelly. Mr. Hume had a
brother-in-law, Steve Lewis, who carried marks on his back. For years he
had a sore that would not heal where his master had struck him with a
blacksnake whip.
Three good overseers were Jake Mack and Mr. Crafton, Mr. Daniel Payne
was the owner who asked his people to report any mistreatment to him. He
expected obedience however.
When Mr. Hume was a small boy he was placed in the fields to hoe. He
also wanted a new implement. He was so small he was unable to keep near
enough to the men and boys to hear what they were talking about, he
remembered bringing up the rear one day, when he saw a large rock he
carefully covered it with dirt, then came down hard on it breaking his
hoe. He missed a whipping and received a new tool to replace the old
one, after this he could keep near enough to hear what the other workers
were talking about.
Another of his duties was to go for the cattle, he had to walk around
the road about a mile, but was permitted to come back through the fields
about a quarter of a mile. One afternoon his mistress told him to bring
a load of wood when he came in. In the summer it was the custom to have
the children carry the wood from the fields. When he came up he saw his
mistress was angry this peeved him, so that he stalked into the hall and
slammed his wood into the box. About this time his mistress shoved him
into a small closet and locked the door. He made such a howl that he
brought his mother and father to the rescue and was soon released from
his prison.
As soon as the children were old enough they were placed in the fields
to prepare the ground for setting tobacco plants. This was a very
complicated procedure. The ground was made into hills, each requiring
about four feet of soil. The child had to get all the clods broken fine.
Then place his foot in the center and leave his track. The plants were
to be set out in the center and woe to the youngster who had failed to
pulverize his hill. After one plowing the tobacco was hand tended. It
was long green and divided into two grades. It was pressed by being
placed in large hogsheads and weighted down. On one occasion they were
told their tobacco was so eaten up that the worms were sitting on the
fence waiting for the leaves to grow but nevertheless in some manner his
master hid the defects and received the best price paid in the
community.
The mistress on a neighboring plantation was a devout Catholic, and had
all the children come each Sunday after-noon to study the catechism and
repeat the Lord's Prayer. She was not very successful in training them
in the Catholic faith as when they grew up most of them were either
Baptists or Methodists. Mr. Hume said she did a lot of good in leading
them to Christ but he did not learn much of the catechism as he only
attended for the treat. After the service they always had candy or a cup
of sugar.
On the Preston place there was a big strapping negro of eighteen whom
the overseer attempted to whip receiving the worst of it. He then went
to Mr. Hume's owner and asked for help but was told he would have to
seek elsewhere for help. Finally some one was found to assist. Smith was
tied to a tree and severely beaten, then they were afraid to untie him,
when the overseer finally ventured up and loosened the ropes, Smith
kicked him as hard as he could and ran to the Payne estate refusing to
return. He was a good helper here where he received kind treatment.
A bad overseer was discharged once by Mr. Payne because of his cruelty
to Mr. Luke Hume. The corncrib was a tiny affair where a man had to
climb out one leg at a time, one morning just as Mr. Hume's father was
climbing out with his feed, he was struck over the head with a large
club, the next morning he broke the scoop off an iron shovel and
fastened the iron handle to his body. This time he swung himself from
the door of the crib and seeing the overseer hiding to strik him he
threw his bar, which made a wound on the man's head which did not knock
him out. As soon as Mr. Payne heard of the disturbance the overseer was
discharged and Mr. Mack placed in charge of the slaves.
One way of exacting obedience was to threaten to send offenders South to
work in the fields. The slaves around Lexington, Kentucky, came out
ahead on one occasion. The collector was Shrader. He had the slaves
handcuffed to a large leg chain and forced on a flat boat. There were
so many that the boat was grounded, so some of the slaves were released
to push the boat off. Among the "blacks" was one who could read and
write. Before Shrader could chain them up again, he was seized and
chained, taken to below Memphis Tennessee and forced to work in the
cotton fields until he was able to get word from Richmond identifying
him. In the meantime the educated negro issued freedom papers to his
companions. Many of them came back to Lexington, Kentucky where they
were employed.
Mr. Hume thought the Emancipation Proclamation was the greatest work
that Abraham Lincoln ever did. The colored people on his plantation did
not learn of it until the following August. Then Mr. Payne and his sons
offered to let them live on their ground with conditions similar to our
renting system, giving a share of the crop. They remained here until
Jan. 1, 1865 when they crossed the Ohio at Madison. They had a cow which
had been given them before the Emancipation Proclamation was issued but
this was taken away from them. So they came to Ind. homeless, friendless
and penniless.
Mr. Hume and his aged wife have been married 62 years and resided in the
same community for 55 years where they are highly respected by all their
neighbors.
He could not understand the attitude of his race who preferred to remain
in slavery receiving only food and shelter, rather than to be free
citizens where they could have the right to develop their individualism.
Virginia Tulley
District #2
Fort Wayne, Indiana
EX-SLAVE OF ALLEN COUNTY
[MRS. HENRIETTA JACKSON]
References:
A. Ft. Wayne News Sentinel November 21, 1931
B. Personal interview
[TR: There are no 'A' and 'B' annotations in the interview.]
Mrs. Henrietta Jackson, Fort Wayne resident, is distinguished for two
reasons; she is a centennarian and an ex-slave. Residing with her
daughter, Mrs. Jackson is very active and helps her daughter, who
operates a restaurant, do some of the lighter work. At the time I
called, an August afternoon of over 90 degrees temperature, Mrs.
Jackson was busy sweeping the floor. A little, rather stooped, shrunken
body, Mrs. Jackson gets around slowly but without the aid of a cane or
support of any kind. She wears a long dark cotton dress with a bandana
on her head with is now quite gray. Her skin is walnut brown her eyes
peering brightly through the wrinkles. She is intelligent, alert,
cordial, very much interested in all that goes on about her.
Just how old Mrs. Jackson is, she herself doesn't know, but she thinks
she is about 105 years old. She looks much younger. Her youngest child
is 73 and she had nine, two of whom were twins. Born a slave in
Virginia, record of her birth was kept by the master. She cannot
remember her father as he was soon sold after Mrs. Jackson's death [TR:
birth?]. When still a child she was taken from her mother and sold. She
remembers the auction block and that she brought a good price as she was
strong and healthy. Her new master, Tom Robinson, treated her well and
never beat her. At first she was a plough hand, working in the cotton
fields, but then she was taken into the house to be a maid. While there
the Civil War broke out. Mrs. Jackson remembers the excitement and the
coming and going. Gradually the family lost its wealth, the home was
broken up. Everything was destroyed by the armies. Then came freedom for
the slaves. But Mrs. Jackson stayed on with the master for awhile. After
leaving she went to Alabama where she obtained work in a laundry
"ironing white folks' collars and cuffs." Then she got married and in
1917 she came to live with her daughter in Fort Wayne. Her husband, Levy
Jackson, has been dead 50 years. Of her children, only two are left.
Mrs. Jackson is sometimes very lonesome for her old home in "Alabamy",
where her friends lived, but for the most part, she is happy and
contented.
Federal Writers' Project
of the W.P.A.
District #6
Marion County
Anna Pritchett
1200 Kentucky Avenue
FOLKLORE
MRS. LIZZIE JOHNSON
706 North Senate Avenue, Apt. 1
Mrs. Johnson's father, Arthur Locklear, was born in Wilmington, N.C. in
1822. He lived in the South and endured many hardships until 1852. He
was very fortunate in having a white man befriend him in many ways. This
man taught him to read and write. Many nights after a hard days work, he
would lie on the floor in front of the fireplace, trying to study by the
light from the blazing wood, so he might improve his reading and
writing.
He married very young, and as his family increased, he became ambitious
for them. Knowing their future would be very dark if they remained
South.
He then started a movement to come north. There were about twenty-six or
twenty-eight men and women, who had the same thoughts about their
children, banded together, and in 1852 they started for somewhere,
North.
The people selected, had to be loyal to the cause of their children's
future lives, morally clean, truthful, and hard-working.
Some had oxen, some had carts. They pooled all of their scant
belongings, and started on their long hard journey.
The women and children rode in the ox-carts, the men walked. They would
travel a few days, then stop on the roadside to rest. The women would
wash their few clothes, cook enough food to last a few days more, then
they would start out again. They were six weeks making the trip.
Some settled in Madison, Indiana. Two brothers and their families went
on to Ohio, and the rest came to Indianapolis.
John Scott, one of their number was a hod carrier. He earned $2.50 a
day, knowing that would not accumulate fast enough, he was strong and
thrifty. After he had worked hard all day, he would spend his evenings
putting new bottoms in chairs, and knitting gloves for anyone who wanted
that kind of work. In the summer he made a garden, sold his vegetables.
He worked very hard, day and night, and was able to save some money.
He could not read or write, but he taught his children the value of
truthfulness, cleanliness of mind and body, loyalty, and thrift. The
father and his sons all worked together and bought some ground, built a
little house where the family lived many years.
Before old Mr. Scott died, he had saved enough money to give each son
$200.00. His bank was tin cans hidden around in his house.
Will Scott, the artist, is a grandson of this John Scott.
The thing these early settlers wanted most, was for their children to
learn to read and write. So many of them had been caught trying to learn
to write, and had had their thumbs mashed, so they would not be able to
hold a pencil.