Mr. and Mrs. Jones room with a family by the name of James; they have a
comfortable, clean room and are content.
They are both members of the Free Will Baptist Church; get the old age
pension, and "do very well."
Submitted December 15, 1937
Indianapolis, Indiana
Albert Strope, Field Worker
Federal Writers' Project
St. Joseph County--District #1
Mishawaka, Indiana
ADELINE ROSE LENNOX--EX-SLAVE
1400 South Sixth Street, Elkhart, Indiana
Adeline Rose Lennox was born of slave parents at Middle--sometimes known
as Paris--Tennessee, October 25, 1849. She lived with her parents in
slave quarters on the plantation of a Mr. Rose for whom her parents
worked. These quarters were log houses, a distance from the master's
mansion.
At the age of seven years, Adeline was taken from her parents to work at
the home of a son of Mr. Rose who had recently been married. She
remembers well being taken away, for she said she cried, but her new
mistress said she was going to have a new home so she had to go with
her.
At the age of fourteen years she did the work of a man in the field,
driving a team, plowing, harrowing and seeding. "We all thought a great
deal of Mr. Rose," said Mrs. Lennox, "for he was good to us." She said
that they were well fed, having plenty of corn, peas, beans, and pork to
eat, more pork then than now.
As Adeline Rose, the subject of this sketch was married to Mr. Steward,
after she was given her freedom at the close of the Civil War. At this
time she was living with her parents who stayed with Mr. Rose for about
five years after the war. To the Steward family was born one son,
Johnny. Mr. Steward died early in life, and his widow married a second
time, this time [HW: to] one George Lennox whose name she now bears.
Johnny married young and died young, leaving her alone in the world with
the exception of her daughter-in-law. After her second husband's death,
she remained near Middle, Tennessee, until 1924, when she removed to
Elkhart to spend the remainder of her life living with her
daughter-in-law, who had remarried and is now living at 1400 South Sixth
Street, Elkhart, Indiana.
In the neighborhood she is known only as "Granny." While I was having
this interview, a colored lady passed and this conversation followed:
"Good morning Granny, how are you this morning?"
"Only tolerable, thank you," replied Granny.
The health of Mrs. Lennox has been failing for the past three years but
she gets around quite well for a lady who will be eight-eight years old
the twenty-fifth day of this October. She gets an old age pension of
about thirteen dollars per month.
A peculiar thing about Mrs. Lennox's life is that she says that she
never knew that she was a slave until she was set free. Her mistress
then told her that she was free and could go back to her father's home
which she did rather reluctantly.
Mrs. Lennox smokes, enjoys corn bread and boiled potatoes as food, but
does not enjoy automobiles as "they are too bumpy and they gather too
much air," she says. "I do not eat sweets," she remarks "my one ambition
in life is to live so that I may claim Heaven as my home when I die."
There is a newspaper picture in the office along with an article
published by the Elkhart Truth. This is being sent to Indianapolis
today.
Submitted by:
Estella R. Dodson
District #11
Monroe County
Bloomington, Ind.
October 4, 1937
INTERVIEW WITH THOMAS LEWIS, COLORED
North Summit Street, Bloomington, Ind.
I was born in Spencer County, Kentucky, in 1857. I was born a slave.
There was slavery all around on all the adjoining places. I was seven
years old when I was set free. My father was killed in the Northern
army. My mother, step-father and my mother's four living children came
to Indiana when I was twelve years old. My grandfather was set free and
given a little place of about sixteen acres. A gang of white men went to
my grandmother's place and ordered the colored people out to work. The
colored people had worked before for white men, on shares. When the
wheat was all in and the corn laid by, the white farmers would tell the
colored people to get out, and would give them nothing. The colored
people did not want to work that way, and refused. This was the cause of
the raids by white farmers. My mother recognized one of the men in the
gang and reported him to the standing soldiers in Louisville. He was
caught and made to tell who the others were until they had 360 men. All
were fined and none allowed to leave until all the fines were paid. So
the rich ones had to pay for the poor ones. Many of them left because
all were made responsible if such an event ever occurred again.
Our family left because we did not want to work that way. I was hired
out to a family for $20 a year. I was sent for. My mother put herself
under the protection of the police until we could get away. We came in a
wagon from our home to Louisville. I was anxious to see Louisville, and
thought it was very wonderful. I wanted to stay there, but we came on
across the Ohio River on a ferry boat and stayed all night in New
Albany. Next morning the wagon returned home and we came to Bloomington
on the train. It took us from 9 o'clock until three in the evening to
get here. There were big slabs of wood on the sides of the track to hold
the rails together. Strips of iron were bolted to the rails on the
inside to brace them apart. There were no wires at the joints of the
rails to carry electricity, as we have now, for there was no electricity
in those days.
I have lived in Bloomington ever since I came here. I met a family named
Dorsett after I came here. They came from Jefferson County, Kentucky.
Two of their daughters had been sold before the war. After the war, when
the black people were free, the daughters heard some way that their
people were in Bloomington. It was a happy time when they met their
parents.
Once when I was a little boy, I was sitting on the fence while my mother
plowed to get the field ready to put in wheat. The white man who owned
her was plowing too. Some Yankee soldiers on horses came along. One rode
up to the fence and when my mother came to the end of the furrow, he
said to her, "Lady, could you tell me where Jim Downs' still house is?"
My mother started to answer, but the man who owned her told her to move
on. The soldiers told him to keep quiet, or they would make him sorry.
After he went away, my mother told the soldiers where the house was. The
reason her master did not want her to tell where the house was, was that
some of his Rebel friends were hiding there. Spies had reported them to
the Yankee soldiers. They went to the house and captured the Rebels.
Next soldiers came walking. I had no cap. One soldier asked me why I
did not wear a cap. I said I had no cap. The soldier said, "You tell
your mistress I said to buy you a cap or I'll come back and kill the
whole family." They bought me a cap, the first one I ever had.
The soldiers passed for three days and a half. They were getting ready
for a battle. The battle was close. We could hear the cannon. After it
was over, a white man went to the battle field. He said that for a mile
and a half one could walk on dead men and dead horses. My mother wanted
to go and see it, but they wouldn't let her, for it was too awful.
I don't know what town we were near. The only town I know about had only
about four or five houses and a mill. I think the name was Fairfield.
That may not be the name, and the town may not be there any more. Once
they sent my mother there in the forenoon. She saw a flash, and
something hit a big barn. The timbers flew every way, and I suppose
killed men and horses that were in the barn. There were Rebels hidden in
the barn and in the houses, and a Yankee spy had found out where they
were. They bombed the barn and surrounded the town. No one was able to
leave. The Yankees came and captured the Rebels.
I had a cousin named Jerry. Just a little while before the barn was
struck a white man asked Jerry how he would like to be free. Jerry said
that he would like it all right. The white men took him into the barn
and were going to put him over a barrel and beat him half to death. Just
as they were about ready to beat him, the bomb struck the barn and Jerry
escaped. The man who owned us said for us to say that we were well
enough off, and did not care to be free, just to avoid beatings. There
was no such thing as being good to slaves. Many people were better than
others, but a slave belonged to his master and there was no way to get
out of it. A strong man was hard to make work. He would fight so that
the white men trying to hold him would be breathless. Then there was
nothing to do but kill him. If a slave resisted, and his master killed
him, it was the same as self-defense today. If a cruel master whipped a
slave to death, it put the fear into the other slaves. The brother of
the man who owned my mother had many black people. He was too mean to
live, but he made it. Once he was threshing wheat with a 'ground-hog'
threshing machine, run by horse power. He called to a woman slave. She
did not hear him because of the noise of the machine, and did not
answer. He leaped off the machine to whip her. He caught his foot in
some cogs and injured it so that it had to be taken off.
They tell me that today there is a place where there is a high fence.
If someone gets near, he can hear the cries of the spirits of black
people who were beaten to death. It is kept secret so that people won't
find it out. Such places are always fenced to keep them secret. Once a
man was out with a friend, hunting. The dog chased something back of a
high fence. One man started to go in. The other said, "What are you
going to do?" The other one said, "I want to see what the dog chased
back in there." His friend told him, "You'd better stay out of there.
That place is haunted by spirits of black people who were beaten to
death."
Federal Writers' Project
of the W.P.A.
District #6
Marion County
Anna Pritchett
1200 Kentucky Avenue
FOLKLORE
MRS. SARAH H. LOCKE--DAUGHTER [of Wm. A. and Priscilla Taylor]
Mrs. Locke, the daughter of Wm. A. and Priscilla Taylor, was born in
Woodford County, Kentucky in 1859. She went over her early days with
great interest.
Jacob Keephart, her master, was very kind to his slaves, would never
sell them to "nigger traders." His family was very large, so they bought
and sold their slaves within the families and neighbors.
Mrs. Locke's father, brothers, and grandmother belonged to the same
master in Henry County, Kentucky. Her mother and the two sisters
belonged to another branch of the Keephart family, about seven miles
away.
Her father came to see her mother on Wednesday and Saturday nights. They
would have big dinners on these nights in their cabin.
Her father cradled all the grain for the neighborhood. He was a very
high tempered man and would do no work when angry; therefore, every
effort was made to keep him in a good humor when the work was heavy.
Her mother died when the children were very young. Sarah was given to
the Keephart daughter as a wedding present and taken to her new home.
She was always treated like the others in the family.
After the abolition of slavery, Mr Keephart gave Wm. a horse and rations
to last for six months, so the children would not starve.
Charles and Lydia French, fellow workers with the Taylors, went to
Cincinnatti and in 1867 sent for the Mrs. Locke and her sister, so they
could go to school, as there were no schools in Kentucky then. The girls
stayed one year with the French family; that is the longest time they
ever went to school. After that, they would go to school for three
months at different times. Mrs. Locke reads and writes very well.
The master worked right along with the slaves, shearing the sheep.
The women milk ten or twelve cows and knit a whole sock in one day. They
also wove the material for their dresses; it was called "linsey."
She remembers one night the slaves were having a dance in one of the
cabins, a band of Ku Kluxers came, took all firearms they could find,
but no one was hurt, all wondered why, however, it did not take long for
them to find out why. Another night when the Kluxers were riding, the
slaves recognised the voice of their young master. That was the reason
why the Keephart slaves were never molested.
Christmas was a jolly time for the Keephart slaves. They would have a
whole week to celebrate, eating, dancing, and making merry.
"Free born niggers" were not allowed to associate with the slaves, as
they were supposed to have no sense, and would contaminate the slaves.