Mr. Moseley, who has been in Indianapolis for 35 years, has been
paralyzed for the last four years. He and a daughter room with a Mrs.
Turner.
He has a very nice clean room; a very pleasant old man was very glad to
talk of his past life.
He gets a pension of $18.00 a month, and said it was not easy to get
along on that little amount, and wondered if the government was ever
going to increase his pension.
Submitted December 1, 1937
Indianapolis, Indiana
Ex-Slave Stories
District #5
Vanderburgh County
Lauana Creel
MEMORIES OF SLAVERY AND THE LIFE STORY OF
AMY ELIZABETH PATTERSON
The slave mart, separation from a dearly beloved mother and little
sisters are among the earliest memories recalled by Amy Elizabeth
Patterson, a resident of Evansville, Indiana.
Amy Elizabeth, now known as "Grandmother Patterson" resides with her
daughter Lula B. Morton at 512 Linwood Avenue near Cherry Street. Her
birth occurred July 12, 1850 at Cadiz, Trigg County, Kentucky. Her
mother was Louisa Street, slave of John Street, a merchant of Cadez.
[TR: likely Cadiz]
"John Street was never unkind to his slaves" is the testimony of
Grandmother Patterson, as she recalls and relates stories of the long
ago. "Our sorrow began when slave traders, came to Cadiz and bought such
slaves as he took a fancy to and separated us from our families!"
John Street ran a sort of agency where he collected slaves and yearly
sold them to dealers in human flesh. Those he did not sell he hired out
to other families. Some were hired or indentured to farmers, some to
stock raisers, some to merchants and some to captains of boats and the
hire of all these slaves went into the coffers of John Street, yearly
increasing his wealth.
Louisa Street, mother of Amy Elizabeth Patterson, was house maid at the
Street home and her first born daughter was fair with gold brown hair
and amber eyes. Mr. and Mrs. Street always promised Louisa they would
never sell her as they did not want to part with the child, so Louisa
was given a small cabin near the master's house. The mistress had a
child near the age of the little mulatto and Louisa was wet nurse for
both children as well as maid to Mrs. Street. Two years after the birth
of Amy Elizabeth, Louisa became mother of twin daughters, Fannie and
Martha Street, then John Street decided to sell all his slaves as he
contemplated moving into another territory.
The slaves were auctioned to the highest bidder and Louisa and the twins
were bought by a man living near Cadiz but Mr. Street refused to sell
Amy Elizabeth. She showed promise of growing into an excellent
house-maid and seamstress and was already a splendid playmate and nurse
to the little Street boy and girl. So Louisa lost her child but such
grief was shown by both mother and child that the mother was unable to
perform her tasks and the child cried continually. Then Mr. Street
consented to sell the little girl to the mother's new master.
Louisa Street became mother of seventeen children. Three were almost
white. Amy Elizabeth was the daughter of John Street and half sister of
his children by his lawful wife. Mrs. Street knew the facts and
respected Louisa and her child and, says grandmother Patterson, "That
was the greatest crime ever visited on the United States. It was worse
than the cruelty of the overseers, worse than hunger, for many slaves
were well fed and well cared for; but when a father can sell his own
child, humiliate his own daughter by auctioning her on the slave block,
what good could be expected where such practices were allowed?"
Grandmother Patterson remembers superstitions of slavery days and how
many slaves were afraid of ghosts and evil spirits but she never
believed in supernatural appearances until three years ago when she
received a message, through a medium, from the spirit land; now she is a
firm believer, not in ghosts and evil visitations, but in true
communication with the departed ones who still love and long to protect
those who remain on earth.
Several years ago a young grandson of the old woman was drowned. The
little boy was Stokes Morton, a very popular child rating high averages
in school studies and beloved by his teachers and friends. The mother,
Lulu B. Morton and the grandmother both gave up to grief, in fact they
both have declined in health and were unable to carry on their regular
duties.
Grandmother Patterson began suffering from a dental ailment and was
compelled to visit a dental surgeon. The dental surgeon suggested that
she visit a medium and seek some comforting message from the child.
She at once visited a medium and received a message. "Stokes answered
me. In fact he was waiting to communicate with us. He said 'Grandmother!
you and mother must stop staying at the cemetary and grieving for me.
Send the flowers to your sick friends and put in more time with the
other children. I am happy here, I am in a beautiful field, The sky is
blue and the field is full of beautiful white lambs that play with me.'"
The message comforted the aged woman. She began occupying her time with
other members of the family and again began to visit with her neighbors.
She felt a call two years later and again consulted the medium. That
time she received a message from the child, his father and a little girl
that had died in infancy. Grandmother Patterson said she would not
recall the ones who had gone on to the land of promise. She is a
christian and a believer in the Word of God.
Grandmother Patterson, in spite of her 87 years of life (fifteen of
which were passed in slavery) is useful in her daughter's home. Her
children and grand children are fond of her as indeed they well may be.
She is a refined woman, gracious to every person she encounters. She is
hoping for better opportunities for her race. She admonishes the younger
relatives to live in the fear and love of the Lord that no evil days
overtake them.
"Yes, slavery was a curse to this nation" she declares, "A curse which
still shows itself in hundreds of homes where mulatto faces are evidence
of a heinous sin and proof that there has been a time when American
fathers sold their children at the slave marts of America." She is glad
the curse has been erased even if by the bloodshed of heroes.
G. Monroe
Dist. 4
Jefferson County
SLAVE STORY
MRS. PRESTON'S STORY
Mrs. Preston is an old lady, 83 years old, very charming and hospitable
She lives on North Elm Street, Madison, Indiana. Her first recollections
of slavery were of sleeping on the foot of her mistress' bed, where she
could get up during the night to "feed" the fire with chips she had
gathered before dark or to get a drink or anything else her mistress
might want in the night.
Her 'Marse Brown', resided in Frankfort having taken his best horses and
hogs, and leaving his family in the care of an overseer on a farm. He
was afraid the Union soldiers would kill him, but thought his wife would
be safe. This opinion proved to be true. The overseer called the slaves
to work at four o'clock, and they worked until six in the evening.
When Mrs. Preston was a little older part of her work was to drive about
a dozen cows to and from the stable. Many a time she warmed her bare
feet in the cattle bedding. She said they did not always go barefooted
but their shoes were old or their feet wrapped in rags.
Her next promotion was to work in the fields hauling shocks of corn on a
balky mule which was subject to bucking and throwing its rider over its
head. She was aided by a little boy on another mule. There were men to
tie the shocks and place them on the mule.
She remembered seeing Union and Confederate soldiers shooting across a
river near her home. Her uncle fought two years, and returned safely at
the end of the war.
She did not feel that her Master and Mistress had mistreated their
slaves. At the close of the war, her father was given a house, land,
team and enough to start farming for himself.
Several years later the Ku Klux Klan gave them a ten days notice to
leave, one of the masked band interceded for them by pointing out that
they were quiet and peacable, and a man with a crop and ten children
couldn't possibly leave on so short a notice so the time was extended
another ten days, when they took what the Klan paid them and came north.
They remained in the north until they had to buy their groceries "a
little piece of this and a little piece of that, like they do now", when
her father returned to Kentucky. Mrs. Preston remained in Indiana. Her
father was burned out, the family escaping to the woods in their night
clothes, later befriended by a white neighbor. Now they appealed to
their former owner who built them a new house, provided necessities and
guards for a few weeks until they were safe from the Ku Klux Klan.
Mrs. Preston said she was the mother of ten children, but now lives
alone since the death of her husband three years ago. Her white
neighbors say her house is so clean, one could almost eat off the floor.
Federal Writers' Project
of the W.P.A.
District #6
Marion County
Harry Jackson
WILLIAM M. QUINN (EX-SLAVE)
431 Bright Street, Indianapolis, Ind.
William M. Quinn, 431 Bright street, was a slave up to ten years of
age--"when the soldiers come back home, and the war was over, and we
wasn't slaves anymore". Mr. Quinn was born in Hardin County, Kentucky,
on a farm belonging to Steve Stone. He and a brother and his mother were
slaves of "Old Master Stone", but his father was owned by another man,
Mr. Quinn, who had an adjoining farm. When they were all freed, they
took the surname of Quinn.
Mr. Quinn said that they were what was called "gift slaves". They were
never to be sold from the Stone farm and were given to Stone's daughter
as a gift with that understanding. He said that his "Old master paid him
and his brother ten cents a day for cutting down corn and shucking it."
It was very unusual for a slave to receive any money whatsoever for
working. He said that his master had a son about his age, and the son
and he and his brother worked around the farm together, and "Master
Stone" gave all three of them ten cents a day when they worked.
Sometimes they wouldn't, they would play instead. And whenever "Master
Stone" would catch them playing when they ought to have been at work, he
would whip them--"and that meant his own boy would get a licking too."
"Old Master Stone was a good man to all us colored folks, we loved him.
He wasn't one of those mean devils that was always beating up his slaves
like some of the rest of them." He had a colored overseer and one day
this overseer ran off and hid for two days "cause he whipped one of old
Mas' Stone's slaves and he heard that Mas' Stone was mad and he didn't
like it."
"We didn't know that we were slaves, hardly. Well, my brother and I
didn't know anyhow 'cause we were too young to know, but we knew that we
had been when we got older."
"After emancipation we stayed at the Stone family for some time, 'cause
they were good to us and we had no place to go." Mr. Quinn meant by
emancipation that his master freed his slaves, and, as he said,
"emancipated them a year before Lincoln did."
Mr. Quinn said that his father was not freed when his mother and he and
his brother were freed, because his father's master "didn't think the
North would win the war." Stone's slaves fared well and ate good food
and "his own children didn't treat us like we were slaves." He said some
of the slaves on surrounding plantations and farms had it "awful hard
and bad." Some times slaves would run away during the night, and he said
that "we would give them something to eat." He said his mother did the
cooking for the Stone family and that she was good to runaway slaves.
Submitted September 9, 1937
Indianapolis, Indiana
Federal Writers' Project
of the W.P.A.
District #6
Marion County
Harry Jackson
EX SLAVE STORY
MRS. CANDUS RICHARDSON
[HW: Personal Interview]
Mrs. Candus Richardson, of 2710 Boulevard Place, was 18 years of age
when the Civil War was over. She was borned a slave on Jim Scott's
plantation on the "Homer Chitter river" in Franklin county,
Mississippi. Scott was the heir of "Old Jake Scott". "Old Jim Scott"
had about fifty slaves, who raised crops, cotton, tobacco, and hogs.
Candus cooked for Scott and his wife, Miss Elizabeth. They were both
cruel, according to Mrs. Richardson. She said that at one time her
Master struck her over the head with the butt end of a cowhide, that
made a hole in her head, the scar of which she still carries. He struck
her down because he caught her giving a hungry slave something to eat at
the back door of the "big house". The "big house" was Scott's house.
Scott beat her husband a lot of times because he caught him praying. But
"beatings didn't stop my husband from praying. He just kept on praying.
He'd steal off to the woods and pray, but he prayed so loud that anybody
close around could hear, 'cause he had such a loud voice. I prayed too,
but I always prayed to myself." One time, Jim Scott beat her husband so
unmerciful for praying that his shirt was as red from blood stain "as if
you'd paint it with, a brush". Her husband was very religious, and she
claimed that it was his prayers and "a whole lot of other slaves' that
cause you young folks to be free today".
They didn't have any Bible on the Scott plantation she said, for it
meant a beating or "a killing if you'd be caught with one". But there
were a lot of good slaves and they knew how to pray and some of the
white folks loved to hear than pray too, "'cause there was no put-on
about it. That's why we folks know how to sing and pray, 'cause we have
gone through so much, but the Lord is with us, the Lord's with us, he
is".
Mrs. Richardson said that the slaves, that worked in the Master's house,
ate the same food that the master and his family ate, but those out on
the plantation didn't fare so well; they ate fat meats and parts of the
hog that the folks at the "big house" didn't eat. All the slaves had to
call Scott and his wife "Master and Miss Elizabeth", or they would get
punished if they didn't.
Whenever the slaves would leave the plantation, they ware supposed to
have a permit from Scott, and if they were caught out by the
"padyrollers", they would whip them if they did not have a note from
their master. When the slaves went to church, they went to a Baptist
church that the Scotts belonged to and sat in the rear of the church.
The sermon was never preached to the slaves. "They never preached the
Lord to us," Mrs. Richardson said, "They would just tell us to not
steal, don't steal from your master". A week's ration of food was given
each slave, but if he ate it up before the week, he had to eat salt pork
until the next rations. He couldn't eat much of it, because it was too
salty to eat any quanity of it. "We had to make our own clothes out of a
cloth like you use, called canvass". "We walked to church with our shoes
on our arms to keep from wearing them out".
They walked six miles to reach the church, and had to wade across a
stream of water. The women were carried across on the men's backs. They
did all of this to hear the minister tell them "don't steal from your
Master".
They didn't have an overseer to whip the slaves on the Scott
plantation, Scott did the whipping himself. Mrs. Richardson said he
knocked her down once just before she gave birth to a daughter, all
because she didn't pick cotton as fast as he thought she should have.
Her husband went to the war to be "what you call a valet for Master
Jim's son, Sam". After the war, he "came to me and my daughter". "Then
in July, we could tell by the crops and other things grown, old Master
Jim told us everyone we was free, and that was almost a year after the
other slaves on the other plantations around were freed". She said
Scott, in freeing (?) then said that "he didn't have to give us any
thing to eat and that he didn't have to give us a place to stay, but we
could stay and work for him and he would pay us. But we left that night
and walked for miles through the rain to my husban's brother and then
told them that they all were free. Then we all came up to Kentucky in a
wagon and lived there. Then I came up North when my husband died".
Mrs. Richardson says that she is "so happy to know that I have lived to
see the day when you young people can serve God without slipping around
to serve him like we old folks had to do". "You see that pencil that
you have In your hand there, why, that would cost me my life 'if old
Mas' Jim would see me with a pencil in my hand. But I lived to see both
him and Miss Elizabeth die a hard death. They both hated to die,
although they belonged to church. Thank God for his mercy! Thank God!"
"My mother prayed for me and I am praying for you young folks".
Mrs. Richardson, despite her 90 years of age, can walk a distance of a
mile and a half to her church.
Submitted August 31, 1937
Indianapolis, Indiana
Federal Writers' Project
of the W.P.A.
District #6
Marion County
Anna Pritchett
1200 Kentucky Avenue
FOLKLORE
JOE ROBINSON--EX-SLAVE
1132 Cornell Avenue
Joe Robinson was born in Mason County, Kentucky in 1854.
His master, Gus Hargill, was very kind to him and all his slaves. He
owned a large farm and raised every kind of vegetation. He always gave
his slaves plenty to eat. They never had to steal food. He said his
slaves had worked hard to permit him to have plenty, therefore they
should have their share.
Joe, his mother, a brother, and a sister were all on the same
plantation. They were never sold, lived with the same master until they
were set free.
Joe's father was owned by Rube Black, who was very cruel to his slaves,
beat them severely for the least offense. One day he tried to beat Joe's
father, who was a large strong man; he resisted his master and tried to
kill him. After that he never tried to whip him again. However, at the
first opportunity, Rube sold him.
The Robinson family learned the father had been sold to someone down in
Louisiana. They never heard from, or of him, again.