When we first come here we got some land for $15 an acre from the
Creek Nation, but our papers said we can only stay as long as it is
the Creek Nation. Then in 1901 comes the allotments, and we found out
our land belong to a Creek Indian, and we have to pay him to let us
stay on it. After while he makes us move off and we lose out all
around.
But my daughter Donie git a little lot, and we trade it for this place
about thirty year ago, when this town was a little place.
Oklahoma Writers' Project
Ex-Slaves
MRS. MATTIE LOGAN
Age 79 yrs.
Route 5, West Tulsa, Oklahoma.
This is a mighty fitting time to be telling about the slave days, for
I'm just finished up celebrating my seventy-nine years of being around
and the first part of my life was spent on the old John B. Lewis
plantation down in old Mississippi.
Yes, sir! my birthday is just over. September 1 it was and the year
was 1858. Borned on the John B. Lewis plantation just ten mile south
of Jackson in the Mississippi country. Rankin County it was.
My mother's name was Lucinda, and father's name was Levi Miles. My
mother was part Indian, for her mother was a half-blood Cherokee
Indian from Virginia.
There was children a-plenty besides me. There was Sally, Julia,
Hubbard, Ada, Ira, Anthony, Henry, Amanda, Mary, John, Lucinda, Daniel
and me, Mattie. That was my family.
The master's family was a large one, too. Six children was born to the
Master and Mistress. Her name, his first wife, was Jennie, the second
and last was named, Louise. The children was, Rebecca, Mollie, Jennie,
Susie, Silas, and Begerlan. They kind of leaned to females.
My mother belonged to Mistress Jennie who thought a heap of her, and
why shouldn't she? Mother nursed all Miss Jennie's children because
all of her young ones and my mammy's was born so close together it
wasn't no trouble at all for mammy to raise the whole kaboodle of
them. I was born about the same time as the baby Jennie. They say I
nursed on one breast while that white child, Jennie, pulled away at
the other!
That was a pretty good idea for the Mistress, for it didn't keep her
tied to the place and she could visit around with her friends most any
time she wanted 'thout having to worry if the babies would be fed or
not.
Mammy was the house girl and account of that and because her family
was so large, the Mistress fixed up a two room cabin right back of the
Big House and that's where we lived. The cabin had a fireplace in one
of the rooms, just like the rest of the slave cabins which was set in
a row away from the Big House. In one room was bunk beds, just plain
old two-by-fours with holes bored through the plank so's ropes could
be fastened in and across for to hold the corn-shuck mattress.
My brothers and sisters was allowed to play with the Master's
children, but not with the children who belonged to the field Negroes.
We just played yard games like marbles and tossing a ball. I don't
rightly remember much about games, for there wasn't too much fun in
them days even if we did get raised with the Master's family. We
wasn't allowed to learn any reading or writing. They say if they
catched a slave learning them things they'd pull his finger nails off!
I never saw that done, though.
Each slave cabin had a stone fireplace in the end, just like ours, and
over the flames at daybreak was prepared the morning meal. That was
the only meal the field negroes had to cook.
All the other meals was fixed up by an old man and woman who was too
old for field trucking. The peas, the beans, the turnips, the
potatoes, all seasoned up with fat meats and sometimes a ham bone, was
cooked in a big iron kettle and when meal time come they all gathered
around the pot for a-plenty of helpings! Corn bread and buttermilk
made up the rest of the meal.
Ten or fifteen hogs was butchered every fall and the slaves would get
the skins and maybe a ham bone. That was all, except what was mixed in
with the stews. Flour was given out every Sunday morning and if a
family run out of that before the next week, well, they was just out
that's all!
The slaves got small amounts of vegetables from the plantation garden,
but they didn't have any gardens of their own. Everybody took what old
Master rationed out.
Once in a while we had rabbits and fish, but the best dish of all was
the 'possum and sweet potatoes--baked together over red-hot coals in
the fireplace. Now, that was something to eat!
The Lewis plantation was about three hundred acres, with usually fifty
slaves working on the place. Master Lewis was a trader. He couldn't
sell of our family, for we belonged to Mistress Jennie. Negro girls,
the fat ones who was kinder pretty, was the most sold. Folks wanted
them pretty bad but the Mistress said there wasn't going to be any
selling of the girls who was mammy's children.
There was no overseer on our place, just the old Master who did all
the bossing. He wasn't too mean, but I've seen him whip Old John. I'd
run in the house to get away from the sight, but I could still hear
Old John yelling, 'Pray, Master! Oh! Pray, Master!', but I guess that
there was more howling than there was hurting at that.
My uncle Ed Miles run away to the North and joined with Yankees during
the War. He was lucky to get away, for lots of them who tried it was
ketched up by the patrollers. I seen some of them once. They had
chains fastened around their legs, fastened short, too, just long
enough to take a short step. No more running away with them chains
anchoring the feets!
There wasn't any negro churches close by our plantation. All the
slaves who wanted religion was allowed to join the Methodist church
because that was the Mistress' church.
A doctor was called in when the slaves would get sick. He'd give pills
for most all the ailments, but once in a while, like when the
children would get the whooping cough, some old negro would try to
cure them with home made remedies.
The whooping cough cure was by using a land turtle. Cut off his head
and drain the blood into a cup. Then take a lump of sugar and dip in
the blood, eat the sugar and the coughing was supposed to stop. If it
did or not I don't know.
And that makes me think about another cure they use to tell about. A
cure for mean overseers. And I don't mean kill, just scare him, that's
all. They say the cure was tried on an overseer who worked for Silas
Stien, who was a slave owner living close by the Lewis plantation.
It seems like this overseer was of the meanest kind, always whipping
the slaves for no reason at all, and the slaves tried to figure out a
way to even up with him by chasing him off the place.
One of the slaves told how to cure him. Get a King snake and put the
snake in the overseer's cabin. Slip the snake in about, no, not about,
but just exactly nine o'clock at night. Seems like the time was
important, why so, I don't remember now.
That's what the slaves did. Put in the snake and out went the
overseer. Never no more did he whip the slaves on that plantation
because he wasn't working there no more! When he went, when he went,
or how he went nobody knows, but they all say he went. That's what
counted--he was gone!
The Yankees didn't come around our plantation during the war. All we
heard was, 'They'll kill all the slaves,' and such hearing was
a-plenty!
After the war some man come to the plantation and told the field
negroes they was free. But he didn't know about the cabin we lived in
and didn't tell my folks nothing about it. They learned about the
freedom from the old Master.
That was some days after the man left the place. The Master called my
mother and father into the Big House and told them they was free. Free
like him. But he didn't want my folks to leave and they stayed, stayed
there three year after they was free to go anywhere they wanted.
The master paid them $200 a month to work for him and that wasn't so
much if you stop to figure there was two grown folks and thirteen
children who could do plenty of work around the place.
But that money paid for an 80-acre farm my folks bought not far from
the old plantation and they moved onto it three year after the freedom
come.
I think Lincoln was a mighty good man, and I think Roosevelt is trying
to carry some of the good ideas Lincoln had. Lincoln would have done a
heap more if he had lived.
The young negroes who are living now are selfish and shiftless.
They're not worth two cents and don't have the respect for other folks
to get along right. That's what I think.
I been married three times, but no children did I have. The first man
was Frank Morris, the next was Jim White, and the last was John Logan.
All gone. Dead.
From Mississippi I come to Idabel, Oklahoma, in 1909, two year after
statehood. I moved to Muskogee in 1910, staying there while the times
was good and coming to Tulsa some years ago.
I'm pretty old and can't work hard anymore, but I manage to get along.
I'm glad to be free and I don't believe I could stand them slavery
days now at all.
I'm my own boss, get up when I want, go to bed the same way. Nobody to
say this or that about what I do.
Yes, I'm glad to be free!
Oklahoma Writers' Project
Ex-Slaves
[Date stamp: AUG 16 1937]
KIZIAH LOVE
Age 93
Colbert, Okla.
Lawd help us, I sho' remembers all about slavery times for I was a
grown woman, married and had one baby when de War done broke out. That
was a sorry time for some poor black folks but I guess Master Frank
Colbert's niggers was about as well off as the best of 'em. I can
recollect things that happened way back better than I can things that
happen now. Funny ain't it?
Frank Colbert, a full blood Choctaw Indian, was my owner. He owned my
mother but I don't remember much about my father. He died when I was a
little youngun. My Mistress' name was Julie Colbert. She and Master
Frank was de best folks that ever lived. All the niggers loved Master
Frank and knowed jest what he wanted done and they tried their best to
do it, too.
I married Isom Love, a slave of Sam Love, another full-blood Indian
that lived on a jining farm. We lived on Master Frank's farm and Isom
went back and forth to work fer his master and I worked ever day fer
mine. I don't 'spect we could of done that way iffen we hadn't of had
Indian masters. They let us do a lot like we pleased jest so we got
our work done and didn't run off.
Old Master Frank never worked us hard and we had plenty of good food
to eat. He never did like to put us under white overseers and never
tried it but once. A white man come through here and stopped
overnight. He looked 'round the farm and told Master Frank that he
wasn't gitting half what he ought to out of his rich land. He said he
could take his bunch of hands and double his amount of corn and
cotton.
Master Frank told him that he never used white overseers, that he had
one nigger that bossed around some when he didn't do it hisself. He
also told the white man that he had one nigger named Bill that was
kind of bad, that he was a good worker but he didn't like to be
bothered as he liked to do his own work in his own way. The white boss
told him he wouldn't have any trouble and that he could handle him all
right.
Old Master hired him and things went very well for a few days. He
hadn't said anything to Bill and they had got along fine. I guess the
new boss got to thinking it was time for him to take Bill in hand so
one morning he told him to hitch up another team before he caught his
own team to go to work.
Uncle Bill told him that he didn't have time, that he had a lot of
plowing to git done that morning and besides it was customary for
every man to catch his own team. Of course this made the overseer mad
and he grabbed a stick and started cussing and run at Uncle Bill. Old
Bill grabbed a single-tree and went meeting him. Dat white man all on
a sudden turned 'round and run fer dear life and I tell you, he fairly
bust old Red River wide open gitting away from there and nobody never
did see hide nor hair of him 'round to this day.
Master Colbert run a stage stand and a ferry on Red River and he
didn't have much time to look after his farm and his niggers. He had
lots of land and lots of slaves. His house was a big log house, three
rooms on one side and three on the other, and there was a big open
hall between them. There was a big gallery clean across the front of
the house. Behind the house was the kitchen and the smokehouse. The
smokehouse was always filled with plenty of good meat and lard. They
would kill the polecat and dress it and take a sharp stick and run it
up their back jest under the flesh. They would also run one up each
leg and then turn him on his back and put him on top of the house and
let him freeze all night. The next morning they'd pull the sticks out
and all the scent would be on them sticks and the cat wouldn't smell
at all. They'd cook it like they did possum, bake it with taters or
make dumplings.
We had plenty of salt. We got that from Grand Saline. Our coffee was
made from parched meal or wheat bran. We made it from dried sweet
potatoes that had been parched, too.
One of our choicest dishes was "Tom Pashofa", an Indian dish. We'd
take corn and beat it in a mortar with a pestle. They took out the
husks with a riddle and a fanner. The riddle was a kind of a sifter.
When it was beat fine enough to go through the riddle we'd put it in a
pot and cook it with fresh pork or beef. We cooked our bread in a
Dutch oven or in the ashes.
When we got sick we would take butterfly root and life-everlasting and
boil it and made a syrup and take it for colds. Balmony and queen's
delight boiled and mixed would make good blood medicine.
The slaves lived in log cabins scattered back of the house. He wasn't
afraid they'd run off. They didn't know as much as the slaves in the
states, I reckon. But Master Frank had a half brother that was as mean
as he was good. I believe he was the meanest man the sun ever shined
on. His name was Buck Colbert and he claimed he was a patroller. He
was sho' bad to whup niggers. He'd stop a nigger and ask him if he had
a pass and even if they did he'd read it and tell them they had stayed
over time and he'd beat 'em most to death. He'd say they didn't have
any business off the farm and to git back there and stay there.
One time he got mad at his baby's nurse because she couldn't git the
baby to stop crying and he hit her on the head with some fire-tongs
and she died. His wife got sick and she sent for me to come and take
care of her baby. I sho' didn't want to go and I begged so hard for
them not to make me that they sent an older woman who had a baby of
her own so she could nurse the baby if necessary.
In the night the baby woke up and got to crying and Master Buck called
the woman and told her to git him quiet. She was sleepy and was sort
of slow and this made Buck mad and he made her strip her clothes off
to her waist and he began to whip her. His wife tried to git him to
quit and he told her he'd beat her iffen she didn't shut up. Sick as
as she was she slipped off and went to Master Frank's and woke him up
and got him to go and make Buck quit whipping her. He had beat her so
that she was cut up so bad she couldn't nurse her own baby any more.
Master Buck kept on being bad till one day he got mad at one of his
own brothers and killed him. This made another one of his brothers mad
and he went to his house and killed him. Everybody was glad that Buck
was dead.
We had lots of visitors. They'd stop at the stage inn that we kept.
One morning I was cleaning the rooms and I found a piece of money in
the bed where two men had slept. I thought it was a dime and I showed
it to my mammy and she told me it was a five dollar piece. I sho' was
happy fer I had been wanting some hoops fer my skirts like Misstress
had so Mammy said she would keep my money 'til I could send fer the
hoops. My brother got my money from my mammy and I didn't git my hoops
fer a long time. Miss Julie give me some later.
When me and my husband got married we built us a log cabin about
half-way from Master Frank's house and Master Sam Love's house. I
would go to work at Master Frank's and Isom would go to work at Mister
Sam's. One day I was at home with jest my baby and a runner come by
and said the Yankee soldiers was coming. I looked 'round and I knowed
they would git my chickens. I had 'em in a pen right close to the
house to keep the varmints from gitting 'em so I decided to take up
the boards in the floor and put 'em in there as the wall logs come to
the ground and they couldn't git out. By the time I got my chickens
under the floor and the house locked tight the soldiers had got so
close I could hear their bugles blowing so I jest fairly flew over to
old Master's house. Them Yankees clumb down the chimbley and got every
one of my chickens and they killed about fifteen of Master Frank's
hogs. He went down to their camp and told the captain about it and he
paid him for his hogs and sent me some money for my chickens.
We went to church all the time. We had both white and colored
preachers. Master Frank wasn't a Christian but he would help build
brush-arbors fer us to have church under and we sho' would have big
meetings I'll tell you.
One day Master Frank was going through the woods close to where
niggers was having church. All on a sudden he started running and
beating hisself and hollering and the niggers all went to shouting and
saying "Thank the Lawd, Master Frank has done come through!" Master
Frank after a minute say, "Yes, through the worst of 'em." He had run
into a yellow jacket's nest.
One night my old man's master sent him to Sherman, Texas. He aimed to
come back that night so I stayed at home with jest my baby. It went to
sleep so I set down on the steps to wait and ever minute I thought I
could hear Isom coming through the woods. All a sudden I heard a
scream that fairly made my hair stand up. My dog that was laying out
in the yard give a low growl and come and set down right by me. He
kept growling real low.
Directly, right close to the house I heard that scream again. It
sounded like a woman in mortal misery. I run into the house and made
the dog stay outside. I locked the door and then thought what must I
do. Supposing Isom did come home now and should meet that awful thing?
I heard it again. It wasn't more'n a hundred yards from the house. The
dog scratched on the door but I dassent open it to let him in. I
knowed by this time that it was a panther screaming. I turned my table
over and put it against the opening of the fireplace. I didn't aim fer
that thing to come down the chimbley and git us.
Purty soon I heard it again a little mite further away--it was going
on by. I heard a gun fire. Thank God, I said, somebody else heard it
and was shooting at it. I set there on the side of my bed fer the rest
of the night with my baby in my arms and praying that Isom wouldn't
come home. He didn't come till about nine o'clock the next morning and
I was that glad to see him that I jest cried and cried.
I ain't never seen many sperits but I've seen a few. One day I was
laying on my bed here by myself. My son Ed was cutting wood. I'd been
awful sick and I was powerful weak. I heard somebody walking real
light like they was barefooted. I said, "Who's dat?"
He catch hold of my hand and he has the littlest hand I ever seen, and
he say, "You been mighty sick and I want you to come and go with me to
Sherman to see a doctor."