like yesterday. He used to like to play de fiddle and make me dance when
I was li'l, but he went to de war and got kilt. He name Duplissent
Dugat. Mary, my sister, she don't 'member de old marster.
"De slaves did de work on dat farm. Dey was two growed-ups, my mama,
Colaste, and my uncle, and dere was us two chillen. My father was a
white man, a white Creole man. I never carry he name till after freedom.
"Marster was jes' a poor man and he have jes' a ordinary house. De slave
house was jes' a old plank house 'bout twelve feet by twenty feet and
have dirt floor. Us cook in de big fireplace and take a log 'bout four
foot long and have a big iron pot with a iron lid. Dey put red hot coals
under de pot and on top de lid and dey have a big iron poker with a hook
on it what dey took de lid off with.
"Befo' dey have coal oil lamp dey used to use homemake candles. Dey'd
kill de brutes and keep and save all de tallow and one day was set off
to make de candles. All de neighbors come and dey have kind of party and
eat and things. Sometime dey make three, four hunnerd candles in one day
and lay dem in a big box, so dey won't git break.
"Us make soap on de plantation, too. Dey melt de tallow and cracklin's
and git lye out de fireplace ash. We have cotton and corn and potatoes
growin', so we has plenty to eat. Us have coosh-coosh, dat cornbread and
meat, and some fish to eat. Snails us jes' go through de woods and pick
dem up and eat dem jes' like dat. Us eat plenty crawfish. De chillen git
string and old piece fat meat and tie on de end, and us go to de bog and
drap de string down dat crawfish hole. When de old man grab de meat with
he pincher, den us jerk us up a crawfish, and bile him in hot water, or
make de gumbo.
"Us drink French coffee befo' de war, but endurin' de war us couldn't
git de good kind. Den us make coffee out of coffee weed. Dey parch dat
weed in de iron oven, grind it and put it in de iron pot.
"I seed de sojers and I run under de house, I was so scared. Mary, she
hide under de bed in de house. De Yankees come take de cattle and went
'way with dem. I kin sho' rec'lect when dose sojers come and de road was
full goin' day and night. De Yankees find a lot of Confed'rate sojers
close to Duson, de other side of Rayne and dey captures lots and brung
dem back by dere.
"After while it all over and dey told us we free, but my mama kep'
working for old missus after freedom, 'cause old marster, he kilt in dat
war. Den old missus die and left three li'l chillen, but I don't know
what happen to them, 'cause us go to another place and I plow and Mary
she he'p pick cotton.
"I git marry at 20 and my first wife de French gal. We marry by de
priest in de church. Us have so many chillen us have to keep a map to
account for all dem, dere was 19 in all. We stays in Louisiana long
time, den come to Texas.
420296
LAURA CORNISH was born on the plantation of Isaiah Day, near
Dayton, Texas. She "reckons I's 'bout twelve or maybe thirteen
years old when all de cullud folks was made free." Laura's memory
is poor, but she made an effort to recall slave days. She lives at
2915 Nance St., Houston, Texas.
"Lawd have mercy 'pon me, when you calls me Aunt Laura it seems jes'
like you must be some of my white folks, 'cause dat what dey calls me. I
mean Papa Day's chillen and dere younguns, when dey comes to see me. But
it been de long time since any of dem come to see old Aunt Laura, and I
reckon dey most all gone now.
"You know where Dayton is at? Well, dat's where Papa Day's plantation
was at and where I's borned. I don't know when dat am, 'zactly, but when
all de cullud folks was made free, I reckons I's 'bout twelve or
thirteen years old.
"Mama's name was Maria Dunlap and daddy's name was Saul. Mamma was de
seamstress and don't do nothin' but weave cloth on de spinnin' wheel and
make clothes. Daddy from Lake Providence, I heared him say, but I don't
know where at dat is. He do all de carpenter work. I has five sisters
and two brothers, but dey heaps older dan me and I don't know much 'bout
dem.
"We 'longs to Papa Day, his name Isaiah, but us all call him Papa Day,
'cause he won't 'low none he cullud folks to call him master. He say us
is born free as he is, only de other white folks won't tell us so, and
our souls is jes' as white, and de reason us am darker on de outside is
'cause us is sunburnt. I don't reckon dere am anybody as good to dere
cullud folks as he was.
"Miss Martha, he wife, was mighty good, too. Does any us chillen git
hurt or scratched, she fix us up and give us a hug. I knows dey has two
boys and a gal, and dey comes to see me long time after I's free and
brings dere own chillen. But my mem'ry am sort of foggy-like and I can't
'member dere names now.
"De only work Papa Day 'lows us chillen do am pick de boles close to de
ground, and dat mostly fun, and us ride to de house on de wagon what
takes de pickin' at night. Papa Day don't make he cullud folks work
Saturdays and Sundays and dey can visit round on other plantations, and
he say nobody better bother us none, either.
"One time us chillen playin' out in de woods and seed two old men what
look like wild men, sho' 'nough. Dey has long hair all over de face and
dere shirts all bloody. Us run and tell Papa Day and he makes us take
him dere and he goes in de briar patch where dem men hidin'. Dey takes
him round de knees and begs him do he not tell dere massa where dey at,
'cause dey maybe git kilt. Dey say dey am old Lodge and Baldo and dey
run 'way 'cause dere massa whips dem, 'cause dey so old dey can't work
good no more. Papa Day has tears comin' in he eyes. Dey can't hardly
walk, so he sends dem to de house and has Aunt Mandy, de cook, fix up
somethin' to eat quick. I never seed sech eatin', dey so hongry. He puts
dem in a house and tells us not to say nothin'. Den he rides off on he
hoss and goes to dere massa and tells him 'bout it, and jes' dares him
to come git dem. He pays de man some money and Lodge and Baldo stays
with Papa Day and I guess day thunk dey in Heaven.
"One mornin' Papa Day calls all us to de house and reads de freedom
papers and say, 'De gov'ment don't need to tell you you is free, 'cause
you been free all you days. If you wants to stay you can and if you
wants to go, you can. But if you go, lots of white folks ain't gwine
treat you like I does.'
"For de longest time, maybe two years, dey wasn't none of Papa Day's
cullud folks what left, but den first one fam'ly den 'nother gits some
land to make a crop on, and den daddy gits some land and us leaves, too.
Maybe he gits de land from Papa Day, 'cause it an't far from his
plantation. Us sho' work hard on dat place, but I heared mama say lots
of times she wishes we stay on Papa Day's place.
"I 'member one year us don't make no crop hardly and daddy say he gwine
git out 'fore us starves to death, and he moves to Houston. He gits a
job doin' carpenter work and hires me out for de housegirl. But mama
dies and daddy takes sick and dies, too. Lawd have mercy, dat sho' de
hard time for me when I loses my mama and daddy, and I has to go to
Dayton and stay with my sister, Rachel. Both my husbands what I marries
done been dead a long time now, and de only child I ever had died when
he jes' a baby. Now I's jes' alone, sittin' and waitin' for de Lawd to
call me."
420260
[Illustration: John Crawford]
JOHN CRAWFORD, 81, was born a slave on Judge Thompson Rector's
plantation at Manor, Texas. After emancipation, John was a
share-cropper. He has always lived in Travis County and is now
cared for by a daughter at Austin.
"John Crawford am me. It am eighty-one years since I's borned and dat's
on de old Rector plantation where Manor am now. It wasn't dere den. I
knowed the man it was named after.
"Ma's name was Viney Rector and the old judge brung her from Alabama.
She milked all the cows two times a day and I had to turn out all de
calves. Sometimes dey'd git purty rough and go right to dere mammies.
"Pap's name was Tom Townes, 'cause he 'longed on de Townes place. He was
my step-pap and when I's growed I tooken my own pap's name, what was
Crawford. I never seed him, though, and didn't know nothin' much 'bout
him. He's sold away 'fore I's borned.
"Pap Townes could make most everythin'. He made turnin' plows and
hossshoe nails and a good lot of furniture. He was purty good to me,
'siderin' he wasn't my own pap. I didn't have no hard time, noway. I had
plenty bacon and side-meat and 'lasses. Every Sunday mornin' the jedge
give us our rations for de week. He wasn't short with dem, neither.
"Many was de time Injuns come to Jedge Rector's place. Dem Injuns beg
for somethin' and the jedge allus give dem somethin'. They wasn't mean
Injuns, jes' allus beggin'.
"I can't read and write to this day. Nobody ever larnt me my A B C's and
I didn't git no chance at school.
"On Christmas mornin' Massa Rector come out and give each man and woman
a big, red pocket handkerchief and a bottle of liquor. He buyed dat
liquor by de barrel and liked it hisself. Dat why he allus had it on de
place.
"One mornin' the jedge done send word down by de cook for nobody to go
to de fields dat day. We all want up to de big house and de jedge git up
to make de speech, but am too choke up to talk. He hated to lose he
slaves, I reckon. So his son-in-law has to say, 'You folks am now free
and can go where you wants to go. You can stay here and pick cotton and
git fifty cents de hunerd.' But only two families stayed. De rest pulled
out.
"After freedom we rented land on de halves. Some niggers soon got ahead
and rented on de third or fourth. When you rent that-a-way you git three
bales and de boss git one. But you has to buy you own teams and seed and
all on dat plan.
"Its a fac' we was told we'd git forty acres and a mule. Dat de talk
den, but we never did git it.
"De Ku Klux made a lot of devilment round-about dat county. Dey allus
chasin' some nigger and beatin' him up. But some dem niggers sho' 'serve
it. When dey gits free, dey gits wild. Dey won't work or do nothin' and
thinks dey don't have to. We didn't have no trouble, 'cause we stays on
de farm and works and don't have no truck with dem wild niggers.
"In 1877 I marries Fannie Black at de town of Sprinkle. It wasn't sech a
town, jes' a li'l place. Me and her stayed married fifty-two years and
four months. She died and left me eight year ago. We had seven chillen
and they is all livin'. Four is here in Austin and two in California and
one in Ohio.
"I gits a li'l pension, $9.00 de month, and my gal, Susie, takes care of
me. I ain't got long to go now 'fore de Lawd gwine call me.
420076
[Illustration: Green Cumby]
GREEN CUMBY, 86, was born a slave of the Robert H. Cumby family, in
Henderson, Texas. He was about 14 at the close of the Civil War. He
stayed with his old master four years after he was freed, then
married and settled in Tyler, Texas, where he worked for the
compress 30 years. He lives with his daughter at 749 Mesquite St.,
Abilene, Texas.
"Durin' slavery I had purty rough times. My grandfather, Tater Cumby,
was cullud overseer for forty slaves and he called us at four in de
mornin' and we worked from sun to sun. Most of de time we worked on
Sunday, too.
"De white overseers whupped us with straps when we didn't do right. I
seed niggers in chains lots of times, 'cause there wasn't no jails and
they jus' chained 'em to trees.
"Spec'lators on hosses drove big bunches of slaves past our place from
one place to another, to auction 'em at de market places. De women would
be carryin' l'il ones in dere arms and at night dey bed 'em down jus'
like cattle right on de ground 'side of de road. Lots of l'il chillun
was sold 'way from de mammy when dey seven or eight, or even smaller.
Dat's why us cullud folks don't know our kinfolks to dis day.
"De best times was when de corn shuckin' was at hand. Den you didn't
have to bother with no pass to leave de plantation, and de patter rolls
didn't bother you. If de patter rolls cotch you without de pass any
other time, you better wish you dead, 'cause you would have yourself
some trouble.
"But de corn shuckin', dat was de gran' times. All de marsters and dere
black boys from plantations from miles 'round would be dere. Den when we
got de corn pile high as dis house, de table was spread out under de
shade. All de boys dat 'long to old marster would take him on de
packsaddle 'round de house, den dey bring him to de table and sit by he
side; den all de boys dat 'long to Marster Bevan from another plantation
take him on de packsaddle 'round and 'round de house, allus singin' and
dancin', den dey puts him at de other side de table, and dey all do de
same till everybody at de table, den dey have de feast.
"To see de runaway slaves in de woods scared me to death. They'd try to
snatch you and hold you, so you couldn't go tell. Sometimes dey cotched
dem runaway niggers and dey be like wild animals and have to be tamed
over 'gain. Dere was a white man call Henderson had 60 bloodhounds and
rents 'em out to run slaves. I well rec'lect de hounds run through our
place one night, chasin' de slave what kilt his wife by runnin' de
harness needle through her heart. Dey cotch him and de patter rolls took
him to Henderson and hangs him.
"De patter rolls dey chases me plenty times, but I's lucky, 'cause dey
never cotched me. I slips off to see de gal on de nex' plantation and I
has no pass and they chases me and was I scairt! You should have seed me
run through dat bresh, 'cause I didn't dare go out on de road or de
path. It near tore de clothes off me, but I goes on and gits home and
slides under de house. But I'd go to see dat gal every time, patter
rolls or no patter rolls, and I gits trained so's I could run 'most as
fast as a rabbit.
"De white chillun larned us to read and write at night, but I never paid
much 'tention, but I kin read de testament now. Other times at night de
slaves gathers round de cabins in little bunches and talks till bedtime.
Sometimes we'd dance and someone would knock out time for us by snappin'
de fingers and slappin' de knee. We didn't have nothin' to make de music
on.
"We mos'ly lived on corn pone and salt bacon de marster give us. We
didn't have no gardens ourselves, 'cause we wouldn't have time to work
in dem. We worked all day in de fields and den was so tired we couldn't
do nothin' more.
"My mammy doctored us when we was feelin' bad and she'd take dog-fenley,
a yaller lookin' weed, and brew tea, and it driv de chills and de fever
out of us. Sometimes she put horse mint on de pallet with us to make us
sweat and driv de fever 'way. For breakfast she'd make us sass' fras
tea, to clear our blood.
"My marstar and his two step-sons goes to de war. De marster was a big
gen'ral on de southern side. I didn't know what dey fightin' 'bout for a
long time, den I heered it 'bout freedom and I felt like it be Heaven
here on earth to git freedom, 'spite de fac' I allus had de good
marster. He sho' was good to us, but you knows dat ain't de same as
bein' free.
420124
[Illustration: Tempie Cummins]
TEMPIE CUMMINS was born at Brookeland, Texas, sometime before the
Civil War, but does not know her exact age. William Neyland owned
Tempie and her parents. She now lives alone in a small,
weather-beaten shack in the South Quarters, a section of Jasper,
Tex.
"They call me Tempie Cummins and I was born at Brookeland but I don'
know jus' the 'xact date. My father's name was Jim Starkins and my
mother's name was Charlotte Brooks and both of 'em come from Alabama. I
had jus' one brudder, Bill, and four sisters named Margaret and Hannah
and Mary and 'Liza. Life was good when I was with them and us play
round. Miss Fannie Neyland, she Mis' Phil Scarborough now, she raise me,
'cause I was give to them when I was eight year old.
"I slep' on a pallet on the floor. They give me a homespun dress onct a
year at Christmas time. When company come I had to run and slip on that
dress. At other time I wore white chillens' cast-off clothes so wore
they was ready to throw away. I had to pin them up with red horse thorns
to hide my nakedness. My dress was usually split from hem to neck and I
had to wear them till they was strings. Went barefoot summer and winter
till the feets crack open.
"I never seed my grandparents 'cause my mother she sold in Alabama when
she's 17 and they brung her to Texas and treat her rough. At mealtime
they hand me a piece of cornbread and tell me 'Run 'long.' Sometime I
git little piece of meat and biscuit, 'bout onct a month. I gathered up
scraps the white chillens lef'.
"Marster was rough. He take two beech switches and twist them together
and whip 'em to a stub. Many's the time I's bled from them whippin's.
Our old mistus, she try to be good to us, I reckon, but she was turrible
lazy. She had two of us to wait on her and then she didn' treat us good.
"Marster had 30 or 40 acres and he raise cotton, and corn and 'tatoes.
He used to raise 12 bales cotton a year and then drink it all up. We
work from daylight till dark, and after. Marster punish them what didn'
work hard enough.
"The white chillen tries teach me to read and write but I didn' larn
much, 'cause I allus workin'. Mother was workin' in the house, and she
cooked too. She say she used to hide in the chimney corner and listen to
what the white folks say. When freedom was 'clared, marster wouldn' tell
'em, but mother she hear him tellin' mistus that the slaves was free but
they didn' know it and he's not gwineter tell 'em till he makes another
crop or two. When mother hear that she say she slip out the chimney
corner and crack her heels together four times and shouts, 'I's free,
I's free.' Then she runs to the field, 'gainst marster's will and tol'
all the other slaves and they quit work. Then she run away and in the
night she slip into a big ravine near the house and have them bring me
to her. Marster, he come out with his gun and shot at mother but she run
down the ravine and gits away with me.
"I seed lots of ghosties when I's young. I couldn' sleep for them. I's
kind of outgrowed them now. But one time me and my younges' chile was
comin' over to church and right near the dippin' vat is two big gates
and when we git to them, out come a big old white ox, with long legs and
horns and when he git 'bout halfway, he turns into a man with a Panama
hat on. He follers us to Sandy Creek bridge. Sometimes at night I sees
that same spirit sittin' on that bridge now.
"My old man say, in slavery time, when he's 21, he had to pass a place
where patterroles whipped slaves and had kilt some. He was sittin' on a
load of fodder and there come a big light wavin' down the road and
scarin' the team and the hosses drag him and near kilt him.
420070
[Illustration: Adeline Cunningham]
ADELINE CUNNINGHAM, 1210 Florida St., born 1852, was a slave in
Lavaca County, 4-1/2 miles n.e. of Hallettsville. She was a slave
of Washington Greenlee Foley and his grandson, John Woods. The
Foley plantation consisted of several square leagues, each league
containing 4,428.4 acres. Adeline is tall, spare and primly erect,
with fiery brown eyes, which snap when she recalls the slave days.
The house is somewhat pretentious and well furnished. The day was
hot and the granddaughter prepared ice water for her grandmother
and the interviewer. House and porch were very clean.
"I was bo'n on ole man Foley's plantation in Lavaca County. He's got
more'n 100 slaves. He always buy slaves and he never sell. How many
acres of lan' he got? Lawd, dat man ain't got acres, he got leagues. Dey
raises cotton and co'n, and cattle and hawgs. Ole man Foley's plantation
run over Lavaca and Colorado county, he got 1600 acres in one block and
some of it on de Navidad River. Ole man Foley live in a big log house
wid two double rooms and a hall, and he build a weavin' house agin his
own house and dey's anudder house wid de spinnin' wheels. And ole man
Foley run his own cotton gin and his own grindin' mill where dey grinds
de co'n and dey got a big potato patch.
"Dey was rough people and dey treat ev'ry body rough. We lives in de
quarter; de houses all jine close togedder but you kin walk 'tween 'em.
All de cabins has one room and mostly two fam'lies bunks togedder in de
one room wid dirt floors. De slaves builds de cabins, de slaves got no
money, dey got no land.
"No suh, we never goes to church. Times we sneaks in de woods and prays
de Lawd to make us free and times one of de slaves got happy and made a
noise dat dey heered at de big house and den de overseer come and whip
us 'cause we prayed de Lawd to set us free.
"You know what a stockman is? He is a man dat buys and sells cattle.
Ev'ry year de stockman comes to ole man Foley's and he lines us up in de
yard and de stockman got a lotta slaves tied togedder and ole man Foley
he buys some slaves but he won't sell none. Yassuh, de stockman buys and
sells de slaves jes' de same as cattle.
"Dey feeds us well sometimes, if dey warn't mad at us. Dey has a big
trough jes' like de trough for de pigs and dey has a big gourd and dey
totes de gourd full of milk and dey breaks de bread in de milk. Den my
mammy takes a gourd and fills it and gives it to us chillun. How's we
eat it? We had oyster shells for spoons and de slaves comes in from de
fields and dey hands is all dirty, and dey is hungry. Dey dips de dirty
hands right in de trough and we can't eat none of it. De women wuks in
de fields until dey has chillun and when de chillun's ole enough to wuk
in de fields den de mother goes to ole man Foley's house. Dere she's a
house servant and wuks at spinnin' and weavin' de cotton. Dey makes all
de clothes for ole man Foley and his fam'ly and for de slaves.
"No suh, we ain't got no holidays. Sundays we grinds co'n and de men
split rails and hoes wid de grubbin' hoe. Ole man Foley has a blacksmif
shop and a slave does de blacksmiffin. De slaves builds cabins wid split
logs and dey makes de roof tight wid co'n shucks and grass. One time a
month, times one time in two months, dey takes us to de white folks
church.
"Dey's four or five preachers and de slaves. Iffen deys a marriage de
preacher has a book. He's gotter keep it hid, 'cause dey's afraid iffen
de slaves learns to read dey learns how to run away. One of de slaves
runs away and dey ketches him and puts his eyes out. Dey catches anudder
slave dat run away and dey hanged him up by de arm. Yassuh, I see dat
wid my own eyes; dey holds de slave up by one arm, dey puts a iron on
his knee and a iron on his feet and drag 'im down but his feet cain't
reach de groun'.
"Ole man Foley ain't bad, but de overseers is mean. No suh, we never
gits no money and we never gits no lan'. Ole man Foley, he wants to give
us sumpin for gardens but Mr. John Woods, his gran'son, is agin it.
"Was I glad when dat was over? Wouldn' you be? It's long after we's free
dat I gits married. Yassuh, and I live in San Antonio 'bout 20 years."
420035
[Illustration: Will Daily's House]
[Illustration: Will Daily]
WILL DAILY, was born in 1858 in Missouri, near the city of St.
Louis. He was a slave of the John Daily family and served as chore
boy around the house, carried the breakfast to the field and always
drove up the horses on the plantation. The latter duty developed a
fondness for horses which led to a career as a race horse rider and
trainer. He remained with his white folks several years after
freedom and in Missouri many years longer in this work. He came to
San Angelo, Texas in 1922 and took up hotel work which he followed
until his health broke, only a few years ago. He now lives in his
small home, in the colored district of the city and depends on his
old age pension for a livelihood.
"Huh! What you say, did you say somethin' 'bout de ole age pension?",
questioned Will when approached on the slavery question, but he answered
readily, "Sho! sho' I was a slave an' I aint ashamed to admit dat I
was. Some of dese here fellers thinks dey sounds ole when dey says dey
was slaves and dey denies it but I's proud enough of de good treatment
I's got, to allus tell about it. My marster had a driver but he say his
niggers was human, wid human feelin's, so he makes dat driver reports to
him fer what little thrashin's we gits. Course we had to do de right
thing but jes' some how did, mos' of de time 'cause he was good to us.
Soon as I was big enough, about four or five years ole, ole miss, she
starts trainin' me fer a house boy. I's a doin' all sorts of chores by
de time I was six years old. Den ole marster he starts sendin' me out on
de plantation to drive up de hosses. I sho' likes dat job 'cause aint
nothin' I loves any better den hosses. Den when I was bigger he starts
me to carryin' de breakfast to de field whar de grown niggers had been
out workin' since way 'fore day. Dey all done dat. Dey say de days
wasn't long enough to put in enough time so dey works part of de night.