"I wus borned de second year of de war an' de mos' I know 'bout slavery
wus tole to me by other colored folks. My marster wus Weldon Edwards
and my missus wus Missus Lucy. The plantation wus in Warren County near
Ridgeway. My father wus named Lanis Edwards and my mother wus named
Ellen Edwards. They both 'longed to Weldon Edwards. Father and mother
said he wus mighty rough to 'em. I heard my mother say dat marster
whupped father so bad dat she had to grease his back to git his shirt
off.
"Marster allowed de overseers to whup de slaves. De overseers wus named
Caesar Norfeir, Jim Trissel, and David Porter.
"Dere wus a ole man dere by de name of Harris Edwards who fed up the
hogs an' things. He wus sick an' he kept him sick. Well after awhile de
ole marster tried to make him work. De overseers den took him out way
down in the plum orchard. Dey pulled his tongue out an whupped him. He
died an' wus found by de buzzards. De overseers wus named Jim Trissel
an David Porter dat did dat. Dis ole slave 'longed to missus; and when
she found it out dere wus a awful fuss. One of de white overseers tried
to put it off on de udder. It finally fell on Jim Trissel and dey soon
got rid of him. Missus tole him, 'you have killed my poor ole sick
servant.' Mr. Jim Trissel killed several slaves an dey wus shore 'fraid
of him. He knocked my father down wid a stick an when he fell my
father knocked his hip out of place. Dey whupped father 'cause he
looked at a slave dey killed an cried.
"Dey didn't allow no prayermeetings or parties in de houses. No books
in de houses. No books or papers, no edication.
"Some of de owners when dey knowed freedom wus commin' dey treated de
slaves wusser den ever before. De ole men an women dat wus unable to
work wus neglected till dey died or was killed by beatin' or burnin'.
Col. Skipper did dat thing. He lived near Clarksville, Va. He put a lot
of ole men an women on a island in the Roanoke River. De river rose an
stayed up eighteen days an dey parished to death. Dey were sent dere
when sick and dey died. Mr. Skipper had over two hundred slaves. He wus
one of the richest men in the south and Mr. Nick Long wus another rich
man. Nick Long owned de plantation now known as the Caledonia State's
Prison Farm. Gen. Ransom's plantation wus a part of de land 'longing to
the Caledonia State Prison Farm now. It joined Nick Long's plantation.
"Father and mother had bad fare, poor food, clothes an shoes. Dey
didn't sift slave meal. Dey had no sifters. Sometimes de collards and
peas was not cleaned 'fore cookin'. Dey said de more slaves a man had
de wusser he wus to slaves. Marster had dirt floors in de cabins. Dey
slept on straw bunks made outen baggin' and straw. Some slept on wheat,
straw an' shucks an' covered wid baggin.
"Ole man Mat Bullock, a negro slave, an' his mother Ella an'
grandmother Susan, also slaves, froze to death. Mat Bullock the son of
Ole man Mat Bullock tole me this. Dese slaves 'longed to Jim Bullock
who's plantation wus near Townsville, N.C.
"Weldon Edwards who owned father and mother had a whuppin post an dey
said dey whupped ole man Jack Edwards to death 'cause he went to see
his sick wife. He crawled from de whuppin post to de house atter bein
whupped and died. Dey tole him 'fore dey whupped him dat dey wus goin
to stop him from runnin' away. Families wus broken up by sellin'. Dey
couldn't sell a slave dat wus skinned up. Aunt Millie, Agie, Gracy and
Lima wus sold from the Edwards family. Aunt Millie cried so much cause
she had to leave her young baby dat dey talked of whuppin her, ut den
dey say 'we cannot sell her if we whup her an' so dey carried her on.
Mother sed Marster Weldon Edwards sole four women away from dere young
chilluns at one time.
"We lived in log cabins with dirt floors, one door, and one small
winder at de back. De cabins had stick an dirt chimbleys.
"When freedom come mother and father stayed on wid marster cause dey
didn't have nuthin. Dey couldn't leave. Dey farmed for shares. Next
year the overseer who had beat father so bad come atter him to go an
work with him. It wus Mr. David Porter. I axed pa ain't dat de man who
beat you so when you wus a slave? An pa say, 'you shet your mouth.' He
stayed with Mr. Porter two years den we went to Mr. William Paschal's.
We stayed there four years. Endurin' the next fifteen years we moved a
good many times. We farmed round and round an' finally went to Mr.
Peter Wyms' place near where I wus borned.
"I wus married there to Jack Manson, 52 years ago in January. I had
eight chilluns five girls an' three boys. Three are living now. One boy
and two girls. Two of the chilluns are in N.C. and one, a girl, is in
Virginia.
"I think slavery wus a bad thing but when freedom come there wus
nuthin' else we could do but stay on wid some of de white folks 'cause
we had nuthin to farm wid an nuthin to eat an wear.
"De men who owned de plantations had to have somebody to farm dere lan'
an' de slaves had to have somewhur to stay. Dats de way it wus, so if
dere wus a lot of movin' about de exslaves kept doin de wurk cause
dat's de only way dey had to keep from perishin'. De marsters needed
'em to farm dere lan' an' de exslaves just had to have somewhur to live
so both parties kept stayin' an' wurkin together.
"De nigger made mos' dey has out of workin' fer white folks since de
war 'cause dey didn't have nuthin' when set free an dat is all dere is
to it."
N.C. District: 2
Worker: Travis Jordan
No. Words: 700
Subject: MILLIE MARKHAM'S STORY
Interviewed: Millie Markham
615 St. Joseph St., Durham, N.C.
[TR: Date stamp: JUN 1 1937]
EX-SLAVE STORY AS TOLD BY MILLIE MARKHAM OF
615 ST. JOSEPH ST., DURHAM, N.C.
"I was never a slave. Although I was born somewhere about 1855, I was
not born in slavery, but my father was. I'm afraid this story will be
more about my father and mother than it will be about myself.
"My mother was a white woman. Her name was Tempie James. She lived on
her father's big plantation on the Roanoke River at Rich Square, North
Carolina. Her father owned acres of land and many slaves. His stables
were the best anywhere around; they were filled with horses, and the
head coachman was named Squire James. Squire was a good looking, well
behaved Negro who had a white father. He was tall and light colored.
Tempie James fell in love with this Negro coachman. Nobody knows how
long they had been in love before Tempie's father found it out, but
when he did he locked Tempie in her room. For days he and Miss
Charlottie, his wife, raved, begged and pleaded, but Tempie just said
she loved Squire. 'Why will you act so?' Miss Charlottie was crying.
'Haven't we done everything for you and given you everything you
wanted?'
"Tempie shook her head and said: 'You haven't given me Squire. He's all
I do want.'
"Then it was that in the dark of the night Mr. James sent Squire away;
he sent him to another state and sold him.
"But Tempie found it out. She took what money she could find and ran
away. She went to the owner of Squire and bought him, then she set him
free and changed his name to Walden Squire Walden. But then it was
against the law for a white woman to marry a Negro unless they had a
strain of Negro blood, so Tempie cut Squire's finger and drained out
some blood. She mixed this with some whiskey and drank it, then she got
on the stand and swore she had Negro blood in her, so they were
married. She never went back home and her people disowned her.
"Tempie James Walden, my mother, was a beautiful woman. She was tall
and fair with long light hair. She had fifteen children, seven boys and
eight girls, and all of them lived to be old enough to see their
great-grandchildren. I am the youngest and only one living now. Most of
us came back to North Carolina. Two of my sisters married and came back
to Rich Square to live. They lived not far from the James plantation on
Roanoke River. Once when we were children my sister and I were visiting
in Rich Square. One day we went out to pick huckleberries. A woman came
riding down the road on a horse. She was a tall woman in a long grey
riding habit. She had grey hair and grey eyes. She stopped and looked
at us. 'My,' she said, 'whose pretty little girls are you?'
"'We're Squire Walden's children,' I said.
"She looked at me so long and hard that I thought she was going to hit
me with her whip, but she didn't, she hit the horse. He jumped and ran
so fast I thought she was going to fall off, but she went around the
curve and I never saw her again. I never knew until later that she was
Mis' Charlottie James, my grandmother.
"I don't know anything about slavery times, for I was born free of free
parents and raised on my father's own plantation. I've been living in
Durham over sixty-five years."
N.C. District: No. 2
Worker: T. Pat Matthews
No. Words: 680
Subject: A SLAVERY STORY
Story teller: MAGGIE MIALS
Editor: George L. Andrews
[TR: Date stamp: SEP 10 1937]
MAGGIE MIALS
73 years old, of 202 Maple Street, Raleigh, North Carolina.
"I'll never forgit de day when de Yankees come through Johnston County.
"I belonged to Tom Demaye an' ole missus in slavery time wus named
Liza.
"De Demayes lived in Raleigh when I wus born, so mother tole me, but
dey moved to a place near Smithfield. He had 'bout a dozen slaves. We
had little cabins to live in, but marster had a big house to live in
that set in a grove. De food I got wus good because I was a pet in de
family. My mother was a cook an' a pet. My marster wus good to all of
us an' I fared better den dan I do now. Ole marster thought de world of
me and I loved him. Marster allowed his slaves to visit, have prayer
meetings, hunt, fish, an' sing and have a good time when de work wus
done. Some of de slave owners did not like marster cause he wus so good
to his slaves. They called us 'Ole Man Demayes damn free niggers.' I
don't know my age zackly but I was a big gal, big enough to drag a
youngin roun' when de Yankees come through. I wus six years old if no
older.
"When de Yankees come dey called us to de wagons an' tole us we wus
free. Dey give each of us a cap full of hard-tack. Dey took clothes an'
provisions an' give us nothin'. One crowd of Yankees would come on an'
give us something an' another would come along an' take it away from
us. Dey tole us to call marster an' missus Johnny Rebs, that we wus
free an' had no marsters. Dat wus a day for me. Some of de Yankees wus
ridin', some walkin', an' some runnin'. Dey took de feather beds in
marsters house to de windows, cut dem open an' let de feathers blow
away. It wus a sad time to me 'cause dey destroyed so much of marster's
stuff.
"After de Yankees left we stayed right on with marster a long time, den
we moved away to other members of de family. Mother would not give up
de family an' she an' daddy stayed wid dem as long as dey lived. I love
de family now an' I rather be livin' wid 'em den like I is. Dere is
only a few of de younger set of de Demayes livin'. Ole marster an'
missus' had three boys, Sye, Lee, Zoa; girls, Vick, Correna and
Phidelia, six chilluns in all. Dey is all dead but I can't never forgit
'em if I live to be a hundred years ole.
"I tries to live right before God an' man cause I knows I haint got
much longer on dis earth. I knows I got to lay down sometime to rise no
more till Judgment Day, den I wants to meet ole marster, missus an' de
family in dat country where dere'll be no more goodbyes.
"I was married at twenty years ole to Theodore Miles at de ole Mack
Powell place near de Neuse River, in Wake County. I wus hired as a
house girl at dis place wid Mr. Alango Miles family. Dey wus some of de
Demaye family. I had ten chillun, four boys an' six girls. Six of my
chillun are livin' now. Two boys an' four girls. My husband been dead
'bout 16 years. He died in Oct. 1921. Buried on de third Sunday in
October.
"I have farmed most of my life an' have raised a big family. Sometimes
we wus hongry an' sometimes we had plenty. None of my chilluns wus
never arrested an' none ever went to prison. I thinks dats something to
knock on wood about.
"Slavery was a good thing by all niggers who happened to have good
marsters. De owners wus to blame for slavery gettin' such a bad
reputation. Some of 'em jus' done a little too much an' sich caused de
war an' give de niggers freedom. Slavery wus good for some an' bad for
others."