*Interview with Esther Green*
--_Ila B. Prine_
_US CHILLUN WORE SHOES LIKE GROWNUPS_
'Aunt' Esther Green, of 554 Texas Street, Mobile, Alabama, was all too
ready to talk about her slavery days in spite of her assertion that she
didn't remember much about the war.
"I was jus' a chile," she says. "You can figure for yourself. Somebody
tole me I was born in 1855, so I couldn't of been very old. I was born
in State Line, Mississippi, and was owned by Edward Davis. He owned my
mother, Rachel Davis and her mother, Melinda Davis. I never did know who
my pappy was 'cause I never did see him.
"To de bes' of my recollections, my whitefolks was allus good to us
niggers. He neber allowed no overseers and he never whipped none of dem,
'ceptin' maybe a switching once in a while for us littl'luns when we
didn't behave. I never saw a growed up nigger whipped in all my life.
Ole Massa jus' didn't b'lieve in dat. Massa was shorely a good man. Lots
of times he would get us little niggers up on de porch at de big house
and have us dance for him. We sho used to have a big time out on dem big
white porches.
"I never had no work to do myself, 'cause I always stayed in de big
house wid Miss Mary Davis, ole Massa's wife. I was in de house one day
and ole Massa asked me if I wanted to eat at de table wid dem, so I
pulled up a chair and spite of de fact dere was all kinds of good stuff
to eat in front of me, I called for lye hominy. I sho did love dat stuff
better'n anything else I ever et. Ole Massa and de res' of dem jus'
laugh fit to kill. I reckon dey thought I was crazy sho' nuff', but I et
hominy jes' de same.
"As to de number of slaves ole Massa had, I never knew. Us had log
cabins to stay in. De cracks was chinked up wid yellow mud to keep de
cold out and de chim'ney was made of straw and de same kind of mud, but
dem cabins was warmer dan de house is nowadays. We didn't have no
furniture 'ceptin' a home-made bed which was nailed to de wall on one
side and two legs out in de middle of de floor. De mattresses was made
of straw and hay. All de cookin' was done on de big open fireplaces what
had big potracks to hang de pots on.
"Massa rationed out de food every week and we usually got a peck of
meal. We had plenty of 'taters and peas and other vegetables dat we
growed on de place. At Chris'mas time, we was give meat and molasses to
make cakes. Us always had plenty of plain food. And too, de men would go
huntin' at night and come back wid lots of big fat 'possums and rabbits
by de dozen, and mos' of de time, dey would even catch a coon. And old
Ben, a nigger who had turkey traps, was always bringin' in lots of dem
big fat birds.
"De men and women worked in de field all day, but I never picked a bit
of cotton all my life. At night de women would spin and weave cloth, but
I never did learn to do dat. Den dey would dye de cloth different
colors, mostly red and blue though, and make dem into clothes. Us
chilluns had a one-piece dress or slip. Our shoes was all homemade too.
Massa had one man who tanned de leather. He would take it an put it into
a long trough for a long time and den whatever was done dat was supposed
to be done to it, he would take it out and cut it and make shoes. Us
chilluns' had shoes same as de grown folks.
"On Sundays, we would got to de white folks' church. Dere was a shed
built onto de church and we would sit on benches out under de shed and
listen to de preacher. De white folks would have lots of big baptizings,
but I never did see no niggers baptized den.
"Ole Massa had a big fambly, three boys and six girls. My own ma had
eight chilluns. Us was always healthy and never had to have much
medicine. 'Bout de only thing I remembers ever takin' was tea made from
de root of de china berry tree. It made good tea for worms, but was to
be used only at certain times of de moon. My man also used Jerusalem Oak
seed for worms. I never fools wid tryin' to doctor nobody's chilluns
now-a-days, things is all so different.
"My Grandma, Melinda, and ole Ben and his wife was three ole people
Massa freed long time before de war. When all de niggers was freed,
Massa called em up to de house and tole dem dat dey was loose to go
wherever suited dem, but mos' of dem stayed on de place two or three
weeks, and den one mornin' I woke up and all of dem had left durin' de
night. I was de only nigger left on de place and I jus' cried and cried,
mostly because I was jus' lonesome for some of my own kind to laugh and
talk wid.
"I don't remember exactly what I did after de Surrender, but it was
about four years afterwards dat I come to Mobile and I been here every
since.
I's a member of de Mobile Delaware Baptist Church, but I can't attend
very regular 'count of bein' all crippled up wid de rheumatisms. I
reckon dat ailing is natural though, cause I been here a long time and
I's got forty grandchilluns and more dan dat many great-grandchilluns."