*Interview with Gus Rogers*
--_Mary A. Poole, Mobile, Alabama_
_JABBO EXPLAINS HIS BLACK SKIN_
Living on the Moffat road at Orchard, in western Mobile County, Alabama,
on Mr. McIntyre's place is Gus Rogers, who is known better by the name
of Jabbo. He claims to be over ninety years of age, but could give no
proof. He claims the 26th of June as his birthday.
When asked how old he was, he replied with a smile:
"Miss, I don't know but I found everything here when I came along."
He was born at Salisbury, N.C. on the Rogers' plantation, and Mr. John
and Mrs. Mary Rogers were his master and mistress. His parents were
William and Lucy Rogers, who had five children, three girls and two
boys.
Jabbo said the Rogers's home was built of boards of virgin timber and
the slave quarters were some distance from the big house. Some of the
cabins were built of logs and some of boards, all having clay chimneys
and big open fireplaces equipped for cooking, as the slaves usually
cooked their own meals, except during busy seasons, when meals were
prepared in the house kitchen by the slave women too old to work in the
fields.
Jabbo said one old man went around and rapped on the doors to wake up
slaves to go to work. When asked how long they worked he laughed, and
said:
"Just from sun to sun and then you went to bed, 'cause you knew that old
man would sure be rapping before you were ready next morning."
When asked about earning any money, Jabbo said:
"Law, Miss we didn't even know what money was, and we didn't have no use
for it. We had all we needed, plenty to eat and all the clothes
necessary those days."
The Rogers raised lots of tobacco and wheat, and all the necessary farm
products needed on the plantation. They had a large orchard and made all
the cider they could drink.
Jabbo recalled driving many a refugee wagon during the War, and when
they heard of the Yankees' coming, the Rogers family took all the horses
and mules and hid them in the swamps and buried all the silver and other
valuables.
After the devastation wrought by War, Mr. Rogers moved his family to
Massey Station, Montgomery County, Alabama, intending to raise cotton.
He brought Jabbo's father and mother and family with him, but meeting
with little success he returned to Salisbury, N.C. Jabbo remained in
Alabama.
Jabbo married and raised a family of five children. There were two girls
and three boys but he has no knowledge of their present whereabouts.
When asked if he was married more than once, Jabbo laughed and said:
"No, Miss I always had the price of a marriage license in my pocket, but
somehow I never married."
In answer to inquiry as to religion, Jabbo replied:
"Miss, I am a Methodist, but there's only one religion. You have to be
pure in heart to see Him, because He said so, and to do unto others as
you desire others to do unto you."
Continuing about religion Jabbo said:
"God gave it to Adam and took it away from Adam and gave it to Noah, and
you know, Miss, Noah had three sons, and when Noah got drunk on wine,
one of his sons laughed at him, and the other two took a sheet and
walked backwards and threw it over Noah. Noah told the one who laughed,
'you children will be hewers of wood and drawers of water for the
other's two children, and they will be known by their hair and their
skin being dark,' so, Miss, there we are, and that is the way God meant
us to be. We have always had to follow the white folks and do what we
saw them do, and that's all there is to it. You just can't get away from
what the Lord said."
Jabbo said he would like "to go back to the good old days, 'though there
was good folks and there was mean folks, then too, just like there is
today."
Bibliography: Personal interview by the writer with Gus Rogers,
ex-slave, better known as "Jabbo."