*Interview with Maugan Shepherd*
--_Gertha Couric, [HW: Eufaula]_
_SLAVERY COMING BACK? MAUGAN HOPES SO_
"Mistus, I hears slavery times is comin' back."
Uncle Maugan Shepherd is past 80. He idled about the front of his
tumble-down house in Eufaula, happily recalling the old plantation days.
He has never learned to read, and therefore pins a great deal of
dependence upon hearsay.
"Where did you hear about slavery coming back?" the interviewer asked
him.
"Well, mam, 'pear lak I heard it somewhar. I don't rikolect jest now."
"Would you like to have the old times back again, Uncle Maugan?"
He studied a moment, beamed:
"Yassum, I would. I'se proud I was borned a slave. I'se too young to
'member much, but I knows I always had enough to eat and wear den, and I
sho don't now.
Uncle Maugan said that he was "birthed" at Chestnut Hill; that he
belonged to Marse and Mistus Rich Wiley, and that his father and mother
were Bunk and Betsy Wiley, both "field niggers." Maugan had two
brothers, Oliver and Monroe; but no sisters.
"I never seed ma and pa much 'cept on Sundays," he explained. "Dey was
allus workin' in de fields an' I was out chasin' rabbits an' sech mos'
of de time. At night I jest et my cornpone an' drink my buttermilk an'
fell on de bed asleep."
Maugan remembers one overseer, scornfully referring to him as "po' white
trash."
"Us slaves called him by his las' name behin' his back," the old darky
explained, "'caze us hated to 'mister' dat white man."
Maugan remembers Reconstruction and a great deal about "atter de
surrender," but says "rickolection ain't so good" on things that
happened before.
"I 'members dat I was powerful scared of de Yankee soldiers," he said,
"but dey never hurt nobody. Dey come through Eufaula an' all us niggers
tried to hide; but dey jest come on by an' laughed at us fer bein'
scared."
[Illustration: _Maugan Shepherd, Eufaula, Alabama_]
More than fifty years ago, Maugan married Kitty. She is about 70 and
makes her living washing clothes for "de white peoples." They never had
any children.
Maugan says he never goes anywhere except to church on Sundays. His legs
are not so strong anymore, he explains.
"My ol' 'oman, she sho' lak to go to funerals," he chuckled. "But in
dese days day takes de body to have it vulcanized, so we can't have no
settin' ups. Dis went hard on Kitty, 'caze she was a mourner; but it
didn't do her no good, shoutin' an' amournin' all night. She would
always come home wid her head tied up an' her eyes set back in her
head."
Maugan still works. He is a good yardman, but says some day he is just
"gwine ter drap out, lak his pa did."