"I was born in Fairfield County, S.C. near Broad River. I was de son of
John and Harriet Harper. I worked in slavery time and was a slave of
John Stanley who was a good man and easy to work with. He give me a good
whipping once when I was a boy. We earned no money but had our place to
sleep and something to eat and wear. We didn't have any gardens, but
master had a big plantation and lots of slaves, and worked a garden
himself. I remember he whipped mother once the last year of the
war,--just about to get freedom.
"Master belonged to patrollers, and let dem come on the place and punish
the slaves if needed. They whipped my sister once. He had a house to
lock slaves in when dey was bad. He learned us to read and write. He had
a school on de plantation for his niggers. After the days work was over,
we frolicked, and Saturday afternoons we had off to do what we wanted.
We had to go to the white folks church and set in back of de church.
Corn shuckings, cotton picking and carding and quilting, the old folks
had when dey had big times and big eats.
"Weddings and funerals of slaves were about like white folks. Some would
go walking and singing to de grave in back of hearse or body. There was
a conjurer in our neighborhood who could make you do what he wanted,
sometimes he had folks killed. The Yankees marched through our place,
stole cattle, and meat. We went behind dem and picked up lots dat dey
dropped when dey left. When de war was over, de niggers was promised
small farms but dey didn't get 'em.
"I have been preaching many years in colored Methodist churches. I have
7 children, 22 grand-children but no great-grand-children.
"I think Abraham Lincoln was a great man, and Jefferson Davis, too.
Booker Washington was a grand educator for the colored race. Bishop S.D.
Chappell, colored preacher of the A.M.E. church South, one time
president of Allen University at Columbia, S.C. was a great colored man,
too. He went to Nashville, Tenn. as secretary-treasurer of the Sunday
School Union.
"I don't believe slavery was good--much better for all of us now.
"I joined the church when I was young, because I thought it right to be
a member. I think everybody ought to join some church, and they ought to
join early in life, when quite young."
=Source:= Rev. Thomas Harper (84), Newberry, S.C., interviewed by:
G.L. Summer, Newberry, S.C. May 21, 1937.
Project #1555
W.W. Dixon
Winnsboro, S.C.
ABE HARRIS
EX-SLAVE 74 YEARS OLD.
Abe Harris lives about nine miles southwest of the town of Winnsboro,
South Carolina. His home is a two-room frame house, with rock chimneys
of rough masonry at each gable end. It is the property of Mr. Daniel
Heyward. Abe is one-fourth white and this mixture shows in his features.
He is still vigorous and capable of light manual labor.
"My father was Samuel Lyles. My mother's name was Phenie Lyles. My
father and mother had fifteen chillun. I am de only one livin'. De last
one to die was my brother, Stocklin, that tended to de flowers and
gardens of people in Winnsboro for many years. He was found dead, one
mornin', in de Fortune Park woods.
"My parents b'long to Captain Tom Lyles, in slavery time. Father was de
hog man. He 'tended to de hogs; didn't pasture them as they do now.
Marster had a drove of eighty or more in de fall of de year befo' hog
killin' time. They run 'bout in de woods for acorns and hickory nuts and
my father had to keep up wid them and bring them home. He pen them, feed
them, and slop them at night.
"My white folks was de fust white settlers in de county. De fust one was
name Ephram, so I hear them tell many times. They fought in all wars dat
have been fought. My old marster, Tom, live up 'til de Civil War and
although he couldn't walk, he equip and pay a man to go in his place.
When Sherman's men come to de house, he was in bed wid a dislocated hip.
They thought he was shammin', playin' 'possum, so to speak. One of de
raiders, a Yankee, come wid a lighted torch and say: 'Unless you give me
de silver, de gold, and de money, I'll burn you alive.' Him reply: 'I
haven't many more years to live. Burn and be damned!' De Yankee was
surprised at his bravery, ordered father to take de torch from under de
bed and say: 'You 'bout de bravest man I ever see in South Carolina.'
"His wife, old Miss Mary, was sister to Congressman Joe Woodward. Deir
house and plantation was out at Buckhead. I was a boy eleven years old
and was in de house when he died, in 1874. He was de oldest person I
ever saw, eighty-seven. He had several chillun. Thomas marry Eliza Peay,
de baby of Col. Austin Peay, one of de rich race horse folks. Marse
Boykin marry Miss Cora Dantzler of Orangeburg. Him went to de war. Then
Nicholas, Austin, John, and Belton, all went to de Civil War. Austin was
killed at second Bull Run. Marse Nicholas go to Alabama and become
sheriff out dere. Marse John marry Miss Morris and was clerk of court
here for twenty-eight years.
"One of Marse John's sons is Senator Lyles, de cotton buyer here in
Winnsboro. De youngest boy, just a lad at freedom, marry Miss Cora Irby.
Two of deir chillun marry Marse Jim and Marse Bill Mobley in Columbia.
De youngest child, Miss Rebecca marry Marse DuBose Ellison in Winnsboro.
"First time I marry Emily Kinlock and had one child. Emily die. Then I
marry Lizzie Brown. Us had six chillun. When Lizzie die, I marry a
widow, Frances Young. Us too old to have chillun.
"I live at Rion, S.C. Just piddle 'round wid chickens and garden truck.
I sells them to de stone cutters and de mill people of Winnsboro. I's
past de age to work hard, and I'm mighty sorry dat our race was set free
too soon."
PROJECT #1655
W.W. Dixon,
Winnsboro, S.C.
ELI HARRISON
EX-SLAVE 87 YEARS.
Eli Harrison lives on a small ten-acre tract of land near Dutchman
Creek, in Fairfield County, approximately seven miles southeast of
Winnsboro. The house, which he owns, is a small shack or shanty
constructed of scantlings and slabs. He lives in it alone and does his
own cooking. He has been on the relief roll for the past three years,
and ekes out a subsistence on the charity of the Longtown and Ridgeway
people. He is small, wiry, and healthy, weighing about 110 pounds.
"I sure has had a time a finding you! I was up here to Winnsboro befo'
dis Welfare Society, tryin' to git a pension and they ask me who know my
age. I tell them a whole lot of people out of town knows it. Then they
ask if anybody in town know my age. I gived in your name. They say they
will take your affidavit for it and tell me to bring dis paper to you.
"I b'long, in slavery, to your step-mother's people, de Harrisons, in
Longtown. You 'members comin' down when I was a young man and you was a
boy? Don't you 'member us playin' in de sand in front of de old Harrison
house? Dat house older than you and me. 'Member how I show you how to
call de doodles from de sand? How was it? I just git down on my hands
and knees in de sand and say: 'Doodle, doodle, doodle, doodle, come up
your house is afire!' Them black little doodles would come right up out
of de sand to see what gwine on up dere 'bove de sand. Mighty glad you
keeps dat in your mem'ry, 'til dis blessed day.
"I b'long to old Marse Eli Harrison, de grandpa of your step-mother. I
was born and raised on his Wateree River plantation. They called it
Harrison Flats, 'til de Southern Power Company and de Dukes taken over
de land, de river, de bull-frogs, de skeeters, whoop owls, and
everything else down here. De Harrisons owned dat place befo' de
Revolutionary War, they say. De skeeters run them out and de folks built
a string of houses out of logs, all 'long de roadside and call it
Longtown. Marse John D. tell me dat, and fust thing you know they was
callin' it Longtown and dats what it's called today.
"Old Marse Eli is a quiet man but him have two brudders dat wasn't so
quiet. They was Marse Aaron Burr Harrison and Marse John R. Harrison.
All of them have race horses. I, bein' little, ride de horses in de
races at de last. De tracks I ride on? One was up near Great Falls,
'tween old Marse Strother Fords and de Martin place. De other was out
from Simpsons' Turn Out. De Hamptons used to have horses on dese tracks.
"My mistress name Mary. My young marsters name: Sylvester, Lundsford,
David, and John D. They all dead but de old house is still dere on de
roadside and I alone is live to tell de tale.
"Dere's one thing I wants to tell you 'bout old Marse John. Him was
'suaded by de Hamptons, to buy a big plantation in Mississippi. Him go
out dere to raise cattle, race horses, cotton, sugar cane and niggers.
When him die, after so long a time they take him out of his grave. De
Harrisons done built a long, big, rock, family vault in de graveyard
here to put all de dead of de family name in. Well, what you reckon? Why
when dat coffin reach Ridgeway and they find it mighty heavy for just
one man's body, they open it and find Marse John's body done turned to
solid rock. What you think of dat? And what you think of dis? They put
him in de vault in de summertime. Dat fall a side show was goin' on in
Columbia, showin' a petrified man, you had to pay twenty-five cents to
go in and see it. De show leave and go up North. 'Bout Christmas, de
family go together to de vault, open it, and bless God dat rock body
done got up and left dat vault. What you think 'bout dat? What people
say? Some say one thing, some say another. Niggers all 'low, 'Marse John
done rose from de dead.' White folks say: 'Somebody done stole dat body
of Marse John and makin' a fortune out of it, in de side show line.'
"Well, I's told you 'nough for one day. I's impatient to git back down
yonder to them white ladies wid dis paper, so as to speed up dat pension
as fast as I used to speed up them race horses I use to ride on de old
race track road from Simpson's to Columbia."
Project 1885-1
FOLKLORE
Spartanburg Dist. 4
Sept. 20, 1937
Edited by:
Elmer Turnage