Kate Dudley Baumont

Kate Baumont was very young when slavery ended, but she has specific memories from her childhood, which she shares.  This excerpt describes a story of an enslaver who married and ran away with one of the enslaved males on the plantation.  She goes on to describe the reactions and impact this had on the enslaver’s family.
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Excerpt:

A lot of men from our place went to war.  I had two uncles who went.  It was nothing to see soldiers in our neighborhood.  When the war was over, Mr. Preston gave all his slaves deeds for so much land, and built them each a little four-room cottage.  Some of them folks are still on that piece of land.

Preston’s slaves were the same as free in those times.  The ones on his farm, they tended their own land and was their own boss.  Folks said he let his enslaved be free, and some of them talked a lot and said that when his daughter married. 


Interviewee 
Formerly enslaved person
Birth Year (Age)Interviewer
WPA Volunteer
Enslaver’s Name
Kate Dudley BaumontUnknownUnknownPreston
Interview LocationResidence StateBirth Location
Clark County, OHOhioBath County, KY
Themes & KeywordsAdditional Tags:
Emancipation, Civil WarFirst person, Union troops

Baumont_K_1

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