Ann Gudgel

Ann Gudgel lived in enslavement during the Civil War.  In this excerpt, she describes how enslaved persons were vaccinated against smallpox (the process involved infecting a patient with the pus of a smallpox victim).  
See full document • Visit the Library of Congress to see the original document

Excerpt:

One day they vaccinated all the slaves but mine never took at all. I never told anybody, but I just sat right down by the fireplace and rubbed wood ashes and juice that spewed out of the wood real hard over the scratch. All the others were really sick and had the most awful arms, but mine never did even hurt.


Interviewee 
Formerly enslaved person
Birth Year (Age)Interviewer
WPA Volunteer
Enslaver’s Name
Ann GudgelUnknownMildred RobertsBall
Interview LocationResidence StateBirth Location
Anderson County, KYKentuckyUnknown
Themes & KeywordsAdditional Tags:
ViolenceFirst person, dialect, witnessed extreme cruelty

Gudgel_A_2

Can we count on your support?

This website is a service of Reckoning, Inc., a small non-profit organization that depends on grants and donations to continue our work. Up to this point, we have avoided putting any paid advertising on our website. If you would like to help us keep it that way, please consider making a donation to our organization.