Boyd_A_1
Interviewee Formerly enslaved person | Birth Year (Age) | InterviewerWPA Volunteer | Enslaver’s Name |
Annie B Boyd | 1851 (Unknown) | Mamie Hanberry | Charles Cammack, Newton Catlett |
Interview Location | Residence State | Birth Location |
Christian County, KY | KY | Gordonsville, KY |
Themes & Keywords | Additional Tags: |
Violence, Childcare | First Person, Dialect, Whipped, Sold, Hired Out, Christian County |
Source Description:
In this first person narrative, Annie B Boyd describes how cruelly her enslavers treated her. |
… My mother and I were put on the block in front of the Courthouse in Hopkinsville and sold to Mr. Newt. Catlett and we brought $500.00…[My enslavers] weren’t good to me. My master was a good man but my missus was no good woman. She used to box my ears, stick pins in me and tie me to the cedar chest and whoop me as long as she wanted. Oh, how I did hate that woman.
…I was a nurse in slave time and I carried the [enslaver’s] children all over the house and one day I had the children upstairs and my missus called me and I went to see what she wanted and while I was gone, the baby got hold of Indian Turnip [a plant that causes temporary health problems if eaten raw] and had bit it by the time I got back there. I called my missus and she came and made me eat the rest of the turnip and my face and all swelled up and my eyes were closed for days. After nursing the baby and tending to the other children all day and night, when I put the baby to bed, I had to knit two rounds every night and would be sleepy and my missus would reach over and jab a pin in me to keep me awake. Now that’s what I call a mean woman…