Rhonda Rogers VanDyke

September 27, 2020October 2, 2020

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 how the enslaved on the plantation she worked were all given their own land to work while they were enslaved. They were also given similar plots of land when they were freed, which many continued to live on and work for years after emancipation.

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Excerpt:

When we lived on the Preston farm something happened that raised a lot of talk. One of the Preston girls fell in love with the Negro coachman and ran off and married him in Canada. Said she never wanted to marry a white man. She never did have white beaux as a girl. Her father was so hurt, and he said he was going to disown her. But he did give them $10,000, then he said he never wanted them to come back to visit him or his folks, but his folks could go up to Canada and visit with her and her family. Before, the Prestons threatened to kill the man, but the girl said if they killed him, she would kill some of them and herself, too. She told them

that she persuaded him to take her, and that she had been in love with him for years, and had tried ever so long to get him to run off with her and marry her. Ole Miss like to died, but she got over it, and took trips up to Canada when she wanted to see her daughter. But the girl and her husband, they never came back to her old home. They had a family, so we heard, and he was doing well and had some kind of business, and later, it was said he made a lot of money. He was a nice-looking man; dark, but fine featured.

Interviewee Formerly enslaved person	Birth Year (Age)	Interviewer WPA Volunteer	Enslaver’s Name
Kate Dudley Baumont	Unknown	Unknown	Preston

Interview Location	Residence State	Birth Location
Clark County, OH	Ohio	Bath County, KY

Themes & Keywords	Additional Tags:
Family	First person, dialect

Baumont_K_2

September 27, 2020September 28, 2020

Kisey McKimm

Kisey McKimm spent her entire enslavement (and some time after) on the same plantation. In this excerpt, McKimm describes how her enslaver treated her and her family better than most enslavers, but how his son was cruel. It describes an instance of the son whipping one of the enslaved. The excerpt goes on to describe how McKimm’s family was given land after Emancipation, but when the enslaver father died, the son took over the land and kicked them out.

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Excerpt:

Master Jacob was good to his slaves, but his son, Clay was mean. I remember once when he took my Mammy out and whipped her cause she forgot to put cake in his basket, when he went hunting’. But that was the last time, because the master heard of it and cussed him like God had come down from Heaven.

. . . The great day on the plantation was Christmas when we all got a little present from the Master. The men slaves would cut a whole pile of wood for the fireplace and pile it on the porch. As long as the whole pile of wood lasted we didn’t have to work but when it was gone, our Christmas was over. Sometimes on Sunday afternoons, we would go to the Master’s honey room and he would give us sticks of candied honey, and Lord child, was it good! I ate so much once, I got sick enough to die.

One time, dey sent me down the road to fetch something’ and I heard a bunch of horses coming, I jumped over the fence and hid behind the elderberry bushes until they passed, and I ran home and told them what I had seen. Pretty soon they came to the house, 125 Union soldiers and asked for something to eat. We all jumped around and fixed them a dinner, when they finished, they looked for Master, but he was hidden. They were gentlemen and didn’t bother or take anything. When the war was over the Master gave Mammy a house and 160 acre farm, but when he died, his son Clay told us to get out of the place or he’d burn the house and us up in it, so we left and moved to Paris. After I was married and had two children, me and my man moved north and I’ve been here ever since.

Interviewee Formerly enslaved person	Birth Year (Age)	Interviewer WPA Volunteer	Enslaver’s Name
Kisey McKimm	1853 (84)	Betty Lugabill (or Lugabell)	Jacob Sandusky

Interview Location	Residence State	Birth Location
Paulding County, OH	Ohio	Bourbon County, KY

Themes & Keywords	Additional Tags:
Family, Emancipation	First person, dialect, Union soldiers

McKimm_K_1

September 27, 2020September 28, 2020

Lucy Ann Warfield

Lucy Warfield spent her childhood and young adult life enslaved. She doesn’t know her age, but she was an adult and married when the Civil War broke out. In this excerpt, she describes why she doesn’t know when she was born, as well as the difficulty of the work she was given as an enslaved person. She finishes by describing how one of her mother’s sisters was able to escape to Canada.

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Excerpt:

Lordy child, I’ve been old so long that the affliction of years makes me forget lots and lots I might tell you. I was born in Jessamine County, Kentucky, but I can’t say what year, because White folks didn’t keep count of their slaves’ ages. They were just like chickens- like so many chickens.

I know I was a married woman when the war came, and they say I am more than a hundred, Nannie says I’m about 117. But I just don’t know. Anyhow, I know that God’s been awful good to me.

. . . They never did give me a whipping, but they sure worked me hard. I did a man’s work on the place; putting’ up stone fences and rail fences, splitting’ rails, breaking hemp, plowing fields, doing corn planting’, and anything the men were supposed to do, and I was supposed to say nothing. The good Lord only knows just what I’ve been through.

I remember when one of my mother’s sisters ran off and got safe into Canada. She was a fine woman and she didn’t care for anything except to be free. She did what more of them ought to have done – me, too, because I was grown in size long time before we were free- but they were just afraid.

Interviewee Formerly enslaved person	Birth Year (Age)	Interviewer WPA Volunteer	Enslaver’s Name
Lucy Ann Warfield	1820 (117 years old – speculated)	Unknown	Scott and Perry Families

Interview Location	Residence State	Birth Location
Clark County, OH	Ohio	Jessamine County, KY

Themes & Keywords	Additional Tags:
Family, Gender/gender roles	First person, dialect

Warfield_L_1

September 27, 2020September 28, 2020

Lucy Davis

In this excerpt, Ms. Davis describes her experiences during the Civil War and her Emancipation. Of note is the fear that her enslavers had of the Union soldiers, and how she was put on lookout outside the property when they would come, allowing her enslavers to hide while the soldiers took what they wanted from the property. She finished by retelling the reaction of her and her family when they were told they were free.

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Excerpt:

When the war came Ole Master didn’t go, but he was a regular old secesh! (Secessionist/Southern sympathizer) Young James Andrew went off to war and ole Missus used to grieve for him. We never saw fighting around our place but we could hear the big guns over at Columbus. When the soldiers were around the neighborhood, they’d always have me playing around the front gate so I could tell them when they were coming up the road. Then they’d go and hide before the soldiers got there. They were all scared of the soldiers. I was scared too, but they said soldiers wouldn’t bother a little black gal. The soldiers just came in and ransacked the house—they’d find something to eat and they’d look for money. They want money! But they don’t find any. Then they wanted to know where my folks were, but I told them I didn’t know, “They just left and didn’t say where they were going’.

When the war was over, Ole Master Joe came in and he said, ’Rose, you all ain’t slaves any more. You are all as free as I am.’ Then you should’ve heard my mammy shout! You never heard such shouting in all your born days. And Ole Missus, she joined in the shouting too. She was glad because now James Andrew would be coming home.

Interviewee Formerly enslaved person	Birth Year (Age)	Interviewer WPA Volunteer	Enslaver’s Name
Lucy Davis	Unknown	Unknown	Joe Mott

Interview Location	Residence State	Birth Location
Cape Girardeau, MO	Missouri	Hickman, KY

Themes & Keywords	Additional Tags:
Family, Civil War, Emancipation,	First person, dialect, Union Soldiers,

Davis_L_1

September 27, 2020September 28, 2020

Rachel Gaines

Rachel Gaines lived enslaved until her early 20’s. After Emancipation her enslaver hired her to continue to work on his plantation. This excerpt describes her Emancipation and experiences still living and working in the plantation in the years after.

*Historically-used terms that are offensive, marginalizing and/or disparaging have been removed from the transcripts and replaced with [redacted]. See more information.

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Excerpt:

After freedom was declared the master told all his slaves that they could go wherever they pleased, but if they couldn’t make their own living to come to him and he would help them. Missus Dickinson kept me there because I was the nurse to their son, Howard, who was sure a wild one. I remember how he would tote out fried chicken, pig meat and other good stuff to us …

They agreed to pay me $35.00 a year (and keep) and it was given me every Christmas morning. They treated me good, gave me all the clothes and other things I needed, as if I were one of the family.

Every two weeks the master would send for Jordan McGowan, who was the leader of a string music band. They would get there Friday night early and the slaves would dance in the grape house that night and all day Saturday up to midnite. You don’t have now as good dance music and as much fun as the ole time days had. We always had a big barbecue and watermelon feast every time we had a dance. Never again will there be as good times as we used to have.

Interviewee Formerly enslaved person	Birth Year (Age)	Interviewer WPA Volunteer	Enslaver’s Name
Rachel Gaines	1840 (Believes she is 95-100)	Unknown	Dr. Bainbridge Dickerson

Interview Location	Residence State	Birth Location
Nashville, TN	Tennessee	Todd County, KY

Themes & Keywords	Additional Tags:
Emancipation,	First person, dialect,

Gaines_R_1

September 27, 2020October 2, 2020

Richard Miller

Richard Miller was the son of an Indian mother and an enslaved father. In this excerpt he describes his family’s experiences after Emancipation and how his family was separated even after becoming free.

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Excerpt:

Richard Miller was born January 12, 1843 in Danville, Kentucky.

His mother was an English subject, born in Bombay, India, and was brought into America by a group of people who did not want to be under the English government. They landed in Canada, came on to Detroit, stayed there a short time, then went to Danville, Kentucky. There she married a slave named Miller. They were the parents of five children.

. . .When slavery was abolished, a group of them started down to the far south, to buy farms, to try for themselves, got as far as Madison County, Kentucky and were told if they went any farther south, they would be made slaves again, not knowing if that was the truth or not, they stayed there, and worked on the Madison County farms for a very small wage. This separated families, and they never heard from each other ever again.

These separations are the cause of so many of the slave race not being able to trace families back for generations, as do the white families.

Interviewee Formerly enslaved person	Birth Year (Age)	Interviewer WPA Volunteer	Enslaver’s Name
Richard Miller	1843	Sarah H. Locke	Unknown

Interview Location	Residence State	Birth Location
Marion County, IN	Indiana	Danville, KY

Themes & Keywords	Additional Tags:
Emancipation, Family	Third person, separation,

Miller_R_1

September 27, 2020October 2, 2020

Richard Miller

Richard Miller was the son of an Indian mother and an enslaved father. In the following excerpts, he describes two examples of violence. The first is an example of an enslaved person being burned alive. The second describes a former enslaved person defending himself after the KKK murdered his wife.

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Excerpt:

He remembers a slave by the name of Brown, in Texas, who was chained hand and feet to a woodpile, oil thrown over him, and the wood, then fire set to the wood, and he was burned to death.

After the fire smoldered down, the white women and children took his ashes for souvenirs.

. . . George Band was a very powerful slave, always ready to fight, never losing a fight, always able to defend himself until one night a band of Ku Kluxers came to his house, took his wife, hung her to a tree, hacked her to death with knives. Then went to the house, got George, took him to see what they had done to his wife. He asked them to let him go back to the house to get something to wrap his wife in, thinking he was sincere in his request, they allowed him to go. Instead of getting a wrapping for his wife, he got his Winchester rifle, shot and killed fourteen of the Kluxers. The county was never bothered with the Klan again. However, George left immediately for the North.

Interviewee Formerly enslaved person	Birth Year (Age)	Interviewer WPA Volunteer	Enslaver’s Name
Richard Miller	1843	Sarah H. Locke	Unknown

Interview Location	Residence State	Birth Location
Marion County, IN	Indiana	Danville, KY

Themes & Keywords	Additional Tags:
Violence	Third person, witnessed extreme cruelty, Klan/mob violence

Miller_R_2

September 27, 2020October 2, 2020

Robert Glenn

Robert Glenn’s enslaver sold him away from his family at a young age. In this excerpt he describes being put on the auction block three times in one day, while his father and mother attempted to win the auction and purchase him.

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Excerpt:

My father’s time was hired out, and as he knew a trade, he had by working overtime saved up a considerable amount of money. After the speculator, Henry Long, bought me, Mother went to Father and pleaded with him to buy me from him and let the white folks hire me out. No slave could own a slave. Father got the consent and help of his owners to buy me and they asked Long to put me on the block again. Long did so and named his price but when he learned who had bid me off he backed down.

Later in the day he put me on the block and named another price much higher than the price formerly set. He was asked by the white folks to name his price for his bargain and he did so. I was again put on the auction block and Father bought me in, putting up the cash. Long then flew into a rage and cursed my father saying, ‘You damn black son of a bitch, you think you are white do you? Now just to show you are black, I will not let you have your son at any price.’ Father knew it was all off, Mother was frantic but there was nothing they could do about it. They had to stand and see the speculator put me on his horse behind him and ride away without allowing either of them to tell me goodbye. I figure I was sold three times in one day, as the price asked was offered in each instance. Mother was told under threat of a whipping not to make any outcry when I was carried away.

Interviewee Formerly enslaved person	Birth Year (Age)	Interviewer WPA Volunteer	Enslaver’s Name
Robert Glenn	1850 (87)	T. Pat Matthews	Bob Hall, William Moore

Interview Location	Residence State	Birth Location
Raleigh, NC	North Carolina	Hillsboro, NC

Themes & Keywords	Additional Tags:
Family, Equality	First person, sold, slave traders

Glenn_R_1

September 27, 2020October 2, 2020

Robert Glenn

Robert Glenn’s enslaver sold him away from his family at a young age. In this excerpt he describes how the son of his enslaver took it upon himself to teach him how to read and write, which was uncommon and often illegal.

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Excerpt:

Master Moore had four children, among whom was one boy about my age. The girls were named Atona, Beulah, and Minnie, and the boy was named Crosby. He was mighty brilliant. We played together. He was the only white boy there, and he took a great liking to me, and we loved each devotedly. Once in an undertone he asked me how I would like to have an education. I was overjoyed at the suggestion and he at once began to teach me secretly. I studied hard and he soon had me so I could read and write well. I continued studying and he continued teaching me. He furnished me books and slipped all the papers he could get to me and I was the best educated Negro in the community without anyone except the slaves knowing what was going on.

Interviewee Formerly enslaved person	Birth Year (Age)	Interviewer WPA Volunteer	Enslaver’s Name
Robert Glenn	1850 (87)	T. Pat Matthews	Bob Hall, William Moore

Interview Location	Residence State	Birth Location
Raleigh, NC	North Carolina	Hillsboro, NC

Themes & Keywords	Additional Tags:
Literacy	First person, education

Glenn_R_2

September 27, 2020October 2, 2020

Robert Glenn

Robert Glenn’s enslaver sold him away from his family at a young age. In this excerpt he describes his Emancipation and how his enslaver agreed to pay him for a year of his services. It then goes on to talk about Glenn’s difficult decision to leave this place, which he called home, to work elsewhere.

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Excerpt:

A big army of Yankees came through a few months later and soon we heard of the surrender. A few days after this master told me to catch two horses that we had to go to Dickenson which was the County seat of Webster County. On the way to Dickenson he said to me, ‘Bob, did you know you are free and Lincoln has freed you? You are as free as I am.’ We went to the Freedmen’s Bureau and went into the office. A Yankee officer looked me over and asked Master my name, and informed me I was free, and asked me whether or not I wanted to keep living with Moore. I did not know what to do, so I told him yes. A fixed price of seventy-five dollars and board was then set as the salary I should receive per year for my work. The Yankees told me to let him know if I was not paid as agreed.

I had been thinking for several days before I went back home as to just what I must tell Mr. Moore and as to how he felt about the matter, and what I would get when I got home. In my dilemma I almost forgot I was free. I got home at night and my mind and heart was full but I was surprised at the way he treated me. He acted kind and asked me if I was going to stay with him next year. I was pleased. I told him, ‘Yes sir!’, and then I lay down and went to sleep. He had a boss man on his plantation then and next morning he called me, but I just couldn’t wake. I seemed to be in a trance or something, I had recently lost so much sleep. He called me the second time and still I did not get up. Then he came in and spanked my head. I jumped up and went to work feeding the stock and splitting wood for the day’s cooking and fires. I then went in and ate my breakfast. Mr. Moore told me to hitch a team of horses to a wagon and go to a neighbors five miles away for a load of hogs. I refused to do so. They called me into the house and asked me what I was going to do about it. I said I do not know. As I said that I stepped out of the door and left. I went straight to the county seat and hired to Dr. George Rasby in Webster County for one hundred dollars per year. I stayed there one year.

Interviewee Formerly enslaved person	Birth Year (Age)	Interviewer WPA Volunteer	Enslaver’s Name
Robert Glenn	1850 (87)	T. Pat Matthews	Bob Hall, William Moore

Interview Location	Residence State	Birth Location
Raleigh, NC	North Carolina	Hillsboro, NC

Themes & Keywords	Additional Tags:
Emancipation, economics	First person, bound out after war

Glenn_R_3

Author: Rhonda Rogers VanDyke

Kate Dudley Baumont

Kisey McKimm

Lucy Ann Warfield

Lucy Davis

Rachel Gaines

Richard Miller

Richard Miller

Robert Glenn

Robert Glenn

Robert Glenn

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