Author: Rhonda Rogers VanDyke

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George Fordman

Enslaved from birth, George Fordman was not Black, but part indigenous and part white.  George Fordman explains to his interviewer how he came to be enslaved in a tragic history that begins with White people forcibly driving his indigenous ancestors from their home in Indiana in 1838.  After his ancestors walked all the way to Alabama, the George family “automatically” enslaved them, even though they were not Black.  

In the full interview (see link below) George Fordman describes the “dark trail” of his childhood, in which the reader learns that George Fordman’s enslaver was his father and his grandfather.  

In this first person excerpt, the interviewer records how George Fordman was emancipated and how he came to be called George Fordman. 
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Excerpt:

Note: Mistress Lorainne enslaved George Fordsman.  Her husband was Ford George, who was dead at the time of the events described.  Ford George incestuously raped Eliza, an enslaved person who was also Ford George’s daughter. The person being interviewed is the child of Eliza and Ford George.    

… [Ford George’s mother] named me Ford George, in derision, but remained my friend. She was never angry with my mother. She knew a slave had to submit to her master and besides Eliza did not know she was Master Ford George’s daughter.

… Five years before the outbreak of the Civil War [the enslaver] Mistress Hester called all the slaves together and gave us our freedom….

[George Fordman’s grandmother continued to work for the George family, and George Fordman remained on the George plantation. Several years later, when the Civil War was over,] the Freedmen started teaching school in Kentucky the census taker called to enlist me as a pupil. ‘What do you call this child?’ he asked Mistress Lorainne. ‘We call him the Little Captain because he carried himself like a soldier,’ said Mistress Lorainne. ‘He is the son of my husband and a slave woman but we are rearing him.’ Mistress Lorainne told the stranger that I had been named Ford George in derision and he suggested she list me in the census as George Fordsman, which she did, but she never allowed me to attend the Freedmen’s School, desiring to keep me with her own children and let me be taught at home. My mother [Eliza]’s half brother, Patent George allowed his name to be reversed to George Patent when he enlisted in the Union Service at the outbreak of the Civil War.

Interviewee 
Formerly enslaved person		Birth Year (Age)Interviewer
WPA Volunteer		Enslaver’s Name
George FordmanUnknown (Unknown)Lauana CreelFord George
Interview LocationResidence StateBirth Location
Evansville, ININAL or KY
Themes & KeywordsAdditional Tags:
Education, Emancipation, Family, ViolenceTrigg County, First Person, Enslaver Father, Notable

Fordman_G_2

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George Fordman

Enslaved from birth, George Fordman was not Black, but part indigenous and part white.  George Fordman explains to his interviewer how he came to be enslaved in a tragic history that begins with White people forcibly driving his indigenous ancestors from their home in Indiana in 1838.  After his ancestors walked all the way to Alabama, the George family “automatically” enslaved them, even though they were not Black.    In this excerpt the interviewer recounts the words of George Fordman as he describes the “dark trail” of his childhood, in which the reader learns that George Fordman’s enslaver was his father and his grandfather.  At several points in the interview, the interviewer inserts their own narrative and conclusions. 

Teachers may need to warn students before reading that this excerpt refers to an enslaver incestuously raping an enslaved person.  The excerpt also references an enslaver’s death.  
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Excerpt:

…As Eliza George, daughter of [enslaver] Ford George and [indigneous enslaved person] Courtney Hawk, grew into young womanhood the young master Ford George went more often to social functions. He was admired for his skill with firearms and for his horsemanship. While Courtney and his child remained at the plantation Ford enjoyed the companionship of the beautiful women of the vicinity. At last he brought home the beautiful Loraine, his young bride. Courtney was stoical as only an Indian can be. She showed no hurt but helped Mistress Hester and Mistress Loraine with the housework.

Here George Fortman paused to let his blinded eyes look back into the long ago. Then he again continued with his story of the dark trail.

Mistress Loraine became mother of two sons and a daughter and the big white two-story house… [in Kentucky] became a place of laughter and happy occasions, so my mother told me many times.

Suddenly sorrow settled down over the home and the laughter turned into wailing, for Ford George’s body was found pierced through the heart and the… [half white, half indigenous] Eliza, was nowhere to be found.

The young master’s body lay in state for many days. Friends and neighbors came bringing flowers. His mother, bowed with grief, looked on the still face of her son and understood—understood why death had come and why Eliza had gone away.

The beautiful home on the Cumberland river with its more than 600 acres of productive land was put into the hands of an administrator of estates to be readjusted in the interest of the George heirs. It was only then Mistress Hester went to Aunt Lucy and demanded of her to tell where Eliza could be found.

‘She has gone to Alabama, Ole Mistus’, said Aunt Lucy, ‘Eliza was scared to stay here.’ A party of searchers were sent out to look for Eliza. They found her secreted in a canebrake in the lowlands of Alabama nursing her baby boy at her breast. They took Eliza and the baby back to Kentucky. I am that baby, that child of unsatisfactory birth.

The face of George Fortman registered sorrow and pain, it had been hard for him to retell the story of the dark road to strange ears.

My white uncles had told Mistress Hester that if Eliza brought me back they were going to build a fire and put me in it, my birth was so unsatisfactory to all of them, but Mistress Hester always did what she believed was right and I was brought up by my own mother.

We lived in a cabin at the slave quarters and mother worked in the broom cane. Mistress Hester named me Ford George, in derision, but remained my friend. She was never angry with my mother. She knew a slave had to submit to her master and besides Eliza did not know she was Master Ford George’s daughter..

[The following is the conclusion of the interviewer:] The truth had been told at last. The master was both the father of Eliza and the father of Eliza’s son…

Interviewee 
Formerly enslaved person		Birth Year (Age)Interviewer
WPA Volunteer		Enslaver’s Name
George FordmanUnknown (Unknown)Lauana CreelFord George
Interview LocationResidence StateBirth Location
Evansville, ININAL or KY
Themes & KeywordsAdditional Tags:
Family, Violence, Resistance, EscapeTrigg County, First Person, Enslaver Father, Notable

Fordman_G_1

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Celia Henderson

Celia Henderson moved from Louisville, Kentucky to Natchez, Mississippi when her enslaved mother was sold to pay off the enslaver’s debt.  In this excerpt, the interviewer recounts Celia Henderson’s memories about religion in the first person.  

*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:

…Never no church for colored people does I remember in Natchez. One time There was a drought, and the water we hauled from way over to the river. Now that was down right work, hauling that water. There was an old man, he was powerful in prayer, and gathered the darkies under a big tree, and we all kneeled down while he prayed for the poor beasts what needs good clean water for to drink. That was a pretty sight, that church meeting under the big tree. I always remember that, and how that day he found a spring with his old cane, just like a miracle after prayer. It was a pretty sight to see my cows and all the cattle trotting for that water. The men dug out a round pond for the water to run up into, out of the spring, and it was good water that wouldn’t make the beasts sick, and we-all was sure happy.

…I was baptized by a white minister in Louisville, and I’ve been a Baptist for sixty years now. Yes ma’am. There are plenty of colored churches in Louisville now, but when I was young, the white folks had to see to it that we [enslaved people] were Baptised and knew Bible verses and hymns. There weren’t smart [redacted] preachers like Reverend Williams … and there ain’t so many now…

Interviewee 
Formerly enslaved person		Birth Year (Age)Interviewer
WPA Volunteer		Enslaver’s Name
Celia Henderson Unknown (Unknown)Miriam LoganGrohagen
Interview LocationResidence StateBirth Location
Lebanon, OHOHHardin County, KY
Themes & KeywordsAdditional Tags:
ReligionHardin County, First Person, Dialect, Enslaver Father, Slave Traders

Henderson_C_2

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Celia Henderson

Celia Henderson moved from Louisville, Kentucky to Natchez, Mississippi when her enslaved mother was sold to pay off the enslaver’s debt.   In this excerpt, the interviewer recounts Celia Henderson’s memories about the Civil War in the first person. Teachers may need to help students navigate the comparison at the end of the excerpt as a critique of how poorly Blacks were treated at the time of the interview rather than wishing she were still enslaved
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Excerpt:

… All I remember about the close of the war, was that white folks were broken up and poor down there at Natchez (Mississippi); and the first time I heard the EMANCIPATION read out, There was a lot of prancing around, and a big time.

I saw soldiers in blue down there in Natchez on the hill, once I saw them coming down the road when I was driving my cows up the road. I was scared sure, and I hid in the bushes on the side of the road until they went by. I don’t remember that my cows were much scared though. Mammy sais better hide when you see soldiers marching by, so that time a whole line of them came along, I hid…

 …Yes ma’am, most I ever earned was five dollars a week. I get twenty dollars now, and pay eight dollars for rent. We got no more–I figure –a working for ourselves than what we’d have were we slaves, for they give you a log house, and clothes, and you eat all you want to, and when you buy things, maybe you don’t make enough to get you what you need, working sun-up to sun down… 

Interviewee 
Formerly enslaved person		Birth Year (Age)Interviewer
WPA Volunteer		Enslaver’s Name
Celia HendersonUnknown (Unknown)Miriam LoganGrohagen
Interview LocationResidence StateBirth Location
Lebanon, OHOHHardin County, KY
Themes & KeywordsAdditional Tags:
Emancipation, Economics, Civil WarHardin County, First Person, Dialect, Enslaver Father, Slave Traders

Henderson_C_1

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Caroline Wright

After the Civil War started, Dr. Warren Wortham moved his family and about 40-50 enslaved people (including young Caroline Wright) from Louisiana to Texas.  Caroline was 12 when she was freed. In this excerpt, the interviewer records Caroline Wright in the first person.  The interviewer recounts a time Caroline Wright was possibly going to be sold and describes broadly cultural aspects of her life.
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Excerpt:

…  in Louisiana, we were all put on the block and valued. I was six years old and I was valued at $1,500. But our family wasn’t sold to anyone. I was given to Miss Muriel, Dr. Wortham’s daughter. Me and my sisters was made house slaves and my mammy and pappy and brothers was made field slaves.

Our master, Dr. Wortham, sure was a fine doctor. He never whipped us. The young missus learned us our A B C’s ’cause there was no school for the slaves. There wasn’t no church on the plantation, but we all went occasionally to a big log cabin and camp shed. Sometime a white would preach and sometimes a colored preacher…

On Christmas, the white folks always give us presents and plenty to eat, and we always had a big dance five or six times a year. Dr. Wortham lived in a great big log house made from cedar logs…

[Describing enslavement in Texas:]  we got up about four in the morning and ate breakfast about nine o’clock. All the slaves had to work from sun to sun, and when we were sick, the master treated us…

Interviewee 
Formerly enslaved person		Birth Year (Age)Interviewer
WPA Volunteer		Enslaver’s Name
Caroline WrightUnknown (about 90)UnknownHayes White, Miss Muriel, Dr. Warren and Annie Wortham
Interview LocationResidence StateBirth Location
Waco, TXTXJones Creek by Baton Rouge, LA
Themes & KeywordsAdditional Tags:
Education, ReligionFirst Person, Third Person, Dialect, Enslaver Father, Hired Out

Wright_C_1

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Carl Boone

Carl Boone’s parents were both enslaved people who gained their freedom in 1829, and Carl Boone was born a free man in 1850. In this excerpt, the interviewer records an example of an enslaver named Daniel Thompson brutally killing an enslaved person.  In what Carl Boone describes as Daniel Thompson’s “punishment for this terrible deed,” the excerpt goes on to describe the death of Daniel Thomspon’s son. These stories are told to the interviewer by Carl Boone, who is retelling stories he heard from his father. The interviewer notes that he is documenting Carl Boone’s story “word by word.” 
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Excerpt:

…I was born a free man, fifteen years before the close of the Civil War. All the colored folk on plantations and farms around our plantation were slaves and most of them were terribly mistreated by their masters…

The most terrible treatment of any slave, is told by my father in a story of a slave on a neighboring plantation, owned by Daniel Thompson. “After committing a small wrong, Master Thompson became angry, tied his slave to a whipping post and beat him terribly. Mrs. Thompson begged him to quit whipping, saying, ‘you might kill him,’ and the master replied that he aimed to kill him. He then tied the slave behind a horse and dragged him over a fifty acre field until the slave was dead. As a punishment for this terrible deed, master Thompson was compelled to witness the execution of his own son, one year later. The story is as follows:

A neighbor to Mr. Thompson, a slave owner by name of Kay Van Cleve, had been having some trouble with one of his young male slaves, and had promised the slave a whipping. The slave was a powerful man and Mr. Van Cleve was afraid to undertake the job of whipping him alone. He called for help from his neighbors, Daniel Thompson and his son Donald. The slave, while the Thompsons were coming, concealed himself in a horse-stall in the barn and hid a large knife in the manger.

After the arrival of the Thompsons, they and Mr. Van Cleve entered the stall in the barn. Together, the three white men made a grab for the slave, when the slave suddenly made a lunge at the elder Mr. Thompson with the knife, but missed him and stabbed Donald Thompson.

The slave was overpowered and tied, but too late, young Donald was dead.

The slave was tried for murder and sentenced to be hanged. At the time of the hanging, the first and second ropes used broke when the trap was sprung. For a while the executioner considered freeing the slave because of his second failure to hang him, but the law said, “He shall hang by the neck until dead,” and the third attempt was successful.”

Interviewee 
Formerly enslaved person		Birth Year (Age)Interviewer
WPA Volunteer		Enslaver’s Name
Carl Boone1850 (87)Robert C. IrvinMiley Boone (Carl’s father’s enslaver)
Interview LocationResidence StateBirth Location
Anderson, ININMarion County, KY
Themes & KeywordsAdditional Tags:
Resistance, ViolenceFirst Person, Witnessed Extreme Cruelty, Marion County

Boone_C_1

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Callie Williams

Callie Williams was four years old when the Civil War ended.  In this first person excerpt, the interviewer documents Callie Williams’ description of the life of enslaved people that was passed on to Callie Williams by her mother.  In this excerpt, Callie Williams describes the role of song in the life of enslaved people.
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Excerpt:

…Most of the time the slaves would be too tired to do anything but go to bed at night, but sometimes they would sit around and sing after supper and they would sing and pray on Sunday. One of the songs that was used most was ’Yon Comes Old Master Jesus.’ If I remember, it went something like this:     

‘I really believe Christ is coming again    
He’s coming in the morning    
He’s coming in the morning    
He’s coming with a rainbow on his shoulder    
He’s coming again by and by’ 

They tried to make them stop singing and praying during the [Civil] war because all they’d ask for was to be set free, but the slaves would get in the cabins and turn a big wash pot upside down and sing into that, and the noise couldn’t get out….

Interviewee 
Formerly enslaved person		Birth Year (Age)Interviewer
WPA Volunteer		Enslaver’s Name
Callie WilliamsApprox. 1861 (Unknown)Mary A. PooleHiram McLemore
Interview LocationResidence StateBirth Location
Mobile, ALALUnknown
Themes & KeywordsAdditional Tags:
Religion, SongsThird Person, Dialect, Slave Patrollers, Hired Out

Williams_C_3

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Callie Williams

In this first person excerpt, the interviewer documents Callie Williams’ description of emancipation and enslaved people getting married. Since Callie Williams was only four years old when the Civil War ended, she explains that she is retelling stories told to her by her mother Vicey.  Hiram McLemore, referred to as “Master” in the excerpt, enslaved over three hundred people, including Callie Williams and her parents, Vicey and Harry.

*Historically-used terms that are offensive, marginalizing and/or disparaging have been removed from the transcripts and replaced with [redacted].  See more information.
See full document • Visit the Library of Congress to see the original document

Excerpt:

… I don’t remember anything about this except what Mammy [Vicey] said.  When the Surrender [end of the Civil War] came, she said that a whole regiment of soldiers rode up to the house yelling to the [redacted] that they were free. Then the soldiers took the meat out of the smokehouse and got all the molasses and meal and gave it all to the [redacted]. They robbed the bees and then they’d eat dinner and go on to the next place, taking the menfolk with them, all except the ones too old, my pappy among them. 

After it was all over my pappy rented land on Mr. McLemore’s place and he and mammy stayed there till they died. They were buried in the same graveyard that Mr. McLemore had set aside for his slaves. 

I married Frank Williams in Montgomery, Alabama, but our marriage was nothing like mammy said her and pappy’s was. She said they ’jumped the broomstick.’ When any of the slaves wanted to get married they would go to the big house and tell Master and he’d get his broomstick and said, ’Harry, do you want Vicey?’ And Harry said ’Yes.’ Then Master said, ’Vicey, do you want Harry?’, and she said ’Yes.’ Then Master said, ’Join hands and jump the broomstick and you are married.’ The ceremony wasn’t much but they stuck lots closer then, and you didn’t hear about so many divorces and such as that.  

Interviewee 
Formerly enslaved person		Birth Year (Age)Interviewer
WPA Volunteer		Enslaver’s Name
Callie WilliamsApprox. 1861 (Unknown)Mary A. PooleHiram McLemore
Interview LocationResidence StateBirth Location
Mobile, ALALUnknown
Themes & KeywordsAdditional Tags:
Family, Marriage, Emancipation, Civil WarThird Person, Dialect, Slave Patrollers, Hired Out

Williams_C_2

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Callie Williams

In this first person excerpt, the interviewer documents Callie Williams’ description of daily life for enslaved people. Hiram McLemore enslaved over 300 people, including Callie Wiliams and her family.  Since Callie Williams was only four years old when the Civil War ended, she explains that she is retelling stories told to her by her mother Vicey, who she calls “Mammy” in this excerpt.
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Excerpt:

…My mammy said that they [enslaved people] waked up in the morning when they heard the sweep. That was a piece of iron hanging by a string and it made a loud noise when it was banged with another piece of iron. They had to get up at four o’clock and be at work by sun up. To do this, they almost all the time cooked breakfast the night before.  

Pappy was a driver under the overseer, but Mammy said that she stayed at the little nursery cabin and looked after all the little babies. They had a cabin fixed up with homemade cradles and things where they put all the babies. Their mammies would come in from the field at about ten o’clock to nurse them and then later in the day, my mammy would feed the [other children]…

The slaves got rations every Monday night. There would be three pounds of meat and a peck of meal. There was a big garden that all of them worked and they had all the vegetables they needed and there was always plenty of skimmed milk. They cooked the meals on open fireplaces in the big iron ‘spiders’, big pots hanging over the fire from a hook. They’d do the cooking at night and then warm it over the next day if they wanted it that way. 

While mammy was tending the babies she had to spin cotton and she was supposed to spin two ’cuts’ a day. Four ’cuts’ was a hard day’s work. What was a cut? You ought to know that! They had a reel and when it had spun three hundred yards it popped. That was a “cut.” When it had been spun, then another woman took it to the loom to make cloth for the slaves. They always took Saturday afternoon to clean up the clothes and cabins, because they always had to start work on Monday morning clean as a pin. If they didn’t, they got whipped for being dirty…

Most of the time the slaves would be too tired to do anything but go to bed at night, but sometimes they would sit around and sing after supper and they would sing and pray on Sunday…

Interviewee 
Formerly enslaved person		Birth Year (Age)Interviewer
WPA Volunteer		Enslaver’s Name
Callie WilliamsApprox. 1861 (Unknown)Mary A. PooleHiram McLemore
Interview LocationResidence StateBirth Location
Mobile, ALALUnknown
Themes & KeywordsAdditional Tags:
Economics, Child CareThird Person, Dialect, Slave Patrollers, Hired Out

Williams_C_1

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Billy Slaughter

The interviewer’s perspective and opinions are evident throughout this interview, including the interviewers use of a variety of derogatory terms to refer to Billy Slaughter.  Students should be reminded of the context of the WPA interviews, and consider the impact of the interviewer on the written interview.  In this excerpt, the interviewer records Billy Slaughter’s opinions about President Lincoln and the Civil War.  

*Historically-used terms that are offensive, marginalizing and/or disparaging have been removed from the transcripts and replaced with [redacted].  See more information.
See full document • Visit the Library of Congress to see the original document

Excerpt:

…[Billy Slaughter’s] real hero was Abraham Lincoln. He plans another pilgrimage to the Lincoln Farm to look again at the cabin in which his Emancipator was born. He asked me if I read history very much. I assured him that I read it to some extent… In the beginning of the War, the Negroes who enlisted in the Union Army were given freedom, also the wives, and the children who were not married.

… Not all [redacted] who wanted to join the Union forces were able to do so because of the strict watchfulness of their masters. The slaves were made to fight in the southern [Confederate] army whether they wanted to or not. This lessened the number of free [redacted] in the Northern army. As a result, Lincoln decided to free all [redacted]… This was the [redacted] story of the conditions that brought about the Emancipation Proclamation. Freeing the [redacted] was brought about during the Civil War but it was not the reason that the war was fought, was the unusual opinion of this [redacted]… [Billy Slaughter’s father joined the Union Army.] Uncle Billy’s father and mother and their children who were not married were given freedom. The old slave has kept the papers that were drawn up for this act.

The [redacted] explained that the [redacted]soldiers never fought in any decisive battles. There must always be someone to clean and polish the harness, care for the horses, dig ditches, and construct parapets…

Interviewee 
Formerly enslaved person		Birth Year (Age)Interviewer
WPA Volunteer		Enslaver’s Name
Billy Slaughter1858 (Unknown)Beulah Van MeterLincoln
Interview LocationResidence StateBirth Location
Jeffersonville, ININHodgenville, KY
Themes & KeywordsAdditional Tags:
Civil War, Lincoln, EmancipationThird Person, Union Troops, Veteran or Widow, 

Slaughter_B_1