Rhonda Rogers VanDyke

August 12, 2020October 4, 2020

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 Williams	Approx. 1861 (Unknown)	Mary A. Poole	Hiram McLemore

Interview Location	Residence State	Birth Location
Mobile, AL	AL	Unknown

Themes & Keywords	Additional Tags:
Religion, Songs	Third Person, Dialect, Slave Patrollers, Hired Out

Williams_C_3

August 12, 2020October 4, 2020

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.

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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 Williams	Approx. 1861 (Unknown)	Mary A. Poole	Hiram McLemore

Interview Location	Residence State	Birth Location
Mobile, AL	AL	Unknown

Themes & Keywords	Additional Tags:
Family, Marriage, Emancipation, Civil War	Third Person, Dialect, Slave Patrollers, Hired Out

Williams_C_2

August 12, 2020November 10, 2022

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 Williams	Approx. 1861 (Unknown)	Mary A. Poole	Hiram McLemore

Interview Location	Residence State	Birth Location
Mobile, AL	AL	Unknown

Themes & Keywords	Additional Tags:
Economics, Child Care	Third Person, Dialect, Slave Patrollers, Hired Out

Williams_C_1

August 12, 2020November 10, 2022

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.

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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 Slaughter	1858 (Unknown)	Beulah Van Meter	Lincoln

Interview Location	Residence State	Birth Location
Jeffersonville, IN	IN	Hodgenville, KY

Themes & Keywords	Additional Tags:
Civil War, Lincoln, Emancipation	Third Person, Union Troops, Veteran or Widow,

Slaughter_B_1

August 12, 2020October 4, 2020

Betty Jones

In this excerpt, the interviewer records in their own words the background information provided by Betty Jones and also directly quotes her. This short excerpt provides teachers the opportunity to help students navigate seeming contradictions within a primary source. The interviewer states that Betty Jones “recalls no unkind treatment” but then Betty Jones herself describes the sorrow of her enslaved friends being sold. Students may need background information on the WPA interviews and help considering the context of a White interviewer who had not experienced slavery discussing and recording the recollections of a formerly enslaved person.

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Excerpt:

“Yes, Honey, I was a slave, I was born at Henderson, Kentucky and my mother was born there. We belonged to old Master John Alvis…” [Betty Jones answered.]

Betty Jones said her master was a rich man and had made his money by raising and selling slaves. She only recalls two house servants were [mixed race] … All the other slaves were black as they could be.

Betty Alvis [Jones] lived with her parents in a cabin near her master’s home on the hill. She recalls no unkind treatment.

[Betty Jones said,] “Our only sorrow was when a crowd of our slave friends would be sold off, then the mothers, brothers, sisters, and friends always cried a lot and we children would grieve to see the grief of our parents…”

Interviewee Formerly enslaved person	Birth Year (Age)	Interviewer WPA Volunteer	Enslaver’s Name
Betty Jones	Unknown (Unknown)	Lauana Creel	John Alvis

Interview Location	Residence State	Birth Location
Vanderburgh County, IN	IN	Henderson, KY

Themes & Keywords	Additional Tags:
	Third Person, Slave Traders, Veteran or Widow

Jones_B_1

August 12, 2020October 2, 2020

Betty Guwn

Betty Guwn was an enslaved person on a tobacco plantation in Kentucky. When her enslaver traveled to Mississippi to do business, he hid his money on Betty Guwn so he would not be robbed. The interviewer begins by narrating background information provided by Betty Guwn. In the second half of the excerpt, the interviewer uses italics to show that Betty Guwn’s own words are being recorded.

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Excerpt:

… [Betty Guwn’s] master was very wealthy. He owned and managed a cotton farm of two thousand acres down in Mississippi, not far from New Orleans. Once a year he spent three months there gathering and marketing his cotton. When he got ready to go there he would call all his slaves about him and give them a chance to volunteer. They had heard awful tales of the slave auction block at New Orleans, and the Master would solemnly promise them that they should not be sold if they went down [to Mississippi] of their own accord.

[The interviewer used italics to show this part of the interview is in the words of Betty Guwn.] My Mistress called me to her and privately told me that when I was asked that question I should say to him: “I will go”. The Master had to take much money with him and was afraid of robbers. The day they were to start my Mistress took me into a private room and had me remove most of my clothing; she then opened a strong box [safe] and took out a great roll of money in bills; these she strapped to me in tight bundles, arranging them around my waist in the circle of my body. She put plenty of dresses over this belt and when she was through I wore a bustle of money clear around my belt. I made a funny figure, but no one noticed my odd shape because I was a slave and no one expected a slave to “know better”. We always got through safely and I went down with my Mistress every year. Of course my husband stayed at home to see after the family, and took them to the fields when too young to work under the task master, or overseer. Three months was a long time to be separated.

Interviewee Formerly enslaved person	Birth Year (Age)	Interviewer WPA Volunteer	Enslaver’s Name
Betty Guwn	1832 (105)	Unknown	Unknown

Interview Location	Residence State	Birth Location
Muncie, IN	IN	Canton, KY

Themes & Keywords	Additional Tags:
Third Person, Economics	First Person, Slave Traders, Veteran or Widow

Guwn_B_2

August 12, 2020October 2, 2020

Betty Guwn

Betty Guwn was an enslaved person on a tobacco plantation in Kentucky. The interviewer begins by narrating background information provided by Betty Guwn about how enslavers negotiated the marriage of enslaved people. In the second half of the excerpt, the interviewer uses italics to show that Betty Guwn’s own words are being recorded. In this portion of the excerpt, Betty Guwn recounts how her husband fought for the Union during the Civil War and her emancipation.

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Source Description:

Mrs. Betty Guwn was born March 25, 1832, as a slave on a tobacco plantation, near Canton, Kentucky. It was a large plantation whose second largest product was corn. She was married while quite young by the slave method which was a form of union customary between the white masters. If the contracting parties were of different plantations the masters of the two estates bargained and the one sold his rights to the one on whose plantation they would live. Her master bought her husband, brought him and set them up in a shack. Betty was the personal attendant of the Mistress. The home was a large Colonial mansion and her duties were many and responsible. However, when her house duties were caught up her mistress sent her immediately to the fields. Discipline was quite stern there and she was “lined up” [to be beaten or whipped] with the others on several occasions…

[The interviewer used italics to show this part of the interview is in the words of Betty Guwn.] When the Civil War came on there was great excitement among us slaves. We were watched sharply, especially soldier timber [enslaved people likely to be selected for fighting] for either army. My husband ran away early and helped [Union General] Grant to take Fort Donaldson. He said he would free himself, which he did; but when we were finally set free all our family prepared to leave, the Master begged us to stay and offered us five pounds of meal and two pounds of pork jowl each week if we would stay and work. We all went to Burgard, Kentucky, to live. At that time I was about 34 years old…

Interviewee Formerly enslaved person	Birth Year (Age)	Interviewer WPA Volunteer	Enslaver’s Name
Betty Guwn	1832 (105)	Unknown	Unknown

Interview Location	Residence State	Birth Location
Muncie, IN	IN	Canton, KY

Themes & Keywords	Additional Tags:
Third Person, Civil War, Marriage, Family, Economics	First Person, Slave Traders, Veteran or Widow

Guwn_B_1

August 12, 2020October 4, 2020

Bert Mayfield

The interviewer recorded the interview as a first person narrative by Bert Mayfield. In the excerpt, Bert Mayfield describes his living conditions as an enslaved person: clothing, living conditions, food, and his work tapping trees for syrup.

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Excerpt:

…On Christmas, each of us stood in line to get our clothes; we were measured with a string that was made by a cobbler. The material had been woven by the slaves in a plantation shop…

Our cabins were usually one room with a loft above which we reached by a ladder. Our beds were trundle beds with wheels on them to push them under the big beds. We slept on straw ticks [mattress made of straw] covered with Lindsey quilts, which were made from the cast-off clothes, cut into squares and strips.

(I) would feed pigs; pulled parsley out of the garden for them and the pigs loved it mighty well. No money was paid for work… Possum and coon hunts were big events, they would hunt all night. The possums were baked in the ovens and usually with sweet potatoes in their mouths. The little boys would fish, bringing home their fish to be scaled by rubbing them between their hands, rolled in meal and cooked in a big skillet. We would eat these fish with pone corn bread and we sure had big eatin’s!

Master Stone had a big sugar camp with 300 trees. We would be woken up at sunup by a big horn and called to get our buckets and go to the sugar camps and bring water from the maple trees. These trees had been tapped and … the water dripped to the wooden troughs below. We carried this water to the big poplar troughs which were about 10 feet long and 3 feet high. The water was then dipped out and placed in different kettles to boil until it became the desired thickness for “Tree Molasses”. Old Miss Polly would always take out enough of the water to boil down to make sugar cakes for us boys. We had great times at these “stirring offs” which usually took place at night.

Interviewee Formerly enslaved person	Birth Year (Age)	Interviewer WPA Volunteer	Enslaver’s Name
Bert Mayfield	1852 (Unknown)	Eliza Ison	Smith Stone

Interview Location	Residence State	Birth Location
Garrard County, KY	KY	Bryantsville, KY

Themes & Keywords	Additional Tags:
Garrard County, Food, Daily Life, Work, Christmas

Mayfield_B_3

August 12, 2020October 4, 2020

Bert Mayfield

The interviewer recorded this excerpt as a first person narrative by Bert Mayfield. In the excerpt, Bert Mayfield describes “stirring offs” – the social gatherings that accompanied work needed to make food from maple syrup. Bert Mayfield also describes the role religion played in his life. This excerpt contains two songs that were recorded by the interviewer.

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Excerpt:

…[Bert Mayfield describes how sugar was tapped from the enslaver’s maple trees. The syrup was boiled down to be useful at]…these “stirring offs” which usually took place at night.

The neighbors would usually come and bring their slaves. We played Sheep-meat and other games. Sheep-meat was a game played with a yarn ball and when one of the players was hit by the ball that counted him out. One song we would always sing was;

“Who ting-a-long?
Who ting-a-long?
Who’s been here since I’ve been gone?
A pretty girl with a josey on”.

My old missus Meg taught me how to read from an old national spelling book, but I did not learn to write. We had no church, but the Bible was read to us on Sunday afternoons by some of the white folks. The first Church I remember was the Old Fork Baptist Church… The first preacher I remember was Burdette Kemper. I heard him preach at the old church where my missus and master took me every Sunday. The first Baptizing that I remember was on Dix Fiver near Floyd’s Mill. Preacher Kemper did the Baptizing and Ellen Stone, one of our slaves was Baptized there with a number of others—whites and blacks too. When Ellen came up out of the water she was clapping her hands and shouting. One of the songs I remember at this Baptizing was:

“Come sinners and Saints and hear me tell

The wonders of E-Man-u-el,

Who brought my soul with him to dwell

And give me heavenly union.”

…On Sunday’s we would hold prayer meetings among ourselves…

Interviewee Formerly enslaved person	Birth Year (Age)	Interviewer WPA Volunteer	Enslaver’s Name
Bert Mayfield	1852 (Unknown)	Eliza Ison	Smith Stone

Interview Location	Residence State	Birth Location
Garrard County, KY	KY	Bryantsville, KY

Themes & Keywords	Additional Tags:
Garrard County, Religion, Songs, Social Gatherings, Education

Mayfield_B_2

August 12, 2020November 10, 2022

Bert Mayfield

The interviewer chose to record this interview with Bert Mayfield in the first person. In the excerpt, Bert Mayfield tells the story of an enslaved person who escaped, but was later enslaved again. The excerpt concludes with Bert Mayfield’s thought on emancipation and Lincoln.

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Excerpt:

…There was no slave jail on the Stone place, and I never saw a slave sold or auctioned off. I was told that one of our slaves ran off and was gone for three years. Some white person wrote him to come home that he was free. He was making his own way in Ohio and stopped in Lexington, Kentucky for breakfast; while there he was asked to show his Pass papers which he did, but they were forged so he was arrested. Investigators soon found that his owner was Mr. Stone who did not wish to sell him and sent for him to come home…[Mr. Stone sent a White man to bring the enslaved man back to the plantation] … but instead he sold him to a southern slave trader…

I received the first news of freedom joyfully. I went to old man Onstott’s to live. I lived there two or three years. I think Abe Lincoln a great man. He did not believe in slavery and would have paid the southern people for their slaves if he had lived…

Interviewee Formerly enslaved person	Birth Year (Age)	Interviewer WPA Volunteer	Enslaver’s Name
Bert Mayfield	1852 (Unknown)	Eliza Ison	Smith Stone

Interview Location	Residence State	Birth Location
Garrard County, KY	KY	Bryantsville, KY

Themes & Keywords	Additional Tags:
Garrard County, Lincoln, First Person, Resistance, Slave Trader, Emancipation

Mayfield_B_1

Author: Rhonda Rogers VanDyke

Callie Williams

Callie Williams

Callie Williams

Billy Slaughter

Betty Jones

Betty Guwn

Betty Guwn

Bert Mayfield

Bert Mayfield

Can we count on your support?