Author: Rhonda Rogers VanDyke

Posted on

Edd Shirley

Edd Shirley was enslaved and sold to several enslavers in his life.  In the excerpt below, he describes the different treatment the enslaved were given based on their masters.  Specifically, he recalls several examples of violence against the enslaved.

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

Excerpt:

I am 97 years old and am still working as a janitor and supporting my family. My father was a white man and my mother was a colored lady. I was owned three different times, or rather was sold to three different families. I was first owned by the Waldens; then I was sold to a man by the name of Jackson, of Glasgow, Kentucky. Then my father, of this county, bought me.

I have had many slave experiences. Some slaves were treated good, and some were treated awful bad by the white people; but most of them were treated good if they would do what their master told them to do.

I once saw a light colored gal tied to the rafters of a barn, and her master whipped her until blood ran down her back and made a large pool on the ground. And I have seen n***o men tied to stakes drove in the ground and whipped because they would not mind their master; but most white folks were better to their slaves and treated them better than they are now. After their work in the fields was finished on Saturday, they would have parties and have a good time. Some old n***o man would play the banjo while the young people would dance and sing. The white folks would set around and watch; and would sometimes join in and dance and sing.

My colored grandfather lived to be 115 years old, and at that age he was never sick in his life. One day he picked up the water bucket to go to the spring, and as he was on his way back he dropped dead.

Interviewee 
Formerly enslaved person		Birth Year (Age)Interviewer
WPA Volunteer		Enslaver’s Name
Edd ShirleyUnknown (97)Lenneth JonesWalden
Interview LocationResidence StateBirth Location
Monroe County, KYKentuckyunknown
Themes & KeywordsAdditional Tags:
ViolenceFirst person, witnessed extreme cruelty, sold (self or family), enslaver father

Shirley_E_1

Posted on

Eli Coleman

Eli Coleman was born in 1846 and has a long memory of enslavement.  In this excerpt he describes what it was like to serve alongside his enslaver in 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:

Master was a colonel in the war and took me along to care for his horse and gun. Those guns, you couldn’t hear anything popping. We [redacted] had to go all over and pick up those who were killed. The hurt we carried back. Those too badly hurt we had to carry to the burying place and the White man would finish killing them, so we could roll them in the hole.  

Interviewee 
Formerly enslaved person		Birth Year (Age)Interviewer
WPA Volunteer		Enslaver’s Name
Eli Coleman1846 (91)UnknownGeorge Brady
Interview LocationResidence StateBirth Location
TexasTexasKentucky
Themes & KeywordsAdditional Tags:
Civil WarFirst person, witnessed extreme cruelty, Union Troops

Coleman_E_1

Posted on

Eli Coleman

Eli Coleman was born in 1846 and has a long memory of enslavement.  He also lived a long life after Emancipation.  In this excerpt, he describes his experiences immediately after being freed, and his ultimate move to Texas from Kentucky.  He also reflects on the state of African Americans in the early 20th century, notably discussing sharecropping as re-enslavement.

*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:

When Master said we were free, we all began to take on. We didn’t have no place to go and asked Master could we stay, but he said no. But he did let some stay and furnished teams and something to eat, and work on the halves. I stayed and was sharecropper, and that was when slavery started, for when we got our crop made, it took every bit of it to pay our debts and we had nothing left to buy winter clothes or pay doctor bills.  

. . . I’d heard the railroad was building in Texas and they hire lots of [redacted]. I get a horse from Master, and roll up a few clothes and get my gun.  I never got very far before the Indians took my horse away from me. It was about fifty miles to a train and I didn’t have any money, but I found a White man who wanted wood cut and I work near a month for him and get $2.00. I get on a train and come a hundred miles from where that railroad was going across the country, and I had to walk near all that hundred miles. Once and now a White man coming or going let me ride. But I got there, and the job pays me sixty cents a day. That was lots of money those days. Near as I remember, it was 1867 or 1868 when I came to Texas.  

. . . Since the [redacted] been free it’s been Hell on the poor old [redacted]. He has advanced some ways, but he’s still a servant and will be, long as God’s curse still stay on the [redacted] race. We were turned loose with nothing and have been under the White man’s rule so long we couldn’t hold any job but labor. I worked almost two years on that railroad and the rest my life I farmed. Now I get a little pension from the government and the White folks are sure good to give it to me, because I ain’t good for work no more.   

Interviewee 
Formerly enslaved person		Birth Year (Age)Interviewer
WPA Volunteer		Enslaver’s Name
Eli Coleman1846 (91)UnknownGeorge Brady
Interview LocationResidence StateBirth Location
TexasTexasKentucky
Themes & KeywordsAdditional Tags:
Emancipation, Sharecropping,First person, witnessed extreme cruelty, Union Troops,

Coleman_E_2

Posted on

Elizabeth Alexander

The following excerpt is from a preacher’s sermon found in a scrapbook, dated 1839.  In it, the preacher speaks of the fear of being punished in the afterlife, and offers salvation to anyone who follows her, gives her money, and returns to her weekly services.

*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:

“My dear friend: If there’s one thing that the Lord abominates worse than any other; it is a wicked [redacted]! A wicked White man’s bad enough, the Lord knows!  But they so dam White, an so kussed sarcy, they don’t know any better, so there’s some apology for them; but I begin you for you know as to how a wicked [redacted] can never escape from the vengeance of the Lord day’s – no use playing possum any more than there was of Jonah coorin it into the whale’s belly! 

(Glory from the congregation) 

. . . Think, you Black sinners, of the bottomless pit, deeper than the hole Holt bored for water. Oh! you’ll wish you could bore for water there! But there’s no water there, and the deeper you go, Oh, my brethren, the deeper it gets! And then the smell! You’d give your soul if you had any left, just for one smell of a rotten egg! Oh, my dear friends, some of you hold your nose when you go by the gas works. How do you suppose you’ll feel where you smell nothing but brimstone and gnashing of teeth! (deep groans) 

. . . And now, my beloved brethren, let’s investigate how to get bail; how to avoid the Sing Sing of the world that’s got to come. Fiddling and dancing won’t do it. You’ll never get to Heaven by loafing, pitching cents, and dancing Juba! The only way is to support the preacher, give your money to me, and I’ll take your sins on my shoulder. And now I beseech you not to leave this here holy place and go around the corner, around the corner and forget the words you have heard this night. Next Wednesday evening there will be a service in this place the Lord willing, but next Thursday evening weather or no. And now we will sing the 40-olebent hymn the particlarest meter.

Interviewee 
Formerly enslaved person		Birth Year (Age)Interviewer
WPA Volunteer		Enslaver’s Name
Elizabeth AlexanderUnknownCecelia LaswellUnknown
Interview LocationResidence StateBirth Location
Davies County, KYKentuckyUnknown
Themes & KeywordsAdditional Tags:
ReligionThird person, dialect

Alexander_E_1

Posted on

George Conrad, Jr.

George Conrad was an enslaved person on a 900 acre farm in Kentucky.  In this excerpt he begins by describing “patrollers” whose job was to be monitor the movement of enslaved peoples, to be sure if they were off their  property they had the proper paperwork.   He goes on to describe tales he’d heard of John Brown and the Underground Railroad.
See full document • Visit the Library of Congress to see the original document

Excerpt:

I heard a lot of talk ’bout the patrollers. In those days if you went away from home and didn’t have a pass they’d whip you. Sometimes they’d whip you with a long black cow whip, and then sometimes they’d roast elm switches in the fire. This was called “cat-o-nine-tails”, and they’d whip you with that. We never had any jails; only punishment was just to whip you.

Now, the way the slaves travel. If a slave had been good sometimes old Master would let him ride his horse ; then, sometime they’d steal a horse out and ride them and slip him back before old Master ever found it out. 

There was a man in those days by the name of John Brown. We called him an underground railroad man, ’cause he’d steal the slaves and carry them across the river in a boat. When you got on the other side you were free, ’cause you were in a free State, Ohio.  We used to sing, and I guess young folks today do too: “John Brown’s Body Lies a’Molding In the Clay.” and  “They Hung John Brown On a Sour Apple Tree.”

Interviewee 
Formerly enslaved person		Birth Year (Age)Interviewer
WPA Volunteer		Enslaver’s Name
George Conrad, Jr.1860 (77)UnknownJoe Conrad
Interview LocationResidence StateBirth Location
Oklahoma City, OKOklahomaHarrison County, Kentucky
Themes & KeywordsAdditional Tags:
Underground Railroad, EmancipationFirst person, slave patrols, John Brown, Underground Railroad

Conrad_G_1

Posted on

Alex and Elizabeth Smith

Alex and Elizabeth Smith were enslaved on separate farms, owned by relatives in close proximity to each other.  This excerpt describes their different experiences during enslavement, and their early life after gaining freedom.
See full document • Visit the Library of Congress to see the original document

Excerpt:

On the Peter Stubblefield plantation, the slaves were treated very well and had plenty to eat, while on the Robert Stubblefield plantation Mr. Smith went hungry many times, and said, “Often, I would see a dog with a bit of bread, and I would have been willing to take it from him if I had not been afraid the dog would bite me.”

Mrs. Smith was named after Elizabeth Stubblefield, a relative of Peter Stubblefield. As a child of five years or less, Elizabeth had to spin “long reels five cuts a day,” pick seed from cotton, and cockle burrs from wool, and perform the duties of a house girl.

Unlike the chores of Elizabeth, Mr. Smith had to chop wood, carry water, chop weeds, care for cows, pick bugs from tobacco plants. This little boy had to go barefoot both summer and winter and remembers the cracking of ice under his bare feet.

The day the mistress and master came and told the slaves they were free to go anyplace they desired, Mrs. Smith’s mother told her later that she was glad to be free but she had no place to go or any money to go with. Many of the slaves would not leave and she never witnessed such crying as went on. Later Mrs. Smith was paid for working. She worked in the fields for “vittles” and clothes. A few years later she nursed children for twenty-five cents a week and “vittles,” but after a time she received fifty cents a week, board, and two dresses. She married Mr. Smith at the age of twenty.

Interviewee 
Formerly enslaved person		Birth Year (Age)Interviewer
WPA Volunteer		Enslaver’s Name
Alex and Elizabeth SmithUnknown (83)Henrietta KarwowskiRobert and Peter Stubblefield
Interview LocationResidence StateBirth Location
South Bend, INIndianaKentucky
Themes & KeywordsAdditional Tags:
Family, Emancipation, Economics,First Person,

Smith_A_1

Posted on

Ellen Cave

A cruel master enslaved Ellen Cave before and during the Civil War.  Her recollections of cruel treatment by her enslaver are recorded in this excerpt.  Especially notable is the example of the children or enslavers and their enslaved being sold to other plantations.
See full document • Visit the Library of Congress to see the original document

Excerpt:

Mrs. Cave told of seeing wagon loads of slaves sold down the river. She, herself was put on the block several times but never actually sold, although she would have preferred being sold rather than the continuation of the ordeal of the block.

Her master was a “mean man” who drank heavily, he had twenty slaves that he fed now and then, and gave her her freedom after the war only when she would remain silent about it no longer. 

. . . Mrs. Cave said that her master’s father had many young women slaves and sold his own half-breed children down the river to Louisiana plantations where the work was so severe that the slaves soon died.

While in slavery, Mrs. Cave worked as a maid in the house until she grew older when she was forced to do all kinds of outdoor labor. She remembered sawing logs in the snow all day. In the summer she pitched hay or any other man’s work in the field. She was trained to carry three buckets of water at the same time, two in her hands and one on her head, and said she could still do it.

On this plantation, the chief article of food for the slaves was bran-bread, although the master’s children were kind and often slipped them out meat or other food.

Interviewee 
Formerly enslaved person		Birth Year (Age)Interviewer
WPA Volunteer		Enslaver’s Name
Ellen CaveUnknownGrace MonroeUnknown
Interview LocationResidence StateBirth Location
Ohio County, INIndianaKentucky
Themes & KeywordsAdditional Tags:
Violence, family, gender/gender rolesThird person, breeding, sold (family)

Cave_E_1

Posted on

Frank Cooper

Frank Cooper was a child when he first spoke to his mother about her experiences being enslaved.  This excerpt starts with her reaction to he and his siblings asking her about scars on their backs.  After she has given them a taste of her experiences, she goes on to tell them of a time when she was whipped and severely beaten by her enslavers.  The excerpt ends with her enslaver attempting to auction her off, only to stop the sale to an enslaver who only wanted to punish her.
See full document • Visit the Library of Congress to see the original document
Interviewee 
Formerly enslaved person		Birth Year (Age)Interviewer
WPA Volunteer		Enslaver’s Name
Frank CooperUnknownWilliam R. MaysGood,  Burton, Cooper
Interview LocationResidence StateBirth Location
Franklin, INIndianaKentucky
Themes & KeywordsAdditional Tags:
Family, Gender/Gender roles, ViolenceFirst person, whipped, witnessed extreme cruelty, slave traders, sold (family)

Excerpt:

One day while my mammy was washing her back my sistah noticed ugly disfiguring scars on it. Inquiring about them, we found, much to our amazement, that they were mammy’s relics of the now gone, if not forgotten, slave days.

This was her first reference to her misery days that she had ever made in my presence. Of course we all thought she was telling us a big story and we made fun of her. With eyes flashing, she stopped bathing, dried her back and reached for the smelly ole black whip that hung behind the kitchen door. Bidding us to strip down to our waists, my little mammy with the boney bent-over back, struck each of us as hard as ever she could with that black-snake whip, each stroke of the whip drew blood from our backs. Now, she said to us, you have a taste of slavery days. With three of her children now having tasted of some of her misery days she was in the mood to tell us more of her sufferings; still indelibly impressed in my mind.

‘My ole back is bent over from the quick-tempered blows feld by the red-headed Miss Burton.  At dinner time one day when the churning wasn’t finished for the noonday meal, she said with an angry look that must have been reborn in my mammy’s eyes—eyes that were dimmed by years and hard living, three white women beat me from anger because they had no butter for their biscuits and cornbread. Miss Burton used a heavy board while the missus used a whip. While I was on my knees begging’ them to quit, Miss Burton hit the small of my back with the heavy board.I knew no more until kind Mr. Hamilton, who was staying with the white folks, brought me inside the cabin and brought me around with the camphor bottle. I’ll always thank him—God bless him—he picked me up where they had left me like a dog to die in the blazing noonday sun.

‘After my back was broken it was doubted whether I would ever be able to work again or not. I was placed on the auction block to be bidded for so my owner could see if I was worth anything or not. One man bid $1700 after putting’ two dirty fingers in my mouth to see my teeth. I bit him and his face showed anger. He then wanted to own me so he could punish me. Thinking his bid of $1700 was official, he unstrapped his buggy whip to beat me, but my master saved me. My master declared the bid unofficial.  At this auction my sister was sold for $1900 and was never seen by us again.’

Cooper_F_1

Posted on

Frank Cooper

Frank Cooper was a child when he spoke to his mother about her time in enslavement.  Here, he recounts a tale she told him of the Ku Klux Klan coming into her town and the measures the men in town took to protect themselves and their families from the potential cruelty the KKK would bring.

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

Excerpt:

My mother related some experiences she had with the Paddy-Rollers, later called the Ku Klux, these Paddy-Rollers were a constant dread to the N***oes. They would whip the poor victims unmercifully without any cause. One night while the N***oes were gathering for a big party and dance they got wind of the approaching Paddy-Rollers in large numbers on horseback. The N***o men did not know what to do for protection, they became desperate and decided to gather a quantity of grapevines and tied them fast at a dark place in the road. When the Paddy-Rollers came thundering down the road bent on deviltry and unaware of the trap set for them, plunged head-on into these strong grapevines and three of their number were killed and a score was badly injured. Several horses had to be shot following injuries.

When the news of this happening spread it was many months before the Paddy-Rollers were again heard of.

Interviewee 
Formerly enslaved person		Birth Year (Age)Interviewer
WPA Volunteer		Enslaver’s Name
Frank CooperUnknownWilliam R. MaysGood,  Burton, Cooper
Interview LocationResidence StateBirth Location
Franklin, INIndianaKentucky
Themes & KeywordsAdditional Tags:
ViolenceFirst person, whipped, Klan/mob violence

Cooper_F_2

Posted on

George Conrad, Jr.

George Conrad was an enslaved person on a 900 acre farm in Kentucky. His father enlisted in the Union Army during the Civil War.  In this excerpt, Mr. Conrad describes his father enlisting with the other males who were enslaved on the plantation.  He also tells a tale of the enslaved hiding and protecting their enslaver when Union troops raided the plantation.
See full document • Visit the Library of Congress to see the original document

Excerpt:

There were 14 colored men working for old Master Joe and 7 women. I think it was on the 13th of May, all 14 of these colored men, and my father, went to the Army. When old Master Joe come to wake them up the next morning–I remember he called real loud, Miles, Esau, George, Frank, Arch, on down the line, and my mother told him they’d all gone to the army. Old Master went to Cynthiana, Kentucky, where they had gone to enlist and begged the officer in charge to let him see all of his boys, but the officer said “No.” Some way or another he got a chance to see Arch, and Arch came back with him to help raise the crops.

. . . When my father went to the army old Master told us he was gone to fight for us n******’ freedom. My daddy was the only one that come back out of the 13 men that enlisted, and when my daddy came back old Master gave him a buggy and horse.  

When the Yanks come, I never will forget one of them was named John Morgan. We carried old Master down to the barn and hid him in the hay. I felt so sorry for old Master they took all his hams, some of his whiskey, and all they could find, hogs, chickens, and just treated him something terrible.

Interviewee 
Formerly enslaved person		Birth Year (Age)Interviewer
WPA Volunteer		Enslaver’s Name
George Conrad, Jr.1860 (77)UnknownJoe Conrad
Interview LocationResidence StateBirth Location
Oklahoma City, OKOklahomaHarrison County, Kentucky
Themes & KeywordsAdditional Tags:
Civil WarFirst person, Union troops, 

Conrad_G_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.

More giving options