…The mistress on a neighboring plantation was a devout Catholic and had all the children come each Sunday afternoon to study the catechism and repeat the Lord’s Prayer. She was not very successful in training them in the Catholic faith as when they grew up most of them were either Baptists or Methodists. Mr. Hume said she did a lot of good in leading them to Christ but he did not learn much of the catechism as he only attended for the treat. After the service, they always had candy or a cup of sugar…
Interviewee Formerly enslaved person
Birth Year (Age)
Interviewer WPA Volunteer
Enslaver’s Name
Matthew Hume
Unknown (Unknown)
Grace Monroe
Daniel Payne
Interview Location
Residence State
Birth Location
Jefferson County, IN
IN
KY
Themes & Keywords
Additional Tags:
Religion
Trimble County, Third Person, Witnessed Extreme Cruelty
Charles Green lived in enslavement in Kentucky before and during the Civil War. In this excerpt, he describes the fear the enslavers put into the enslaved about the raiding Union (Yankee) soldiers, and how Confederate Soldiers (led by John Morgan) were not to be feared. However, he also mentions how his half brother and father joined the Union cause.
When old John Morgan came through raiding, he took meat and horses from our place, and just left the smokehouse empty. Father and my half-brother, George Spencer Green, joined up with the 112th Kentucky boys, and was with General Sherman marching to the sea. Father, he died, but Spence came home after the war and settled in the lower part of Mason County.
…We thought the Yankee soldiers were coming to carry us off, and they told us to hide if we saw them. I remember one night; ‘twas mostly dark; I saw some Yankee soldiers, and I was scared to death. They yelled at me, and I took to my heels; then they shot in the air and I ran all the faster getting back to the house. But when Old [Confederate General] John Morgan came along a-raiding and carrying off the meat and good horses, we weren’t afraid.
This Third Person recollection of an interview with the formerly enslaved Charlie Richmond describes how the dialect of the formerly enslaved populations remained prominent in the South among both Black and White families due to the fact that so many of them lived together during times of enslavement.
The n—-o dialect of this county is a combination of the dialect white folk use plus that of the n—o of the South. The colored population is continually moving back and forth from Alabama, Georgia, and North and South Carolinas. They visit a lot. Colored teachers so far have all been from Ohio. Most visiting colored preachers come from Alabama and the Carolinas. The negroes leave out their R’s use an’t han’t gwin, su’ for sir, yea for yes, dah for there and such expressions as, “I’s Ye?”
The wealthiest families o’ white folk still retain colored servants. In Prestonsburg, Kentucky one may see on the streets neat looking colored gals leading or wheeling young white children along. Folks say this is why so many southerners leave out their R’s and hold on to the old superstitions, they’ve had a colored mama for a nurse-maid.
Charles Anderson lived in enslavement in Kentucky before and during the Civil War. In this excerpt, he describes becoming a free man, his hesitancy to leave the plantation, the act of voting, and his realization that racial problems continued to exist in our country long after Reconstruction.
I don’t know when freedom came on. I never did know. We was five or six years breaking up. Master Stone never forced any of us to leave. He give some of them a horse when they left. I cried a year to go back. It was a dear place to me and the memories linger with me every day.
There was no secret society or order of Ku Klux in reach of us as I ever heard.
I voted Republican ticket. We would go to Jackson to vote. There would be a crowd. The last I voted was for Theodore Roosevelt. I voted here in Helena for years. I was on the petit jury for several years here in Helena.
I farmed in your state some (Arkansas). I farmed all my young life. I been in Arkansas sixty years. I come here February 1879 with distant relatives. They come south. When I come to Helena there was but one set of mechanics. I started to work. I learned to paint and hang wallpaper. I’ve worked in nearly every house in Helena.
The present times are gloomy. I tried to prepare for old age. I had a apartment house and lost it. I owned a home and lost it. They foreclosed me out.
The present generation is not doing as well as I have.
Interviewee Formerly enslaved person
Birth Year (Age)
Interviewer WPA Volunteer
Enslaver’s Name
Charles Anderson
Unknown (77 or 78)
Irene Robertson
Isaac and Davis Stone
Interview Location
Residence State
Birth Location
Helena, AR
Arkansas
Nelson County, Kentucky
Themes & Keywords
Additional Tags:
Emancipation, Voting, Citizenship, 15th Amendment
First Person, Witnessed Extreme Cruelty, Slaver Father
Charles Anderson lived in enslavement Kentucky before and during the Civil War. In this excerpt, he describes witnessing a woman being auctioned off to enslavers who wanted females who could conceive and raise children to be enslaved in the future.
I seen a woman sold. They had on her a short dress, no sleeves, so they could see her muscles, I reckon. They would buy them and put them with good healthy men to raise young slaves. I heard that. I was very small when I seen that young woman sold and years later I heard that was what was done.
Interviewee Formerly enslaved person
Birth Year (Age)
Interviewer WPA Volunteer
Enslaver’s Name
Charles Anderson
Unknown (77 or 78)
Irene Robertson
Isaac and Davis Stone
Interview Location
Residence State
Birth Location
Helena, AR
Arkansas
Nelson County, Kentucky
Themes & Keywords
Additional Tags:
Gender/Gender Roles, Intersectionality
First Person, Witnessed Extreme Cruelty, Slaver Father
Ann Gudgel lived in enslavement during the Civil War. In this excerpt, she describes how enslaved persons were vaccinated against smallpox (the process involved infecting a patient with the pus of a smallpox victim).
One day they vaccinated all the slaves but mine never took at all. I never told anybody, but I just sat right down by the fireplace and rubbed wood ashes and juice that spewed out of the wood real hard over the scratch. All the others were really sick and had the most awful arms, but mine never did even hurt.
Ann Gudgel lived in enslavement during the Civil War. In this excerpt, she describes her life as an enslaved person, including the troublesome fact that she and her family chose to remain with their enslavers after Emancipation.
*Historically-used terms that are offensive, marginalizing and/or disparaging have been removed from the transcripts and replaced with [redacted]. See more information.
I don’t know how old I am, but I was a little girl when that man Lincoln freed us [redacted]. My mammy never told us our age, but I know I am plenty old, cause I feel like it.
When I was a little girl all of us were owned by Master Ball. When Lincoln freed us [redacted], we went on and lived with Master Ball till us children were about grown up. None of us was ever sold, cause we belonged to the Balls for always back as far as we could think.
Mammy worked up at the big house, but us children had to stay at the cabin. But I didn’t very much care, because ole Miss had a little child just about my age, and we played together.
The only time ole Miss ever beat me was when I caused Miss Nancy to get ate up with the bees. I told her ‘Miss Nancy, the bees are asleep, let’s steal the honey.’ Soon as she touched it, they flew all over us, and it took Mammy about a day to get the stingers out of our heads. Ole Miss just naturally beat me up about that.
One day they vaccinated all the slaves but mine never took at all. I never told anybody, but I just sat right down by the fireplace and rubbed wood ashes and juice that spewed out of the wood real hard over the scratch. All the others were really sick and had the most awful arms, but mine never did even hurt.
…You want to know about slavery? Well, a great deal happened besides that, but …
… One day I saw Master sitting in the gallery and his face all screwed up. He said, ‘Go get you mammy and everybody. ‘I went flying’. My shirt tail didn’t hit my back till I told everybody. Master am crying and he reads the paper and says, ‘You are free as I am. What are you going to do?’ Mammy says, ‘We are staying right here.’ But the next morning Pappy borrows an ox-team to tote our stuff away. We go ‘about sixty miles and stay ‘about six months, den takes a place where we can make a crop. Then Master tells us we can live in an old place without rent and have what we can make. So we moved back and stayed for two years. Then we moved several places and sometimes the old missus came to see us and said, ‘Ain’t you ashamed? De Yankees are feeding you.’ But they weren’t, because we were making a crop…
…You want to know about slavery? Well, a great deal happened besides that, but …
…My Pappy wasn’t afraid of anything. He is light colored from the white blood, and he ran away several times. There are big woods all around and we saw lots of runaways. One old fellow named John has been a runaway for four years and the [slave] patterroller tries all their tricks, but they can’t catch him. They wanted him badly, because it inspired other slaves to run away if he stays a-loose… One day I was in the woods and met a … run-awayer [runaway enslaved person]. He came to the cabin and Mammy made him a bacon and egg sandwich and we never saw him again. Maybe he did get clear to Mexico, where a lot of the slaves ran to.
In this interview, recorded by the interviewer in the first person, Walter Rimm describes a slave auction, where enslavers tried to sell a young woman who appeared to be white. The excerpt ends with Walter Rimm describing his second wife’s racial background.
*Historically-used terms that are offensive, marginalizing and/or disparaging have been removed from the transcripts and replaced with [redacted]. See more information.
…You want to know about slavery? Well, a great deal happened besides that, but …
Master Hatch buys and sells [redacted] some in those days, but he ain’t a [redacted] trader. Those sales are one thing that made an impression on me. I heard old folks whisper about going to a sale, and about noon there was a crowd of white folks in the front yard and a [redacted] trader with the slaves. They set up a platform in the middle of the yard and one white man gets on that and another white man comes up and has a white woman with him. She appears to be about fifteen years old and has long, black hair down her back. They put her on the platform and then I heard a scream and a woman who looked like the gal cried out, ‘I’ll cut my throat if my daughter is sold.’ The white man goes and talks to her, and finally allows her to take the young gal away with her. That sure stirs up some emotion amongst the white folks, but they say that gal has just a little [Black]…blood and can be sold as a slave, but she looks as white as anybody I’ve ever seen.
… [after the Civil War was over and the death of his first wife] I married Minnie Bennett, a light colored gal… Her mammy am a white woman. She was kidnapped in Kentucky by some white men and they dyed her hair and skin and brought her to Texas with some slaves for sale. Master Means, in Corpus [Texas], bought her. She was so small all she remembered was her real name was Mary Schlous and her parents are white and she lived in Kentucky. Master Means comes in the next morning and busts out cussin’, for there is black dye all over the pillow and his slave is getting blonde, but dem slave traders are gone, so he can’t do nothin’. He ‘cides to keep her and she grows up with the slaves jus’ like she is a [redacted]. She gets used to being with dem and marries one. She has one child ‘fore freedom, what am Minnie [Walter Rimm’s second wife]. She has to run away to get freedom, because Master Means won’t let her have freedom. Lots of slaves had to do that…