Source Document – Page 11 – Reckoning, Inc.

September 27, 2020October 4, 2020

Alex Woodson

In this third person narrative, the interviewer first describes how Alex Woodson (who is referred to as “Uncle Alex”) was sold. The interviewer then documents several stories of enslaved people during the Civil War, before briefly referencing emancipation.

*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:

…[Alex Woodson] was a good-sized boy, possibly 7 years or more when Freedom was declared. His master was “Old Master” Sterrett who had about a 200-acre place and whose son in law Tom Williams ran a store on this place. When Williams married Sterrett’s daughter he was given Uncle Alex and his mother and brother as a present. Williams was then known as “Young Master.”

When war came Old Master gave his (Woodson’s) mother a big roll of bills, “greenbacks as big as your arm”, to keep for him, and was forced to leave the neighborhood. After the war… [Alex Woodson’s mother] returned the money to him intact.

Uncle Alex remembers his mother taking him and other children and running down the river bank and hiding in the woods all night when the soldiers came. They were [Confederate General] Morgan’s men and took all available cattle and horses in the vicinity and beat [searched] the woods looking for Yankee soldiers. Uncle Alex said he saw Morgan at a distance on his big horse and he “was sure a mighty fine looker.”

Sometimes the Yankee soldiers would come riding along and they took things too.

When the [Civil] War was over old Master came back home and the [redacted] continued to live on at the place as usual, except for a few [formerly enslaved people] that wanted to go North…

Interviewee Formerly enslaved person	Birth Year (Age)	Interviewer WPA Volunteer	Enslaver’s Name
Alex Woodson	Unknown (80-85)	Iris Cook	“Old Master” Sterrett, Tom Williams

Interview Location	Residence State	Birth Location
New Albany, IN	IN	Woodsonville, KY

Themes & Keywords	Additional Tags:
Civil War, Emancipation, Economics	First Person, Third Person, Dialect, Sold, Hired Out, Hart County

Woodson_A_1

September 27, 2020November 10, 2022

Wes Woods

Wes Woods grew up near the end of enslavement in our country, but shares the memories he has or has been told of life as an enslaved person. He describes the living conditions first, and then how his father hired him out to earn extra money after Emancipation.

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Excerpt:

There were three or four cabins for the slaves to live in, not so very far from the house. The cabin where my mother and father lived was the closest to the house, for my mother did the cooking. Our cabin was one long room, with a loft above, which we reached with a ladder. There was one big bed, with a trundle bed, which was on wooden rollers and was shoved under the big bed in the daytime. The oldest boys slept in a big wooden bed in the loft. The cabins were built of logs and chinked with rock and mud. The ceiling was of joists, and my mother used to hang the seed that we gathered in the fall, to dry from these joists. Some of the chimneys were made with sticks and chinked with mud, and would sometimes catch on fire. Later people learned to build chimneys of rock with big wide fireplaces, and a hearth of stone, which made them safer from fire.

We were glad when the news came that we were free, but none of us left for a long time, not until the Woods family was broken up. My father hired me out to work for my victuals and clothes, and I got $25.00 at the end of the year. I do not remember any wedding or death in my old master’s house.

Interviewee Formerly enslaved person	Birth Year (Age)	Interviewer WPA Volunteer	Enslaver’s Name
Wes Woods	1864	Eliza Ison	Eliza Kennedy

Interview Location	Residence State	Birth Location
Garrard County, KY	Kentucky	Cartersville, KY

Themes & Keywords	Additional Tags:
Family,	1st Person, Bound out after war

Woods_W_1

September 27, 2020September 28, 2020

Scott Mitchell

Scott Mitchell lived through the Civil War, though he does not know his age. Here, he briefly describes his recollection of the war and stories of lynchings and hangings that took place during that time.

*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:

Yes, I remember the Civil War, because I was living in Christian County where I was born, right with my master and mistress, Captain Hester and his wife. I was raised on a farm right with the, then I left there.

Yes, Captain Hester traded my mother and my sister, ’twas in 1861, he sent them to Mississippi. When they were away from him about two years, he bought them back. Yes, he was good to us. I was my mistress’ boy. I looked after her, and she made all of my clothes, and she knitted my socks, because I was her [redacted].

Yes, I was twenty years old when I was married.

I remember I was a boy when they had the Civil War. I remember there was a brick office where they hanged colored folks. Yes, the blood was a-streaming down. Sometimes they hung them by their feet, sometimes they hung them by their thumbs.

Interviewee Formerly enslaved person	Birth Year (Age)	Interviewer WPA Volunteer	Enslaver’s Name
Scott Mitchell	Unknown	Margaret Bishop	Captain Hester

Interview Location	Residence State	Birth Location
Breathitt County, KY	Kentucky	Christian County, KY

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

Mitchell_S_1

September 3, 2020September 28, 2020

William Quinn

William Quinn was born into enslavement in a rare family that paid a small sum of money to their enslaved people. Here, he describes this practice and how rare it was.

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Excerpt:

Mr. Quinn said that they were what were called “gift slaves”. They were never to be sold from the Stone farm and were given to Stone’s daughter as a gift with that understanding. He said that his “Old master paid him and his brother ten cents a day for cutting down corn and shucking it.”

It was very unusual for a slave to receive any money whatsoever for working. He said that his master had a son about his age, and the son and he and his brother worked around the farm together, and “Master Stone” gave all three of them ten cents a day when they worked. Sometimes they wouldn’t, they would play instead. And whenever “Master Stone” would catch them playing when they ought to have been at work, he would whip them—”and that meant his own boy would get a licking too.”

Interviewee Formerly enslaved person	Birth Year (Age)	Interviewer WPA Volunteer	Enslaver’s Name
William Quinn	unknown	Harry Jackson	Steve Stone

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

Themes & Keywords	Additional Tags
Family, Economics	Third person, hired out

Quinn_W_1

August 20, 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 a story of an enslaver who married and ran away with one of the enslaved males on the plantation. She goes on to describe the reactions and impact this had on the enslaver’s family.

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Excerpt:

A lot of men from our place went to war. I had two uncles who went. It was nothing to see soldiers in our neighborhood. When the war was over, Mr. Preston gave all his slaves deeds for so much land, and built them each a little four-room cottage. Some of them folks are still on that piece of land.

Preston’s slaves were the same as free in those times. The ones on his farm, they tended their own land and was their own boss. Folks said he let his enslaved be free, and some of them talked a lot and said that when his daughter married.

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:
Emancipation, Civil War	First person, Union troops

Baumont_K_1

August 20, 2020October 2, 2020

Julia King

Julia King lived with her entire family on the same plantation. When she was very young, her father, mother and sister all ran away and escaped via the Underground railroad. Here, she describes her memory of a song her mother sang before she escaped.

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Excerpt:

I think the colored folks had a church, because Mamma was always a Baptist. Only colored people went to the church.

Mamma used to sing a song:

“Don’t you remember the promise that you made,

To my old dying mother’s request?

That I never should be sold,

Not for silver or for gold.

While the sun rose from the East to the West?

And it hadn’t been a year,

The grass had not grown over her grave.

I was advertised for sale.

And I would have been in jail,

If I had not crossed the deep, dancing waves.

I’m upon the Northern banks

And beneath the Lion’s paw,

And he’ll growl if you come near the shore.”

Interviewee Formerly enslaved person	Birth Year (Age)	Interviewer WPA Volunteer	Enslaver’s Name
Julia King	1857 (80)	K. Osthimer	Unknown

Interview Location	Residence State	Birth Location
Toledo, OH	Ohio	Louisville, KY

Themes & Keywords	Additional Tags:
Family, Religion	First person, dialect

King_J_2

August 20, 2020September 29, 2020

Angie Boyce

This is a brief recollection of Angie Boyce’s child, as told to her by her mother. Angie was born into enslavement in Kentucky early in the Civil War. Her mother married a man who purchased their freedom and attempted to move them to free territory. The following excerpt recalls their experience being arrested, returned to Kentucky, and put on trial to determine if they should return to enslavement.

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Excerpt:

The mother of Angie was married twice; the name of her first husband was Stines and that of her second husband was Henry King. It was Henry King who bought his and his wife’s freedom. He sent his wife and baby Angie to Indiana, but upon their arrival, they were arrested and returned to Kentucky. They were placed in the Louisville jail and lodged in the same cell with large Brutal and drunken Irish woman. The jail was so infested with bugs and fleas that the baby Angie cried all night. The white woman crazed with drink became enraged at the cries of the child and threatened to “bash its brains out against the wall if it did not stop crying”. The mother, Mrs. King was forced to stay awake all night to keep the white woman from carrying out her threat.

The next morning the N***o mother was tried in court and when she produced her free papers she was asked why she did not show these papers to the arresting officers. She replied that she was afraid that they would steal them from her. She was exonerated from all charges and sent back to Indiana with her baby.

Interviewee Formerly enslaved person	Birth Year (Age)	Interviewer WPA Volunteer	Enslaver’s Name
Angie Boyce	1861	Wm. R. Mays	James Breeding

Interview Location	Residence State	Birth Location
Johnson County, IN	Indiana	Kentucky

Themes & Keywords	Additional Tags:
Family, equality, emancipation	Third person

Boyce_A_1

August 20, 2020November 10, 2022

Amy Elizabeth Patterson

Amy Elizabeth Patterson was born into enslavement, where her mother served as a personal maid and wet nurse for the enslaver’s children. This third person narrative retells Patterson’s experiences as the daughter of an enslaver’s maid, as well as her mother’s experiences giving birth to and raising children for her enslavers.

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Excerpt:

Louisa Street, the mother of Amy Elizabeth Patterson, was a housemaid at the Street home and her firstborn daughter was fair with gold-brown hair and amber eyes. Mr. and Mrs. Street always promised Louisa they would never sell her as they did not want to part with the child, so Louisa was given a small cabin near the master’s house. The mistress had a child near the age of the little mulatto and Louisa was a wet nurse for both children as well as a maid to Mrs. Street. Two years after the birth of Amy Elizabeth, Louisa became the mother of twin daughters, Fannie and Martha Street, then John Street decided to sell all his slaves as he contemplated moving into another territory.

The slaves were auctioned to the highest bidder and Louisa and the twins were bought by a man living near Cadiz but Mr. Street refused to sell Amy Elizabeth. She showed promise of growing into an excellent housemaid and seamstress and was already a splendid playmate and nurse to the little Street boy and girl. So Louisa lost her child but such grief was shown by both mother and child that the mother was unable to perform her tasks and the child cried continually. Then Mr. Street consented to sell the little girl to the mother’s new master.

Louisa Street became the mother of seventeen children. Three were almost white. Amy Elizabeth was the daughter of John Street and half-sister of his children by his lawful wife. Mrs. Street knew the facts and respected Louisa and her child and, says grandmother Patterson, “That was the greatest crime ever visited on the United States. It was worse than the cruelty of the overseers, worse than hunger, for many slaves were well fed and well cared for; but when a father can sell his own child, humiliate his own daughter by auctioning her on the slave block, what good could be expected where such practices were allowed?”

Interviewee Formerly enslaved person	Birth Year (Age)	Interviewer WPA Volunteer	Enslaver’s Name
Amy Elizabeth Patterson	1850 (87)	Lauana Creel	John Street

Interview Location	Residence State	Birth Location
Vanderburgh County, IN	Indiana	Kentucky

Themes & Keywords	Additional Tags:
Gender/gender roles, family	Third person, Sold (self or family), Enslaver father, slave traders

Patterson_A_1

August 20, 2020November 10, 2022

America Morgan

America Morgan and her entire family were enslaved by a cruel enslaver named Clark Rudd. Here, Mrs. Morgan describes various instances of extreme cruelty she witnessed in her time on the plantation.

*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:

She [Mrs. Morgan] remembers very clearly the happenings of her early life. Her mother, Manda Rudd, was owned by Clark Rudd, and the “devil has sure got him.” [Her father] became a Rudd, because he was married to Manda on the Rudd plantation. There were six children in the family, and all went well until the death of the mother; Clark Rudd whipped her to death when America was five years old. Six little children were left motherless to face a “frowning world.”

…Aunt Catherine, who looked after all the children on the plantation, was very unruly, no one could whip her. Once America was sent for two men to come and tie Aunt Catherine. She fought so hard, it was as much as the men could do to tie her. They tied her hands, then hung her to the joist and lashed her with a cowhide. It “was awful to hear her screams.”

She remembers one slave, who had been given five hundred lashes on his back, thrown in his cabin to die. He laid on the floor all night, at dawn he came to himself, and there were bloodhounds licking his back.

When the overseers lashed a slave to death, they would turn the bloodhounds out to smell the blood, so they would know “[redacted] blood,” that would help trace runaway slaves.

Aunt Jane Stringer was given five hundred lashes and thrown in her cabin. The next morning when the overseer came, he kicked her and told her to get up, and wanted to know if she was going to sleep there all day. When she did not answer him, he rolled her over and the poor woman was dead, leaving several motherless children.

Interviewee Formerly enslaved person	Birth Year (Age)	Interviewer WPA Volunteer	Enslaver’s Name
America Morgan	1852 (85)	Anna Pritchett	Clark Rudd

Interview Location	Residence State	Birth Location
Marion County, IN	Indiana	Kentucky

Themes & Keywords	Additional Tags:
Family, Violence	Third person, whipped, witnessed extreme cruelty, sold (self or family), bound out after war

Morgan_A_1

August 20, 2020November 10, 2022

Amelia Jones

In this excerpt, Amelia Jones recollects her time enslaved in Manchester, KY on the plantation of Maw White, and his treatment of her and other enslaved persons on the plantation. She describes the process White used to separate mothers from their children on the day the children were to be sold to another enslaver. The interviewer then proceeds to describe how Jones’ father and sister were sold and separated from her in a similar manner during her childhood.

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Excerpt:

Master White was good to the slaves, he fed us well and had good places for us to sleep, and didn’t whip us, only when it was necessary, but didn’t hesitate to sell any of his slaves, he said, “You all belong to me and if you don’t like it, I’ll put you in my pocket” meaning of course that he would sell that slave and put the money in his pocket.

The day he was to sell the children from their mother he would tell that mother to go to some other place to do some work and in her absence, he would sell the children. It was the same when he would sell a man’s wife, he also sent him to another job, and when he returned his wife would be gone. The master only said, “don’t worry you can get another one”.

The following is also related by the interviewer:

Mrs. Jones has a sister ninety-two years of age living with her now, who was sold from the auction block in Manchester. Her sister was only twelve years of age when sold and her master received $1,220.00 for her, then she was taken south to some plantation. Also her father was sold at that place at an auction of slaves at a high price, handcuffed and taken south. She never saw her father again. She says the day her father was sold there was a long line of slaves to be sold and after they were sold and a good price paid for each they were handcuffed and marched away to the South, her father was among the number.

Interviewee Formerly enslaved person	Birth Year (Age)	Interviewer WPA Volunteer	Enslaver’s Name
Amelia Jones	1849 (88)	Perry Larkey	Daw White

Interview Location	Residence State	Birth Location
London, KY, Laurel County	Kentucky	Kentucky

Themes & Keywords	Additional Tags:
Family, Economics	Sold (self or family), Slave traders, First Person, Third Person,

Jones_A_1

Category: Source Document

Alex Woodson

Excerpt:

Wes Woods

Scott Mitchell

William Quinn

Excerpt:

Kate Dudley Baumont

Julia King

Angie Boyce

Amy Elizabeth Patterson

America Morgan

Amelia Jones

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