In this excerpt, the interviewer records George Thompson’s memories of enslavement in the first person. After describing how enslaved people were named, George Thompson explains how despite wanting to learn how to read, his enslaver used violence to prevent him from learning.
…I [George Thompson] was quite a small boy when our family, which included an older sister, was sold to Ed. Thompson in Metcalfe Co. Kentucky, who owned about 50 other slaves, and as was the custom then we were given the name of our new master, “Thompson”.
I was hardly twelve years old when slavery was abolished, yet I can remember at this late date most of the happenings as they existed at that time.
I was so young and inexperienced when freed I remained on the Thompson plantation for four years after the war and worked for my board [shelter] and clothes as coach boy and any other odd jobs around the plantation.
I have no education, I can neither read nor write, as a slave I was not allowed to have books. On Sundays, I would go into the woods and gather ginseng which I would sell to the doctors for from 10¢ to 15¢ a pound, and with this money, I would buy a book that was called the Blue Back Speller. Our master would not allow us to have any books and when we were lucky enough to own a book we would have to keep it hidden, for if our master would find us with a book he would whip us and take the book from us. After receiving three severe whippings I gave up and never again tried for any learning, and to this day I can neither read nor write…
Interviewee Formerly enslaved person
Birth Year (Age)
Interviewer WPA Volunteer
Enslaver’s Name
George Thompson
1854 (approx. 83)
William R. Mays
Manfred Furgeson, Ed Thompson
Interview Location
Residence State
Birth Location
Johnson County, IN
IN
Hart, KY
Themes & Keywords
Additional Tags:
Education, Literacy, Emancipation, Violence
Metcalf County, Hart County, Monroe County, First Person, Whipped, Sold, Slave Patrollers
In this excerpt, the interviewer records George Scruggs memories in the first person. The interviewer first recounts George Scruggs’ work as an enslaved person for two different enslavers, then a time he feared he was going to be sold. Teachers may need to help students critically examine George Scruggs statement that his enslaver “was sure good to me” given that the enslaver whipped him when he chose to go barefoot.
*Historically-used terms that are offensive, marginalizing and/or disparaging have been removed from the transcripts and replaced with [redacted]. See more information.
…I was a slave before the war. My boss, the man that I belonged to, was Ole Man Vol Scruggs. He was a racehorse man. He had a [redacted] boy for every horse those days and a white man for every horse, too. I was born right here in Murray. My boss carried me away from here. I thought a heap of him and he though a heap of me. I’d rub the legs of the horses and ride them around to give them exercise. I was just a small boy when my boss carried me away from Murray. My boss carried me to Lexington. I stayed with Ole Man Scruggs a long time. I just don’t know how long… He then hired me to work for a doctor in Lexington. My job was to clean up his office and when he went out in the country, he took me along to open the gates. I had to scour knives and forks and ole brass candlesticks. That’s been a long time ago, I’m telling you, white man [George Scruggs is referring to the interviewer]. While I was sweeping the doctor’s office one day I saw droves of [redacted] folks going by with two white men riding in front, two riding in the middle, and two riding behind. The [redacted] folks were walking, going down town to be sold. When I first saw them coming I got scared and started to run but the white man said, “Stop, boy, we are not going to hurt you.” I stayed with that boss doctor for something like a year, and then went back to my Ole Boss. I’d been up there with him yet but he kept telling me I was free. But I didn’t know what he meant by such talk…My Old Boss was sure good to me, white man. I sure do love him yet. Why, he never would allow me to go barefooted, because he was afraid I’d stick thorns in my feet, and if he even caught me barefooted, he sure would make my back tell it [the enslaver would whip George Scruggs]. … I now live in one mile of the house where I was born.
…Yes, ma’am [George Morrison is referring to the interviewer], the War sure did affect my family. My father fought for the north. He got shot in his side, but it finally got all right. He saved his money and came north after the war and got a good job. But, I saw them fellows from the south take my Uncle. They put his clothes on him right in the yard and took him with them to fight. And even the white folks, they all cried. But he came back, he wasn’t hurt but he wasn’t happy in his mind like my pappy was.
Yes ma’am, I would rather live in the North. The South’s all right but some ways I just don’t feel down there like I do up here…
The interviewer uses quotation marks to indicate the first person recollections of George Morrison. It is important to note that the first person narrative is still written by the interviewer, not by George Morrison himself. In this excerpt, George Morrison describes his life as an enslaved person, his relationship with his master, and how some enslaved people escaped.
*Historically-used terms that are offensive, marginalizing and/or disparaging have been removed from the transcripts and replaced with [redacted]. See more information.
…“I [George Morrison] was born in Union County, Kentucky, near Morganfield. My master was Mr. Ray, he made me call him Mr. Ray, wouldn’t let me call him Master. He said I was his little free [redacted].”
When asked if there were many slaves on Mr. Ray’s farm, he [George Morrison] said, “Yes ma’am, there were seven cabins of us. I was the oldest child in our family. Mr. Ray said he didn’t want me in the tobacco, so I stayed at the house and waited on the women folk and went after the cows when I was big enough. I carried my stick over my shoulder, for I was afraid of snakes.
Mr. Ray was always very good to me, he liked to play with me, cause I was so full of tricks and so mischievous. He gave me a pair of boots with brass toes. I shined them up every day, til you could see your face in them…
…Yes Ma’am. I remember when people used to take wagon loads of corn to the market in Louisville, and they would bring back home lots of groceries and things. A [redacted] man told me he had come north to the market in Louisville with his master, and was working hard unloading the corn when a white man walks up to him, shows him some money and asks him if he wanted to be free? He said he stopped right then and went with the man, who hid him in his wagon under the provisions and they crossed the Ohio River right on the ferry. That’s the way lots of them got across here…”
In this excerpt, the interviewer recounts formerly enslaved person George Henderson’s memories of education, religion and emancipation in the first person.
…I saw the slaves in chains after they were sold. The white folks did not teach us to read and write. We had church on the plantation but we went from one plantation to another to hear preaching. White folks preacher’s name was Reuben Lee, in Versailles [Kentucky]. A meeting of the Baptist Church resulted in the first baptizing I ever saw. It was in Mr. Chillers pond. The preacher would say ‘I am baptizing you in Mr. Chillers pond because I know he is an honest man’…
…When the news came we were freed everybody was glad. The slaves cleared up the ground and cut down trees. Stayed with Master Cleveland the first year after the war. Have heard the Ku Klux Klan ride down the road, wearing masks. None ever bothered me or any of Master Clevelands slaves…
…Our clothes were made of jeans and linsey in winter. In the summer we wore cotton clothes. They gave us shoes at Christmas time. We were measured with sticks. Once I was warming my shoes on a back log on the big fireplace, they fell over behind the logs and burnt up. I didn’t marry while on the plantation…
On Christmas and New Years day we would go up to the house and they would give us candy and fruit and fire-crackers. We were given some of all the food that the white folks had, even turkey. Would have heaps of corn-shuckings, the neighbors would come in and then we’d have big dances and old Master would always have a “jug of liquor”…
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 George Fordman’s description of the funeral of Mistress Hester Lam, who had enslaved George Fordman and his family. Mistress Hester Lam emancipated the family five years before the Civil War. Due to the incestuous rape committed by her son, Hester Lam was George Fordman’s paternal grandmother and great-grandmother.
… It was customary to conduct a funeral differently than it is conducted now, he said. I remember I was only six years old when old Mistress Hester Lam passed on to her eternal rest. She was kept out of her grave several days in order to allow time for the relatives, friends and ex-slaves to be notified of her death.
The house and yard were full of grieving friends. Finally the lengthy procession started to the graveyard. Within the Georges’ parlors there had been Bible passages read, prayers offered up and hymns sung, now the casket was placed in a wagon drawn by two horses. The casket was covered with flowers while the family and friends rode in ox carts, horse-drawn wagons, horseback, and with still many on foot they made their way towards the river.
When we reached the river there were many canoes busy putting the people across, besides the ferry boat was in use to ferry vehicles over the stream. The ex-slaves were crying and praying and telling how good granny had been to all of them and explaining how they knew she had gone straight to Heaven, because she was so kind—and a Christian. There were not nearly enough boats to take the crowd across if they crossed back and forth all day, so my mother, Eliza, improvised a boat or ‘gunnel’, as the craft was called, by placing a wooden soap box on top of a long pole, then she pulled off her shoes and, taking two of us small children in her arms, she paddled with her feet and put us safely across the stream…
At the burying ground a great crowd had assembled from the neighborhood across the river and there were more songs and prayers and much weeping. The casket was let down into the grave without the lid being put on and everybody walked up and looked into the grave at the face of the dead woman. They called it the ‘last look’ and everybody dropped flowers on Mistress Hester as they passed by. A man then went down and nailed on the lid and the earth was thrown in with shovels. The ex-slaves filled in the grave, taking turns with the shovel. Some of the men had worked at the smelting furnaces so long that their hands were twisted and hardened from contact with the heat. Their shoulders were warped and their bodies twisted but they were strong as iron men from their years of toil. When the funeral was over mother put us across the river on the gunnel and we went home, all missing Mistress Hester.
Interviewee Formerly enslaved person
Birth Year (Age)
Interviewer WPA Volunteer
Enslaver’s Name
George Fordman
Unknown (Unknown)
Lauana Creel
Ford George
Interview Location
Residence State
Birth Location
Evansville, IN
IN
AL or KY
Themes & Keywords
Additional Tags:
Family, Funeral
Trigg County, First Person, Enslaver Father, Notable
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.
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 Fordman
Unknown (Unknown)
Lauana Creel
Ford George
Interview Location
Residence State
Birth Location
Evansville, IN
IN
AL or KY
Themes & Keywords
Additional Tags:
Education, Emancipation, Family, Violence
Trigg County, First Person, Enslaver Father, Notable
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.
…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 Fordman
Unknown (Unknown)
Lauana Creel
Ford George
Interview Location
Residence State
Birth Location
Evansville, IN
IN
AL or KY
Themes & Keywords
Additional Tags:
Family, Violence, Resistance, Escape
Trigg County, First Person, Enslaver Father, Notable
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.
…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 Logan
Grohagen
Interview Location
Residence State
Birth Location
Lebanon, OH
OH
Hardin County, KY
Themes & Keywords
Additional Tags:
Religion
Hardin County, First Person, Dialect, Enslaver Father, Slave Traders
Henderson_C_2
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