Source Document – Page 5 – Reckoning, Inc.

September 27, 2020October 2, 2020

Robert Glenn

Robert Glenn’s enslaver sold him away from his family at a young age. In this excerpt he describes being put on the auction block three times in one day, while his father and mother attempted to win the auction and purchase him.

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Excerpt:

My father’s time was hired out, and as he knew a trade, he had by working overtime saved up a considerable amount of money. After the speculator, Henry Long, bought me, Mother went to Father and pleaded with him to buy me from him and let the white folks hire me out. No slave could own a slave. Father got the consent and help of his owners to buy me and they asked Long to put me on the block again. Long did so and named his price but when he learned who had bid me off he backed down.

Later in the day he put me on the block and named another price much higher than the price formerly set. He was asked by the white folks to name his price for his bargain and he did so. I was again put on the auction block and Father bought me in, putting up the cash. Long then flew into a rage and cursed my father saying, ‘You damn black son of a bitch, you think you are white do you? Now just to show you are black, I will not let you have your son at any price.’ Father knew it was all off, Mother was frantic but there was nothing they could do about it. They had to stand and see the speculator put me on his horse behind him and ride away without allowing either of them to tell me goodbye. I figure I was sold three times in one day, as the price asked was offered in each instance. Mother was told under threat of a whipping not to make any outcry when I was carried away.

Interviewee Formerly enslaved person	Birth Year (Age)	Interviewer WPA Volunteer	Enslaver’s Name
Robert Glenn	1850 (87)	T. Pat Matthews	Bob Hall, William Moore

Interview Location	Residence State	Birth Location
Raleigh, NC	North Carolina	Hillsboro, NC

Themes & Keywords	Additional Tags:
Family, Equality	First person, sold, slave traders

Glenn_R_1

September 27, 2020October 2, 2020

Robert Glenn

Robert Glenn’s enslaver sold him away from his family at a young age. In this excerpt he describes how the son of his enslaver took it upon himself to teach him how to read and write, which was uncommon and often illegal.

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Excerpt:

Master Moore had four children, among whom was one boy about my age. The girls were named Atona, Beulah, and Minnie, and the boy was named Crosby. He was mighty brilliant. We played together. He was the only white boy there, and he took a great liking to me, and we loved each devotedly. Once in an undertone he asked me how I would like to have an education. I was overjoyed at the suggestion and he at once began to teach me secretly. I studied hard and he soon had me so I could read and write well. I continued studying and he continued teaching me. He furnished me books and slipped all the papers he could get to me and I was the best educated Negro in the community without anyone except the slaves knowing what was going on.

Interviewee Formerly enslaved person	Birth Year (Age)	Interviewer WPA Volunteer	Enslaver’s Name
Robert Glenn	1850 (87)	T. Pat Matthews	Bob Hall, William Moore

Interview Location	Residence State	Birth Location
Raleigh, NC	North Carolina	Hillsboro, NC

Themes & Keywords	Additional Tags:
Literacy	First person, education

Glenn_R_2

September 27, 2020October 2, 2020

Robert Glenn

Robert Glenn’s enslaver sold him away from his family at a young age. In this excerpt he describes his Emancipation and how his enslaver agreed to pay him for a year of his services. It then goes on to talk about Glenn’s difficult decision to leave this place, which he called home, to work elsewhere.

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Excerpt:

A big army of Yankees came through a few months later and soon we heard of the surrender. A few days after this master told me to catch two horses that we had to go to Dickenson which was the County seat of Webster County. On the way to Dickenson he said to me, ‘Bob, did you know you are free and Lincoln has freed you? You are as free as I am.’ We went to the Freedmen’s Bureau and went into the office. A Yankee officer looked me over and asked Master my name, and informed me I was free, and asked me whether or not I wanted to keep living with Moore. I did not know what to do, so I told him yes. A fixed price of seventy-five dollars and board was then set as the salary I should receive per year for my work. The Yankees told me to let him know if I was not paid as agreed.

I had been thinking for several days before I went back home as to just what I must tell Mr. Moore and as to how he felt about the matter, and what I would get when I got home. In my dilemma I almost forgot I was free. I got home at night and my mind and heart was full but I was surprised at the way he treated me. He acted kind and asked me if I was going to stay with him next year. I was pleased. I told him, ‘Yes sir!’, and then I lay down and went to sleep. He had a boss man on his plantation then and next morning he called me, but I just couldn’t wake. I seemed to be in a trance or something, I had recently lost so much sleep. He called me the second time and still I did not get up. Then he came in and spanked my head. I jumped up and went to work feeding the stock and splitting wood for the day’s cooking and fires. I then went in and ate my breakfast. Mr. Moore told me to hitch a team of horses to a wagon and go to a neighbors five miles away for a load of hogs. I refused to do so. They called me into the house and asked me what I was going to do about it. I said I do not know. As I said that I stepped out of the door and left. I went straight to the county seat and hired to Dr. George Rasby in Webster County for one hundred dollars per year. I stayed there one year.

Interviewee Formerly enslaved person	Birth Year (Age)	Interviewer WPA Volunteer	Enslaver’s Name
Robert Glenn	1850 (87)	T. Pat Matthews	Bob Hall, William Moore

Interview Location	Residence State	Birth Location
Raleigh, NC	North Carolina	Hillsboro, NC

Themes & Keywords	Additional Tags:
Emancipation, economics	First person, bound out after war

Glenn_R_3

September 27, 2020September 28, 2020

Robert Howard

Robert Howard was enslaved in Kentucky beginning in 1852. This third person description gives a very brief overview of his life while enslaved.

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Excerpt:

Robert Howard, an ex-slave, was born in 1852, in Clara County, Kentucky. His master, Chelton Howard, was very kind to him. The mother, with her five children, lived on the Howard farm in peace and harmony. His father, Beverly Howard, was owned by Bill Anderson, who kept a saloon on the riverfront.

Beverly was “hired out” in the house of Bill Anderson. He was allowed to go to the Howard farm every Saturday night to visit with his wife and children. This visit was always looked forward to with great joy, as they were devoted to the father.

The Howard family was sold only once, being owned first by Dr. Page in Henry County, Kentucky. The family was not separated; the entire family was bought and kept together until slavery was abolished.

Interviewee Formerly enslaved person	Birth Year (Age)	Interviewer WPA Volunteer	Enslaver’s Name
Robert Howard	1852 (Unknown)	Sarah H. Locke	Chelton HowardDr. Page

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

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

Howard_R_1

September 27, 2020September 28, 2020

Samuel Bell

Samuel Bell was an enslaved person in Kentucky for 12 years before Emancipation. In this excerpt, he describes how the enslaved didn’t truly have rights under the law, and because of this, the enslaver’s rules were the only laws that mattered.

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Excerpt:

“[John Bell] … was a good and a just man and fed his slaves well. He only used the lash when it was absolutely necessary. You know how it is in the court! Well, it was the same way on the plantations in slavery days. A good slave was seldom punished, but mean ones had to be punished to prevent their taking advantage of their master and the other slaves. Slaves were not subject to the laws of the land, and this punishment had to be governed by a slave’s deeds and errors. The master’s will was the only law he was compelled to obey. When a slave refused to work, he was flogged until he was willing to work. The master had to feed and clothe him and expected him to repay with work.

Interviewee Formerly enslaved person	Birth Year (Age)	Interviewer WPA Volunteer	Enslaver’s Name
Samuel Bell	1853	Unknown	John Bell

Interview Location	Residence State	Birth Location
Evansville, IN	Indiana	Kentucky

Themes & Keywords	Additional Tags:
Violence	First person, whipped

Bell_S_1

September 27, 2020September 28, 2020

Samuel Lyons

Samuel Lyons was an enslaved person during his childhood and teenage years. In the excerpt below, he gives a brief overview of life on the plantation.

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Excerpt:

Evall had about 200 slaves on a big plantation and fine race horses. He raised cane, wheat, and corn, and he had a big stillhouse to make his own whiskey, and he made it to sell, too.

We did our cooking in our cabin, and it wasn’t much except jowl bacon, cornbread, and syrup. I and part of our family were sold once, and ole Miss Evall’s mother brought us back the same day.

I saw slaves whipped at the whipping post in Paris, Kentucky, until their backs bled. And then they sprinkled the cuts with salty water.

Different slave owners would take their slaves to help other slave owners cut their winter’s wood, or husk corn, or shear their sheep. We got good food then and sometimes they used to let their slaves have dances together whilst they were working to get the work done.

Evall bought our shoes in Paris, (Kentucky) and if they were too big, we wore them, and if they were too little we wore them just the same, But sometimes we cut the toes out of the shoes to make them long enough.

Interviewee Formerly enslaved person	Birth Year (Age)	Interviewer WPA Volunteer	Enslaver’s Name
Samuel Lyons	1847 (About 90)	Unknown	Evall

Interview Location	Residence State	Birth Location
Clark County, OH	Ohio	Sawhill Station, KY

Themes & Keywords	Additional Tags:
Violence, Emancipation	First person, dialect, whipped

Lyons_S_1

September 27, 2020October 2, 2020

Samuel Sutton

Samuel Sutton was very young when the Civil War was fought, however he has some recollection. Here, he tells of his experiences interacting with soldiers from both sides. He goes on to tell about the celebrations that occurred among the formerly enslaved person on July 4 after the Civil War ended.

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Excerpt:

The war? Yes ma’am, I saw soldiers, Union Calvary going by dressed fine with gold braid on blue and big boots. But the Rebels now, I recollect they had no uniforms because they were hard up and they came in just common clothes. Old master was a Rebel and he always helped them. Yes ma’am. A pitched battle started right on our place. It didn’t last long, for they were running on to fight in Perryville, where the one big battle to take place in the state of Kentucky took place.

Most likely story I remember to tell you about was something that made me mad and I always remembered because of that. I had the biggest, finest watermelon, and I was told to sit up on the fence with the watermelon and show them and sell them twenty cents. Along came a line of soldiers. ‘Hey there boy, how much for the melon?’, one hollered at me.

‘Twenty cents sir!’ I said, just like I had been told to say, and he took that melon right out of my arms and rode off without paying me. I ran after them trying to get my money but I couldn’t keep up with those soldiers on horses, and all of the soldiers just laughed at me. Yes ma’am, they were the finest, biggest melons I ever saw. That was right mean of him, fine looking gentleman he was, at the head of the line.

Ole Master Ballinger, he was a Rebel, and he harbored Rebels. There were two men hanging around there named [Union General Don Carlos] Buell and [Confederate General Braxton] Bragg. Buell was a northerner, Bragg, he was a Rebel. Buell gave Bragg a chance to get away when he should have found out what the Rebs were doing and taken him prisoner. I heard tell about that.

There was a lot of spying and riding around there for one thing or another, but I don’t know what it was all about. I do know I feel sorry for those Rebel soldiers I saw that were ragged and tired, all worn out. Master felt pretty bad about everything sometimes, but I reckon there were mean Rebels and southerners that had it coming to them. I always heard till they had it coming to them.

. . .Yes ma’am, like I told you, the war was over and the colored folks had a big time, with speaking and everything over at Dick Robinson’s camp on the 4th. Never have I seen such rejoicing on the 4th of July since, no ma’am, I ain’t.

Interviewee Formerly enslaved person	Birth Year (Age)	Interviewer WPA Volunteer	Enslaver’s Name
Samuel Sutton	1854	Miriam Logan	Ballinger

Interview Location	Residence State	Birth Location
Lebanon, OH	Ohio	Garrett, KY

Themes & Keywords	Additional Tags:
Civil War	First person, Union troops

Sutton_S_1

September 27, 2020October 4, 2020

Samuel Sutton

Samuel Sutton was very young when the Civil War was fought, however he has some recollection and remembers life directly after. Here he describes his right to vote and why he votes the way he does.

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Excerpt:

I’ve seen two presidents, Grant and Hayes. I voted for Hayes when I was 22 years old. General Grant was running against Greeley when I heard him speak in Louisville. He told what all Lincoln had done for the colored man. Yes ma’am, fine looking man he was, and he wore a fine suit. Yes ma’am. I haven’t missed an election since I was 22 and voted for Hayes. I’m not going to miss any, and I vote like the white man read out of the Emancipation Proclamation. I vote for one of Abe Lincoln’s men every time , I sure do.

Interviewee Formerly enslaved person	Birth Year (Age)	Interviewer WPA Volunteer	Enslaver’s Name
Samuel Sutton	1854	Miriam Logan	Ballinger

Interview Location	Residence State	Birth Location
Lebanon, OH	Ohio	Garrett, KY

Themes & Keywords	Additional Tags:
Voting, 15th Amendment,	First person, Union troops,

Sutton_S_2

September 27, 2020November 10, 2022

Samuel Watson

Samuel Watson was very young when the Civil War ended and Emancipation was granted to those enslaved. However, he clearly remembers the struggles his family had after Emancipation. In this excerpt, he describes the struggle his mother had supporting the family, how his siblings became indentured servants, and his life as an indentured servant to an unkind employer.

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Excerpt:

Uncle Samuel remembers when the war ended and the slaves were emancipated. “Some were happy and some were sad!” Many dreaded leaving their old homes and their masters’ families.

Uncle Samuel’s mother and three children were told that they were free people and the master asked the mother to take her little ones and go away.

She complied and took her family to the plantation of Jourdain James, hoping to work and keep her family together. Wages received for her work failed to support the mother and children so she left the employ of Mr. James and worked from place to place until her children became half starved and without clothing.

The older children, remembering better and happier days, ran away from their mother and went back to their old master.

Thomas Watson went to Dixon, Kentucky and had an article of indenture drawn up binding both Thomas and Laurah to his service for a long number of years. Little Samuel only remained with his mother who took him to the home of William Allen Price. Mr. Price’s plantation was situated in Webster County, Kentucky about half-way between Providence and Clay on Craborchard Creek. Mr. Price had the little boy indentured to his service for a period of eighteen years. There the boy lived and worked on the plantation.

He said he had a good home among good people. His master gave him five real whippings within a period of fourteen years but Uncle Samuel believes he deserved every lash administered.

It was the custom for a slave indentured to a master to be given a fair education, a good horse, bridle, saddle and a suit of clothes for his years of toil, but Mr. Price did not believe the boy deserved the pay and refused to pay him. A lawyer friend sued in behalf of the N***o and received a judgement of $115.00 (one hundred and fifteen dollars). Eighteen dollars repaid the lawyer for his service and Samuel started out with $95.00 and his freedom.

Interviewee Formerly enslaved person	Birth Year (Age)	Interviewer WPA Volunteer	Enslaver’s Name
Samuel Watson	1862	Lauana Creel	Thomas Watson

Interview Location	Residence State	Birth Location
Evansville, IN	Indiana	Clay, KY

Themes & Keywords	Additional Tags:
Emancipation, Economics, Equality	Third person, Dialect, Bound out after war, whipped, notable,

Watson_S_1

September 27, 2020October 2, 2020

Sarah Frances Shaw Graves

Sarah Frances Shaw Graves’ enslaver moved her from Kentucky to Missouri at a young age. In this excerpt, she describes the term “allotment” and the process of hiring out an enslaved person. She goes on to describe how her father was allotted to another enslaver when they were moved to Missouri, and how the enslavers would not tell her mother where her father was in order to encourage her to remarry and have children.

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Excerpt:

Yes ma’am. Allotted? Yes ma’am. I’m going to explain that, she replied. You see there were slave traders in those days, just like you got horse and mule and auto traders now. They bought and sold slaves and hired them out. Yes ma’am, rented them out. Allotted means something like hired out. But the slave never got any wages. That all went to the master. The man they were allotted to paid the master.

I never was sold. My mama was sold only once, but she was hired out many times. Yes ma’am when a slave was allotted, somebody made a down payment and gave a mortgage for the rest. A chattel mortgage. A down payment!! Times don’t change, just the merchandise.

Allotments made a lot of grief for the slaves, Aunt Sally asserted.

We left my papa in Kentucky, because he was allotted to another man. My papa never knew where my mama went, and my mama never knew where papa went.

Aunt Sally paused a moment, then went on bitterly. They never wanted Mama to know, because they knew she would never marry so long as she knew where he was. Our master wanted her to marry again and raise more children to be slaves. They never wanted Mama to know where Papa was, and she never did, sighed Aunt Sally. Only those who have lost their mate, and never know the end of the tale, can understand such heart anguish.

Mama said she would never marry again to have children, continued Aunt Sally, so she married my step-father, Trattle Barber, because he was sick and could never be a father. He was so sick he couldn’t work, so me and mama had to work hard.

Interviewee Formerly enslaved person	Birth Year (Age)	Interviewer WPA Volunteer	Enslaver’s Name
Sarah Frances Shaw Graves	1850 (87)	Unknown	Jimmie Shaw

Interview Location	Residence State	Birth Location
Skidmore, MO	Missouri	Louisville, KY

Themes & Keywords	Additional Tags:
Family, Economics	First person, sold (family), hired out

Graves_S_1

September 27, 2020October 2, 2020

Sarah Frances Shaw Graves

Sarah Frances Shaw Graves’ enslaver moved her from Kentucky to Missouri at a young age. In this excerpt, she gives details about what it’s like to be whipped by an enslaver. She then tells a story of how she was blamed for something one of the enslaver’s children did, and was nearly whipped twice for this.

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Excerpt:

Yes ma’am. Some masters were good and some were bad. My mama’s master whipped his slaves for pastime. My master was not so bad as some were to their slaves. I’ve had many a whipping, some I deserved, and some I got for being blamed for doing things the master’s children did. My master whipped his slaves with a cat-o’-nine-tails. He’d say to me, ’You ain’t had a currying down for some time. Come here!!!’ Then he whipped me with the cat. The cat was made of nine strips of leather fastened onto the end of a whip. Lots of times when he hit me, the cat left nine stripes of blood on my back. Yes ma’am . . .

. . . I belong to the African Methodist Episcopal Church, and I ain’t never cussed but once in my life, and that was one time I nearly got two whippings for something I didn’t do. Some of the master’s kin folks had a wedding, and we walked to the church, and somebody kicked dust on the bride’s clothes, and I got blamed but I never kicked it. The master’s daughter Puss, she kicked it. Ole mistress she whipped me. Yes ma’am, she whipped me. It was the worst whipping I ever got. The worst whipping in my whole life, and I still got the marks on my body. Yes ma’am. I have them yet. When the master came home, he was going to whip me again, and I got mad and told him it was a lie, and if Puss said I kicked dust on the white folks she was a DAMNED LYIN’ DEVIL. He took the switch and gave Puss a whipping for telling a lie. Yes ma’am. That’s the only time I ever cussed in my life. Yes ma’am, and that’s about all I know about slavery and folks’ ways hereabouts.

Interviewee Formerly enslaved person	Birth Year (Age)	Interviewer WPA Volunteer	Enslaver’s Name
Sarah Frances Shaw Graves	1850 (87)	Unknown	Jimmie Shaw

Interview Location	Residence State	Birth Location
Skidmore, MO	Missouri	Louisville, KY

Themes & Keywords	Additional Tags:
Violence	First person, whipped

Graves_S_2

September 27, 2020November 10, 2022

Sarah H. Locke

Sarah Locke’s enslaver kept never sold enslaved persons. He instead kept them within his own family. In this excerpt, she describes an account of the KKK coming to her plantation and the reason why none of the enslaved persons was attacked during this time.

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Excerpt:

She remembers one night the slaves were having a dance in one of the cabins, a band of Ku Kluxers came and took all the firearms they could find, but no one was hurt. However, it did not take long for them to find out why. Another night when the Kluxers were riding, the slaves recognized the voice of their young master. That was the reason why the Keephart slaves were never molested.

Interviewee Formerly enslaved person	Birth Year (Age)	Interviewer WPA Volunteer	Enslaver’s Name
Sarah H. Locke	1859	Anne Pritchett	Jacob Keephart

Interview Location	Residence State	Birth Location
Indiana	Indiana	Woodford County, KY

Themes & Keywords	Additional Tags:
Violence	Third Person, Klan violence

Locke_S_1

September 27, 2020September 28, 2020

Sarah Waggoner

Sarah Waggoner was a 93 year old formerly enslaved person. She remembers a great deal about her life of enslavement. In this excerpt she first describes how her enslaver worked her much harder late in the Civil War because she knew the enslaved were likely to be freed. She then goes on to describe the work and the life she lived inside her enslavers’ house.

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Excerpt:

During the war, Old Miss kept telling me I had to help her put new cloth in the loom and when little Jane, that’s her little girl, wanted me to play, her mother would say, ’Sarey has to work fast now, because she is going to be free’. Oh Lord, Miss, Sarey will never be free. But I was freed.

Now I am going to tell you about home life. I worked in the house for Old Miss, and we had plenty to do and plenty to eat. When the white folks were through eating, I got a pan and got the grub, and sat on the floor and ate it.

Oh Lordy, but I worked hard since I was twelve years old. But not in the fields. Old Miss said there was plenty for me to do in the house, and there was, sure enough. I washed and cooked for all of us. And ironed too. I’d heat the irons, great big old irons, in the fireplace. I ironed on a quilt spread out on the floor, and I ironed just as nice as anybody. I lived right in the house with the white folks. In summer we slept, my brother Henry and me, in a trundle bed in the kitchen; and in the winter made a pallet beside the fireplace. Old Pap was good to us. He kept up a fire all night when it was cold. I never saw a cooking stove or a lace shoe until I was freed. We just had to burn our faces cooking over the fireplace. I milked eight cows and then put the milk away. That took a long time. They didn’t have horses then, much. They had a yoke of oxen. Sometimes some of us were hired out to work but we didn’t get any money for that ourselves. They drawed the wages.

Interviewee Formerly enslaved person	Birth Year (Age)	Interviewer WPA Volunteer	Enslaver’s Name
Sarah Waggoner	1844 (93)	G.K. Bartlett	Jim Howard

Interview Location	Residence State	Birth Location
Savannah, MO	Missouri	Grayson County, KY

Themes & Keywords	Additional Tags:
Gender/gender roles	First person, dialect, hired out

Waggoner_S_1

September 27, 2020September 28, 2020

Sebert Douglas

Sebert Douglas lived in Kentucky before and during the Civil War. In this excerpt, he gives several brief recollections: of Morgan’s raid, enslaved persons who joined the Union Army, examples of KKK violence, and what he did after emancipation.

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Excerpt:

I remember [Confederate General John Hunt] Morgan’s Raid. I don’t remember what year it was but I remember a right smart about it. Cumberland Gap was where they met. The Rebs and Yankees both came and took things from old master. I remember three horses they took as well. Yankees had tents in the yard. They were in the yard right in front of the Methodist church.

My mother was Mrs. Hood’s slave, and when she married she took my mother along and I was born on her place. I was the carriage boy in slave times. My father did the driving and I was the waiting boy. I opened the gates.

I remember Billy Chandler and Lewis Rodman ran off and joined the Yankees but they came back after the war was over.

Pattyrollers were about the same as the Ku Klux. The Ku Klux would take the roof off the colored folks’ houses and take their bedding and make ’em go back where they came from.

We stayed right there with old master for two or three years, then we went to the country and farmed for ourselves.

I went to school just long enough to read and write. I never seen any use for figures until I married and went to farming.

Interviewee Formerly enslaved person	Birth Year (Age)	Interviewer WPA Volunteer	Enslaver’s Name
Sebert Douglas	82 years old	Bernice Bowden	Gover Hood

Interview Location	Residence State	Birth Location
Pine Bluff, AK	Arkansas	Lebanon, KY

Themes & Keywords	Additional Tags:
Civil War, Emancipation, Violence,	First person, dialect, Klan/mob violence, Union soldiers,

Douglas_S_1

September 27, 2020September 28, 2020

Sophia Word

Sophia word spent the first nearly 20 years of her life enslaved. In this excerpt, she tells several stories of extreme cruelty and their results. The first is an example of her being whipped for trying to take food from the kitchen of her enslaver. The next set of stories describes the cruelty of a neighboring enslaver and the suicides of the enslaved that resulted from this treatment.

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Excerpt:

The mistress had an old parrot and one day I was in the kitchen making cookies. I decided I wanted some of them, so I took me out some and put them on a chair, and when I did this the mistress entered the door. I picked up a cushion and threw it over the pile of cookies on the chair. Mistress came near the chair and the old parrot cries out, ‘Mistress burn, Mistress burn’, then the mistress looked under the cushion and she had me whipped. But the next day I killed the parrot, and she often wondered who or what killed the bird.

My master wasn’t as mean as most masters. Hugh White was so mean to his slaves, that I know of two gals that killed themselves. One n***** gal, Sudie, was found across the bed with a pen knife in her hand. He whipped another N***** gal most to death for forgetting to put onions in the stew. The next day she went down to the river and for nine days they searched for her and her body finally washed upon the shore. The master could never live in that house again as when he would go to sleep he would see the n***** standing over his bed. Then he moved to Richmond and there he stayed until a little later when he hung himself.

Interviewee Formerly enslaved person	Birth Year (Age)	Interviewer WPA Volunteer	Enslaver’s Name
Sophia Word	1937 (99)	Pearl House	William Reid

Interview Location	Residence State	Birth Location
Clay County, KY	Kentucky	Unknown

Themes & Keywords	Additional Tags:
Family, violence	First person, dialect, witnessed extreme cruelty

Word_S_1

September 27, 2020September 28, 2020

Watt Jordan

Watt Jordan grew up in a large family of enslaved persons. He and his family lived in fear of being separated after his grandmother was sold and never seen again. In this excerpt, he describes that event, as well as his and his family’s fate after Emancipation, in which he was bound out but left that home early due to cruel treatment.

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Excerpt:

. . . There were thirteen of us children. I remember best, Molly, Walker, Charles, Aggie, Henry, and Zeke. They were fixing to sell us again when freedom was declared. My mother was sick, and she feared we would all be sold down south somewhere and she’d never see us again.

. . . When freedom was declared, ole man Spencer told Mother she could stay on until she got well, and he wanted to know what she was going to do about us children. So she bound several of us out and I went to Matt Clay, who took me to stay until I was 21. I’ve never seen Mother again.

I left Clay’s after he flew into a rage one day and was going to whip me. I was eighteen then, and I knew I was just as good a man as Clay was; so, when he started to whip me, I just whipped him and left. He tried to get me back, then came to town and raised a racket, but folks all told him I was free to do what I wanted, so he left me alone.

The Spencer plantation wasn’t big and there weren’t so many slaves on it. My grandmother lived on the same plantation as us, but they sold her off somewhere, and we never saw or heard tell of her again. Once, ole man Spencer gave her a good whipping, because she stole food from the house for us children, and I remember it because we never got hardly anything to eat.

Interviewee Formerly enslaved person	Birth Year (Age)	Interviewer WPA Volunteer	Enslaver’s Name
Watt Jordan	1857	Unknown	Dick SpencerJordan

Interview Location	Residence State	Birth Location
Clark County, OH	Ohio	Fleming County, KY

Themes & Keywords	Additional Tags:
Family, Emancipation	First person, dialect, witnessed extreme cruelty, bound out after war sold (family)

Jordan_W_1

September 27, 2020September 28, 2020

Will Oats

Will Oats grew up enslaved to a wealthy plantation owner. This excerpt describes the plantation, including how holidays and spare time were spent. The excerpt finishes by describing how his family made a living after emancipation.

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Excerpt:

When the slaves would disobey their master while working, they were punished in some way, but there was no jail. They didn’t know how to read or write, and they had no church to attend. All they had to do when not at work was to talk to the older folks. On Christmas morning they would usually have a little extra to eat and maybe a stick of candy. On New Year’s Day their work went on just the same as on any other day.

As a boy, Will loved to play marbles, which was about the most interesting game they had to play. Of course, they could play outside, as all children do now, when they had spare time.

At that time there were few doctors and when the slaves would get hurt or sick; They were usually looked after by the master or by their overseer.

After the war had closed, Will’s grandmother walked from Monticello to Camp Nelson to get her free papers and her children. They were all very happy, but they were wondering what they were going to do without a home, work, or money. But after Will and his mother and grandmother got their freedom, the grandmother bought a little land and a house and they all went there to live. Of course, they worked for other people and raised a great deal of what they ate. Will lived there until he grew older and went out for himself, and later moved to Mercer County where he lives now.

Interviewee Formerly enslaved person	Birth Year (Age)	Interviewer WPA Volunteer	Enslaver’s Name
Will Oats	1854 (84)	Hazel Cinnamon	Lewis Oats

Interview Location	Residence State	Birth Location
Mercer County, KY	Kentucky	Wayne County, KY

Themes & Keywords	Additional Tags:
Family, Emancipation	Third person

Oats_W_1

September 27, 2020October 2, 2020

William Ball Williams, III

William Ball Williams, III fought for the Union army in the Civil War. In this excerpt, he describes the experience of being a formerly enslaved person in the Union army and the fear he always lived in.

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Excerpt:

I ran away to Louisville to join the Yankees one day. I was scared to death all the time. They put us in front to shield themselves. They said they were fighting for us–for our freedom. Piles of them were killed. I got a flesh wound. I’m scarred up some. We got plenty to eat. I was in two or three hot battles. I wanted to quit but they would catch them and shoot them if they left. I didn’t know how to get out and get away. I mustered out at Jacksonville, Florida and walked every step of the way back. When I got back it was fall of the year. My folks were still at my master’s. I was on picket guard at Jacksonville, Florida. We fought a little at Pensacola, Florida.

Interviewee Formerly enslaved person	Birth Year (Age)	Interviewer WPA Volunteer	Enslaver’s Name
William Ball Williams, III	98 years old	Irene Robertson	Robert Ball

Interview Location	Residence State	Birth Location
Forrest City, AK	Arkansas	Greensburg, KY

Themes & Keywords	Additional Tags:
Civil War	First Person, Union soldiers

Williams_W_1

September 27, 2020October 2, 2020

William Emmons

William Emmons spent much of his early life enslaved. Here, he describes the process of traders who bought and sold enslaved people, and they bought and sold these people for various reasons, including breeding and to take advantage of struggling plantation owners who needed extra money.

*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:

Ole man Emmons had asked his family to never sell off any of the [ ] if they could help it, and never to sell any of them to [ ] traders. The traders were looked on as low, and they treated folks badly. Why I’ve seen slave traders buy up women and men for the purpose of breeding them just like animals, and they’d beat them if they didn’t do what they expected of them. The slave traders wanted strong children for work hands and they were all the time figuring to get a strong woman to carry out the plan for raising children that would sell really good. They would keep them and feed them for a few years and then sell them off to the highest bidder. There is no decency in such folks as them.

Slavery was worse than most people could imagine, at best. The [ ] traders used to travel all over the country sometimes and buy up slaves from plantation owners who were almost ready to go down in debt. I’ve seen men chained together, and women being carried in wagons with their babies. Just taking them to market for sale like cattle.

Interviewee Formerly enslaved person	Birth Year (Age)	Interviewer WPA Volunteer	Enslaver’s Name
William Emmons	1845 (93)	Unknown	Roy EmmonsRiggs

Interview Location	Residence State	Birth Location
Springfield, OH	Ohio	Nicholas, KY

Themes & Keywords	Additional Tags:
Economics	First person, slave traders

Emmons_W_1

September 27, 2020October 2, 2020

William Emmons

William Emmons spent much of his early life enslaved. He also fought in the Civil War, which he describes below, including being threatened while on the way to enlist, getting injured in battle, and the celebrations that followed the announcement of victory. He finishes by describing briefly the work he did 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.

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Excerpt:

I left and joined the army when I was 18. But forty of us from the plantation around near Carlisle went at the same time. When we went off for the army, going down a dusty road, three white fellers we knew came a riding up, and said, “Where are you [redacted] goin?” We told them we were going to war and they tried to make us go back to the plantation. We told them we’d kill them sure if they kept on meddling with us, and they got scared and let us alone.

In one the battles I got shot in the left hand, and I tied it up myself. The captain he noticed it one day, and he asked to see it. Then he sent me to the hospital. They thought they’d have to take my hand off, but I didn’t want them to that. So they kept me in the hospital for about thirty days and doctored it, and finally, I was back in the lines fighting.

The day we were emancipated we were at Petersburg, Virginia, and I never heard as much shouting and hollering in my life. When the war was over, I went back to Emmonds plantation, and they asked me what I was going to do now that I was free. I told them I was going to work, but they told me no free [ ]could stay on the plantation.

I went to Mason County and hired to a Major Read. He was an abolitionist and went about the country trying to get the plantation owners to hire the free slaves and help make good citizens of them. Major Read paid me $20.00 a month, and board and clothes. I was able to save a good little sum, and I left and went up to Ripley.

Interviewee Formerly enslaved person	Birth Year (Age)	Interviewer WPA Volunteer	Enslaver’s Name
William Emmons	1845 (93)	Unknown	Roy EmmonsRiggs

Interview Location	Residence State	Birth Location
Springfield, OH	Ohio	Nicholas, KY

Themes & Keywords	Additional Tags:
Civil War, Emancipation	First person, Union soldiers

Emmons_W_2