| The interviewer records in this interview in the third person and does not record Mrs. Preston’s first name. In this excerpt, the interviewer recounts how the KKK drove Mrs. Preston and her family from their home after the Civil War. |
Excerpt:
…At the close of the war, her [Mrs. Preston’s] father was given a house, land, team and enough to start farming for himself. Several years later the Ku Klux Klan gave them a ten days notice to leave, one of the masked band interceded for them by pointing out that they were quiet and peaceable, and a man with a crop and ten children couldn’t possibly leave on so short a notice so the time was extended another ten days, when they took what the Klan paid them and came north. They remained in the north until they had to buy their groceries “a little piece of this and a little piece of that, like they do now”, when her father returned to Kentucky. Mrs. Preston remained in Indiana. Her father was burned out, the family escaping to the woods in their nightclothes, later befriended by a white neighbor. Now they appealed to their former owner who built them a new house, provided necessities and guards for a few weeks until they were safe from the Ku Klux Klan…
| Interviewee Formerly enslaved person | Birth Year (Age) | Interviewer WPA Volunteer | Enslaver’s Name |
| Mrs. Preston | Unknown (83) | G. Monroe | Brown |
| Interview Location | Residence State | Birth Location |
| Jefferson County, IN | IN | Frankfort, KY |
| Themes & Keywords | Additional Tags: |
| KKK | Franklin County, First Person, Union Troops, Klan/Mob Violence, |
Preston_1