| Kate Baumont was very young when slavery ended, but she has specific memories from her childhood, which she shares. This excerpt describes how the enslaved on the plantation she worked were all given their own land to work while they were enslaved. They were also given similar plots of land when they were freed, which many continued to live on and work for years after emancipation. |
Excerpt:
When we lived on the Preston farm something happened that raised a lot of talk. One of the Preston girls fell in love with the Negro coachman and ran off and married him in Canada. Said she never wanted to marry a white man. She never did have white beaux as a girl. Her father was so hurt, and he said he was going to disown her. But he did give them $10,000, then he said he never wanted them to come back to visit him or his folks, but his folks could go up to Canada and visit with her and her family. Before, the Prestons threatened to kill the man, but the girl said if they killed him, she would kill some of them and herself, too. She told them
that she persuaded him to take her, and that she had been in love with him for years, and had tried ever so long to get him to run off with her and marry her. Ole Miss like to died, but she got over it, and took trips up to Canada when she wanted to see her daughter. But the girl and her husband, they never came back to her old home. They had a family, so we heard, and he was doing well and had some kind of business, and later, it was said he made a lot of money. He was a nice-looking man; dark, but fine featured.
| 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: |
| Family | First person, dialect |
Baumont_K_2