Civil War – Page 3 – Reckoning, Inc.

September 29, 2020October 4, 2020

Mary Jane Mooreman

The interviewer records this interview in the first person, writing down the words of Mary Jane Mooreman using heavy dialect. The reader should note that these are not necessarily the exact words of Mary Jane Mooreman – they are the interviewer’s version of Mary Jane Mooreman’s speech. In this excerpt, the interviewer recounts how Mary Jane Mooreman learned how to read and write before documenting her memories of the Civil War.

Miss Maud is Mary Jane Mooreman’s employer, who was also present for the interview.Miss Mary is the interviewer, Mary D. Hudgens.

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Excerpt:

…Yes ma’am we learned to read and write. Oh, Miss Maude now–I don’t want to recite. I don’t want to. (But she did Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star and The Playful Kitten–the latter all of 40 lines.) I think, I think they both come out of McGuffey’s second Reader. Yes ma’am I remember McGuffey’s and the Blueback speller too.

No, Miss Mary, there wasn’t so much of the war that was fought around us. I remember that old Master used to go out in the front yard and stand by a locust tree and put his ear against it. He said that way he could hear the cannon down to Bowling Green. No, I didn’t ever hear any shooting from the war myself.

Yes ma’am, the Confederates used to come through lots. I remember how we used to go to the spring for water for them. Then we’d stand with the buckets on our heads while they drank–drank out of a big gourd. When the buckets were empty we’d go back to the spring for more water. Once the Yankees [Union soldiers] come by the place. It was at night. They went out to the quarters [where the enslaved people lived] and they tried to get them to rise up. Told them [the enslaved people] to come on in the big house and take what they wanted. Told them to take anything they wanted to take, take Master’s silver spoons and Miss’ silk dress. ‘If they don’t like it, we’ll shoot their brains out,’ they said. Next morning they told Master. He got scared and moved… It was near the end of the war and we were already free, only we didn’t know it…

Interviewee Formerly enslaved person	Birth Year (Age)	Interviewer WPA Volunteer	Enslaver’s Name
Mary Jane Mooreman	[Year (age at interview)]	Mary D. Hudgens	Charles Wickliffe Mooreman

Interview Location	Residence State	Birth Location
AR	AR	KY

Themes & Keywords	Additional Tags:
Civil War, Emancipation, Literacy, Education	Hartford County, First Person, Sold, Union Troops

Mooreman_M_1

September 29, 2020October 4, 2020

Mary Wooldridge

Mary Wooldridge was sold multiple times while enslaved, including at around fourteen years old when she was separated from her twin sister. Thomas McElroy enslaved over three hundred people on his two plantations, among them was Mary Wooldridge. In this excerpt, the interviewer recounts Mary Wooldridge’s thoughts on Abraham Lincoln, the Civil War, emancipation and voting.

The interviewer records this interview in the first person, writing down the words of Mary Wooldridge using heavy dialect. The reader should note that these are not necessarily the exact words of Mary Wooldridge – they are the interviewer’s version of Mary Wooldridge’s speech. Teachers might ask students to consider how the interviewer’s choice to present the words in this manner might impact the reader’s opinion about Mary Wooldridge. Students may also need help understanding why in the 1930s when she was interviewed Mary Wooldridge would say she preferred slavery.

*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:

…Yah, yah, I sure do remember Abraham Lincoln. my missus and master did not like Mr. Lincoln but, pshaw, all the [redacted] did. I remember him, I saw him once, soon after I was freed.

They were hard times during the [Civil] war, my missus and some of the… [enslaved] gals and the children had to stay in the woods several days to keep way from the soldiers. They ate all the chickens and killed the cows and took the horses and we were sure scared out there with those varmints [soldiers] roving around.

[redacted] ain’t got no business being set free, [redacted] still ought to be slaves. We…did not have to bother about the victuals [food] or anything

When my missis called us…together and told us we were free I was as happy as a skinned frog, but you see I didn’t have any sense… Oh how I miss my missus and master so much. Wish I had them now.

… I’m a Republican – who ever heared of a Democrat [redacted]? [Redacted] never did own anything so they cant be Democrats, and if they vote a Democrat ticket they are just voting a lie. Because no [redacted] never did own slaves… You just have to have owned slaves to vote a Democrat ticket…

Interviewee Formerly enslaved person	Birth Year (Age)	Interviewer WPA Volunteer	Enslaver’s Name
Mary Wooldridge	Unknown (Unknown)	Unknown	Bob Eaglin, Thomas McElroy

Interview Location	Residence State	Birth Location
Clarksville Pike, KY	KY	KY

Themes & Keywords	Additional Tags:
Voting, Emancipation, Civil War	Washington County, First Person, Dialect, Sold, Slave Traders, Union Troops

Wooldridge_M_1

September 29, 2020October 4, 2020

Mrs. Preston

The interviewer records this interview in the third person and does not record Mrs. Preston’s first name. In this excerpt, the interviewer recounts Mrs. Preston’s memories of the Civil War.

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Excerpt:

… Her ‘Master Brown’, resided in Frankfort, having taken his best horses and hogs, and leaving his family in the care of an overseer on a farm. He was afraid the Union soldiers would kill him, but thought his wife would be safe. This opinion proved to be true. The overseer called the slaves to work at four o’clock, and they worked until six in the evening…

She remembered seeing Union and Confederate soldiers shooting across a river near her home. Her uncle fought two years and returned safely at the end of the war. She did not feel that her master and mistress had mistreated their slaves…

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:
Civil War	Franklin County, First Person, Union Troops, Klan/Mob Violence,

Preston_2

September 29, 2020October 4, 2020

Joana Owens

In this short excerpt, Joana Owens describes her life as an enslaved person and the brutality of enslaver Nolan Barr. The interviewer recounts the words of Joana Owens in the first person. The excerpt ends with a brief memory of the Civil War.

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Excerpt:

…My mother and father were slaves, and there were two children born to them, my sister, and me. We used to live in Hawesville, Kentucky, on the Ohio River. My people’s name was Barr, and their master’s name was Nolan Barr. You know they all had to take their masters names in slave days.

I will never forget how mean old Master Nolan Barr was to us. I was about fourteen years old and my sister was a little younger. We lived in an old log cabin. The cracks were filled with mud. My Mother did the housework for Master Barr’s house. My father and sister and I had to work in the fields. He had a big farm and owned lots of slaves, and when the old master got mad at his slaves for not working hard enough he would tie them up by their thumbs and whip the male slaves till they begged for mercy. He sure was a mean old man. I will never forget him as long as I live. I don’t know exactly how old I am, but I am close to ninety now. After I grew up and married a man named Owens, we come here to Louisville to live. That was a short while after the slaves were freed. I can remember how I and my sister used to go down to the river and watch the red hospital boats come in, bringing the wounded soldiers [from the Civil War] in to be cared for…

Interviewee Formerly enslaved person	Birth Year (Age)	Interviewer WPA Volunteer	Enslaver’s Name
Joana Owens	Unknown (about 90)	Unknown	Nolan Barr

Interview Location	Residence State	Birth Location
Louisville, KY	KY	Hawesville, KY

Themes & Keywords	Additional Tags:
Violence, Civil War	Hancock County, First Person, Witnessed Extreme Cruelty

Owens_J_1

September 27, 2020October 2, 2020

Dulcina Baker Martin

In this excerpt, former enslaved person Dulcina Baker Martin describes Union soldiers raiding her enslavers’ farm for food and supplies, and her optimistic feelings about this experience.

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Excerpt:

When I lived with Ole Miss (enslaver), I remember a pack of soldiers coming and taking’ all the saddle and buggy horses, and only leaving one old brokedown nag in the barn. Ole Miss cried and cried, but there ain’t no use a crying’ after the colt is gone. The soldiers took all the meat from the smokehouse, and that was something awful, because we didn’t know what we were going to do for meat, for most folks was having’ the same thing happen.

It wasn’t so pleasant to have soldiers come and do things like that, but Mother, she says, she was always glad, because she felt the Union was being’ helped to win the war by us having enough to feed the soldiers.

Interviewee Formerly enslaved person	Birth Year (Age)	Interviewer WPA Volunteer	Enslaver’s Name
Dulcina Baker Martin	1859 (78)	Unknown	Jack Rutledge

Interview Location	Residence State	Birth Location
Clark County, OH	Ohio	Kentucky

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

Martin_D_1

September 27, 2020October 2, 2020

Eli Coleman

Eli Coleman was born in 1846 and has a long memory of enslavement. In this excerpt he describes what it was like to serve alongside his enslaver in the Civil War.

*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:

Master was a colonel in the war and took me along to care for his horse and gun. Those guns, you couldn’t hear anything popping. We [redacted] had to go all over and pick up those who were killed. The hurt we carried back. Those too badly hurt we had to carry to the burying place and the White man would finish killing them, so we could roll them in the hole.

Interviewee Formerly enslaved person	Birth Year (Age)	Interviewer WPA Volunteer	Enslaver’s Name
Eli Coleman	1846 (91)	Unknown	George Brady

Interview Location	Residence State	Birth Location
Texas	Texas	Kentucky

Themes & Keywords	Additional Tags:
Civil War	First person, witnessed extreme cruelty, Union Troops

Coleman_E_1

September 27, 2020October 2, 2020

George Conrad, Jr.

George Conrad was an enslaved person on a 900 acre farm in Kentucky. His father enlisted in the Union Army during the Civil War. In this excerpt, Mr. Conrad describes his father enlisting with the other males who were enslaved on the plantation. He also tells a tale of the enslaved hiding and protecting their enslaver when Union troops raided the plantation.

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Excerpt:

There were 14 colored men working for old Master Joe and 7 women. I think it was on the 13th of May, all 14 of these colored men, and my father, went to the Army. When old Master Joe come to wake them up the next morning–I remember he called real loud, Miles, Esau, George, Frank, Arch, on down the line, and my mother told him they’d all gone to the army. Old Master went to Cynthiana, Kentucky, where they had gone to enlist and begged the officer in charge to let him see all of his boys, but the officer said “No.” Some way or another he got a chance to see Arch, and Arch came back with him to help raise the crops.

. . . When my father went to the army old Master told us he was gone to fight for us n******’ freedom. My daddy was the only one that come back out of the 13 men that enlisted, and when my daddy came back old Master gave him a buggy and horse.

When the Yanks come, I never will forget one of them was named John Morgan. We carried old Master down to the barn and hid him in the hay. I felt so sorry for old Master they took all his hams, some of his whiskey, and all they could find, hogs, chickens, and just treated him something terrible.

Interviewee Formerly enslaved person	Birth Year (Age)	Interviewer WPA Volunteer	Enslaver’s Name
George Conrad, Jr.	1860 (77)	Unknown	Joe Conrad

Interview Location	Residence State	Birth Location
Oklahoma City, OK	Oklahoma	Harrison County, Kentucky

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

Conrad_G_2

September 27, 2020September 28, 2020

George Dorsey

George Dorsey was an enslaved child during the Civil War. In this excerpt, he describes the fear he always had when he saw soldiers approaching the plantation where he was enslaved. He tells of hiding from them, and also of witnessing them stealing food and supplies from the plantation. He ends by describing a tale of a horse that belonged to the enslaver’s son being stolen by soldiers, but returned by the soldiers when the son confronted them about it.

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Excerpt:

About the time the war was over I saw my first soldier. The road that passed along in front of our house was a dirt road. I’d gone with Mother to watch her milk a young cow late one night, about dark I guess, when I heard somebody hollering and yelling and I looked down the road and saw them coming. I was about five years old then and it looked to me like all the army was coming up the road. The captain was on a horse and the men afoot and the dust from the dirt road flying. There was a moon shining and you could see the muskets shining in the moonlight. I was sitting on a fence and when I saw them it scared me so I started to run. When I jumped off I fell and cut a hole in my forehead right over this left eye. The scar’s there yet. I ran in the house and hid. Mr. Sammy Duvall had to get on a horse and go to New Liberty and fetch a doctor to plug up the hole in my head. I saw lots of soldiers after that and I always ran under the bed or hid in a closet or somewhere. They stayed around here for a long time. Finally provender got low and the soldiers took to stealing. We called it stealing, but I reckon it wasn’t for they came and got the stuff like meat out of the smoke house in broad open daylight. Mr. Duvall had a chestnut earl stallion he called Drennon and they came, or somebody did, and got him one night. One day, about two or three weeks later, Will Duvall, a son of Mr. Sammy Duvall, heard that the horse was over in Henry County where the soldiers had a camp. So he went over there and found the Captain and told him he’d come after old Drennon. The Captain said to describe him and Will said, Captain, he’s a chestnut earl named Drennon. If I whistle a certain way he’d nicker and answer me. Well, they went down to the stable where they had a lot of stalls like, under tents. and when they got there, Will, he whistled, and sure enough, old Drennon nickered. So the Captain, he said, That’s your horse all right. Go in and get him and take him on home.

Interviewee Formerly enslaved person	Birth Year (Age)	Interviewer WPA Volunteer	Enslaver’s Name
George Dorsey	1860 (76)	John Forsee	Sammy Duvall

Interview Location	Residence State	Birth Location
Owens County, KY	Kentucky	Owenton, KY

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

Dorsey_G_1

September 27, 2020September 28, 2020

John Patterson

John Patterson was an enslaved person who moved to Arkansas during the Civil War because his enslaver wanted to keep John and other enslaved people from being taken by Union soldiers. In this excerpt he briefly shares this experience, as well as telling of some of the songs they used to sing while being enslaved.

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Excerpt:

I was born near Paducah, Kentucky. Mother was never sold. She belonged to Master Arthur Patterson. Mother was what folks called black folks. I’ve never seen a father to know. I never heard mother say a thing about my father, if I had one. He never was no use to me nor her neither.

Mother brought me here in time of the Civil War. I was four years old. We came here to be kept from the Yankee soldiers. We were sent with some of the Pattersons.

. . . I forgot our plough songs: ‘I Wonder Where my Darling is.’ ‘N***** Makes the Cotton and the White Man Gets the Money.’ Everybody used to sing. We worked from sun to sun; we courted and were happy. People are not happy now. They are craving now. About four o’clock we all start up singing. Sing till dark.

Interviewee Formerly enslaved person	Birth Year (Age)	Interviewer WPA Volunteer	Enslaver’s Name
John Patterson	[Year (age at interview)]	Irene Robertson	Arthur Patterson

Interview Location	Residence State	Birth Location
Helena, AR	Arkansas	Paducah, KY

Themes & Keywords	Additional Tags:
Civil War, Family	First person, dialect, Union Soldiers

Patterson_J_1

September 27, 2020October 2, 2020

John W. Fields

John W. Fields lived in enslavement and gained freedom shortly before the Civil War ended. In this excerpt, he describes the process of Emancipation and his failed attempts to join the Union Army. He finishes by describing the first paid work he was able to get.

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Excerpt:

At the beginning of the Civil War I was still at this place as a slave. It looked at the first of the war as if the south would win, as most of the big battles were won by the South. This was because we slaves stayed at home and tended the farms and kept their families.

To eliminate this solid support of the South, the Emancipation Act was passed, freeing all slaves. Most of the slaves were so ignorant they did not realize they were free. The planters knew this and as Kentucky never seceded from the Union, they would send slaves into Kentucky from other states in the south and hire them out to plantations. For these reasons I did not realize that I was free until 1864. I immediately resolved to run away and join the Union Army and so my brother and I went to Owensburg, Ky. and tried to join. My brother was taken, but I was refused as being too young. I tried at Evansville, Terre Haute and Indianapolis but was unable to get in. I then tried to find work and was finally hired by a man at $7.00 a month.

Interviewee Formerly enslaved person	Birth Year (Age)	Interviewer WPA Volunteer	Enslaver’s Name
John W. Fields	1848 (89)	Cecil C. Miller	David Hill

Interview Location	Residence State	Birth Location
Lafayette, IN	Indiana	Owensboro, KY

Themes & Keywords	Additional Tags:
Civil War, Emancipation	First person, witnessed extreme cruelty, hired out, Civil War

Fields_J_3

Tag: Civil War

Mary Jane Mooreman

Mary Wooldridge

Mrs. Preston

Joana Owens

Dulcina Baker Martin

Eli Coleman

George Conrad, Jr.

George Dorsey

John Patterson

John W. Fields

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