This Third Person recollection of an interview with the formerly enslaved Charlie Richmond describes how the dialect of the formerly enslaved populations remained prominent in the South among both Black and White families due to the fact that so many of them lived together during times of enslavement.
The n—-o dialect of this county is a combination of the dialect white folk use plus that of the n—o of the South. The colored population is continually moving back and forth from Alabama, Georgia, and North and South Carolinas. They visit a lot. Colored teachers so far have all been from Ohio. Most visiting colored preachers come from Alabama and the Carolinas. The negroes leave out their R’s use an’t han’t gwin, su’ for sir, yea for yes, dah for there and such expressions as, “I’s Ye?”
The wealthiest families o’ white folk still retain colored servants. In Prestonsburg, Kentucky one may see on the streets neat looking colored gals leading or wheeling young white children along. Folks say this is why so many southerners leave out their R’s and hold on to the old superstitions, they’ve had a colored mama for a nurse-maid.
Ann Gudgel lived in enslavement during the Civil War. In this excerpt, she describes how enslaved persons were vaccinated against smallpox (the process involved infecting a patient with the pus of a smallpox victim).
One day they vaccinated all the slaves but mine never took at all. I never told anybody, but I just sat right down by the fireplace and rubbed wood ashes and juice that spewed out of the wood real hard over the scratch. All the others were really sick and had the most awful arms, but mine never did even hurt.
Ann Gudgel lived in enslavement during the Civil War. In this excerpt, she describes her life as an enslaved person, including the troublesome fact that she and her family chose to remain with their enslavers 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.
I don’t know how old I am, but I was a little girl when that man Lincoln freed us [redacted]. My mammy never told us our age, but I know I am plenty old, cause I feel like it.
When I was a little girl all of us were owned by Master Ball. When Lincoln freed us [redacted], we went on and lived with Master Ball till us children were about grown up. None of us was ever sold, cause we belonged to the Balls for always back as far as we could think.
Mammy worked up at the big house, but us children had to stay at the cabin. But I didn’t very much care, because ole Miss had a little child just about my age, and we played together.
The only time ole Miss ever beat me was when I caused Miss Nancy to get ate up with the bees. I told her ‘Miss Nancy, the bees are asleep, let’s steal the honey.’ Soon as she touched it, they flew all over us, and it took Mammy about a day to get the stingers out of our heads. Ole Miss just naturally beat me up about that.
One day they vaccinated all the slaves but mine never took at all. I never told anybody, but I just sat right down by the fireplace and rubbed wood ashes and juice that spewed out of the wood real hard over the scratch. All the others were really sick and had the most awful arms, but mine never did even hurt.
Thomas McIntire’s father was “taken by slave traders from Africa,” brought to the United States, sold, and enslaved. Jim Lane enslaved around 550 people, including Thomas McIntire. In this excerpt, the interviewer recounts in the first person Thomas McIntire’s thoughts on topics connected to freedom. Thomas McIntire describes how enslaved people sought a better life and discussed freedom in code. Thomas McIntire also shares memories of learning about the Underground Railroad, the Civil War, emancipation and famous activists.
…The slave quarters were about 300 yards from the big house, and every family had their own cabin and eight acres of land for themselves, and all the vegetables and garden truck they needed. They [enslaved people on Jim Lane’s plantation] raised their own chickens and turkeys. But the hogs and cattle were butchered and shared with all the different families, and so was the milk. But I remember hearing my folks talking and it wasn’t just eats they wanted. They wanted to be free, and educate their children, like Master Jim’s children, so they could grow up and have something for themselves. I’d often hear them saying “Never mind, children, for your auntie is sure coming.” That was just a blind for saying, “Freedom’s coming”. We children soon learnt what it meant, but the white folks never did learn.
… I remember all the slaves that could get out from the quarters coming to meetings in the woods to talk about getting away to freedom or going off to war. Some from our place did go off. We all knew the Underground Railroad through the whole country. Because lots of Quakers had come and bought property on those parts and they were teaching the slaves to not be afraid of their rights.
…When the war came on, lots of the Lane slaves went in. My father and brother Wash went, and Wash was in the battle, between [Confederate] General Morgan and [Union] General Burden around Mt. Sterling [in Kentucky]. Lots of women and children went into Camp Nelson and lived at what they called the Woman’s Hall. The men who cared to go there went to the barracks at Camp Nelson.
When the war was over Father and Wash both came home. Jim Lane freed us before the war was over and gave us all a little money or paid some if they were staying on till the war was over. Those that stayed after the war he gave ten acres of land and built them a little place to live in….
I knew Ben Arnett [a Black minister and civil rights advocate who was elected in 1885 to the Ohio state legislature] personally and heard him speak lots of times; and too I heard Booker T. Washington, and Douglas, and almost all the big men among [Black people]… I read a little, and I read lots about most of the ones I ain’t heard.
Interviewee Formerly enslaved person
Birth Year (Age)
Interviewer WPA Volunteer
Enslaver’s Name
Thomas McIntire
1847 (90)
Unknown
Jim Lane
Interview Location
Residence State
Birth Location
Clark County, OH
OH
KY
Themes & Keywords
Additional Tags:
Emancipation, Education, Literacy, Resistance, Union Troops, Civil War
Bath County, First Person, Dialect, Witnessed Extreme Cruelty, Sold, Slave Traders, Notable
Thomas McIntire’s father was “taken by slave traders from Africa,” brought to the United States, sold, and enslaved. Jim Lane enslaved around 550 people, including Thomas McIntire. In this excerpt, the interviewer recounts in the first person Thomas McIntire’s description of religious practice on enslaver Jim Lane’s plantation.
…There was a log church right on our plantation for us to attend, and other slaves from other plantations came and had meetings with us. They used to sing lots of good old fashioned songs, but I just can’t think of them right now. Lane and some of his friends had a little church they built for themselves, and they always walked from our plantation because he was quite religious, and didn’t allow any work on Sundays. No horses were hitched up for them, and the only work done was just milk the cows. The cooking was done Friday and Saturday, but one or two of the slaves that worked at the cooking and setting of the tables had to kind of stick around, but got home in time to go to meeting. When there were weddings, or funerals on holidays, there wasn’t work done except what couldn’t be got around doing…
Interviewee Formerly enslaved person
Birth Year (Age)
Interviewer WPA Volunteer
Enslaver’s Name
Thomas McIntire
1847 (90)
Unknown
Jim Lane
Interview Location
Residence State
Birth Location
Clark County, OH
OH
KY
Themes & Keywords
Additional Tags:
Religion
Bath County, First Person, Dialect, Witnessed Extreme Cruelty, Sold, Slave Traders, Notable
Thomas McIntire’s father was “taken by slave traders from Africa,” brought to the United States, sold, and enslaved. Jim Lane enslaved around 550 people, including Thomas McIntire. In this excerpt, the interviewer recounts in the first person Thomas McIntire’s recollection of the slave trade and how his enslaver treated enslaved people.
…Lane and the people who owned mother were friends, and betwixt them they gave father and mother in order so they could be man and wife. You see, in those days all they did was to give an order in writing for a man and woman to be man and wife. Lane was a little more human than some of the slave owners back in those times, so he allowed Mother and Father to go by the name of McIntire as the married name…
I never saw a Lane slave whipped nor treated cruel, and he never allowed any of his families to be separated. That was the reason he had so many slaves, because when he went to sales, he’d just buy a whole family before he’d allow them to all be separated. Then when his children married he’d give them four or five families, but he never gave it in writing to them. So, they couldn’t sell them…
The folks that owned the next plantation to ours, the Bigstaffs, were cruel to their slaves, and some the Bigstaffs boys would know the patrollers and help to catch slaves and whip them if they couldn’t show a pass from their masters.
I saw them driving long lines of slaves chained together, with the little ones pitched up in an ox cart, and I don’t know how many men on horseback with long whips slashing them and driving them along the road. The slave traders went all around and bought up men and women, some of them right from the field; no time for them to say goodbye to the families, buying and selling them worse than cattle.
The slave traders took them to a halfway house on the Tennessee highway close to us, owned by Billy Wurtz. He had a big cellar where they put the slaves till they were going to sell them or else take them further south. They used to make a big sale day at Mt. Sterling and auction off the slaves. They’d whip them on the block to make them holler. I saw all that, and more…
Interviewee Formerly enslaved person
Birth Year (Age)
Interviewer WPA Volunteer
Enslaver’s Name
Thomas McIntire
1847 (90)
Unknown
Jim Lane
Interview Location
Residence State
Birth Location
Clark County, OH
OH
KY
Themes & Keywords
Additional Tags:
Slave Traders, Violence
Bath County, First Person, Dialect, Witnessed Extreme Cruelty, Sold, Slave Traders, Notable
Dave Lillard enslaved over one hundred people, including Lula Chambers. She did not know her father and her mother was sold shortly after Lula Chambers was born. The interviewer records in the first person Lula Chambers’s memories of the Ku Klux Klan and why some enslavers did not abuse enslaved people for economic reasons.
*Historically-used terms that are offensive, marginalizing and/or disparaging have been removed from the transcripts and replaced with [redacted]. See more information.
… I used to be scared to death of those old Ku Klux folks with all their hoods on their heads and faces. I never will forget, I saw a real old [redacted] woman slave down on her knees praying to God for his help. She had a Bible in front of her. Course she couldn’t read it, but she did know what it was, and she was praying out of her very heart, until she had drawn the attention of the old Ku Klux [Klan] and one of them just walked in her cabin and lashed [whipped] her unmerciful. He made her get up off her knees and dance, old as she was. Of course the old soul couldn’t dance but he just made her hop around anyhow.
The slave owners in the county where I was raised—the well-to-do ones I mean, did not abuse the slaves like the poor trash and other slaveholders did. Of course they whipped them plenty when they didn’t suit. But they kind of took care of them to sell. They had a great slave market there that didn’t do anything but sell slaves, and if they wanted a good price for them, the slave would have to be in a pretty good condition. That’s what saved their hides…
Interviewee Formerly enslaved person
Birth Year (Age)
Interviewer WPA Volunteer
Enslaver’s Name
Lula Chambers
Unknown (Unknown, older than 90)
Grace E. White
Dave Lillard
Interview Location
Residence State
Birth Location
St. Louis, MO
MO
KY
Themes & Keywords
Additional Tags:
Economics, Violence
Gallatin County, First Person, Dialect, Whipped, Witnessed Extreme Cruelty, Sold, Slave Traders, Klan/Mob Violence
In this excerpt, the interviewer recounts Madison Bruin’s memories of the Civil War in the first person. After the Civil War was over, Madison Bruin continued to provide free labor on his enslaver’s plantation although he was technically free. In 1872, he finally left the plantation, joined the army and served in a cavalry unit used to fight Native Americans. After his discharge from the army, he worked building a railroad before settling in Texas.
…During the war [Confederate General] John Morgan’s men came and took all the horses. They left two, and Willie [the enslaver’s son] and I took them to hide in the plum thicket, but we just got out the gate when the soldiers came again and they headed us off and took the last two horses.
My mother wore the Yankee flag under her dress like a petticoat when the confederates came raiding. Other times she wore it on top of the dress. When they heard the confederates coming, the white folks made us bury all the gold and the silver spoons out in the garden. Old master was in the Yankee [Union] army, because they conscripted [drafted] him, but his sons, John and Joe, volunteered…
During the war we got whipped many times for playing with shells that we found in the woods. We heard the cannons shooting in Lexington [Kentucky], and lots of them shells dropped in the woods.
What did I think when I saw all those soldiers? I wanted to be one, too. I didn’t care what side, I just wanted a gun and a horse and to be a soldier… When young master joined Woolford’s 11th Kentucky Cavalry, they came to the place and halted before the big house on the turnpike [road]… They were just in regular clothes, but next time they came through they were in blue uniforms. All my white folks came back from the war and didn’t get killed.
Nobody ever told me I was free. I was happy there and never left them till 1872. All the others went before that, but I got all I wanted and I didn’t need money…
Interviewee Formerly enslaved person
Birth Year (Age)
Interviewer WPA Volunteer
Enslaver’s Name
Madison Bruin
Unknown (92)
Unknown
Jack and Addie Curtis
Interview Location
Residence State
Birth Location
TX
TX
Fayette County, KY
Themes & Keywords
Additional Tags:
Civil War, Emancipation
First Person, Dialect, Whipped, Union Troops, Bound Out After the War, Fayette County
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.
…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
Mary Wright was born the year the Civil War ended. In this excerpt, the interviewer recounts in the first person Mary Wright’s retelling of her mother’s story of the Ku Klux Klan using violence to intimidate Black people after the Civil War in Kentucky.
*Historically-used terms that are offensive, marginalizing and/or disparaging have been removed from the transcripts and replaced with [ ___ ]. See more information.
…My [Mary Wright’s] mammy bound me out to Miss Puss Graham to learn to work, for my vittles [food] and clothes. Miss Puss gave me a pair of red morocco shoes and I was so happy, I’ve never forgotten these shoes. I heard my mammy talk of thee [ ___ ] Rising. The Ku Klux [Klan] used to stick the [ ___ ]head on a stake alongside the Cadiz road and the buzzards would eat them till nothing was left but the bones. There was a sign on this stake that said ‘Look out [ ___ ]! You are next.’ We children would not go far away from the cabin. I tell you that is so. I just knew that this Ku Klux would do that to us sure if we had been caught…
Interviewee Formerly enslaved person
Birth Year (Age)
Interviewer WPA Volunteer
Enslaver’s Name
Mary Wright
1865 (Unknown)
Unknown
James Coleman
Interview Location
Residence State
Birth Location
KY
KY
Gracey, KY
Themes & Keywords
Additional Tags:
Violence, KKK
Christian County, First Person, Dialect, Klan/Mob Violence, Bound out After War
The interviewer records this interview with Nannie Eaves in the first person. Both Nannie Eaves and her husband Ben Eaves fathers were their enslavers. Their father’s were brothers, making Nannie and her husband first cousins. In this excerpt, Nannie Eaves explains this relationship and how it impacted her life while enslaved. Nannie Eaves also references her husband’s service during the Civil War and slave traders.
…I guess I was about twenty one years old when I was freed. I was never once treated as a slave because my master was my very own Daddy. Ben Eaves, my husband, was a slave and child of George Eaves, my master’s brother. He ran away from his master and Daddy and joins the U.S. [Union] Army during the Secess War [the Civil War] and is now drawing a pension from Uncle Sam. I’m sure glad that he had sense enough to go that way [since his pension provides her with money to survive]…
…We had two slave traders in this town. They were Judge Houston and his son-in-law, Dr. Brady. They gathered up all the slaves that were unruly or that people wanted to trade and housed them in an old barn until they had enough to take to New Orleans on a boat. They traded them down there for work in the cotton fields.
Interviewee Formerly enslaved person
Birth Year (Age)
Interviewer WPA Volunteer
Enslaver’s Name
Nannie Eaves
Unknown (91)
Unknown
William Eaves
Interview Location
Residence State
Birth Location
KY
KY
KY
Themes & Keywords
Additional Tags:
Slave Traders
McLean County, First Person, Dialect, Enslaver Father, Slave Traders, Veteran or Widow
In this excerpt, Dulcina Baker Martin recites a story her aunt told her about an enslaver who was presumed dead, and her grave raided by an enslaved person.
They used to talk about such things, like ghosts, and haints, and spirits. My aunt says, once there was a young Miss who died and her folks had buried her with lots of jewelry. One of the slaves looked hard and long at all that fine jewelry going into the ground. So when night comes, he goes to the graveyard and starts digging in the young Miss’ grave. When he came to the casket and opened it, and was taking a ring off of her hand, the young Miss spoke to him. He started running’, and she came up out of the grave and started running’ too. When she got to the house, the family knew she wasn’t dead as soon as they saw her, and they were sure glad, and day set the slave free and gave him a lot of money and a fine horse.
Easter Sudie Campbell was born near the end of the Civil War. She describes her many experiences as a free midwife in Kentucky. Here, she describes several experiences she has had supporting women during pregnancy and while giving birth.
When I go on a baby case, I just let nature have its way. I always test the baby, the first thing I do is blow my breath in the baby’s mouth. I spank it just a little so it will cry and I give it warm catnip tea so if it is going to have the hives they will break out on it. I always have my own catnip and sheep balls, for some cases need one kind of tea and some another. I give sink field tea for the colic. It is just good for a young baby’s stomach. I have been granning for nigh under forty years and I only lost two babies that were born alive. One of these was the white man’s fault, this baby was born with the jaundice and I told this white man to go to the store and get me some calomel and he says, whoever heard of giving a baby such truck, and so that baby died.
Of course you can tell whether the baby is going to be a boy or girl before he is born. If the mother carries that child more on the left and high up, that baby will be a boy; and if she carries it more to the middle, that will be a girl. Mothers ought to be more careful while carrying their children not to get scared of anything, for they will sure mark their babies with terrible ugly things. I know once a young woman was expecting and she went blackberry hunting and a bull cow with long horns got after her and she was so scared that she threw her hands over her head. And when that baby boy was born he had two nubs on his head just like horns beginning to grow. So I had her call her doctor and they cut them off. One white woman I waited on liked hot chocolate and she always wanted more, she never had enough of that stuff, and one day she spills some on her leg and it just splotched and burned her and when that gal was born, she had a big brown spot on her leg just like her mammy’s scar from the burn. Now you see, I know you can mark the babies.
There was a colored woman once I waited on that had to help the white folks kill hogs and she never did like hog liver but the white folks told her to take one home and fix it for her supper. Well, she picked that thing up and started off with it and it made her feel creepy all over. And that night her baby was born, a gal child, and the print of a big hog-liver was standing out all over one side of her face. That side of her face is all blue and purplish and just the shape of a liver. And it’s still there.
I grannied over three hundred children and I know what I’m talking about.
Easter Sudie Campbell was born near the end of the Civil War. She describes her many experiences as a free midwife in Kentucky. Here, she discusses her belief in ghosts and specific experiences she has had.
*Historically-used terms that are offensive, marginalizing and/or disparaging have been removed from the transcripts and replaced with [redacted]. See more information.
Sure there are ghosts. One night as I was going home from work, the tallest man I ever saw followed me with the prettiest white shirt on, and then he passed me and waited at the corner. I was feeling creepy and wanted to run but just couldn’t get my legs to move. When I got to the corner where he was, I said ‘Good Evening’ and I saw him plain as day and he did not speak and just disappeared right before my eyes.
…Once I had a dream, I knew I near about saw it. I always did cook every night a pot of beans on the fire for the children to eat next day while I was at work, and Lizzie, my daughter, used to get up in the night and get her some beans and eat them. And this dream was so real that I couldn’t tell if it was Lizzie or not, but this woman just glided by my bed and went afore the fire and stood there, then she just went twixt my bed and went by the wall. I just knew when I woke up that my child was sick that lived away from home and wanted my son to take me to see her. He said he would go himself and see, so he went, and when he came back he had a headache, and afore morning that [redacted] was dead. So you see, that was the sign of the dream. I was just warned in the dream and didn’t have sense enough to know it.
The following excerpt is from a preacher’s sermon found in a scrapbook, dated 1839. In it, the preacher speaks of the fear of being punished in the afterlife, and offers salvation to anyone who follows her, gives her money, and returns to her weekly services.
*Historically-used terms that are offensive, marginalizing and/or disparaging have been removed from the transcripts and replaced with [redacted]. See more information.
“My dear friend: If there’s one thing that the Lord abominates worse than any other; it is a wicked [redacted]! A wicked White man’s bad enough, the Lord knows! But they so dam White, an so kussed sarcy, they don’t know any better, so there’s some apology for them; but I begin you for you know as to how a wicked [redacted] can never escape from the vengeance of the Lord day’s – no use playing possum any more than there was of Jonah coorin it into the whale’s belly!
(Glory from the congregation)
. . . Think, you Black sinners, of the bottomless pit, deeper than the hole Holt bored for water. Oh! you’ll wish you could bore for water there! But there’s no water there, and the deeper you go, Oh, my brethren, the deeper it gets! And then the smell! You’d give your soul if you had any left, just for one smell of a rotten egg! Oh, my dear friends, some of you hold your nose when you go by the gas works. How do you suppose you’ll feel where you smell nothing but brimstone and gnashing of teeth! (deep groans)
. . . And now, my beloved brethren, let’s investigate how to get bail; how to avoid the Sing Sing of the world that’s got to come. Fiddling and dancing won’t do it. You’ll never get to Heaven by loafing, pitching cents, and dancing Juba! The only way is to support the preacher, give your money to me, and I’ll take your sins on my shoulder. And now I beseech you not to leave this here holy place and go around the corner, around the corner and forget the words you have heard this night. Next Wednesday evening there will be a service in this place the Lord willing, but next Thursday evening weather or no. And now we will sing the 40-olebent hymn the particlarest meter.
John Graves was originally enslaved in Charleston but his mother was purchased and moved to Kentucky when he was five. In this excerpt, he briefly recounts how it came to be that he and his mother moved from Charleston to Kentucky.
“Historically-used terms that are offensive, marginalizing and/or disparaging have been removed from the transcripts and replaced with [man]. See more information.
I was born ten years when Freedom came out. Been seventy-odd years since Freedom, ain’t it, Cap? Dr. Jim Gibbs was mighty good to me. You see that I’m going about now. Dr. Gibbs came from Aiken to Union and set up a drug store where Cohen’s is now. Dr. Gibbs was a Charleston man, but I am a Kentucky man. Dr. Gibbs brought me from Kentucky to Charleston when I was five years old. My ma was the one that they bought. Dr. Gibbs’ wife was a Bohen up in Kentucky. When Dr. Gibbs fetched his wife to Charleston, he bought my ma from his wife’s pa, and she fetched me along too.
Interviewee Formerly enslaved person
Birth Year (Age)
Interviewer WPA Volunteer
Enslaver’s Name
John Graves
Unknown (85 years old)
Caldwell Sims
Dr. Jim Gibbs
Interview Location
Residence State
Birth Location
Spartanburg, SC
South Carolina
Unknown
Themes & Keywords
Additional Tags:
Family
First Person, Dialect, Sold (self or family), Slave Traders
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.
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.
Joseph Allen was an enslaved person who lived on the same plantation until the end of the Civil War. Here, he recalls instances of being whipped by his enslaver’s wife, and his attempts to retaliate.
Ole Missus was cross and whipped us children a-plenty. A white man taught us in their slave room. I learned my A, B, Cs quick, and Ole Missus caught me studying and learning. I ain’t forgot it. When she whipped, she stuck my head between her knees and clamped me tight. She slipped my garment aside and fanned me plenty with a shingle on my bare self. I was getting too big, and I studied how I’d break her. Next time, I bit her like a dog and held on with my teeth to her leg. Ol’ Missus was lame for a spell; I broke her. I says, “I’ll eat you up like a dog.” After that, she buckled me up on the ground and lashed me.
The excerpts below provide teachers a unique opportunity to consider perspective and decisions made by an interviewer. The interviewer Archie Koritz submitted two separate documents for his interview with John Eubanks.
The first, featured in “Part 1” below is written in the third person. In the excerpt, Archie Koritz shares the story of how the enslavers of John Eubanks allowed him to join the Union army during the Civil War, how John Eubanks enlisted, and his experience returning after the war.
The second interview is labeled “Part 2” and is written in the first person. The excerpt from this interview covers the same content as that in “Part 1” but the details included in this part of the interview do not appear at all in “Part 1.” The reader can speculate that “Part 2” is similar to a transcript of the interview and “Part 1” is closer to a report of the interview submitted by interviewer Archie Koritz.
[Part 1: Recorded by the interviewer in the third person.]
Shortly after the beginning of the Civil War, when the north seemed to be losing, someone conceived the idea of forming negro regiments and as an inducement to the slaves, they offered them freedom if they would join the Union forces. John’s mistress and master told him that if he wished to join the Union forces, he had their consent and would not have to run away like other slaves were doing. At the beginning of the war, John was twenty-one years of age. When Lincoln freed the slaves by his Emancipation Proclamation, John was promptly given his freedom by his master and mistress.
John decided to join the northern army which was located at Bowling Green, Kentucky, a distance of thirty-five miles from Glasgow where John was living. He had to walk the entire thirty-five miles…
[The interview lists the battle John Eubanks fought in during the Civil War, then describes return home after the Civil War ended.] Upon his return to Glasgow, Ky, he saw for the first time in six years, his mother and other members of his family who had returned free.
[Part 2: What follows is a different version of the interview, recorded by the same interviewer, but this time in the first person. Below are excerpts that cover the same topics described in Part 1.]
I was twenty-one when war broke out. Master Eubanks said to me, ‘You all don’t need to run away if you all want to join up with the army.’ He’d say, ‘There would be a fine if slaves ran off. You all don’t have to run off, go right on and I do not pay that fine.’ He said, ‘Enlist in the army but don’t run off.’
Now, I walk thirty-five miles from Glasgow to Bowling Green to this place—to the enlisting place—from home for miles—to Glasgow—to Bowling Green, thirty-five miles. On the road I meet up with two boys, so we go on. They ran away from Kentucky, and we go together.
Then some Bushwackers [during the Civil War, these were people who supported the Confederacy in states that remained in the Union (like Kentucky) and practiced guerilla warfare even though they usually were not in the Confederate army.] come down the road. We were scared and ran to the woods and hid. As we ran through the woods, pretty soon we heard chickens crowing. We filled our pockets with stones. We were going to kill chickens to eat. Pretty soon we heard a man holler, ‘You come ’round outta there’—and I see a white man and come out. He said, ‘What are you all doing here?’ I turn around and say, ‘Well boys, come on boys,’ and the boys come out. The man said, ‘I’m a Union Soldier. What are you all doing here?’ I say, ‘We’re going to enlist in the army.’ He says, ‘That’s fine’ and he says, ‘come along’ He says, ‘get right on white man’s side’—we go to the station. Then he says, ‘You go right down to the station and give your information…
…When I came back from the army, I went home to Mother and said ‘Don’t you know me?’ She says, ‘No, I don’t know you.’ I say, ‘You don’t know me?’ She says, ‘No, I don’t know you.’ I say, ‘I’m John.’ Then she cried, and said how I’d grown, and she thought I’d been dead this long time. I explained how the many fights I’ve been in with no scratch and she was happy…
Interviewee Formerly enslaved person
Birth Year (Age)
Interviewer WPA Volunteer
Enslaver’s Name
John Eubanks
1836 or 1839 (approx 98)
Archie Koritz
Everett Family, Tony Eubanks
Interview Location
Residence State
Birth Location
Gary, IN
IN
Glasgow, KY
Themes & Keywords
Additional Tags:
Civil War, Family, Emancipation, Enlistment, Interviewer
Barron County, First Person, Third Person, Dialect, Whipped, Witnessed Extreme Cruelty, Union Troops, Veteran or Widow, Notable
Joseph Ringo lived with the same enslaver from his birth until 11 years after the Civil War. In this excerpt, he describes a visit the plantation received from Union soldiers and how the enslavers accommodated them out of fear. He then describes his experience with emancipation, and how his family were all paid to stay on the plantation. He finished by telling why and how he stayed on that plantation, getting paid and saving his money, for 11 years after emancipation.
I remember when the Yankee soldiers were camping’ around Minerva, Kentucky six of them came up to the big house one day, and put their horses in the stable, fed them, and then they laid around on our grass. Finally, they got up off the ground and went to the house and asked for something to eat. Ole Miss saw that they were getting food, ‘cause she was feared they’d do some damage if they didn’t’ get it.
I remember Master John calling us one morning and he sat on a stile and told us all we were free, and he said, “Now what are you all going to do?” He offered Eren $130.00 a year and clothes and board. Bill and me he offers $25.00 a year and board and keep, and Mother she is to get $1.50 a week and a place for her and the children, and clothes and a home for them.
We all stayed for one year, then mother and all of them went away, except me. I stayed on for eleven years after that. Master John French, he raised my wages every year, and I saved all I earned, or most of it.
Interviewee Formerly enslaved person
Birth Year (Age)
Interviewer WPA Volunteer
Enslaver’s Name
Joseph Ringo
86 years old
Unknown
John French
Interview Location
Residence State
Birth Location
Clark County, OH
Ohio
Mason County, KY
Themes & Keywords
Additional Tags:
Civil War, Emancipation, Economics,
First person, dialect, bound out after the war, Union soldiers,
Ringo_J_1
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