Tag: Emancipation

Posted on

Charles Green

Charles Green lived in enslavement in Kentucky before and during the Civil War.  In this excerpt, he describes the fear the enslavers put into the enslaved about the raiding Union (Yankee) soldiers, and how Confederate Soldiers (led by John Morgan) were not to be feared.  However, he also mentions how his half brother and father joined the Union cause.
See full document • Visit the Library of Congress to see the original document

Excerpt:

When old John Morgan came through raiding, he took meat and horses from our place, and just left the smokehouse empty.  Father and my half-brother, George Spencer Green, joined up with the 112th Kentucky boys, and was with General Sherman marching to the sea.  Father, he died, but Spence came home after the war and settled in the lower part of Mason County.  

…We thought the Yankee soldiers were coming to carry us off, and they told us to hide if we saw them.  I remember one night; ‘twas mostly dark; I saw some Yankee soldiers, and I was scared to death.  They yelled at me, and I took to my heels;  then they shot in the air and I ran all the faster getting back to the house.  But when Old [Confederate General] John Morgan came along a-raiding and carrying off the meat and good horses, we weren’t afraid.

Interviewee 
Formerly enslaved person		Birth Year (Age)Interviewer
WPA Volunteer		Enslaver’s Name
Charles Green1859 (78)Not NamedWallingsford
Interview LocationResidence StateBirth Location
Clark County, OHOhioMason County, KY
Themes & KeywordsAdditional Tags:
Family, Emancipation, Civil War,First Person, Union Troops,

Green_C_1

Posted on

Charles Anderson

Charles Anderson lived in enslavement in Kentucky before and during the Civil War.  In this excerpt, he describes becoming a free man, his hesitancy to leave the plantation, the act of voting, and his realization that racial problems continued to exist in our country long after Reconstruction.
See full document • Visit the Library of Congress to see the original document

Excerpt:

I don’t know when freedom came on. I never did know. We was five or six years breaking up. Master Stone never forced any of us to leave. He give some of them a horse when they left. I cried a year to go back. It was a dear place to me and the memories linger with me every day.

There was no secret society or order of Ku Klux in reach of us as I ever heard.

I voted Republican ticket. We would go to Jackson to vote. There would be a crowd. The last I voted was for Theodore Roosevelt. I voted here in Helena for years. I was on the petit jury for several years here in Helena.

I farmed in your state some (Arkansas). I farmed all my young life. I been in Arkansas sixty years. I come here February 1879 with distant relatives. They come south. When I come to Helena there was but one set of mechanics. I started to work. I learned to paint and hang wallpaper. I’ve worked in nearly every house in Helena.

The present times are gloomy. I tried to prepare for old age. I had a apartment house and lost it. I owned a home and lost it. They foreclosed me out.

The present generation is not doing as well as I have.

Interviewee 
Formerly enslaved person		Birth Year (Age)Interviewer
WPA Volunteer		Enslaver’s Name
Charles AndersonUnknown (77 or 78)Irene RobertsonIsaac and Davis Stone
Interview LocationResidence StateBirth Location
Helena, ARArkansasNelson County, Kentucky
Themes & KeywordsAdditional Tags:
Emancipation, Voting, Citizenship, 15th AmendmentFirst Person, Witnessed Extreme Cruelty, Slaver Father

Anderson_C_2

Posted on

Ann Gudgel

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.
See full document• Visit the Library of Congress to see the original document

Excerpt:

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.

Interviewee 
Formerly enslaved person		Birth Year (Age)Interviewer
WPA Volunteer		Enslaver’s Name
Ann GudgelUnknownMildred RobertsBall
Interview LocationResidence StateBirth Location
Anderson County, KYKentuckyUnknown
Themes & KeywordsAdditional Tags:
Emancipation, familyFirst person, dialect

Gudgel_A_1

Posted on

Walter Rimm

In this excerpt, which the interviewer records in the first person, Walter Rimm shares several stories of runaway enslaved people. 
See full document • Visit the Library of Congress to see the original document

Excerpt:

…You want to know about slavery? Well, a great deal happened besides that, but …

… One day I saw Master sitting in the gallery and his face all screwed up. He said, ‘Go get you mammy and everybody. ‘I went flying’. My shirt tail didn’t hit my back till I told everybody. Master am crying and he reads the paper and says, ‘You are free as I am. What are you going to do?’ Mammy says, ‘We are staying right here.’ But the next morning Pappy borrows an ox-team to tote our stuff away. We go ‘about sixty miles and stay ‘about six months, den takes a place where we can make a crop. Then Master tells us we can live in an old place without rent and have what we can make. So we moved back and stayed for two years.  Then we moved several places and sometimes the old missus came to see us and said, ‘Ain’t you ashamed? De Yankees are feeding you.’ But they weren’t, because we were making a crop…

Interviewee 
Formerly enslaved person		Birth Year (Age)Interviewer
WPA Volunteer		Enslaver’s Name
Walter RimmUnknown (80)UnknownUnknown
Interview LocationResidence StateBirth Location
Fort Worth, TXTXSan Patricio County, TX
Themes & KeywordsAdditional Tags:
EmancipationFirst Person

Rimm_W_3

Posted on

Thomas McIntire

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.  
See full document • Visit the Library of Congress to see the original document

Excerpt:

…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 McIntire1847 (90)UnknownJim Lane
Interview LocationResidence StateBirth Location
Clark County, OHOHKY
Themes & KeywordsAdditional Tags:
Emancipation, Education, Literacy, Resistance, Union Troops, Civil WarBath County, First Person, Dialect, Witnessed Extreme Cruelty, Sold, Slave Traders, Notable

McIntire_T_3

Posted on

Thomas Ash

In this excerpt, the interviewer records Thomas Ash’s memories of the Civil War and emancipation in the first person. 

*Historically-used terms that are offensive, marginalizing and/or disparaging have been removed from the transcripts and replaced with [redacted].    See more information.
See full document • Visit the Library of Congress to see the original document

Excerpt:

…I have no way of knowing exactly how old I am, as the old Bible containing a record of my birth was destroyed by fire many years ago, but I believe I am about eighty-one years old. If so, I must have been born sometime during the year, 1856, four years before the outbreak of the War Between The States [Civil War]…

I can also remember how the grownup [redacted] on the place left to join the Union Army as soon as they learned of Lincoln’s proclamation making them free men.

Interviewee 
Formerly enslaved person		Birth Year (Age)Interviewer
WPA Volunteer		Enslaver’s Name
Thomas Ash1856 (81)Emery TurnerCharles Ash
Interview LocationResidence StateBirth Location
ININKY
Themes & KeywordsAdditional Tags:
Abraham Lincoln, Civil War, EmancipationAnderson County, First Person

Ash_T_1

Posted on

Madison Bruin

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.  
See full document • Visit the Library of Congress to see the original document

Excerpt:

…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 BruinUnknown (92)UnknownJack and Addie Curtis
Interview LocationResidence StateBirth Location
TXTXFayette County, KY
Themes & KeywordsAdditional Tags:
Civil War, Emancipation First Person, Dialect, Whipped, Union Troops, Bound Out After the War, Fayette County

Bruin_M_1

Posted on

Mary Crane

In this excerpt, which the interviewer records in the first person, Mary Crane describes how enslaved people were traded and sold like cattle.  She recounts the story of her enslaved father, and how he was almost “sold down the river” to pay for his enslaver’s debts.  The excerpt ends with Mary Crane by explaining what “freedom” meant to her when she was emancipated.  

The full transcript of the interview includes a photograph of Mary Crane taken at the time of the interview. 

*Historically-used terms that are offensive, marginalizing and/or disparaging have been removed from the transcripts and replaced with [redacted].   See more information.
See full document • Visit the Library of Congress to see the original document

Excerpt:

…Zeke Samples [who enslaved Mary Crane’s father] proved to be a man who loved his toddies [alcohol] far better than his bride and before long he was “broke”. Everything he had or owned, including my father, was to be sold at auction to pay off his debts.

In those days, there were men who made a business of buying up [redacted] at auction sales and shipping them down to New Orleans to be sold to owners of cotton and sugar cane plantations, just as men today buy and ship cattle. These men were called “[Redacted]-traders” and they would ship whole boat loads at a time, buying them up, two or three here, two or three there, and holding them in a jail until they had a boat load. This practice gave rise to the expression, “sold down the river.”

My father was to be sold at auction, along with all of the rest of Zeke Samples’ property. Bob Cowherd…owned my grandfather, and the old man, my grandfather, begged Col. Bob to buy my father from Zeke Samples to keep him from being “sold down the river.” Col. Bob offered what he thought was a fair price for my father and a “[redacted]-trader” raised his bid $25.  Col. said he couldn’t afford to pay that much and father was about to be sold … [when my grandfather] told Col. Bob that he had $25 saved up and that if he would buy my father from… he would give him the money. Col. Bob Cowherd took my grandfather’s $25 and offered to meet the trader’s offer and so my father was sold to him.

…When President Lincoln issued his proclamation freeing the [redacted], I remember that my father and most all of the other younger slave men left the farms to join the Union army. We had hard times then for a while and had lots of work to do. I don’t remember just when I first regarded myself as “free”, as many of the [redacted]didn’t understand just what it was all about.

Interviewee 
Formerly enslaved person		Birth Year (Age)Interviewer
WPA Volunteer		Enslaver’s Name
Mary Crane1855 (82)Emery TurnerWattie Williams
Interview LocationResidence StateBirth Location
Mitchell, ININKY
Themes & KeywordsAdditional Tags:
Slave Trade, EmancipationLarue County, First Person, Sold, 

Crane_M_1

Posted on

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. 
See full document • Visit the Library of Congress to see the original document

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. HudgensCharles Wickliffe Mooreman
Interview LocationResidence StateBirth Location
ARARKY
Themes & KeywordsAdditional Tags:
Civil War, Emancipation, Literacy, EducationHartford County, First Person, Sold, Union Troops

Mooreman_M_1

Posted on

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.
See full document • Visit the Library of Congress to see the original document

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 WooldridgeUnknown (Unknown)UnknownBob Eaglin, Thomas McElroy
Interview LocationResidence StateBirth Location
Clarksville Pike, KYKYKY
Themes & KeywordsAdditional Tags:
Voting, Emancipation, Civil WarWashington County, First Person, Dialect, Sold, Slave Traders, Union Troops

Wooldridge_M_1

Posted on

Susan Dale Sanders

In this interview, recorded in the first person, the interviewer recounts Susan Dale Sanders’s emancipation. 
See full document • Visit the Library of Congress to see the original document

Excerpt:

…After I [Susan Dale Sanders] grew up, I worked for Mrs. Susan Lovell, who was the ole master’s married daughter. She lived down the road from his farm. She was good to me! You see I was named after Susan Lovell. It was while I was working for her when the [Civil] war ended. She told me I was free after the war was over. I got happy and sang, but I didn’t know for a long time what to be free was, so after the war she hired me and I stayed on doing all the cooking and washing and all the work, and I was hired by her for four dollars a month… 

Interviewee 
Formerly enslaved person		Birth Year (Age)Interviewer
WPA Volunteer		Enslaver’s Name
Susan Dale SandersUnknown (Unknown)Byers YorkRueben Dale, Susan Lovell
Interview LocationResidence StateBirth Location
Louisville, KYKYTaylorsville, KY
Themes & KeywordsAdditional Tags:
EmancipationSpencer County, First Person, Veteran or Widow, 

Sanders_S_1

Posted on

Matthew Hume

The interviewer documents this interview in the third person.  In the excerpt below, the interviewer shared a story from Matthew Hume about an enslaved person who issued fake freedom papers to free other enslaved people before describing Matthew Hume’s emancipation.    

*Historically-used terms that are offensive, marginalizing and/or disparaging have been removed from the transcripts and replaced with [redacted].    See more information.
See full document • Visit the Library of Congress to see the original document

Excerpt:

…One way of exacting obedience was to threaten to send offenders South to work in the fields. The slaves around Lexington, Kentucky, came out ahead on one occasion. The collector was Shrader. He had the slaves handcuffed to a large leg chain and forced on a flatboat. There were so many that the boat was grounded, so some of the slaves were released to push the boat off. Among the “blacks” was one who could read and write. Before Shrader could chain them up again, he was seized and chained, taken to below Memphis Tennessee, and forced to work in the cotton fields until he was able to get word from Richmond identifying him. In the meantime, the educated [redacted] issued freedom papers to his companions. Many of them came back to Lexington, Kentucky where they were employed…

Mr. Hume thought the Emancipation Proclamation was the greatest work that Abraham Lincoln ever did. The [redacted] people on his plantation did not learn of it until the following August. Then Mr. Payne and his sons offered to let them live on their ground with conditions similar to our renting system, giving a share of the crop. They remained here until Jan. 1, 1865 when they crossed the Ohio River at Madison. They had a cow that had been given them before the Emancipation Proclamation was issued but this was taken away from them. So they came to Ind. homeless, friendless and penniless…

He could not understand the attitude of his race who preferred to remain in slavery receiving only food and shelter, rather than to be free citizens where they could have the right to develop their individualism

Interviewee 
Formerly enslaved person		Birth Year (Age)Interviewer
WPA Volunteer		Enslaver’s Name
Matthew HumeUnknown (Unknown)Grace MonroeDaniel Payne
Interview LocationResidence StateBirth Location
Jefferson County, ININKY
Themes & KeywordsAdditional Tags:
Resistance, Emancipation, Abraham LincolnTrimble County, Third Person, Witnessed Extreme Cruelty, Notable,

Hume_M_1

Posted on

Clay Reaves

Clav Reaves was born to an enslaved family very late in the Civil War.  In this excerpt, he describes his earliest memories, while still living on the farm where he was born, after Emancipation.  He describes his lineage with the enslavers, his mother’s life and why she stayed on the farm, and his search for his estranged father who changed his name after gaining freedom.
See full document • Visit the Library of Congress to see the original document

Excerpt:

Father was bought from Kentucky. I couldn’t tell you about him. He stayed on the Reaves place that year, the year of the surrender, and left. He didn’t live with Mother ever again. I never did hear any reason. He went to Joe Night’s farm. He left me and a sister – older, but there was one dead between us. Mother raised us. She stayed on with the Reaves two years after he left. The last year she was there she hired to them. The only thing she ever did before freedom was cook and weave. She had her loom in the kitchen. It was a great big kitchen built off from the house and a portico joined it to the house. I used to lay up under her loom. It was warm there in winter time. I was the baby. I heard mother say some things I remember well.

She said she was never sold. She said the Reaves said her children need never worry, they would never be sold. We were Reaves from back yonder. Mother’s grandfather was a white man. She was a Reaves and her children are mostly Reaves. She was light. Father was about, might be a little darker than I am (mulatto). At times she worked in the field, but in rush time. She wove all the clothes on the place. She worked at the loom and I lay up under there all day long. Mother had three girls and five boys.

Mr. Reaves (we called him ‘master’) had two boys in the army. He was a real old man. He may have had more than two, but I know there was two gone off. The white folks lived in sight of the quarters. Their house was a big house and painted white. I’ve been in there. I’ve never seen any grandparents of mine – that I was allowed to claim kin with.

When I got up some size, I was allowed to go see my father. I went over to see him sometimes. After freedom, he went to where his brothers lived. They wanted him to change his name from Reaves to Cox and he did. He changed it from James Reaves to James Cox. But I couldn’t tell you if at one time they belong to Cox in Kentucky or if they belong to Cox in Tennessee or if they took on a name they liked.

I kept my name Reaves. I am a Reaves from start to finish. I was raised by mother and she was a Reaves. Her name was Olive Reaves. Her old mistress’ name was Charlotte Reaves, old master was Edmond Reaves

Interviewee 
Formerly enslaved person		Birth Year (Age)Interviewer
WPA Volunteer		Enslaver’s Name
Clay ReavesYear Unknown (79)Irene RobertsonEdmond Reaves
Interview LocationResidence StateBirth Location
Palestine, ARArkansasUnknown
Themes & KeywordsAdditional Tags:
Family, EmancipationFirst Person, Bound out after war, breeding

Reaves_C_1

Posted on

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.
See full document • Visit the Library of Congress to see the original document

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 Martin1859 (78)UnknownJack Rutledge
Interview LocationResidence StateBirth Location
Clark County, OHOhioKentucky
Themes & KeywordsAdditional Tags:
Civil War, Emancipation, First Person, Union Troops

Martin_D_1

Posted on

Eli Coleman

Eli Coleman was born in 1846 and has a long memory of enslavement.  He also lived a long life after Emancipation.  In this excerpt, he describes his experiences immediately after being freed, and his ultimate move to Texas from Kentucky.  He also reflects on the state of African Americans in the early 20th century, notably discussing sharecropping as re-enslavement.

*Historically-used terms that are offensive, marginalizing and/or disparaging have been removed from the transcripts and replaced with [redacted].  See more information.
See full document • Visit the Library of Congress to see the original document

Excerpt:

When Master said we were free, we all began to take on. We didn’t have no place to go and asked Master could we stay, but he said no. But he did let some stay and furnished teams and something to eat, and work on the halves. I stayed and was sharecropper, and that was when slavery started, for when we got our crop made, it took every bit of it to pay our debts and we had nothing left to buy winter clothes or pay doctor bills.  

. . . I’d heard the railroad was building in Texas and they hire lots of [redacted]. I get a horse from Master, and roll up a few clothes and get my gun.  I never got very far before the Indians took my horse away from me. It was about fifty miles to a train and I didn’t have any money, but I found a White man who wanted wood cut and I work near a month for him and get $2.00. I get on a train and come a hundred miles from where that railroad was going across the country, and I had to walk near all that hundred miles. Once and now a White man coming or going let me ride. But I got there, and the job pays me sixty cents a day. That was lots of money those days. Near as I remember, it was 1867 or 1868 when I came to Texas.  

. . . Since the [redacted] been free it’s been Hell on the poor old [redacted]. He has advanced some ways, but he’s still a servant and will be, long as God’s curse still stay on the [redacted] race. We were turned loose with nothing and have been under the White man’s rule so long we couldn’t hold any job but labor. I worked almost two years on that railroad and the rest my life I farmed. Now I get a little pension from the government and the White folks are sure good to give it to me, because I ain’t good for work no more.   

Interviewee 
Formerly enslaved person		Birth Year (Age)Interviewer
WPA Volunteer		Enslaver’s Name
Eli Coleman1846 (91)UnknownGeorge Brady
Interview LocationResidence StateBirth Location
TexasTexasKentucky
Themes & KeywordsAdditional Tags:
Emancipation, Sharecropping,First person, witnessed extreme cruelty, Union Troops,

Coleman_E_2

Posted on

George Conrad, Jr.

George Conrad was an enslaved person on a 900 acre farm in Kentucky.  In this excerpt he begins by describing “patrollers” whose job was to be monitor the movement of enslaved peoples, to be sure if they were off their  property they had the proper paperwork.   He goes on to describe tales he’d heard of John Brown and the Underground Railroad.
See full document • Visit the Library of Congress to see the original document

Excerpt:

I heard a lot of talk ’bout the patrollers. In those days if you went away from home and didn’t have a pass they’d whip you. Sometimes they’d whip you with a long black cow whip, and then sometimes they’d roast elm switches in the fire. This was called “cat-o-nine-tails”, and they’d whip you with that. We never had any jails; only punishment was just to whip you.

Now, the way the slaves travel. If a slave had been good sometimes old Master would let him ride his horse ; then, sometime they’d steal a horse out and ride them and slip him back before old Master ever found it out. 

There was a man in those days by the name of John Brown. We called him an underground railroad man, ’cause he’d steal the slaves and carry them across the river in a boat. When you got on the other side you were free, ’cause you were in a free State, Ohio.  We used to sing, and I guess young folks today do too: “John Brown’s Body Lies a’Molding In the Clay.” and  “They Hung John Brown On a Sour Apple Tree.”

Interviewee 
Formerly enslaved person		Birth Year (Age)Interviewer
WPA Volunteer		Enslaver’s Name
George Conrad, Jr.1860 (77)UnknownJoe Conrad
Interview LocationResidence StateBirth Location
Oklahoma City, OKOklahomaHarrison County, Kentucky
Themes & KeywordsAdditional Tags:
Underground Railroad, EmancipationFirst person, slave patrols, John Brown, Underground Railroad

Conrad_G_1

Posted on

Alex and Elizabeth Smith

Alex and Elizabeth Smith were enslaved on separate farms, owned by relatives in close proximity to each other.  This excerpt describes their different experiences during enslavement, and their early life after gaining freedom.
See full document • Visit the Library of Congress to see the original document

Excerpt:

On the Peter Stubblefield plantation, the slaves were treated very well and had plenty to eat, while on the Robert Stubblefield plantation Mr. Smith went hungry many times, and said, “Often, I would see a dog with a bit of bread, and I would have been willing to take it from him if I had not been afraid the dog would bite me.”

Mrs. Smith was named after Elizabeth Stubblefield, a relative of Peter Stubblefield. As a child of five years or less, Elizabeth had to spin “long reels five cuts a day,” pick seed from cotton, and cockle burrs from wool, and perform the duties of a house girl.

Unlike the chores of Elizabeth, Mr. Smith had to chop wood, carry water, chop weeds, care for cows, pick bugs from tobacco plants. This little boy had to go barefoot both summer and winter and remembers the cracking of ice under his bare feet.

The day the mistress and master came and told the slaves they were free to go anyplace they desired, Mrs. Smith’s mother told her later that she was glad to be free but she had no place to go or any money to go with. Many of the slaves would not leave and she never witnessed such crying as went on. Later Mrs. Smith was paid for working. She worked in the fields for “vittles” and clothes. A few years later she nursed children for twenty-five cents a week and “vittles,” but after a time she received fifty cents a week, board, and two dresses. She married Mr. Smith at the age of twenty.

Interviewee 
Formerly enslaved person		Birth Year (Age)Interviewer
WPA Volunteer		Enslaver’s Name
Alex and Elizabeth SmithUnknown (83)Henrietta KarwowskiRobert and Peter Stubblefield
Interview LocationResidence StateBirth Location
South Bend, INIndianaKentucky
Themes & KeywordsAdditional Tags:
Family, Emancipation, Economics,First Person,

Smith_A_1

Posted on

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.
See full document • Visit the Library of Congress to see the original document

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. Fields1848 (89)Cecil C. MillerDavid Hill
Interview LocationResidence StateBirth Location
Lafayette, INIndianaOwensboro, KY
Themes & KeywordsAdditional Tags:
Civil War, EmancipationFirst person, witnessed extreme cruelty, hired out, Civil War

Fields_J_3

Posted on

Patsy Jane Bland

Almost 107 at the time she was interviewed, the interviewer notes that Patsy Jane Bland remembered a great deal about life as an enslaved person.  Patsy Jane Bland was sold twice as an enslaved person and had four children when the Civil War began.  In this excerpt, recorded in the third person, the interviewer recounts Patsy Jane Bland’s education, memories of a white wedding, and emancipation. 
See full document • Visit the Library of Congress to see the original document

Excerpt:

…She [Patsy Jane Bland] had to work, too, for life was not all play and she recalls sitting at the feet of her little mistress and learning to spell out her letters until the mother of the white child decided that she was getting too smart and she had to stop, until she was married to her last and fourth husband, who taught her some more… 

[Patsy Jane Bland remembers a wedding of white people at the enslaver’s home.] The wedding preparations began days in advance with the saving of chickens and eggs and butter. The liveliest egg-beating, butter creaming, raisin stoning, sugar pounding, cake icing, coconut scraping, and grating, Jelly straining, silver cleaning, egg frothing, floor rubbing, pastry making, ruffle crimping, tarlatan smoothing, trunk moving time you ever saw, and the peeping at the bride with her long veil and train, and the guests the whole army of slaves turned out to help.

Aunt Patsy remembers the night before the wedding when they all gathered in the quarter to sing every song they knew over and over again, celebrating the leaving of the bride for Virginia and how Young Miss died soon after her big wedding and was buried in her bridal dress…

Already the mother of four when the Civil War began, Patsy remembered seeing soldiers, and “because they were scared,” the slaves ran from them and hid out. She remembered the day all the blacks on her plantation were set free. There was shouting and crying; there was joy and sadness. She said many blacks did not want to leave the plantation to go out into a world of which they knew nothing. Patsy, though, gathered her four children around her, and with her husband, who was named Wilson, left the plantation. When the fieldworker asked if she was happier free, Patsy looked off into the distance and said, “Free? Is anybody ever free? Isn’t everybody you know a slave to someone or something or other?”

Interviewee 
Formerly enslaved person		Birth Year (Age)Interviewer
WPA Volunteer		Enslaver’s Name
Patsy Jane Bland1830 (106)Anna Bowles WileyWilliam Kettering, Charles Morgan, John Boyle
Interview LocationResidence StateBirth Location
Terre Haute, ININKY
Themes & KeywordsAdditional Tags:
Education, Marriage (Whites), EmancipationShelby County, Third Person, Whipped, Sold, Veteran or Widow, 

Bland_P_1

Posted on

Joe Mayes

In this interview, recorded in the first person, Joe Mayes shares his memories of emancipation, noting that the man who enslaved his family sold them even though they were free.  The excerpt ends with Joe Mayes describing how his mother’s life was harder after she was freed.  Teachers may need to help students navigate this comparison, noting that it is a criticism of the treatment of Blacks after the Civil War rather than praise for life as an enslaved person. 
See full document • Visit the Library of Congress to see the original document

Excerpt:

…I [Joe Mayes] was born a slave… I never will forget the man came and told Mother she was free. She cooked. She never worked in the field until after freedom. In a few days, another man come and made them leave. They couldn’t hold them in Kentucky. The owners give her provisions, meat, molasses, etc. They give her her clothes. She had four children and I was her youngest. The two oldest were girls. Father was dead. I don’t remember him…

Another thing I remember: Frank Hayes sold mother to Isaac Tremble after she was free. She didn’t know she was free. Neither did Isaac Tremble. I don’t know whether Frank Mayes was honest or not. The part I remember was that us boys stood on the block and never was parted from her. We had to leave our sisters [who were sold to other enslavers]…

All our family got together after we found out we had been freed…

The owners were pretty good to Mother to be slavery. She had clothes and enough to eat all the time…Mother was glad to be free but for a long time, her life was harder…  

Interviewee 
Formerly enslaved person		Birth Year (Age)Interviewer
WPA Volunteer		Enslaver’s Name
Joe MayesUnknown (Unknown)Irene RobertsonFrank Mayes, Isaac Trimble
Interview LocationResidence StateBirth Location
Madison, ARARKY
Themes & KeywordsAdditional Tags:
Emancipation, Family, Sold

Mayes_J_1

Can we count on your support?

This website is a service of Reckoning, Inc., a small non-profit organization that depends on grants and donations to continue our work. Up to this point, we have avoided putting any paid advertising on our website. If you would like to help us keep it that way, please consider making a donation to our organization.

More giving options