Family – Page 3 – Reckoning, Inc.

September 27, 2020September 28, 2020

Julia King

Julia King lived with her entire family on the same plantation. When she was very young, her father, mother and sister all ran away and escaped via the Underground Railroad. Here, she tells the tale, as she knows it, of her mother’s escape.

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Excerpt:

Mamma was keeping house. Papa paid the white people who owned them, for her time. He left before Mamma did. He ran away to Canada on the Underground Railroad.

My mother’s mistress—I don’t remember her name—used to come and take Mary with her to market every day. The morning my mother ran away, her mistress decided she wouldn’t take Mary with her to market. Mamma was glad, because she had almost made up her mind to go, even without Mary.

Mamma went down to the boat. A man on the boat told Mamma not to answer the door for anybody, until he gave her the signal. The man was a Quaker, one of those people who says ‘Thee’ and ‘Thou’. Mary kept on calling out the mistress’s name and Mamma couldn’t keep her still.

When the boat docked, the man told Mamma he thought her master was about. He told Mamma to put a veil over her face, in case the master was coming. He told Mamma he would cut the master’s heart out and give it to her, before he would ever let her be taken.

She left the boat before reaching Canada, somewhere on the Underground Railroad—Detroit, I think—and a woman who took her in said: ‘Come in, my child, you’re safe now.’ Then Mamma met my father in Windsor. I think they were taken to Canada free.

Interviewee Formerly enslaved person	Birth Year (Age)	Interviewer WPA Volunteer	Enslaver’s Name
Julia King	1857 (80)	K. Osthimer	Unknown

Interview Location	Residence State	Birth Location
Toledo, OH	Ohio	Louisville, KY

Themes & Keywords	Additional Tags:
Gender/gender roles, family	First person, escape, Underground railroad

King_J_1

September 27, 2020October 2, 2020

Kate Dudley Baumont

Kate Baumont was very young when slavery ended, but she has specific memories from her childhood, which she shares. This excerpt describes how the enslaved on the plantation she worked were all given their own land to work while they were enslaved. They were also given similar plots of land when they were freed, which many continued to live on and work for years after emancipation.

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Excerpt:

When we lived on the Preston farm something happened that raised a lot of talk. One of the Preston girls fell in love with the Negro coachman and ran off and married him in Canada. Said she never wanted to marry a white man. She never did have white beaux as a girl. Her father was so hurt, and he said he was going to disown her. But he did give them $10,000, then he said he never wanted them to come back to visit him or his folks, but his folks could go up to Canada and visit with her and her family. Before, the Prestons threatened to kill the man, but the girl said if they killed him, she would kill some of them and herself, too. She told them

that she persuaded him to take her, and that she had been in love with him for years, and had tried ever so long to get him to run off with her and marry her. Ole Miss like to died, but she got over it, and took trips up to Canada when she wanted to see her daughter. But the girl and her husband, they never came back to her old home. They had a family, so we heard, and he was doing well and had some kind of business, and later, it was said he made a lot of money. He was a nice-looking man; dark, but fine featured.

Interviewee Formerly enslaved person	Birth Year (Age)	Interviewer WPA Volunteer	Enslaver’s Name
Kate Dudley Baumont	Unknown	Unknown	Preston

Interview Location	Residence State	Birth Location
Clark County, OH	Ohio	Bath County, KY

Themes & Keywords	Additional Tags:
Family	First person, dialect

Baumont_K_2

September 27, 2020September 28, 2020

Kisey McKimm

Kisey McKimm spent her entire enslavement (and some time after) on the same plantation. In this excerpt, McKimm describes how her enslaver treated her and her family better than most enslavers, but how his son was cruel. It describes an instance of the son whipping one of the enslaved. The excerpt goes on to describe how McKimm’s family was given land after Emancipation, but when the enslaver father died, the son took over the land and kicked them out.

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Excerpt:

Master Jacob was good to his slaves, but his son, Clay was mean. I remember once when he took my Mammy out and whipped her cause she forgot to put cake in his basket, when he went hunting’. But that was the last time, because the master heard of it and cussed him like God had come down from Heaven.

. . . The great day on the plantation was Christmas when we all got a little present from the Master. The men slaves would cut a whole pile of wood for the fireplace and pile it on the porch. As long as the whole pile of wood lasted we didn’t have to work but when it was gone, our Christmas was over. Sometimes on Sunday afternoons, we would go to the Master’s honey room and he would give us sticks of candied honey, and Lord child, was it good! I ate so much once, I got sick enough to die.

One time, dey sent me down the road to fetch something’ and I heard a bunch of horses coming, I jumped over the fence and hid behind the elderberry bushes until they passed, and I ran home and told them what I had seen. Pretty soon they came to the house, 125 Union soldiers and asked for something to eat. We all jumped around and fixed them a dinner, when they finished, they looked for Master, but he was hidden. They were gentlemen and didn’t bother or take anything. When the war was over the Master gave Mammy a house and 160 acre farm, but when he died, his son Clay told us to get out of the place or he’d burn the house and us up in it, so we left and moved to Paris. After I was married and had two children, me and my man moved north and I’ve been here ever since.

Interviewee Formerly enslaved person	Birth Year (Age)	Interviewer WPA Volunteer	Enslaver’s Name
Kisey McKimm	1853 (84)	Betty Lugabill (or Lugabell)	Jacob Sandusky

Interview Location	Residence State	Birth Location
Paulding County, OH	Ohio	Bourbon County, KY

Themes & Keywords	Additional Tags:
Family, Emancipation	First person, dialect, Union soldiers

McKimm_K_1

September 27, 2020September 28, 2020

Lucy Ann Warfield

Lucy Warfield spent her childhood and young adult life enslaved. She doesn’t know her age, but she was an adult and married when the Civil War broke out. In this excerpt, she describes why she doesn’t know when she was born, as well as the difficulty of the work she was given as an enslaved person. She finishes by describing how one of her mother’s sisters was able to escape to Canada.

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Excerpt:

Lordy child, I’ve been old so long that the affliction of years makes me forget lots and lots I might tell you. I was born in Jessamine County, Kentucky, but I can’t say what year, because White folks didn’t keep count of their slaves’ ages. They were just like chickens- like so many chickens.

I know I was a married woman when the war came, and they say I am more than a hundred, Nannie says I’m about 117. But I just don’t know. Anyhow, I know that God’s been awful good to me.

. . . They never did give me a whipping, but they sure worked me hard. I did a man’s work on the place; putting’ up stone fences and rail fences, splitting’ rails, breaking hemp, plowing fields, doing corn planting’, and anything the men were supposed to do, and I was supposed to say nothing. The good Lord only knows just what I’ve been through.

I remember when one of my mother’s sisters ran off and got safe into Canada. She was a fine woman and she didn’t care for anything except to be free. She did what more of them ought to have done – me, too, because I was grown in size long time before we were free- but they were just afraid.

Interviewee Formerly enslaved person	Birth Year (Age)	Interviewer WPA Volunteer	Enslaver’s Name
Lucy Ann Warfield	1820 (117 years old – speculated)	Unknown	Scott and Perry Families

Interview Location	Residence State	Birth Location
Clark County, OH	Ohio	Jessamine County, KY

Themes & Keywords	Additional Tags:
Family, Gender/gender roles	First person, dialect

Warfield_L_1

September 27, 2020September 28, 2020

Lucy Davis

In this excerpt, Ms. Davis describes her experiences during the Civil War and her Emancipation. Of note is the fear that her enslavers had of the Union soldiers, and how she was put on lookout outside the property when they would come, allowing her enslavers to hide while the soldiers took what they wanted from the property. She finished by retelling the reaction of her and her family when they were told they were free.

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Excerpt:

When the war came Ole Master didn’t go, but he was a regular old secesh! (Secessionist/Southern sympathizer) Young James Andrew went off to war and ole Missus used to grieve for him. We never saw fighting around our place but we could hear the big guns over at Columbus. When the soldiers were around the neighborhood, they’d always have me playing around the front gate so I could tell them when they were coming up the road. Then they’d go and hide before the soldiers got there. They were all scared of the soldiers. I was scared too, but they said soldiers wouldn’t bother a little black gal. The soldiers just came in and ransacked the house—they’d find something to eat and they’d look for money. They want money! But they don’t find any. Then they wanted to know where my folks were, but I told them I didn’t know, “They just left and didn’t say where they were going’.

When the war was over, Ole Master Joe came in and he said, ’Rose, you all ain’t slaves any more. You are all as free as I am.’ Then you should’ve heard my mammy shout! You never heard such shouting in all your born days. And Ole Missus, she joined in the shouting too. She was glad because now James Andrew would be coming home.

Interviewee Formerly enslaved person	Birth Year (Age)	Interviewer WPA Volunteer	Enslaver’s Name
Lucy Davis	Unknown	Unknown	Joe Mott

Interview Location	Residence State	Birth Location
Cape Girardeau, MO	Missouri	Hickman, KY

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

Davis_L_1

September 27, 2020October 2, 2020

Richard Miller

Richard Miller was the son of an Indian mother and an enslaved father. In this excerpt he describes his family’s experiences after Emancipation and how his family was separated even after becoming free.

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Excerpt:

Richard Miller was born January 12, 1843 in Danville, Kentucky.

His mother was an English subject, born in Bombay, India, and was brought into America by a group of people who did not want to be under the English government. They landed in Canada, came on to Detroit, stayed there a short time, then went to Danville, Kentucky. There she married a slave named Miller. They were the parents of five children.

. . .When slavery was abolished, a group of them started down to the far south, to buy farms, to try for themselves, got as far as Madison County, Kentucky and were told if they went any farther south, they would be made slaves again, not knowing if that was the truth or not, they stayed there, and worked on the Madison County farms for a very small wage. This separated families, and they never heard from each other ever again.

These separations are the cause of so many of the slave race not being able to trace families back for generations, as do the white families.

Interviewee Formerly enslaved person	Birth Year (Age)	Interviewer WPA Volunteer	Enslaver’s Name
Richard Miller	1843	Sarah H. Locke	Unknown

Interview Location	Residence State	Birth Location
Marion County, IN	Indiana	Danville, KY

Themes & Keywords	Additional Tags:
Emancipation, Family	Third person, separation,

Miller_R_1

September 27, 2020October 2, 2020

Robert Glenn

Robert Glenn’s enslaver sold him away from his family at a young age. In this excerpt he describes being put on the auction block three times in one day, while his father and mother attempted to win the auction and purchase him.

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Excerpt:

My father’s time was hired out, and as he knew a trade, he had by working overtime saved up a considerable amount of money. After the speculator, Henry Long, bought me, Mother went to Father and pleaded with him to buy me from him and let the white folks hire me out. No slave could own a slave. Father got the consent and help of his owners to buy me and they asked Long to put me on the block again. Long did so and named his price but when he learned who had bid me off he backed down.

Later in the day he put me on the block and named another price much higher than the price formerly set. He was asked by the white folks to name his price for his bargain and he did so. I was again put on the auction block and Father bought me in, putting up the cash. Long then flew into a rage and cursed my father saying, ‘You damn black son of a bitch, you think you are white do you? Now just to show you are black, I will not let you have your son at any price.’ Father knew it was all off, Mother was frantic but there was nothing they could do about it. They had to stand and see the speculator put me on his horse behind him and ride away without allowing either of them to tell me goodbye. I figure I was sold three times in one day, as the price asked was offered in each instance. Mother was told under threat of a whipping not to make any outcry when I was carried away.

Interviewee Formerly enslaved person	Birth Year (Age)	Interviewer WPA Volunteer	Enslaver’s Name
Robert Glenn	1850 (87)	T. Pat Matthews	Bob Hall, William Moore

Interview Location	Residence State	Birth Location
Raleigh, NC	North Carolina	Hillsboro, NC

Themes & Keywords	Additional Tags:
Family, Equality	First person, sold, slave traders

Glenn_R_1

September 27, 2020September 28, 2020

Robert Howard

Robert Howard was enslaved in Kentucky beginning in 1852. This third person description gives a very brief overview of his life while enslaved.

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Excerpt:

Robert Howard, an ex-slave, was born in 1852, in Clara County, Kentucky. His master, Chelton Howard, was very kind to him. The mother, with her five children, lived on the Howard farm in peace and harmony. His father, Beverly Howard, was owned by Bill Anderson, who kept a saloon on the riverfront.

Beverly was “hired out” in the house of Bill Anderson. He was allowed to go to the Howard farm every Saturday night to visit with his wife and children. This visit was always looked forward to with great joy, as they were devoted to the father.

The Howard family was sold only once, being owned first by Dr. Page in Henry County, Kentucky. The family was not separated; the entire family was bought and kept together until slavery was abolished.

Interviewee Formerly enslaved person	Birth Year (Age)	Interviewer WPA Volunteer	Enslaver’s Name
Robert Howard	1852 (Unknown)	Sarah H. Locke	Chelton HowardDr. Page

Interview Location	Residence State	Birth Location
Marion County, IN	Indiana	Clare, KY

Themes & Keywords	Additional Tags:
Family	Third person, hired out

Howard_R_1

September 27, 2020October 2, 2020

Sarah Frances Shaw Graves

Sarah Frances Shaw Graves’ enslaver moved her from Kentucky to Missouri at a young age. In this excerpt, she describes the term “allotment” and the process of hiring out an enslaved person. She goes on to describe how her father was allotted to another enslaver when they were moved to Missouri, and how the enslavers would not tell her mother where her father was in order to encourage her to remarry and have children.

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Excerpt:

Yes ma’am. Allotted? Yes ma’am. I’m going to explain that, she replied. You see there were slave traders in those days, just like you got horse and mule and auto traders now. They bought and sold slaves and hired them out. Yes ma’am, rented them out. Allotted means something like hired out. But the slave never got any wages. That all went to the master. The man they were allotted to paid the master.

I never was sold. My mama was sold only once, but she was hired out many times. Yes ma’am when a slave was allotted, somebody made a down payment and gave a mortgage for the rest. A chattel mortgage. A down payment!! Times don’t change, just the merchandise.

Allotments made a lot of grief for the slaves, Aunt Sally asserted.

We left my papa in Kentucky, because he was allotted to another man. My papa never knew where my mama went, and my mama never knew where papa went.

Aunt Sally paused a moment, then went on bitterly. They never wanted Mama to know, because they knew she would never marry so long as she knew where he was. Our master wanted her to marry again and raise more children to be slaves. They never wanted Mama to know where Papa was, and she never did, sighed Aunt Sally. Only those who have lost their mate, and never know the end of the tale, can understand such heart anguish.

Mama said she would never marry again to have children, continued Aunt Sally, so she married my step-father, Trattle Barber, because he was sick and could never be a father. He was so sick he couldn’t work, so me and mama had to work hard.

Interviewee Formerly enslaved person	Birth Year (Age)	Interviewer WPA Volunteer	Enslaver’s Name
Sarah Frances Shaw Graves	1850 (87)	Unknown	Jimmie Shaw

Interview Location	Residence State	Birth Location
Skidmore, MO	Missouri	Louisville, KY

Themes & Keywords	Additional Tags:
Family, Economics	First person, sold (family), hired out

Graves_S_1

September 27, 2020September 28, 2020

Sophia Word

Sophia word spent the first nearly 20 years of her life enslaved. In this excerpt, she tells several stories of extreme cruelty and their results. The first is an example of her being whipped for trying to take food from the kitchen of her enslaver. The next set of stories describes the cruelty of a neighboring enslaver and the suicides of the enslaved that resulted from this treatment.

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Excerpt:

The mistress had an old parrot and one day I was in the kitchen making cookies. I decided I wanted some of them, so I took me out some and put them on a chair, and when I did this the mistress entered the door. I picked up a cushion and threw it over the pile of cookies on the chair. Mistress came near the chair and the old parrot cries out, ‘Mistress burn, Mistress burn’, then the mistress looked under the cushion and she had me whipped. But the next day I killed the parrot, and she often wondered who or what killed the bird.

My master wasn’t as mean as most masters. Hugh White was so mean to his slaves, that I know of two gals that killed themselves. One n***** gal, Sudie, was found across the bed with a pen knife in her hand. He whipped another N***** gal most to death for forgetting to put onions in the stew. The next day she went down to the river and for nine days they searched for her and her body finally washed upon the shore. The master could never live in that house again as when he would go to sleep he would see the n***** standing over his bed. Then he moved to Richmond and there he stayed until a little later when he hung himself.

Interviewee Formerly enslaved person	Birth Year (Age)	Interviewer WPA Volunteer	Enslaver’s Name
Sophia Word	1937 (99)	Pearl House	William Reid

Interview Location	Residence State	Birth Location
Clay County, KY	Kentucky	Unknown

Themes & Keywords	Additional Tags:
Family, violence	First person, dialect, witnessed extreme cruelty

Word_S_1