First-Person – Page 5 – Reckoning, Inc.

September 27, 2020November 10, 2022

Wes Woods

Wes Woods grew up near the end of enslavement in our country, but shares the memories he has or has been told of life as an enslaved person. He describes the living conditions first, and then how his father hired him out to earn extra money after Emancipation.

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

Excerpt:

There were three or four cabins for the slaves to live in, not so very far from the house. The cabin where my mother and father lived was the closest to the house, for my mother did the cooking. Our cabin was one long room, with a loft above, which we reached with a ladder. There was one big bed, with a trundle bed, which was on wooden rollers and was shoved under the big bed in the daytime. The oldest boys slept in a big wooden bed in the loft. The cabins were built of logs and chinked with rock and mud. The ceiling was of joists, and my mother used to hang the seed that we gathered in the fall, to dry from these joists. Some of the chimneys were made with sticks and chinked with mud, and would sometimes catch on fire. Later people learned to build chimneys of rock with big wide fireplaces, and a hearth of stone, which made them safer from fire.

We were glad when the news came that we were free, but none of us left for a long time, not until the Woods family was broken up. My father hired me out to work for my victuals and clothes, and I got $25.00 at the end of the year. I do not remember any wedding or death in my old master’s house.

Interviewee Formerly enslaved person	Birth Year (Age)	Interviewer WPA Volunteer	Enslaver’s Name
Wes Woods	1864	Eliza Ison	Eliza Kennedy

Interview Location	Residence State	Birth Location
Garrard County, KY	Kentucky	Cartersville, KY

Themes & Keywords	Additional Tags:
Family,	1st Person, Bound out after war

Woods_W_1

September 27, 2020September 28, 2020

Scott Mitchell

Scott Mitchell lived through the Civil War, though he does not know his age. Here, he briefly describes his recollection of the war and stories of lynchings and hangings that took place during that time.

*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:

Yes, I remember the Civil War, because I was living in Christian County where I was born, right with my master and mistress, Captain Hester and his wife. I was raised on a farm right with the, then I left there.

Yes, Captain Hester traded my mother and my sister, ’twas in 1861, he sent them to Mississippi. When they were away from him about two years, he bought them back. Yes, he was good to us. I was my mistress’ boy. I looked after her, and she made all of my clothes, and she knitted my socks, because I was her [redacted].

Yes, I was twenty years old when I was married.

I remember I was a boy when they had the Civil War. I remember there was a brick office where they hanged colored folks. Yes, the blood was a-streaming down. Sometimes they hung them by their feet, sometimes they hung them by their thumbs.

Interviewee Formerly enslaved person	Birth Year (Age)	Interviewer WPA Volunteer	Enslaver’s Name
Scott Mitchell	Unknown	Margaret Bishop	Captain Hester

Interview Location	Residence State	Birth Location
Breathitt County, KY	Kentucky	Christian County, KY

Themes & Keywords	Additional Tags:
Civil War, Violence,	First person, witnessed extreme cruelty, Klan/mob violence,

Mitchell_S_1

August 20, 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 a story of an enslaver who married and ran away with one of the enslaved males on the plantation. She goes on to describe the reactions and impact this had on the enslaver’s family.

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

Excerpt:

A lot of men from our place went to war. I had two uncles who went. It was nothing to see soldiers in our neighborhood. When the war was over, Mr. Preston gave all his slaves deeds for so much land, and built them each a little four-room cottage. Some of them folks are still on that piece of land.

Preston’s slaves were the same as free in those times. The ones on his farm, they tended their own land and was their own boss. Folks said he let his enslaved be free, and some of them talked a lot and said that when his daughter married.

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:
Emancipation, Civil War	First person, Union troops

Baumont_K_1

August 20, 2020October 2, 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 describes her memory of a song her mother sang before she escaped.

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

Excerpt:

I think the colored folks had a church, because Mamma was always a Baptist. Only colored people went to the church.

Mamma used to sing a song:

“Don’t you remember the promise that you made,

To my old dying mother’s request?

That I never should be sold,

Not for silver or for gold.

While the sun rose from the East to the West?

And it hadn’t been a year,

The grass had not grown over her grave.

I was advertised for sale.

And I would have been in jail,

If I had not crossed the deep, dancing waves.

I’m upon the Northern banks

And beneath the Lion’s paw,

And he’ll growl if you come near the shore.”

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:
Family, Religion	First person, dialect

King_J_2

August 20, 2020November 10, 2022

Amelia Jones

In this excerpt, Amelia Jones recollects her time enslaved in Manchester, KY on the plantation of Maw White, and his treatment of her and other enslaved persons on the plantation. She describes the process White used to separate mothers from their children on the day the children were to be sold to another enslaver. The interviewer then proceeds to describe how Jones’ father and sister were sold and separated from her in a similar manner during her childhood.

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

Excerpt:

Master White was good to the slaves, he fed us well and had good places for us to sleep, and didn’t whip us, only when it was necessary, but didn’t hesitate to sell any of his slaves, he said, “You all belong to me and if you don’t like it, I’ll put you in my pocket” meaning of course that he would sell that slave and put the money in his pocket.

The day he was to sell the children from their mother he would tell that mother to go to some other place to do some work and in her absence, he would sell the children. It was the same when he would sell a man’s wife, he also sent him to another job, and when he returned his wife would be gone. The master only said, “don’t worry you can get another one”.

The following is also related by the interviewer:

Mrs. Jones has a sister ninety-two years of age living with her now, who was sold from the auction block in Manchester. Her sister was only twelve years of age when sold and her master received $1,220.00 for her, then she was taken south to some plantation. Also her father was sold at that place at an auction of slaves at a high price, handcuffed and taken south. She never saw her father again. She says the day her father was sold there was a long line of slaves to be sold and after they were sold and a good price paid for each they were handcuffed and marched away to the South, her father was among the number.

Interviewee Formerly enslaved person	Birth Year (Age)	Interviewer WPA Volunteer	Enslaver’s Name
Amelia Jones	1849 (88)	Perry Larkey	Daw White

Interview Location	Residence State	Birth Location
London, KY, Laurel County	Kentucky	Kentucky

Themes & Keywords	Additional Tags:
Family, Economics	Sold (self or family), Slave traders, First Person, Third Person,

Jones_A_1

August 13, 2020October 2, 2020

John Eubanks

Tony and Becky Eubanks enslaved John Eubanks during the period described in this excerpt. The Eubanks family supported the Union during the Civil War and allowed the men they enslaved to join the Union army, which John Eubanks chose to do, joining Company K of the 108th Kentucky Infantry Regiment – a unit of Black soldiers who volunteered to fight. At the time of the interview, John Eubanks was the only surviving Civil War veteran in his town. In this excerpt, the interviewer recounts John Eubanks’s experiences during the Civil War in the third person.

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 lists John Eubanks experiences as a Union soldier during the Civil 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.” 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.

*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

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, Emancipation, Interviewer	Barron County, First Person, Third Person, Dialect, Whipped, Witnessed Extreme Cruelty, Union Troops, Veteran or Widow, Notable

Excerpt:

…Shortly after the beginning of the Civil War, when the north seemed to be losing, someone conceived the idea of forming… [Black] 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. Although he fails to remember all the units that he was attached to, he does remember that it was part of [Union] General Sherman’s army. His regiment started with Sherman on his famous march through Georgia, but for some reason unknown to John, shortly after the campaign was on its way, his regiment was recalled and sent elsewhere.

His regiment was near Vicksburg, Mississippi, at the time [Confederate General] Lee surrendered…When Lee surrendered there was much shouting among the troops and John was one of many put to work loading cannons on boats to be shipped up the river…

When [Confederate] General Morgan, the famous southern raider, crossed the Ohio on his raid across southern Indiana, John was one of the…[Black] fighters who after heavy fighting, forced Morgan to recross the river and retreat back to the south. He also participated in several skirmishes with the cavalry troops commanded by the famous [Confederate General] Nathan Bedfored Forrest, and was a member of the…[Black] garrison at Fort Pillow, on the Mississippi which was assaulted and captured. This resulted in a massacre of the [redacted] soldiers. John was in several other fights, but as he says, “Never once got a skin hurt.”…

[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.’…

We were infantry and pretty soon we got into plenty of fights, but not a scratch hit me. We chased the cavalry. We ran them all night and next morning the Captain said, ‘They broke down.’ When we rest, he says ‘See they don’t trick you.’ I say, ‘We got all the army men together. We’ll hold them back ’til help comes.’

We didn’t have any tents, slept on naked ground in wet and cold and rain. Most of the time we were hungry, But we win the war and Master Eubanks tells us we are no more his property, we’re free now…

Eubanks_J_1

August 13, 2020October 2, 2020

John Eubanks

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 describes John Eubanks life during slavery, calling him “one of hte more fortunate slaves in that his mistress and master were kind.”

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 is a far more detailed version of John Eubanks life that goes into great detail about the cruelty of his enslaver. 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.

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

Excerpt:

[Part 1: Recorded by the interviewer in the third person.]

Following the custom of the south, when the children of the Everrett family grew up, they married and slaves were given them for wedding presents. John was given to a daughter who married a man of the name of Eubanks, hence his name, John Eubanks. John was one of the more fortunate slaves in that his mistress and master were kind and they were in a state divided on the question of slavery. They favored the north. The rest of the children were given to other members of the Everrett family upon their marriage or sold down the river and never saw one another until after the close of the Civil War.

[Part 2: What follows is a different version of the interview, recorded by the same interviewer, but this time in the first person. The examples John Eubanks shares here about how violently his enslaver treated enslaved people do not appear at all in the full version of the interview recorded in Part 1. The brackets used below were inserted by the interviewer at the time the interview was recorded. ]

…I remember well, us young’uns on the Everett plantation. I have worked since I can remember, hoeing, picking cotton and other chores around the farm. We didn’t have many clothes, never underwear, no shoes, old overalls and a tattered shirt, winter and summer. Come the winter, it’d be so cold my feet were plumb numb most of the time, and many a time—when we got a chance—we drove the hogs from out in the bogs and put our feet in the warmed wet mud. They were cracked and the skin on the bottoms and in the toes were cracked and bleeding most of time, with bloody scabs, but the summer healed them again.

“Do you all remember, Grandpap,” [his daughter prompted] “your master—did he treat you mean?”

“No.” [His tolerant acceptance apparent in his answer] “It was done thataway. Slaves were whipped and punished and the young’uns belonged to the master to work for him or to sell. When I was about six years old, Master Everett gave me to Tony Eubanks as a wedding present when he married master’s daughter Becky. Becky wouldn’t let Tony whip her slaves who came from her father’s plantation. ‘They are my property,’ she says, ‘and you can’t whip them.’ Tony whipped his other slaves but not Becky’s.

I remember how they tied the slave around a post, with hands tied together around the post, then a husky lashed his back with a snakeskin lash until his back was cut and bloodened, the blood spattered [gesticulating with his unusually large hands] and his back all cut up. Then they’d pour salt water on him. That’d dry and then stick to him. He’d never take it off till it healed. Sometimes I’d see Master Everett hang a slave tip-toe. He’d tie him up so he stood tip-toe and left him thataway…

Master Everett whipped me once, and Mother, she cried. Then Master Everett says, ‘Why do you all cry?—You cry, I’ll whip another of these young’uns. She tried to stop. He whipped another. He says, ‘If you all don’t stop, you will be whipped too!’, and Mother, she’s trying to stop but tears roll out, so Master Everett whips her too.

I wanted to visit Mother when I belonged to Master Eubanks, but [enslaver Master Eubanks’s wife] Becky said, ‘You all best not see your Mother, or you’ll want to go all the time, then explaining that she wanted me to forget Mother, but I never could…

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:
Violence, Family, Interviewer	Barron County, First Person, Third Person, Dialect, Whipped, Witnessed Extreme Cruelty, Union Troops, Veteran or Widow, Notable

Eubanks_J_2

August 13, 2020September 29, 2020

Jane Simpson

In this excerpt, which the interviewer records in the first person, Jane Simpson describes how her enslaver whipped her, how her enslaver responded to Union troops during the Civil War, and how enslaved people were treated upon emancipation. The excerpt ends with Jane Simpson telling of a metaphor enslaved people used to describe the end of 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:

… I never got more than three or four whippings, but they cut the blood out of me every one of them times. If ole Miss got mad about something, just anything at all, she’d have you whipped, when maybe you had not done a thing, just to satisfy her spiteful feeling. I never can forget, I was sitting upstairs in ole Miss’ house, quilting, when the first Yankee army boat went to Vicksburg, Mississippi. Ole Miss made me get right up and go get her children out of school and bring them right home. She was scared to death mostly, but the boat went right on. It didn’t even stop…

I had an uncle who was buying his freedom from Master Chris and was almost paid out when Master Chris died, but he didn’t know anything about keeping receipts, so he was put on the auction block and sold again…

The [redacted] didn’t expect nothing from the white folks when they got set free. They were so glad to get set free, they were just glad to be loose. I never even heard of white folks giving [redacted] nothing. Most of the time they didn’t even give them what they were supposed to give them after they were free. They were so mad because they had to set them free, they just stayed mean as they would allow them to be anyhow, and are yet, most of them. I used to hear old slaves pray and ask God when would the bottom rail be the top rail, and I wondered what on earth they were talking about. They were talking about when they are going to get out from under bondage. Course I know now…

Interviewee Formerly enslaved person	Birth Year (Age)	Interviewer WPA Volunteer	Enslaver’s Name
Jane Simpson	Unknown (over 90)	Unknown	Chris Ellis, John Emerson, Jessie Cook, Dr. Hart

Interview Location	Residence State	Birth Location
St. Louis, MO	MO	Burkesville, KY

Themes & Keywords	Additional Tags:
Violence, Civil War, Emancipation	Cumberland County, First Person, Dialect, Sold

Simpson_J_1

August 13, 2020October 4, 2020

Henry Long

The majority of the original interview focuses on Henry Long’s work history as an adult after the Civil War. In the excerpt below, the interviewer recounts in the first person Henry Long’s view of slavery in Kentucky and how he does not know his birthdate.

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

Excerpt:

…Where was I born–it was in Kentucky, Russellville it was, just a few miles from Bowling Green. Yes, Kentucky was a regular slave state – a genuine slave state. Lots of them there.

…No, I didn’t rightly know how old I was. I was working along, not thinking much about what I was doing. Then the men down at the office (Hot Springs National Park) started asking me how old I was. I couldn’t tell them. But I thought I was born the year the slaves was freed. They said I ought to be retired. So they wrote back–or somebody stopped over while he was on his vacation–can’t quite remember which. Anyhow they found I was old enough to retire–ought to have retired several years ago…

Interviewee Formerly enslaved person	Birth Year (Age)	Interviewer WPA Volunteer	Enslaver’s Name
Henry Long	Year (approx. 71)	Mary D. Hudgins	Gabe Long

Interview Location	Residence State	Birth Location
AR	AR	Russellville, KY

Themes & Keywords	Additional Tags:
	Logan County, First Person

Long_H_1

August 13, 2020October 4, 2020

Harriet Mason

In this excerpt that the interviewer records in the first person, Harriet Mason describes her life as an enslaved person in Texas. Teachers may need to help students navigate Harriet Mason’s complementary description of her enslavers with the fact that they enslaved people.

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

Excerpt:

…I didn’t sleep in the cabins with the rest of the [enslaved people]…; I slept in the big house and nursed the children. I was not paid any money for my work. My food was the same as what the white folks ate. The white folks took me to church and dressed me well. I had good shoes and they took me to church on Sunday. My master was a preacher and a doctor and a fine man. Miss Mat sure was hard to beat. The house they lived in was a big white house with two long porches. We had no overseer or driver. We had no Poor white neighbors. There were about 300 acres of land… but we did not have many slaves…There was no jail on the place and I never saw a slave whipped or punished in any way. I never saw a slave auctioned off. My Missus taught all the slaves to read and write, and we sat on a bench in the dining room. When the news came that we were free General Gano [the enslaver] took us all in the dining room and told us about it…
…

Interviewee Formerly enslaved person	Birth Year (Age)	Interviewer WPA Volunteer	Enslaver’s Name
Harriet Mason	1847 (Unknown)	Eliza Ison	Briar M. Jones and Gano

Interview Location	Residence State	Birth Location
Garrard County, KY	KY	Bryantsville, KY

Themes & Keywords	Additional Tags:
Literacy, Education	Garrard County, First Person

Mason_H_1

August 13, 2020October 4, 2020

Hannah Davidson

In the full version of the interview, the interviewer recounts in the first person the cruelty enslavers inflicted on Hannah Davidson and the other enslaved people. Hanna Davidson describes a life of continuous work and repeated whippings. Enslavers Emmette and Susan Meriwether kept Hannah Davidson, her sister, and others enslaved for over twenty one years after they were legally free. In this excerpt, recorded in the first person, Hannah Davidson describes the violence of her enslaver and how she was denied an education.

*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:

… It is best not to talk about them. The things that my sister Mary and I suffered were so terrible that people would not believe them. It is best not to have such things in our memory…

If you wanted to go to another plantation, you had to have a pass. If my folks were going to somebody’s house, they’d have to have a pass. Otherwise, they’d be whipped. They’d take a big man and tie his hands behind a tree, just like that big tree outside, and whip him with rawhide and draw blood every whip. I know I was scared every time I’d hear the slave say, ‘Pray, Master.’…

Once, Jim Ferguson, a … Black man, came to teach school. The white folks beat and whipped him and drove him away in his underwear.

I wanted so hard to learn to read, but I didn’t even know I was free, even when slavery was ended.

I had been so exhausted working, I was like an inch-worm crawling along a roof. I worked till I thought another lick would kill me. If you had something to do, you did it or got whipped. Once I was so tired I couldn’t work anymore. I crawled in a hole under the house and stayed there till I was rested….

I never will forget it–how my master always used to say, ‘Keep a [redacted] down’ I never will forget it…

The slaves tried to get schools, but they didn’t get any. Finally, they started a few schools in little log cabins. But we children, my sister and I, never went to school…

Interviewee Formerly enslaved person	Birth Year (Age)	Interviewer WPA Volunteer	Enslaver’s Name
Hannah Davidson	1852 (approx. 85)	K. Osthimer	Emmette and Susan Meriwether

Interview Location	Residence State	Birth Location
Toledo, OH	OH	KY

Themes & Keywords	Additional Tags:
Education, Violence	Ballard County, First Person, Witnessed Extreme Cruelty, Sold, Union Troops

Davidson_H_3

August 13, 2020October 2, 2020

Hannah Davidson

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

Excerpt:

…We didn’t have any churches… We used to sing, ‘Swing low, sweet chariot’. When our folks sang that, we could really see the chariot…

The only fun we had was on Sunday evening, after work. That was the only chance we got. We used to go away off from the house and play in the haystack… Sundays the slaves would wash out their clothes. It was the only time they had to themselves… We never observed Christmas. We never had holidays, son, no, sir! [she is referring to the interviewer.] We didn’t know what the word was…

School? We never saw the inside of a schoolhouse. Mistress used to read the Bible to us every Sunday morning.

We sang two songs I still remember.

I think when I read that sweet story of old,

When Jesus was here among men,

How he called little children like lambs to his fold,

I should like to have been with them then.

I wish that his hands had been placed on my head,

That his arms had been thrown around me,

That I might have seen his kind face when he said

‘Let the little ones come unto me.’

Yet still to his footstool in prayer I nay go

And ask for a share of his love,

And that I might earnestly seek Him below

And see Him and hear Him above.

Then there was another:

I want to be an angel

And with the angels stand

With a crown upon my Forehead

And a harp within my hand.

And there before my Saviour,

So glorious and so bright,

I’d make the sweetest music

And praise him day and night.

And as soon as we got through singing those songs, we had to get right out to work. I was always glad when they called us in the house to Sunday school. It was the only chance we’d get to rest…

…Us kids always used to sing a song, ‘Gonna hang Jeff Davis [president of the Confederacy] to a sour apple tree as we go marchin’ home.’ I didn’t know what it meant at the time…

Interviewee Formerly enslaved person	Birth Year (Age)	Interviewer WPA Volunteer	Enslaver’s Name
Hannah Davidson	1852 (approx. 85)	K. Osthimer	Emmette and Susan Meriwether

Interview Location	Residence State	Birth Location
Toledo, OH	OH	KY

Themes & Keywords	Additional Tags:
Songs, Religion	Ballard County, First Person, Witnessed Extreme Cruelty, Sold, Union Troops,

Davidson_H_2

August 13, 2020October 4, 2020

Hannah Davidson

In the full version of the interview, the interviewer recounts in the first person the cruelty enslavers inflicted on Hannah Davidson and the other enslaved people. Hanna Davidson describes a life of continuous work and repeated whippings. Enslavers Emmette and Susan Meriwether kept Hannah Davidson, her sister, and others enslaved for over twenty one years after they were legally free. In this excerpt, recorded in the first person, Hannah Davidson describes the memories of the Civil War, the fear the KKK instilled in formerly enslaved people, and a contemporary exchange about slavery with a White stranger.

*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:

… It is best not to talk about them. The things that my sister Mary and I suffered were so terrible that people would not believe them. It is best not to have such things in our memory…

My master kept me and my sister Mary twenty-two long years after we were supposed to be free. Work, work, work. I don’t think my sister and I ever went to bed before twelve o’clock at night. We never got a penny. They could have spared it, too; they had enough… We didn’t even know we were free. We had to wash the white people’s feet when they took their shoes off at night–the men and women…

All I know about the Civil War was that it was goin’ on. I heard talk about killing and so on, but I didn’t know anything about it….

I remember when Yankee soldiers came riding through the yard. I was scared and ran away crying. I can see them now. Their swords hung at their sides and their horses walked proud as if they walked on their hind legs. The master was in the field trying to hide his money and guns and things. The soldiers said, ‘We won’t hurt you, child.’ It made me feel wonderful.

What I call the Ku Klux were those people who met at night and if they heard anybody saying you were free, they would take you out at night and whip you. They were the plantation owners. I never saw them ride, but I heard about them and what they did. My master used to tell us he wished he knew who the Ku Kluxers were. But he knew, all right, I used to wait on the table and I heard them talking. ‘Gonna lynch another [redacted] tonight!’

…Well, slavery’s over and I think that’s a grand thing. A white lady recently [in the 1930s] asked me, ‘Don’t you think you were better off under the white people?’ I said ‘What you talkin’ about? The birds of the air have their freedom. I don’t know why she should ask me that anyway…

Interviewee Formerly enslaved person	Birth Year (Age)	Interviewer WPA Volunteer	Enslaver’s Name
Hannah Davidson	1852 (approx. 85)	K. Osthimer	Emmette and Susan Meriwether

Interview Location	Residence State	Birth Location
Toledo, OH	OH	KY

Themes & Keywords	Additional Tags:
Violence, Civil War, KKK	Ballard County, First Person, Witnessed Extreme Cruelty, Sold, Union Troops

Davidson_H_1

August 13, 2020October 4, 2020

George Thompson

In this excerpt, the interviewer records George Thompson’s memories of enslavement in the first person. After describing how enslaved people were named, George Thompson explains how despite wanting to learn how to read, his enslaver used violence to prevent him from learning.

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

Excerpt:

…I [George Thompson] was quite a small boy when our family, which included an older sister, was sold to Ed. Thompson in Metcalfe Co. Kentucky, who owned about 50 other slaves, and as was the custom then we were given the name of our new master, “Thompson”.

I was hardly twelve years old when slavery was abolished, yet I can remember at this late date most of the happenings as they existed at that time.

I was so young and inexperienced when freed I remained on the Thompson plantation for four years after the war and worked for my board [shelter] and clothes as coach boy and any other odd jobs around the plantation.

I have no education, I can neither read nor write, as a slave I was not allowed to have books. On Sundays, I would go into the woods and gather ginseng which I would sell to the doctors for from 10¢ to 15¢ a pound, and with this money, I would buy a book that was called the Blue Back Speller. Our master would not allow us to have any books and when we were lucky enough to own a book we would have to keep it hidden, for if our master would find us with a book he would whip us and take the book from us. After receiving three severe whippings I gave up and never again tried for any learning, and to this day I can neither read nor write…

Interviewee Formerly enslaved person	Birth Year (Age)	Interviewer WPA Volunteer	Enslaver’s Name
George Thompson	1854 (approx. 83)	William R. Mays	Manfred Furgeson, Ed Thompson

Interview Location	Residence State	Birth Location
Johnson County, IN	IN	Hart, KY

Themes & Keywords	Additional Tags:
Education, Literacy, Emancipation, Violence	Metcalf County, Hart County, Monroe County, First Person, Whipped, Sold, Slave Patrollers

Thompson_G_1

August 13, 2020October 1, 2020

George Scruggs

In this excerpt, the interviewer records George Scruggs memories in the first person. The interviewer first recounts George Scruggs’ work as an enslaved person for two different enslavers, then a time he feared he was going to be sold. Teachers may need to help students critically examine George Scruggs statement that his enslaver “was sure good to me” given that the enslaver whipped him when he chose to go barefoot.

*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 was a slave before the war. My boss, the man that I belonged to, was Ole Man Vol Scruggs. He was a racehorse man. He had a [redacted] boy for every horse those days and a white man for every horse, too. I was born right here in Murray. My boss carried me away from here. I thought a heap of him and he though a heap of me. I’d rub the legs of the horses and ride them around to give them exercise. I was just a small boy when my boss carried me away from Murray. My boss carried me to Lexington. I stayed with Ole Man Scruggs a long time. I just don’t know how long… He then hired me to work for a doctor in Lexington. My job was to clean up his office and when he went out in the country, he took me along to open the gates. I had to scour knives and forks and ole brass candlesticks. That’s been a long time ago, I’m telling you, white man [George Scruggs is referring to the interviewer]. While I was sweeping the doctor’s office one day I saw droves of [redacted] folks going by with two white men riding in front, two riding in the middle, and two riding behind. The [redacted] folks were walking, going down town to be sold. When I first saw them coming I got scared and started to run but the white man said, “Stop, boy, we are not going to hurt you.” I stayed with that boss doctor for something like a year, and then went back to my Ole Boss. I’d been up there with him yet but he kept telling me I was free. But I didn’t know what he meant by such talk…My Old Boss was sure good to me, white man. I sure do love him yet. Why, he never would allow me to go barefooted, because he was afraid I’d stick thorns in my feet, and if he even caught me barefooted, he sure would make my back tell it [the enslaver would whip George Scruggs]. … I now live in one mile of the house where I was born.

Interviewee Formerly enslaved person	Birth Year (Age)	Interviewer WPA Volunteer	Enslaver’s Name
George Scruggs	Unknown (100)	L. Cherry	Vol Scruggs, Finch Scruggs

Interview Location	Residence State	Birth Location
Calloway County, KY	KY	Murray, KY

Themes & Keywords	Additional Tags:
Violence, Slave Trade	Calloway County, First Person, Dialect

Scruggs_G_1

August 13, 2020October 2, 2020

George Morrison

In this excerpt, the interviewer recounts in the first person George Morrison’s memories of the Civil War.

See full document • Visit the Library o f Congress to see the original document

Excerpt:

…Yes, ma’am [George Morrison is referring to the interviewer], the War sure did affect my family. My father fought for the north. He got shot in his side, but it finally got all right. He saved his money and came north after the war and got a good job. But, I saw them fellows from the south take my Uncle. They put his clothes on him right in the yard and took him with them to fight. And even the white folks, they all cried. But he came back, he wasn’t hurt but he wasn’t happy in his mind like my pappy was.

Yes ma’am, I would rather live in the North. The South’s all right but some ways I just don’t feel down there like I do up here…

Interviewee Formerly enslaved person	Birth Year (Age)	Interviewer WPA Volunteer	Enslaver’s Name
George Morrison	Unknown (Unknown)	Iris Cook	Ray

Interview Location	Residence State	Birth Location
New Albany, IN	IN	Morganfield, KY

Themes & Keywords	Additional Tags:
Civil War, Union Soldiers, Confederacy	Union County, First Person

Morrison_G_2

August 13, 2020October 2, 2020

George Morrison

The interviewer uses quotation marks to indicate the first person recollections of George Morrison. It is important to note that the first person narrative is still written by the interviewer, not by George Morrison himself. In this excerpt, George Morrison describes his life as an enslaved person, his relationship with his master, and how some enslaved people escaped.

*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 [George Morrison] was born in Union County, Kentucky, near Morganfield. My master was Mr. Ray, he made me call him Mr. Ray, wouldn’t let me call him Master. He said I was his little free [redacted].”

When asked if there were many slaves on Mr. Ray’s farm, he [George Morrison] said, “Yes ma’am, there were seven cabins of us. I was the oldest child in our family. Mr. Ray said he didn’t want me in the tobacco, so I stayed at the house and waited on the women folk and went after the cows when I was big enough. I carried my stick over my shoulder, for I was afraid of snakes.

Mr. Ray was always very good to me, he liked to play with me, cause I was so full of tricks and so mischievous. He gave me a pair of boots with brass toes. I shined them up every day, til you could see your face in them…

…Yes Ma’am. I remember when people used to take wagon loads of corn to the market in Louisville, and they would bring back home lots of groceries and things. A [redacted] man told me he had come north to the market in Louisville with his master, and was working hard unloading the corn when a white man walks up to him, shows him some money and asks him if he wanted to be free? He said he stopped right then and went with the man, who hid him in his wagon under the provisions and they crossed the Ohio River right on the ferry. That’s the way lots of them got across here…”

Interviewee Formerly enslaved person	Birth Year (Age)	Interviewer WPA Volunteer	Enslaver’s Name
George Morrison	Unknown (Unknown)	Iris Cook	Ray

Interview Location	Residence State	Birth Location
New Albany, IN	IN	Morganfield, KY

Themes & Keywords	Additional Tags:
Escape	Union County, First Person

Morrison_G_1

August 13, 2020October 2, 2020

George Henderson

In this excerpt, the interviewer recounts formerly enslaved person George Henderson’s memories of education, religion and emancipation in the first person.

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

Excerpt:

…I saw the slaves in chains after they were sold. The white folks did not teach us to read and write. We had church on the plantation but we went from one plantation to another to hear preaching. White folks preacher’s name was Reuben Lee, in Versailles [Kentucky]. A meeting of the Baptist Church resulted in the first baptizing I ever saw. It was in Mr. Chillers pond. The preacher would say ‘I am baptizing you in Mr. Chillers pond because I know he is an honest man’…

…When the news came we were freed everybody was glad. The slaves cleared up the ground and cut down trees. Stayed with Master Cleveland the first year after the war. Have heard the Ku Klux Klan ride down the road, wearing masks. None ever bothered me or any of Master Clevelands slaves…

Interviewee Formerly enslaved person	Birth Year (Age)	Interviewer WPA Volunteer	Enslaver’s Name
George Henderson	1860 (Unknown)	Eliza Ison	Milford Twiman

Interview Location	Residence State	Birth Location
Garrard County, KY	KY	Versailles, KY

Themes & Keywords	Additional Tags:
Religion, Education, Emancipation, Literacy	Woodford County, First Person

Henderson_G_2

August 13, 2020October 2, 2020

George Henderson

In this excerpt, the interviewer recounts formerly enslaved person George Henderson’s memories of Christmas in the first person.

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

Excerpt:

…Our clothes were made of jeans and linsey in winter. In the summer we wore cotton clothes. They gave us shoes at Christmas time. We were measured with sticks. Once I was warming my shoes on a back log on the big fireplace, they fell over behind the logs and burnt up. I didn’t marry while on the plantation…

On Christmas and New Years day we would go up to the house and they would give us candy and fruit and fire-crackers. We were given some of all the food that the white folks had, even turkey. Would have heaps of corn-shuckings, the neighbors would come in and then we’d have big dances and old Master would always have a “jug of liquor”…

Interviewee Formerly enslaved person	Birth Year (Age)	Interviewer WPA Volunteer	Enslaver’s Name
George Henderson	1860 (age at interview)]	Eliza Ison	Milford Twiman

Interview Location	Residence State	Birth Location
Garrard County, KY	KY	Versailles, KY

Themes & Keywords	Additional Tags:
Christmas	Woodford County, First Person

Henderson_G_1

August 13, 2020October 2, 2020

George Fordman

Enslaved from birth, George Fordman was not Black, but part indigenous and part white. George Fordman explains to his interviewer how he came to be enslaved in a tragic history that begins with White people forcibly driving his indigenous ancestors from their home in Indiana in 1838. After his ancestors walked all the way to Alabama, the George family “automatically” enslaved them, even though they were not Black.

In the full interview (see link below) George Fordman describes the “dark trail” of his childhood, in which the reader learns that George Fordman’s enslaver was his father and his grandfather.

In this first person excerpt, the interviewer records George Fordman’s description of the funeral of Mistress Hester Lam, who had enslaved George Fordman and his family. Mistress Hester Lam emancipated the family five years before the Civil War. Due to the incestuous rape committed by her son, Hester Lam was George Fordman’s paternal grandmother and great-grandmother.

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

Excerpt:

… It was customary to conduct a funeral differently than it is conducted now, he said. I remember I was only six years old when old Mistress Hester Lam passed on to her eternal rest. She was kept out of her grave several days in order to allow time for the relatives, friends and ex-slaves to be notified of her death.

The house and yard were full of grieving friends. Finally the lengthy procession started to the graveyard. Within the Georges’ parlors there had been Bible passages read, prayers offered up and hymns sung, now the casket was placed in a wagon drawn by two horses. The casket was covered with flowers while the family and friends rode in ox carts, horse-drawn wagons, horseback, and with still many on foot they made their way towards the river.

When we reached the river there were many canoes busy putting the people across, besides the ferry boat was in use to ferry vehicles over the stream. The ex-slaves were crying and praying and telling how good granny had been to all of them and explaining how they knew she had gone straight to Heaven, because she was so kind—and a Christian. There were not nearly enough boats to take the crowd across if they crossed back and forth all day, so my mother, Eliza, improvised a boat or ‘gunnel’, as the craft was called, by placing a wooden soap box on top of a long pole, then she pulled off her shoes and, taking two of us small children in her arms, she paddled with her feet and put us safely across the stream…

At the burying ground a great crowd had assembled from the neighborhood across the river and there were more songs and prayers and much weeping. The casket was let down into the grave without the lid being put on and everybody walked up and looked into the grave at the face of the dead woman. They called it the ‘last look’ and everybody dropped flowers on Mistress Hester as they passed by. A man then went down and nailed on the lid and the earth was thrown in with shovels. The ex-slaves filled in the grave, taking turns with the shovel. Some of the men had worked at the smelting furnaces so long that their hands were twisted and hardened from contact with the heat. Their shoulders were warped and their bodies twisted but they were strong as iron men from their years of toil. When the funeral was over mother put us across the river on the gunnel and we went home, all missing Mistress Hester.

Interviewee Formerly enslaved person	Birth Year (Age)	Interviewer WPA Volunteer	Enslaver’s Name
George Fordman	Unknown (Unknown)	Lauana Creel	Ford George

Interview Location	Residence State	Birth Location
Evansville, IN	IN	AL or KY

Themes & Keywords	Additional Tags:
Family, Funeral	Trigg County, First Person, Enslaver Father, Notable

Fordman_G_3

Tag: First-Person

Wes Woods

Scott Mitchell

Kate Dudley Baumont

Julia King

Amelia Jones

John Eubanks

John Eubanks

Jane Simpson

Henry Long

Harriet Mason

Hannah Davidson

Hannah Davidson

Hannah Davidson

George Thompson

George Scruggs

George Morrison

George Morrison

George Henderson

George Henderson

George Fordman

Can we count on your support?