Alex Smith and Elizabeth Smith

In this third person narrative, the interviewer briefly notes Alex Smith’s recollections of the Civil War, before comparing how their respective enslavers treated Alex and Elizabeth Smith.  The excerpt ends with the interviewer briefly describing Elizabeth Smith’s life after emancipation.
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Excerpt:

…Although only a child of five, Mr. [Alex] Smith remembers the Civil War, especially the marching of thousands of soldiers, and the horse-drawn artillery wagons. The Stubblefields freed their slaves the first winter after the war.

On the Peter Stubblefield plantation, the slaves [including Elizabeth Smith] were treated very well and had plenty to eat, while on the Robert Stubblefield plantation Mr. [Alex] 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.”…

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” [food] 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…


Interviewee 
Formerly enslaved person
Birth Year (Age)Interviewer
WPA Volunteer
Enslaver’s Name
Alex Smith and Elizabeth SmithUnknown (83), Unknown (83)Henrietta Karwowski Robert Stubblefield, Peter Stubblefield
Interview LocationResidence StateBirth Location
South Bend, ININKY
Themes & KeywordsAdditional Tags:
Emancipation, Hunger, Civil War, EconomicsThird Person, Witnessed Extreme Cruelty, Union Troops

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Albert Todd

In this first person narrative, Albert Todd describes the cruelty he witnessed and experienced as an enslaved person, including how his enslaver fed him only once a day and punished him for stealing food.  Albert Todd also recounts how he remained a slave for years after he was technically free.  

*Historically-used terms that are offensive, marginalizing and/or disparaging have been removed from the transcripts and replaced with [redacted].  See more information.
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Excerpt:

…Our missus was good to us, but one white man neighbor got a new set of [redacted] every year. He would say if they didn’t die, there wasn’t any good work left in them after they worked for him for a year. He always cut off one of their ears so if they ran away he’d know them.  

My clothes were a long shirt, made out of a meal sack. That’s all I wore in those days. I was a slave for three years after the others were freed because I didn’t know anything about being free. A Mrs.Gibbs got a hold of me and made me her slave. She was a cruel old woman and she didn’t have any mercy on me. She gave me one sausage and one biscuit in the morning and nothing else all day. One day she was gone and I stole some biscuits.  She comes back and says, ’Did you take them biscuits?’ She tells me if I tell the truth she won’t punish me, but she knocks me down and beats me till I don’t know anything. But after a while, her house burned and she burned up in it.  But before that, I was going to run away… 


Interviewee 
Formerly enslaved person
Birth Year (Age)Interviewer
WPA Volunteer
Enslaver’s Name
Albert ToddUnknown (Unknown)Unknown Capt. Hudson
Interview LocationResidence StateBirth Location
San Antonio, TXTXRussellville, KY
Themes & KeywordsAdditional Tags:
Hunger, ViolenceFirst Person, Dialect, Witnessed Extreme Cruelty, Sold, Logan County

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