Mary Wright was born the year the Civil War ended. In this excerpt, the interviewer recounts in the first person Mary Wright’s retelling of her mother’s story of the Ku Klux Klan using violence to intimidate Black people after the Civil War in Kentucky.
*Historically-used terms that are offensive, marginalizing and/or disparaging have been removed from the transcripts and replaced with [ ___ ]. See more information.
…My [Mary Wright’s] mammy bound me out to Miss Puss Graham to learn to work, for my vittles [food] and clothes. Miss Puss gave me a pair of red morocco shoes and I was so happy, I’ve never forgotten these shoes. I heard my mammy talk of thee [ ___ ] Rising. The Ku Klux [Klan] used to stick the [ ___ ]head on a stake alongside the Cadiz road and the buzzards would eat them till nothing was left but the bones. There was a sign on this stake that said ‘Look out [ ___ ]! You are next.’ We children would not go far away from the cabin. I tell you that is so. I just knew that this Ku Klux would do that to us sure if we had been caught…
Interviewee Formerly enslaved person
Birth Year (Age)
Interviewer WPA Volunteer
Enslaver’s Name
Mary Wright
1865 (Unknown)
Unknown
James Coleman
Interview Location
Residence State
Birth Location
KY
KY
Gracey, KY
Themes & Keywords
Additional Tags:
Violence, KKK
Christian County, First Person, Dialect, Klan/Mob Violence, Bound out After War
The interviewer records in this interview in the third person and does not record Mrs. Preston’s first name. In this excerpt, the interviewer recounts how the KKK drove Mrs. Preston and her family from their home after the Civil War.
…At the close of the war, her [Mrs. Preston’s] father was given a house, land, team and enough to start farming for himself. Several years later the Ku Klux Klan gave them a ten days notice to leave, one of the masked band interceded for them by pointing out that they were quiet and peaceable, and a man with a crop and ten children couldn’t possibly leave on so short a notice so the time was extended another ten days, when they took what the Klan paid them and came north. They remained in the north until they had to buy their groceries “a little piece of this and a little piece of that, like they do now”, when her father returned to Kentucky. Mrs. Preston remained in Indiana. Her father was burned out, the family escaping to the woods in their nightclothes, later befriended by a white neighbor. Now they appealed to their former owner who built them a new house, provided necessities and guards for a few weeks until they were safe from the Ku Klux Klan…
Interviewee Formerly enslaved person
Birth Year (Age)
Interviewer WPA Volunteer
Enslaver’s Name
Mrs. Preston
Unknown (83)
G. Monroe
Brown
Interview Location
Residence State
Birth Location
Jefferson County, IN
IN
Frankfort, KY
Themes & Keywords
Additional Tags:
KKK
Franklin County, First Person, Union Troops, Klan/Mob Violence,
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.
… 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