Tag: Sold (Self or Family)

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Armstead Barrett

The interviewer chose to record this interview as a first person narrative. In this excerpt, Armstead Barrett describes how his enslaver treated enslaved people.  Students may need help navigating the seeming inconsistencies in this excerpt, as Armstead Barrett states that the “master was good to us,” while also noting that his enslaver was making money selling enslaved people and did not provide enslaved people with basic necessities like clothing.  Armstead Barrett then goes on to recount how two enslaved people were brutally treated by an overseer, who they later killed.
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Excerpt:

…Old master had a doctor for us when we were sick. We were too valuable. Just like the fat beef, master was good to us. Master would go to other states and get men and women and child slaves and bring them back to sell, because he was a speculator [a person who bought and sold enslaved people to make money]. He’d make them wash up good and then sell them.

Most time we went naked. Just have on one shirt or no shirt at all…

I remember a owner had some slaves and the overseer had it in for two of them. He’d whip them near every day, and they did all they could to please him.  So one day he comes to the field and calls one of them slaves, and that slave drops his hoe and goes over and grabs that overseer. Then the other slave cut that overseer’s head right slap off and threw it down one of the rows. The owner he fools around and sells them two slaves for $800.00 each and that is all the punishment them two slaves ever got.

Interviewee 
Formerly enslaved person		Birth Year (Age)Interviewer
WPA Volunteer		Enslaver’s Name
Armstead Barrett1847 (Unknown)UnknownStafford Barrett
Interview LocationResidence StateBirth Location
TXTXHuntsville, TX
Themes & KeywordsAdditional Tags:
Overseer, Resistance, Violence, EconomicsFirst Person, Dialect, Witnessed Extreme Cruelty, Sold, Slave Traders, 

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Annie B Boyd

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Interviewee Formerly enslaved personBirth Year (Age)InterviewerWPA VolunteerEnslaver’s Name
Annie B Boyd1851 (Unknown)Mamie HanberryCharles Cammack, Newton Catlett
Interview LocationResidence StateBirth Location
Christian County, KYKYGordonsville, KY
Themes & KeywordsAdditional Tags:
Violence, ChildcareFirst Person, Dialect, Whipped, Sold, Hired Out, Christian County

Source Description:

In this first person narrative, Annie B Boyd describes how cruelly her enslavers treated her.  
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… My mother and I were put on the block in front of the Courthouse in Hopkinsville and sold to Mr. Newt. Catlett and we brought $500.00…[My enslavers] weren’t good to me. My master was a good man but my missus was no good woman. She used to box my ears, stick pins in me and tie me to the cedar chest and whoop me as long as she wanted. Oh, how I did hate that woman.

…I was a nurse in slave time and I carried the [enslaver’s] children all over the house and one day I had the children upstairs and my missus called me and I went to see what she wanted and while I was gone, the baby got hold of Indian Turnip [a plant that causes temporary health problems if eaten raw] and had bit it by the time I got back there. I called my missus and she came and made me eat the rest of the turnip and my face and all swelled up and my eyes were closed for days. After nursing the baby and tending to the other children all day and night, when I put the baby to bed, I had to knit two rounds every night and would be sleepy and my missus would reach over and jab a pin in me to keep me awake. Now that’s what I call a mean woman…

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Amanda Elizabeth Samuels

In this third person narrative, the interviewer describes how the “old master” and “young master” treated Amanda Elizabeth Samuels (called “Lizzie”).  While the interviewer concludes that Lizzie’s life was relatively better with the “old master,” the interviewer explains that the first enslaver was motivated by profit, not kindness. The teacher may need to point out to students that the enslaver did not treat enslaved people “just like his own children,” because he enslaved and sold them, while his own children were free. 
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Excerpt:

Her [Lizzie’s] mother, a slave hand, worked on the farm until her young master, Robert McMurry was married. She was then sold to Rev. Carter Plaster and taken to Logan County, Kentucky.

The child, Lizzie was given to young Robert. She lived in the house to help the young mistress who was not so kind to her. Lizzie was forced to eat chicken heads, fish heads, pigs’ tails, and parsnips. The child disliked this very much and was very unhappy with her young mistress because in Robert’s father’s home all slave children were treated just like his own children. They had plenty of good substantial food and were protected in every way.

The old master felt they were the hands of the next generation and if they were strong and healthy, they would bring in a larger amount of money when sold.

Lizzie’s hardships did not last long as they were set free soon after young Robert’s marriage. He took her in a wagon to Keysburg, Kentucky to be with her mother.

Interviewee 
Formerly enslaved person		Birth Year (Age)Interviewer
WPA Volunteer		Enslaver’s Name
Amanda Elizabeth SamuelsUnknown (80-85)Anna Pritchett  Robert McMurry,Rev. Carter Plaster
Interview LocationResidence StateBirth Location
Marion County, ININTN
Themes & KeywordsAdditional Tags:
Emancipation, EconomicsThird Person, Sold, 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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