| In this excerpt, which the interviewer records in the first person, Walter Rimm shares several stories of runaway enslaved people. |
Excerpt:
…You want to know about slavery? Well, a great deal happened besides that, but …
… One day I saw Master sitting in the gallery and his face all screwed up. He said, ‘Go get you mammy and everybody. ‘I went flying’. My shirt tail didn’t hit my back till I told everybody. Master am crying and he reads the paper and says, ‘You are free as I am. What are you going to do?’ Mammy says, ‘We are staying right here.’ But the next morning Pappy borrows an ox-team to tote our stuff away. We go ‘about sixty miles and stay ‘about six months, den takes a place where we can make a crop. Then Master tells us we can live in an old place without rent and have what we can make. So we moved back and stayed for two years. Then we moved several places and sometimes the old missus came to see us and said, ‘Ain’t you ashamed? De Yankees are feeding you.’ But they weren’t, because we were making a crop…
| Interviewee Formerly enslaved person | Birth Year (Age) | Interviewer WPA Volunteer | Enslaver’s Name |
| Walter Rimm | Unknown (80) | Unknown | Unknown |
| Interview Location | Residence State | Birth Location |
| Fort Worth, TX | TX | San Patricio County, TX |
| Themes & Keywords | Additional Tags: |
| Emancipation | First Person |
Rimm_W_3