Wilhelm Ruland - "Legends of the Rhine"

Charles Raymond Barrett - "Short Story Writing"

Thomas Babington Macaulay - "The History of England from the Accession of James II, Vol. 4"

Charlotte Ouisconsin Van Cleve - "'Three Score Years and Ten'"

Annual Bibliography of Commonwealth Literature 2007
This paper argues that discourses of love in Ghanaian market literature for youth offer a view into complex negotiations of agency and empowerment. Drawing on Deborah Durham's notion of youth as "social `shifters'" and Francis Nyamnjoh's conception of the "interconnectedness" of agency, I take Ghanaian market literature as one specific case of how African literature for youth foregrounds questions of continuity and change as African societies enter into increasingly complex global relations. In this literature for youth, received notions of love, often constructed out of impressions from American pop and hip hop music, carry new notions of agency that compete with existing "domesticated" forms. Authors like Ike Tandoh and Evelyn Tay employ discourses of love to offer youth alternative avenues for empowerment in a context of socio-economic disenfranchizement. In a creative process of "straddling", this writing both reveals and reproduces the contradictions that obtain in youth configurations of agency.

Slave Narratives, Oklahoma

V >> Various >> Slave Narratives, Oklahoma




Next fall after he ride out and tell us dat he gwine shoot us befo' he
let us free he come out to see how his steam gin doing. De gin box was
a little old thing 'bout as big as a bedstead, wid a long belt running
through de side of de gin house out to de engine and boiler in de
yard. De boiler burn cord wood, and it have a little crack in it whar
de nigger ginner been trying to fix it.

Old Master come out, hopping mad 'cause de gin shet down, and ast de
ginner, old Brown, what de matter. Old Brown say de boiler weak and
it liable to bust, but old Master jump down off'n his hoss and go
'round to de boiler and say, "Cuss fire to your black heart! Dat
boiler all right! Throw on some cordwood, cuss fire to your heart!"

Old Brown start to de wood pile grumbling to hisself and old Master
stoop down to look at de boiler again, and it blow right up and him
standing right dar!

Old Master was blowed all to pieces, and dey jest find little bitsy
chunks of his clothes and parts of him to bury.

De wood pile blow down, and old Brown land way off in de woods, but he
wasn't killed.

Two wagons of cotton blowed over, and de mules run away, and all de
niggers was scared nearly to death 'cause we knowed de overseer gwine
be a lot worse, now dat old Master gone.

Before de War when Master was a young man de slaves didn't have it so
hard, my mammy tell me. Her name was Fanny and her old mammy name was
Nanny. Grandma Nanny was alive during de War yet.

How she come in de Jones family was dis way: old Mistress was jest a
little girl, and her older brother bought Nanny and give her to her. I
think his name was Little John, anyways we called him Master Little
John. He drawed up a paper what say dat Nanny allus belong to Miss
Betty and all de chillun Nanny ever have belong to her, too, and
nobody can't take 'em for a debt and things like dat. When Miss Betty
marry, old Master he can't sell Nanny or any of her chillun neither.

Dat paper hold good too, and grandmammy tell me about one time it hold
good and keep my own mammy on de place.

Grandmammy say mammy was jest a little gal and was playing out in de
road wid three, four other little chillun when a white man and old
Master rid up. The white man had a paper about some kind of a debt,
and old Master say take his pick of de nigger chillun and give him
back de paper.

Jest as Grandmammy go to de cabin door and hear him say dat de man git
off his hoss and pick up my mammy and put her up in front of him and
start to ride off down de road.

Pretty soon Mr. Little John come riding up and say something to old
Master, and see grandmammy standing in de yard screaming and crying.
He jest job de spur in his hoss and go kiting off down de road after
dat white man.

Mammy say he ketch up wid him jest as he git to Bois d' Arc Creek and
start to wade de hoss across. Mr. Little John holler to him to come
back wid dat little nigger 'cause de paper don't kiver dat child,
'cause she old Mistress' own child, and when de man jest ride on, Mr.
Little John throw his big old long hoss-pistol down on him and make
him come back.

De man hopping mad, but he have to give over my mammy and take one de
other chillun on de debt paper.

Old Master allus kind of techy 'bout old Mistress having niggers he
can't trade or sell, and one day he have his whole family and some
more white folks out at de plantation. He showing 'em all de quarters
when we all come in from de field in de evening, and he call all de
niggers up to let de folks see 'em.

He make grandmammy and mammy and me stand to one side and den he say
to the other niggers, "Dese niggers belong to my wife but you belong
to me, and I'm de only one you is to call Master.

"Dis is Tom, and Bryan, and Bob, and Miss Betty, and you is to call
'em dat, and don't you ever call one of 'em Young Master or Young
Mistress, cuss fire to your black hearts!" All de other white folks
look kind of funny, and old Mistress look 'shamed of old Master.

My own pappy was in dat bunch, too. His name was Frank, and after de
War he took de name of Frank Henderson, 'cause he was born under dat
name, but I allus went by Jones, de name I was born under.

Long about de middle of de War, after old Master was killed, de
soldiers begin coming 'round de place and camping. Dey was Southern
soldiers and dey say dey have to take de mules and most de corn to git
along on. Jest go in de barns and cribs and take anything dey want,
and us niggers didn't have no sweet 'taters nor Irish 'taters to eat
on when dey gone neither.

One bunch come and stay in de woods across de road from de overseer's
house, and dey was all on hosses. Dey lead de hosses down to Bois d'
Arc Creek every morning at daylight and late every evening to git
water. When we going to de field and when we coming in we allus see
dem leading big bunches of hosses.

Dey bugle go jest 'bout de time our old horn blow in de morning and
when we come in dey eating supper, and we smell it and sho' git
hungry!

Before old Master died he sold off a whole lot of hosses and cattle,
and some niggers too. He had de sales on de plantation, and white men
from around dar come to bid, and some traders come. He had a big stump
whar he made de niggers stand while dey was being sold, and de men and
boys had to strip off to de waist to show dey muscle and iffen dey had
any scars or hurt places, but de women and gals didn't have to strip
to de waist.

De white men come up and look in de slave's mouth jest lak he was a
mule or a hoss.

After old Master go, de overseer hold one sale, but mostly he jest
trade wid de traders what come by. He make de niggers git on de stump,
through. De traders all had big bunches of slaves and dey have 'em all
strung out in a line going down de road. Some had wagons and de
chillun could ride, but not many. Dey didn't chain or tie 'em 'cause
dey didn't have no place dey could run to anyway.

I seen chillun sold off and de mammy not sold, and, sometimes de mammy
sold and a little baby kept on de place and give to another woman to
raise. Dem white folks didn't care nothing 'bout how de slaves
grieved when dey tore up a family.

Old man Saunders was de hardest overseer of anybody. He would git mad
and give a whipping some time and de slave wouldn't even know what it
was about.

My uncle Sandy was de lead row nigger, and he was a good nigger and
never would tech a drap of likker. One night some de niggers git hold
of some likker somehow, and dey leave de jug half full on de step of
Sandy's cabin. Next morning old man Saunders come out in de field so
mad he was pale.

He jest go to de lead row and tell Sandy to go wid him, and start
toward de woods along Bois d' Arc Creek wid Sandy follering behind. De
overseer always carry a big heavy stick, but we didn't know he was so
mad, and dey jest went off in de woods.

Purty soon we hear Sandy hollering and we know old overseer pouring in
on, den de overseer come back by his self and go on up to de house.

Come late evening he come and see what we done in de day's work, and
go back to de quarters wid us all. Then he git to mammy's cabin, whar
grandmammy live too, he say to grandmammy, "I sent Sandy down in de
woods to hunt a hoss, he gwine come in hungry purty soon. You better
make him a extra hoe cake," and he kind of laugh and go on to his
house.

Jest soon as he gone we all tell grandmammy we think he got a
whipping, and sho' nuff he didn't come in.

De next day some white boys find uncle Sandy whar dat overseer done
killed him and throwed him in a little pond, and dey never done
nothing to old man Saunders at all!

When he go to whip a nigger he make him strip to de waist, and he take
a cat-o-nine tails and bring de blisters, and den bust de blisters
wid a wide strap of leather fastened to a stick handle. I seen de
blood running out'n many a back, all de way from de neck to de waist!

Many de time a nigger git blistered and cut up so dat we have to git a
sheet and grease it wid lard and wrap 'em up in it, and dey have to
wear a greasy cloth wrapped around dey body under de shirt for
three-four days after dey git a big whipping!

Later on in de War de Yankees come in all around us and camp, and de
overseer git sweet as honey in de comb! Nobody git a whipping all de
time de Yankees dar!

Dey come and took all de meat and corn and 'taters dey want too, and
dey tell us, "Why don't you poor darkeys take all de meat and molasses
you want? You made it and it's your's much as anybody's!" But we know
dey soon be gone, and den we git a whipping iffen we do. Some niggers
run off and went wid de Yankees, but dey had to work jest as hard for
dem, and dey didn't eat so good and often wid de soldiers.

I never forget de day we was set free!

Dat morning we all go to de cotton field early, and den a house nigger
come out from old Mistress on a hoss and say she want de overseer to
come into town, and he leave and go in. After while de old horn blow
up at de overseer's house, and we all stop and listen, 'cause it de
wrong time of day for de horn.

We start chopping again, and dar go de horn again.

De lead row nigger holler "Hold up!" And we all stop again. "We better
go on in. Dat our horn," he holler at de head nigger, and de head
nigger think so too, but he say he afraid we catch de devil from de
overseer iffen we quit widout him dar, and de lead row man say maybe
he back from town and blowing de horn hisself, so we line up and go
in.

When we git to de quarters we see all de old ones and de chillun up in
de overseer's yard, so we go on up dar. De overseer setting on de end
of de gallery wid a paper in his hand, and when we all come up he say
come and stand close to de gallery. Den he call off everybody's name
and see we all dar.

Setting on de gallery in a hide-bottom chair was a man we never see
before. He had on a big broad black hat lak de Yankees wore but it
din't have no yaller string on it lak most de Yankees had, and he was
in store clothes dat wasn't homespun or jeans, and dey was black. His
hair was plumb gray and so was his beard, and it come way down here on
his chest, but he didn't look lak he was very old, 'cause his face was
kind of fleshy and healthy looking. I think we all been sold off in a
bunch, and I notice some kind of smiling, and I think they sho' glad
of it.

De man say, "You darkies know what day dis is?" He talk kind, and
smile.

We all don't know of course, and we jest stand dar and grin. Pretty
soon he ask again and de head man say, No, we don't know.

"Well dis de fourth day of June, and dis is 1865, and I want you all
to 'member de date, 'cause you allus going 'member de day. Today you
is free, Jest lak I is, and Mr. Saunders and your Mistress and all us
white people," de man say.

"I come to tell you", he say, "and I wants to be sho' you all
understand, 'cause you don't have to git up and go by de horn no more.
You is your own bosses now, and you don't have to have no passes to go
and come."

We never did have no passes, nohow, but we knowed lots of other
niggers on other plantations got 'em.

"I wants to bless you and hope you always is happy, and tell you got
all de right and lief [TR: sic] dat any white people got", de man say,
and den he git on his hoss and ride off.

We all jest watch him go on down de road, and den we go up to Mr.
Saunders and ask him what he want us to do. He jest grunt and say do
lak we dam please, he reckon, but git off dat place to do it, less'n
any of us wants to stay and make de crop for half of what we make.

None of us know whar to go, so we all stay, and he split up de fields
and show us which part we got to work in, and we go on lak we was, and
make de crop and git it in, but dey ain't no more horn after dat day.
Some de niggers lazy and don't git in de field early, and dey git it
took away from 'em, but dey plead around and git it back and work
better de rest of dat year.

But we all gits fooled on dat first go-out! When de crop all in we
don't git half! Old Mistress sick in town, and de overseer was still
on de place and he charge us half de crop for de quarters and de mules
and tools and grub!

Den he leave, and we gits another white man, and he sets up a book,
and give us half de next year, and take out for what we use up, but we
all got something left over after dat first go-out.

Old Mistress never git well after she lose all her niggers, and one
day de white boss tell us she jest drap over dead setting in her
chair, and we know her heart jest broke.

Next year de chillun sell off most de place and we scatter off, and I
and mammy go into Little Rock and do work in de town. Grandmammy done
dead.

I git married to John White in Little Rock, but he died and we didn't
have no chillun. Den in four, five years I marry Billy Rowe. He was a
Cherokee citizen and he had belonged to a Cherokee name Dave Rowe, and
lived east of Tahlequah before de War. We married in Little Rock, but
he had land in de Cherokee Nation, and we come to east of Tahlequah
and lived 'til he died, and den I come to Tulsa to live wid my
youngest daughter.

Billy Rowe and me had three chillun, Ellie, John, and Lula. Lula
married a Thomas, and it's her I lives with.

Lots of old people lak me say dat dey was happy in slavery, and dat
dey had de worst tribulations after freedom, but I knows dey didn't
have no white master and overseer lak we all had on our place. Dey
both dead now I reckon, and dey no use talking 'bout de dead, but I
know I been gone long ago iffen dat white man Saunder didn't lose his
hold on me.

It was de fourth day of June in 1865 I begins to live, and I gwine
take de picture of dat old man in de big black hat and long whiskers,
setting on de gallery and talking kind to us, clean into my grave wid
me.

No, bless God, I ain't never seen no more black boys bleeding all up
and down de back under a cat o' nine tails, and I never go by no cabin
and hear no poor nigger groaning, all wrapped up in a lardy sheet no
more!

I hear my chillun read about General Lee, and I know he was a good
man, I didn't know nothing about him den, but I know now he wasn't
fighting for dat kind of white folks.

Maybe dey dat kind still yet, but dey don't show it up no more, and I
got lots of white friends too. All my chillun and grandchillun been to
school, and dey git along good, and I know we living in a better
world, what dey ain't nobody "cussing fire to my black heart!"

I sho' thank de good Lawd I got to see it.




Oklahoma Writers' Project
Ex-Slaves


MORRIS SHEPPARD
Age 85 yrs.
Fort Gibson, Okla.


Old Master tell me I was borned in November 1852, at de old home place
about five miles east of Webber's Falls, mebbe kind of northeast, not
far from de east bank of de Illinois River.

Master's name was Joe Sheppard, and he was a Cherokee Indian. Tall and
slim and handsome. He had black eyes and mustache but his hair was
iron gray, and everybody liked him because he was so good-natured and
kind.

I don't remember old Mistress' name. My mammy was a Crossland negro
before she come to belong to Master Joe and marry my pappy, and I
think she come wid old Mistress and belong to her. Old Mistress was
small and mighty pretty too, and she was only half Cherokee. She
inherit about half a dozen slaves, and say dey was her own and old
Master can't sell one unless she give him leave to do it.

Dey only had two families of slaves wid about twenty in all, and dey
only worked about fifty acres, so we sure did work every foot of it
good. We git three or four crops of different things out of dat farm
every year, and something growing on dat place winter and summer.

Pappy's name was Caesar Sheppard and Mammy's name was Easter. Dey was
both raised 'round Webber's Falls somewhere. I had two brothers, Silas
and George, dat belong to Mr. George Holt in Webber's Falls town. I
got a pass and went to see dem sometimes, and dey was both treated
mighty fine.

The Big House was a double log wid a big hall and a stone chimney but
no porches, wid two rooms at each end, one top side of de other. I
thought it was mighty big and fine.

Us slaves lived in log cabins dat only had one room and no windows so
we kept de doors open most of de time. We had home-made wooden beds
wid rope springs, and de little ones slept on trundle beds dat was
home made too.

At night dem trundles was jest all over de floor, and in de morning we
shove dem back under de big beds to git dem out'n de way. No nails in
none of dem nor in de chairs and tables. Nails cost big money and old
Master's blacksmith wouldn't make none 'cepting a few for old Master
now and den, so we used wooden dowels to put things together.

They was so many of us for dat little field we never did have to work
hard. Up at five o'clock and back in sometimes about de middle of de
evening, long before sundown, unless they was a crop to git in before
it rain or something like dat.

When crop was laid by de slaves jest work 'round at dis and dat and
keep tol'able busy. I never did have much of a job, jest tending de
calves mostly. We had about twenty calves and I would take dem out and
graze 'em while some grown-up negro was grazing de cows so as to keep
de cows milk. I had me a good blaze-faced horse for dat.

One time old Master and another man come and took some calves off and
Pappy say old Master taking dem off to sell. I didn't know what "sell"
meant and I ast Pappy, "Is he going to bring 'em back when he git
through selling them?" I never did see no money neither, until time of
de War or a little before.

Master Joe was sure a good provider, and we always had plenty of corn
pone, sow belly and greens, sweet potatoes, cow peas and cane
molasses. We even had brown sugar and cane molasses most of de time
before de War. Sometimes coffee, too.

De clothes wasn't no worry neither. Everything we had was made by my
folks. My aunt done de carding and spinning and my mammy done de
weaving and cutting and sewing, and my pappy could make cowhide shoes
wid wooden pegs. Dey was for bad winter only.

Old Master bought de cotton in Ft. Smith because he didn't raise no
cotton, but he had a few sheep and we had wool-mix for winter.

Everything was stripedy 'cause Mammy like to make it fancy. She dye
wid copperas and walnut and wild indigo and things like dat and make
pretty cloth. I wore a stripedy shirt till I was about eleven years
old, and den one day while we was down in de Choctaw Country old
Mistress see me and nearly fall off'n her horse! She holler, "Easter,
you go right now and make dat big buck of a boy some britches!"

We never put on de shoes until about late November when de frost begin
to hit regular and split our feet up, and den when it git good and
cold and de crop all gathered in anyways, they is nothing to do
'cepting hog killing and a lot of wood chopping, and you don't git
cold doing dem two things.

De hog killing mean we gits lots of spare-ribs and chitlings, and
somebody always git sick eating too much of dat fresh pork. I always
pick a whole passel of muskatines for old Master and he make up sour
wine, and dat helps out when we git the bowel complaint from eating
dat fresh pork.

If somebody bad sick he git de doctor right quick, and he don't let no
negroes mess around wid no poultices and teas and sech things like
cupping-horns neither!

Us Cherokee slaves seen lots of green corn shootings and de like of
dat, but we never had no games of our own. We was too tired when we
come in to play any games. We had to have a pass to go any place to
have singing or praying, and den they was always a bunch of patrollers
around to watch everything we done. Dey would come up in a bunch of
about nine men on horses, and look at all our passes, and if a negro
didn't have no pass dey wore him out good and made him go home. Dey
didn't let us have much enjoyment.

Right after de War de Cherokees that had been wid the South kind of
pestered the freedmen some, but I was so small dey never bothered me;
jest de grown ones. Old Master and Mistress kept on asking me did de
night riders persecute me any but dey never did. Dey told me some of
dem was bad on negroes but I never did see none of dem night riding
like some said dey did.

Old Master had some kind of business in Fort Smith, I think, 'cause he
used to ride in to dat town 'bout every day on his horse. He would
start at de crack of daylight and not git home till way after dark.
When he get home he call my uncle in and ask about what we done all
day and tell him what we better do de next day. My uncle Joe was de
slave boss and he tell us what de Master say do.

When dat Civil War come along I was a pretty big boy and I 'remember
it good as anybody. Uncle Joe tell us all to lay low and work hard and
nobody bother us, and he would look after us. He sure stood good with
de Cherokee neighbors we had, and dey all liked him. There was Mr. Jim
Collins, and Mr. Bell, and Mr. Dave Franklin, and Mr. Jim Sutton and
Mr. Blackburn that lived around close to us and dey all had slaves.
Dey was all wid the South, but dey was a lot of dem Pin Indians all up
on de Illinois River and dey was wid de North and dey taken it out on
de slave owners a lot before de War and during it too.

Dey would come in de night and hamstring de horses and maybe set fire
to de barn, and two of 'em named Joab Scarrel and Tom Starr killed my
pappy one night just before de War broke out.

I don't know what dey done it for, only to be mean, and I guess they
was drunk.

Them Pins was after Master all de time for a while at de first of de
War, and he was afraid to ride into Fort Smith much. Dey come to de
house one time when he was gone to Fort Smith and us children told dem
he was at Honey Springs, but they knowed better and when he got home
he said somebody shot at him and bushwhacked him all the way from
Wilson's Rock to dem Wildhorse Mountains, but he run his horse like de
devil was setting on his tail and dey never did hit him. He never seen
them neither. We told him 'bout de Pins coming for him and he just
laughed.

When de War come old Master seen he was going into trouble and he sold
off most of de slaves. In de second year of de War he sold my mammy
and my aunt dat was Uncle Joe's wife and my two brothers and my little
sister. Mammy went to a mean old man named Peper Goodman and he took
her off down de river, and pretty soon Mistress tell me she died
'cause she can't stand de rough treatment.

When Mammy went old Mistress took me to de Big House to help her, and
she was kind to me like I was part of her own family. I never forget
when they sold off some more negroes at de same time, too, and put dem
all in a pen for de trader to come and look at.

He never come until the next day, so dey had to sleep in dat pen in a
pile like hogs.

It wasn't my Master done dat. He done already sold 'em to a man and it
was dat man was waiting for de trader. It made my Master mad, but dey
didn't belong to him no more and he couldn't say nothing.

The man put dem on a block and sold 'em to a man dat had come in on a
steamboat, and he took dem off on it when de freshet come down and de
boat could go back to Fort Smith. It was tied up at de dock at
Webber's Falls about a week and we went down and talked to my aunt and
brothers and sister. De brothers was Sam and Eli. Old Mistress cried
jest like any of de rest of us when de boat pull out with dem on it.

Pretty soon all de young Cherokee menfolks all gone off to de War, and
de Pins was riding 'round all de time, and it aint safe to be in dat
part around Webber's Falls, so old Master take us all to Fort Smith
where they was a lot of Confederate soldiers.

We camp at dat place a while and old Mistress stay in de town wid some
kinfolks. Den old Master get three wagons and ox teams and take us all
way down on Red River in de Choctaw Nation.

We went by Webber's Falls and filled de wagons. We left de furniture
and only took grub and tools and bedding and clothes, 'cause they
wasn't very big wagons and was only single-yoke.

We went on a place in de Red River bottoms close to Shawneetown and
not far from de place where all de wagons crossed over to go into
Texas. We was at dat place two years and made two little crops.

One night a runaway negro come across from Texas and he had de blood
hounds after him. His britches was all muddy and tore where de hounds
had cut him up in de legs when he clumb a tree in de bottoms. He come
to our house and Mistress said for us negroes to give him something to
eat and we did.

Then up come de man from Texas with de hounds and wid him was young
Mr. Joe Vann and my uncle that belong to young Joe. Dey called young
Mr. Joe "Little Joe Vann" even after he was grown on account of when
he was a little boy before his pappy was killed. His pappy was old
Captain "Rich Joe" Vann, and he been dead ever since long before de
War. My uncle belong to old Captain Joe nearly all his life.

Mistress try to get de man to tell her who de negro belong to so she
can buy him, but de man say he can't sell him and he take him on back
to Texas wid a chain around his two ankles. Dat was one poor negro dat
never got away to de North, and I was sorry for him 'cause I know he
must have had a mean master, but none of us Sheppard negroes, I mean
the grown ones, tried to git away.

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