Slave Narratives, Oklahoma

V >> Various >> Slave Narratives, Oklahoma

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I never seen any fighting in de War, but I seen soldiers in de South
army doing a lot of blacksmithing 'long side de road one day. Dey was
fixing wagons and shoeing horses.

After de War was over, old Master tell me I am free but he will look
out after me 'cause I am just a little negro and I aint got no sense.
I know he is right, too.

Well, I go ahead and make me a crop of corn all by myself and then I
don't know what to do wid it. I was afraid I would get cheated out of
it 'cause I can't figure and read, so I tell old Master about it and
he bought it off'n me.

We never had no school in slavery and it was agin the law for anybody
to even show a negro de letters and figures, so no Cherokee slave
could read.

We all come back to de old place and find de negro cabins and barns
burned down and de fences all gone and de field in crab grass and
cockleburrs. But de Big House aint hurt 'cepting it need a new roof.
De furniture is all gone, and some said de soldiers burned it up for
firewood. Some officers stayed in de house for a while and tore
everything up or took it off.

Master give me over to de National Freedmen's Bureau and I was bound
out to a Cherokee woman name Lizzie McGee. Then one day one of my
uncles named Wash Sheppard come and tried to git me to go live wid
him. He say he wanted to git de family all together agin.

He had run off after he was sold and joined de North army and
discharged at Fort Scott in Kansas, and he said lots of freedmen was
living close to each other up by Coffeyville in de Coo-ee-scoo-ee
District.

I wouldn't go, so he sent Isaac and Joe Vann dat had been two of old
Captain Joe's negroes to talk to me. Isaac had been Young Joe's
driver, and he told me all about how rich Master Joe was and how he
would look after us negroes. Dey kept after me 'bout a year, but I
didn't go anyways.

But later on I got a freedman's allotment up in dat part close to
Coffeyville, and I lived in Coffeyville a while but I didn't like it
in Kansas.

I lost my land trying to live honest and pay my debts. I raised eleven
children just on de sweat of my hands and none of dem ever tasted
anything dat was stole.

When I left Mrs. McGee's I worked about three years for Mr. Sterling
Scott and Mr. Roddy Reese. Mr. Reese had a big flock of peafowls dat
had belonged to Mr. Scott and I had to take care of dem.

Whitefolks, I would have to tromp seven miles to Mr. Scott's house two
or three times a week to bring back some old peafowl dat had got out
and gone back to de old place!

Poor old Master and Mistress only lived a few years after de War.
Master went plumb blind after he move back to Webber's Falls and so he
move up on de Illinois River 'bout three miles from de Arkansas, and
there old Mistress take de white swelling and die and den he die
pretty soon. I went to see dem lots of times and they was always glad
to see me.

I would stay around about a week and help 'em, and dey would try to
git me to take something but I never would. Dey didn't have much and
couldn't make anymore and dem so old. Old Mistress had inherited some
property from her pappy and dey had de slave money and when dey turned
everything into good money after de War dat stuff only come to about
six thousand dollars in good money, she told me. Dat just about lasted
'em through until dey died, I reckon.

By and by I married Nancy Hildebrand what lived on Greenleaf Creek,
'bout four miles northwest of Gore. She had belonged to Joe Hildebrand
and he was kin to old Steve Hildebrand dat owned de mill on Flint
Creek up in de Going Snake District. She was raised up at dat mill,
but she was borned in Tennessee before dey come out to de Nation. Her
master was white but he had married into de Nation and so she got a
freedmen's allotment too. She had some land close to Catoosa and some
down on Greenleaf Creek.

We was married at my home in Coffeyville, and she bore me eleven
children and then went on to her reward. A long time ago I came to
live wid my daughter Emma here at dis place, but my wife just died
last year. She was eighty three.

I reckon I wasn't cut out on de church pattern, but I raised my
children right. We never had no church in slavery, and no schooling,
and you had better not be caught wid a book in your hand even, so I
never did go to church hardly any.

Wife belong to de church and all de children too, and I think all
should look after saving their souls so as to drive de nail in, and
den go about de earth spreading kindness and hoeing de row clean so as
to clinch dat nail and make dem safe for Glory.

Of course I hear about Abraham Lincoln and he was a great man, but I
was told mostly by my children when dey come home from school about
him. I always think of my old Master as de one dat freed me, and
anyways Abraham Lincoln and none of his North people didn't look after
me and buy my crop right after I was free like old Master did. Dat was
de time dat was de hardest and everything was dark and confusion.

Oklahoma Writers' Project
Ex-Slaves
[Date stamp: AUG 16 1937]

ANDREW SIMMS
Age 80
Sapulpa, Okla.

My parents come over on a slave ship from Africa about twenty year
before I was born on the William Driver plantation down in Florida. My
folks didn't know each other in Africa but my old Mammy told me she
was captured by Negro slave hunters over there and brought to some
coast town where the white buyers took her and carried her to America.

She was kinder a young gal then and was sold to some white folks when
the boat landed here. Dunno who they was. The same thing happen to my
pappy. Must have been about the same time from the way they tells it.
Maybe they was on the [HW: same] boat, I dunno.

They was traded around and then mammy was sold to William Driver. The
plantation was down in Florida. Another white folks had a plantation
close by. Mister Simms was the owner. Bill Simms--that's the name
pappy kept after the War.

Somehow or other mammy and pappy meets 'round the place and the first
thing happens they is in love. That's what mammy say. And the next
thing happen is me. They didn't get married. The Master's say it is
alright for them to have a baby. They never gets married, even after
the War. Just jumped the broomstick and goes to living with somebody
else I reckon.

Then when I was four year old along come the War and Master Driver
takes up his slaves and leaves the Florida country and goes way out to
Texas. Mammy goes along, I goes along, all the children goes along. I
don't remember nothing about the trip but I hears mammy talk about it
when I gets older.

Texas, that was the place, down near Fairfield. That's where I learn
to do the chores. But the work was easy for the Master was kind as old
Mammy herself and he never give me no hard jobs that would wear me
down. All the slaves on our place was treated good. All the time.
They didn't whip. The Master feeds all the slaves on good clean foods
and lean meats so's they be strong and healthy.

Master Driver had four children, Mary, Julia, Frank and George. Every
one of them children kind and good just the old Master. They was never
mean and could I find some of 'em now hard times would leave me on the
run! They'd help this old man get catched up on his eating!

Makes me think of the old song we use to sing:

Don't mind working from Sun to Sun,
Iffen you give me my dinner--
When the dinner time comes!

Nowadays I gets me something to eat when I can catch it. The trouble
is sometimes I don't catch! But that ain't telling about the slave
days.

In them times it was mostly the overseers and the drivers who was the
mean ones. They caused all the misery. There was other whitefolks
caused troubles too. Sneak around where there was lots of the black
children on the plantation and steal them. Take them poor children
away off and sell them.

There wasn't any Sunday Schooling. There was no place to learn to read
and write--no big brick schools like they is now. The old Master say
we can teach ourselves but we can't do it. Old Elam Bowman owned the
place next door to Mister Driver. If he catch his slaves toying with
the pencil, why, he cut off one of their fingers. Then I reckon they
lost interest in education and get their mind back on the hoe and plow
like he say for them to do.

I didn't see no fighting during of the War. If they was any Yankees
soldiering around the country I don't remember nothing of it.

Long time after the War is over, about 1885, I meets a gal named
Angeline. We courts pretty fast and gets married. The wedding was a
sure enough affair with the preacher saying the words just like the
whitefolks marriage. We is sure married.

The best thing we do after that is raise us a family. One of them old
fashioned families. Big 'uns! Seventeen children does we have and
twelve of them still living. Wants to know they names? I ain't never
forgets a one! There was Lucy, Bill, Ebbie, Cora, Minnie, George,
Frank, Kizzie, Necie, Andrew, Joe, Sammie, David, Fannie, Jacob, Bob
and Myrtle.

All good children. Just like their old pappy who's tried to care for
'em just like the old Master takes care of their old daddy when he was
a boy on that plantation down Texas way.

When the age comes on a man I reckon religion gets kind of meanful.
Thinks about it more'n when he's young and busy in the fields. I
believes in the Bible and what it says to do. Some of the Colored
folks takes to the voodoo. I don't believe in it. Neither does I
believe in the fortune telling or charms. I aims to live by the Bible
and leave the rabbit foots alone!

Oklahoma Writers' Project
Ex-Slaves
10-19-38
718 words

LIZA SMITH
Age 91
Muskogee, Oklahoma

Both my mammy and pappy was brought from Africa on a slave boat and
sold on de Richmond (Va.) slave market. What year dey come over I
don't know. My mammy was Jane Mason, belonging to Frank Mason; pappy
was Frank Smith, belonging to a master wid de same name. I mean, my
pappy took his Master's name, and den after my folks married mammy
took de name of Smith, but she stayed on wid de Masons and never did
belong to my pappy's master. Den, after Frank Mason took all his
slaves out of de Virginia county, mammy met up wid another man, Ben
Humphries, and married him.

In Richmond, dat's where I was born, 'bout 1847, de Master said; and
dat make me more dan 90-year old dis good year. I had two brothers
named Webb and Norman, a half-brother Charley, and two half-sisters,
Mealey and Ann. Me, I was born a slave and so was my son. His father,
Toney, was one of de Mason slave boys; de Master said I was 'bout
13-year old when de boy was born.

Frank Mason was a young man when de War started, living wid his
mother. Dey had lots of slaves, maybe a hundred, and dey always try to
take good care of 'em; even after de War was over he worried 'bout
trying to get us settled so's we wouldn't starve. De Master had
overseer, but dere was no whuppings.

All de way from Richmond to a place dey call Waco, Texas, we traveled
by ox-wagon and boats, and den de Master figures we all be better off
over in Arkansas and goes to Pine Bluff.

What wid all de running 'round de slaves was kept clean and always wid
plenty to eat and good clothes to wear. De Master was a plenty rich
man and done what his mother, Mrs. Betsy Mason, told him when we all
left de Big Mansion, way back dere in Richmond. De Mistress said,
"Frank, you watch over dem Negroes cause dey's good men and women;
keep dem clean!" Dat's what he done, up until we was freed, and den
times was so hard nobody wanted us many Negroes around, and de work
was scarce, too. Hard times! Folks don't know what hard times is.

When a Negro get sick de master would send out for herbs and roots.
Den one of de slaves who knew how to cook and mix 'em up for medicine
use would give de doses. All de men and women wore charms, something
like beads, and if dey was any good or not I don't know, but we didn't
have no bad diseases like after dey set us free.

I was at Pine Bluff when de Yankees was shooting all over de place. De
fighting got so hot we all had to leave; dat's the way it was all de
time for us during de War--running away to some place or de next
place, and we was all glad when it stopped and we could settle down in
a place.

We was back at Waco when de peace come, but Master Frank was away from
home when dat happen. It was on a Sunday when he got back and called
all de slaves up in de yard and counted all of dem, young and old.

The first thing he said was, "You men and women is all free! I'm going
back to my own mammy in old Virginia, but I ain't going back until all
de old people is settled in cabins and de young folks fix up wid
tents!"

Den he kinder stopped talking. Seem now like he was too excited to
talk, or maybe he was feeling bad and worried 'bout what he going to
do wid all of us. Pretty soon he said, "You men and women, can't none
of you tell anybody I ain't always been a good master. Old folks, have
I ever treated you mean?" He asked. Everybody shout, "No, sir!" And
Master Frank smiled; den he told us he was going 'round and find
places for us to live.

He went to see Jim Tinsley, who owned some slaves, about keeping us.
Tinsley said he had cabins and could fix up tents for extra ones, if
his own Negroes was willing to share up with us. Dat was the way it
worked out. We stayed on dere for a while, but times was so hard we
finally get dirty and ragged like all de Tinsley Negroes. But Master
Frank figure he done the best he could for us.

After he go back to Virginia we never hear no more of him, but every
day I still pray if he has any folks in Richmond dey will find me
someway before I die. Is dere someway I could find dem, you s'pose?

Oklahoma Writers' Project
Ex-Slaves
[Date Stamp: Aug 12 1937]

LOU SMITH
Age 83 yrs.
Platter, Okla.

Sho', I remembers de slavery days! I was a little gal but I can tell
you lots of things about dem days. My job was nussing de younguns. I
took keer of them from daylight to dark. I'd have to sing them to
sleep too. I'd sing:

"By-lo Baby Bunting
Daddy's gone a-hunting
To get a rabbit skin
To wrap Baby Bunting in."

Sometimes I'd sing:

"Rock-a-bye baby, in a tree top
When de wind blows your cradle'll rock.
When de bough breaks de crad'll fall
Down comes baby cradle'n all."

My father was Jackson Longacre and he was born in Mississippi. My
mother, Caroline, was born in South Carolina. Both of them was born
slaves. My father belonged to Huriah Longacre. He had a big plantation
and lots of niggers. He put up a lot of his slaves as security on a
debt and he took sick and died so they put them all on de block and
sold them. My father and his mother (my grandma) was sold together. My
old Mistress bought my grandmother and old Mistress' sister bought my
grandma's sister. These white women agreed that they would never go
off so far that the two slave women couldn't see each other. They
allus kept this promise. A Mr. Covington offered old Master $700 for
me when I was about ten years old, but he wouldn't sell me. He didn't
need to for he was rich as cream and my, how good he was to us.

Young Master married Miss Jo Arnold and old Master sent me and my
mother over to live with them. I was small when I was took out of old
man McWilliams' yard. It was his wife that bought my grandmother and
my father. My mother's folks had always belonged to his family. They
all moved to Texas and we all lived there until after the surrender.

Miss Jo wasn't a good Mistress and mother and me wasn't happy. When
young Master was there he made her treat us good but when he was gone
she made our lives a misery to us. She was what we called a
"low-brow." She never had been used to slaves and she treated us like
dogs. She said us kids didn't need to wear any clothes and one day she
told us we could jest take'em off as it cost too much to clothe us. I
was jest a little child but I knowed I oughten to go without my
clothes. We wore little enough as it was. In summer we just wore one
garment, a sort of slip without any sleeves. Well, anyway she made me
take off my clothes and I just crept off and cried. Purty soon young
Master come home.

He wanted to know what on earth I was doing without my dress on. I
told him, and my goodness, but he raised the roof. He told her if she
didn't treat us better he was going to take us back to old Master. I
never did have any more good times 'cepting when I'd get to go to
visit at old Master's. None of our family could be sold and that was
why old Master just loaned us to young Master. When old Master died,
dey put all our names in a hat and all the chilluns draw out a name.
This was done to 'vide us niggers satisfactory. Young Master drawed my
mother's name and they all agreed that I should go with her, so back
we went to Miss Jo. She wouldn't feed us niggers. She'd make me set in
a corner like a little dog. I got so hungry and howled so loud they
had to feed me. When the surrender come, I was eleven years old, and
they told us we was free. I ran off and hid in the plum orchard and I
said over'n over, "I'se free, I'se free; I ain't never going back to
Miss Jo." My mother come out and got me and in a few days my father
came and lived with us. He worked for young Master and the crops was
divided with him. Miss Jo died and we lived on there. My mother took
over the charge of the house and the chillun for young Master and we
was all purty happy after that.

They was a white man come into our settlement and bought a plantation
and some slaves. My, but he treated them bad. He owned a boy about
fifteen years old. One day he sent him on a errand. On the way home he
got off his mule and set down in the shade of a tree to rest. He fell
asleep and the mule went home. When he woke up he was scared to go
home and he stayed out in de woods for several days. Finally they
caught him and took him home and his master beat him nearly to death.
He then dug a hole and put him in it and piled corn shucks all around
him. This nearly killed him 'cause his body was cut up so with the
whip. One of the niggers slipped off and went to the jining plantation
and told about the way the boy was being treated and a bunch of white
men came over and made him take the child out and doctor his wounds.
This man lived there about ten years and he was so mean to his slaves
'til all the white men round who owned niggers finally went to him and
told him they would just give him so long to sell out and leave. They
made him sell his slaves to people there in the community, and he went
back north.

My mother told me that he owned a woman who was the mother of several
chillun and when her babies would get about a year or two of age he'd
sell them and it would break her heart. She never got to keep them.
When her fourth baby was born and was about two months old she just
studied all the time about how she would have to give it up and one
day she said, "I just decided I'm not going to let old Master sell
this baby; he just ain't going to do it." She got up and give it
something out of a bottle and purty soon it was dead. 'Course didn't
nobody tell on her or he'd of beat her nearly to death. There wasn't
many folks that was mean to their slaves.

Old Master's boys played with the nigger boys all the time. They'd go
swimming, fishing and hunting together. One of his boys name was
Robert but everybody called him Bud. They all would catch rabbits and
mark them and turn them loose. One day a boy come along with a rabbit
he had caught in a trap. Old Master's boy noticed that it had Bud's
mark on it and they made him turn it loose.

Old Master was his own overseer, but my daddy was the overlooker. He
was purty hard on them too, as they had to work just like they never
got tired. The women had to do housework, spinning, sewing and work in
the fields too. My mother was housewoman and she could keep herself
looking nice. My, she went around with her hair and clothes all
Jenny-Lynned-up all the time until we went to live with Miss Jo. She
took all the spirit out of poor mother and me too.

I remember she allus kept our cabin as clean and neat as a pin. When
other niggers come to visit her they would say, "My you are Buckry
Niggers (meaning we tried to live like white folks)."

I love to think of when we lived with old Master. We had a good time.
Our cabin was nice and had a chimbley in it. Mother would cook and
serve our breakfast at home every morning and dinner and supper on
Sundays. We'd have biscuit every Sunday morning for our breakfast.
That was something to look forward to.

We all went to church every Sunday. We would go to the white folks
church in the morning and to our church in the evening. Bill
McWilliams, old Master's oldest boy, didn't take much stock in church.
He owned a nigger named Bird, who preached for us. Bill said, "Bird,
you can't preach, you can't read, how on earth can you get a text out
of the Bible when you can't even read? How'n hell can a man preach
that don't know nothing?" Bird told him the Lord had called him to
preach and he'd put the things in his mouth that he ought to say. One
night Bill went to church and Bird preached the hair-raisingest
sermon you ever heard. Bill told him all right to go and preach, and
he gave Bird a horse and set him free to go anywhere he wanted to and
preach.

Old Master and old Mistress lived in grand style. Bob was the driver
of their carriage. My, but he was always slick and shiny. He'd set up
in front with his white shirt and black clothes. He looked like a
black martin (bird) with a white breast. The nurse set in the back
with the chillun. Old Master and Mistress set together in the front
seat.

Old Master and Mistress would come down to the quarters to eat
Christmas dinners sometimes and also birthday dinners. It was sho' a
big day when they done that. They'd eat first, and the niggers would
sing and dance to entertain them. Old Master would walk 'round through
the quarters talking to the ones that was sick or too old to work. He
was awful kind. I never knowed him to whip much. Once he whipped a
woman for stealing. She and mother had to spin and weave. She couldn't
or didn't work as fast as Ma and wouldn't have as much to show for her
days work. She'd steal hanks of Ma's thread so she couldn't do more
work than she did. She'd also steal old Master's tobacco. He caught up
with her and whipped her.

I never saw any niggers on the block but I remember once they had a
sale in town and I seen them pass our house in gangs, the little ones
in wagons and others walking. I've seen slaves who run away from their
masters and they'd have to work in the field with a big ball and chain
on their leg. They'd hoe out to the end of the chain and then drag it
up a piece and hoe on to the end of the row.

Times was awful hard during the War. We actually suffered for some
salt. We'd go to the smoke house where meat had been salted down for
years, dig a hole in the ground and fill it with water. After it would
stand for a while we'd dip the water up carefully and strain it and
cook our food in it. We parched corn and meal for coffee. We used
syrup for sugar. Some folks parched okra for coffee. When the War was
over you'd see men, women and chillun walk out of their cabins with a
bundle under their arms. All going by in droves, just going nowhere in
particular. My mother and father didn't join them; we stayed on at the
plantation. I run off and got married when I was twenty. Ma never did
want me to get married. My husband died five years ago. I never had no
chillun.

I reckon I'm a mite superstitious. If a man comes to your house first
on New Years you will have good luck; if a woman is your first visitor
you'll have bad luck. When I was a young woman I knowed I'd be left
alone in my old age. I seen it in my sleep. I dreamed I spit every
tooth in my head right out in my hand and something tell me I would be
a widow. That's a bad thing to dream about, losing your teeth.

Once my sister was at my house. She had a little baby and we was
setting on the porch. They was a big pine tree in front of the house,
and we seen something that looked like a big bird light in the tree.
She begun to cry and say that's a sign my baby is going to die. Sho'
nuff it just lived two weeks. Another time a big owl lit in a tree
near a house and we heard it holler. The baby died that night. It was
already sick, we's setting up with it.

I don't know where they's hants or not but I'se sho heard things I
couldn't see.

We allus has made our own medicines. We used herbs and roots. If
you'll take poke root and cut it in small pieces and string it and put
it 'round a baby's neck it will cut teeth easy. A tea made out of dog
fennel or corn shucks will cure chills and malaria. It'll make 'em
throw up. We used to take button snake root, black snake root, chips
of anvil iron and whiskey and make a tonic to cure consumption. It
would cure it too.

Oklahoma Writers' Project
Ex-Slaves
10-13-37
[Date stamp: NOV 5 1937]

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