Slave Narratives, Oklahoma

V >> Various >> Slave Narratives, Oklahoma

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JAMES SOUTHALL
Age 82 years,
Oklahoma City, Okla.

I was born in Clarksville, Tenn. My father was Wesley and my mother
was Hagar Southall. Our owner was Dr. John Southall, an old man.
Father always belonged to him but he bought my mother when she was a
young girl and raised her. She never knew anything 'bout her people
but my father's mother lived with us in de quarter's at Master
Southall's. Master John never sold any of his slaves.

We was known as "Free Niggers." Master said he didn't believe it was
right to own human beings just because dey was black, and he freed all
his slaves long before de War. He give 'em all freedom papers and told
dem dat dey was as free as he was and could go anywhere dey wanted.
Dey didn't have no where to go so we all stayed on wid him. It was
nice though to know we could go where we pleased 'thout having to get
a pass and could come back when we pleased even if we didn't take
advantage of it.

He told his slaves dat dey could stay on at his farm but dey would
have to work and make a living for deyselves and families. Old Master
managed de farm and bought all de food and clothes for us all.
Everybody had to work, but dey had a good time.

We had good clothes, plenty of food and good cabins. We had what was
known as Georgia bedsteads. Dey was wooden bedsteads wid holes bored
in de side pieces and in de foot and head-boards. Ropes was laced back
and forth across and this took de place of both slats and springs. De
ropes would git loose and we had what was called a "following-pin" to
tighten 'em wid. We'd take a block of wood wid a notch in it and catch
de rope and hold it till de following-pin could be driven in and den
we'd twist de ropes tight again. We had grass or cotton beds and we
slept good, too.

We had tin plates but no knives or forks so we et with our fingers.
Old Master was a doctor and we had good attention when we was sick. We
had no wish to take advantage of our freedom for we was a lot better
off even than we is now and we knowed it. We never had to worry about
anything.

De quarters was about a half mile from de "Big House" as we called
Master John's house. It really wasn't such a big house as it had only
four or five rooms in it. It was a common boxed house, painted white
and wid a long gallery across de front. Maybe it was de gallery dat
made it look so big to us. We liked to set on de steps at night and
listen to Master John talk and to hear old Mistress and de girls sing.
Sometimes we'd join in wid dem and fairly make de woods ring.
Everybody thought dey was crazy to let us have so much freedom but dey
wasn't nothing any of us black folks wouldn't a-done for that family.

He never employed any overseers as he done his own overseeing. He'd
tell de older hands what he wanted done and dey would see it was done.
We was never punished. Just iffen dey didn't work dey didn't have
nothing to eat and wear and de hands what did work wouldn't divide wid
'em iffen dey didn't work. Old Master sho' was wise fer he knowed
iffen we was ever set free dat we would have to work and he sure
didn't bide no laziness in his hands. Dey got up 'bout four o'clock in
de morning and was at work as soon as dey could see. Dey would work
and sing as happy as you please.

We used to hear stories 'bout how slaves was punished but we never saw
any of it. Dey would punish 'em by whupping 'em or by making 'em stand
on one foot for a long time, tie 'em up by de thumbs as high as dey
could reach and by making 'em do hard tasks and by going without food
for two-three days.

Niggers was very religious and dey had church often. Dey would annoy
de white folks wid shouting and singing and praying and dey would take
cooking pots and put over dey mouths so de white folks couldn't hear
'em. Dey would dig holes in de ground too, and lie down when dey
prayed.

Old Master let us have church in de homes. We had prayer-meeting every
Wednesday night. All our cullud preachers could read de Bible. He let
dem teach us how to read iffen we wanted to learn.

In de evening when we was through wid our work dey would gather at one
of de cabins and visit and sing or dance. We'd pop corn, eat walnuts,
peanuts, hickory nuts, and tell ghost stories. We didn't have any
music instruments so de music we danced by wasn't so very good.
Everybody sang and one or two would beat on tin pans or beat bones
together.

Us boys played marbles. I got to be a professional. I could hit de
middler ever time. We made a square and put a marble in each corner
and one in de middle and got off several feet from de ring and shot at
de marbles. Iffen you hit de middler you got de game. I could beat 'em
all.

Old Master kept us through de War. We saw Yankee soldiers come through
in droves lak Coxsey's Army. We wasn't afraid for ourselves but we was
afraid dey would catch old Master or one of de boys when dey would
come home on a furlough. We'd hep 'em git away and just swear dat dey
hadn't been home a-tall.

After de war we stayed until old Master died. It broke us all up for
we knowed we had lost de best friend dat we ever had or ever would
have. He was a sort of father to all of us. Old Mistress went to live
with her daughter and we started wandering 'round. Some folks from de
North come down and made de cullud folks move on. I guess dey was
afraid dat we'd hep our masters rebuild dey homes again. We lived in a
sort of bondage for a long time.

De white folks in de South as well as de cullud folks lost de best
friend dey had when Abe Lincoln was killed. He was God's man and it
was a great loss when he died.

God created us all free and equal. Somewhere along de road we lost
out.

Cullud folks would have been better off iffen dey had been left alone
in Africa. We'd a-had better opportunities. We should have some
compensation fer what we have suffered. Yes, we could be sent back and
we'd like it if dey would help us to get started out again. Dat's
where our forefathers come from.

I learned a long time ago dat dey was nothing to charms. How could a
rabbit's foot bring me good luck? De Bible teaches me better'n dat. I
believes in dreams though. I've seen de end of time in my dreams. Saw
de great trouble we going through right now, years ago in a dream.
It's clear in my mind how de world is coming to a end.

I believe all Christians should all join up together as dat makes 'em
stronger. I believe in praying fer what we want and need. I'm a
licensed preacher in de Baptist church. I've been a member for forty
years but have just been a licensed preacher about ten years.

Oklahoma Writers' Project
Ex-Slaves

BEAUREGARD TENNEYSON
Age 87 yrs.
West Tulsa, Okla.

My mother and father just about stocked Jess Tenneyson's plantation
with slaves. That's a fact. The old folks had one big
family--twenty-three Children was the number. With the old folks that
make twenty-five (there were only five more slaves), so I reckon they
done mighty well by Master Jess.

The Master done well by them, too. Master Jess and Mistress Lula was
Christian peoples. They raised their two sons, Henry and George, the
same way.

There was so many of us children I don't remember all the names. Three
of the boys was named after good southern gentlemen who soldiered in
the War. Price, Lee and Beaugard. Beaugard is me. Proud of that name
just like I'm proud of the Master's name.

My folks named Patrick and Harriett. Mother worked round the house And
father was the field boss. They was close by the Master all the time.

The plantation was down in Craig County, Texas. Nine hundred acre it
was. They raise everything, but mostly corn and cotton. Big times when
come the harvest. Master fix up a cotton gin right on the place. It
was an old-fashioned press. Six horses run it with two boys tromping
down the cotton with their feets.

In the fall time was the best of all. Come cotton picking time, all
the master from miles around send in their best pickers--and how
they'd work, sometimes pick the whole crop in one day! The one who
picked the most win a prize. Then come noon and the big feast, and at
night come the dancing.

Something like that when the corn was ready. All the folks have the
biggest time. Log rollings. Clearing the new ground for planting.
Cutting the trees, burning the bresh, making ready for the plow. The
best worker wins hisself a prize at these log rollings, too.

Them kind of good times makes me think of Christmas. Didn't have no
Christmas tree, but they set up a long pine table in the house and
that plank table was covered with presents and none of the Negroes was
ever forgot on that day.

Master Jess didn't work his slaves like other white folks done. Wasn't
no four o'clock wake-up horns and the field work started at seven
o'clock. Quitting time was five o'clock--just about union hours
nowadays. The Master believed in plenty of rest for the slaves and
they work better that way, too.

One of my brother took care of the Master's horse while on the
plantation. When the Master join in with rebels that horse went along.
So did brother. Master need them both and my brother mighty pleased
when he get to go.

When Master come back from the War and tell us that brother is dead,
he said brother was the best boy in all the army.

The Tenneyson slaves wasn't bothered with patrollers, neither the
Klan. The Master said we was all good Negroes--nobody going to bother
a good Negro.

We was taught to work and have good manners. And to be honest. Just
doing them three things will keep anybody out of trouble.

Oklahoma Writers' Project
Ex-Slaves

WILLIAM WALTERS
Age 85 yrs.
Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Mammy Ann (that was my mother) was owned by Mistress Betsy, and lived
on the Bradford plantation in Relsford County, Tennessee, when I was
born in 1852.

My daddy, Jim Walters, then lived in Nashville, where my mammy carried
me when she ran away from the Mistress after the Rebs and Yanks
started to fight. My daddy died in Nashville in 1875.

We were runaway slaves. The slipper-offers were often captured, but
Mammy Ann and her little boy William (that's me) escaped the sharp
eyes of the patrollers and found refuge with a family of northern
symphatizers living in Nashville.

Nashville was a fort town, filled with trenches and barricades. Right
across the road from where we stayed was a vacant block used by the
Rebs as an emergency place for treating the wounded.

I remember the boom of cannons one whole day, and I heard the rumble
of army wagons as they crossed through the town. But there was nothing
to see as the fog of powder smoke became thicker with every blast of
Sesesh cannon.

When the smoke fog cleared away I watched the wounded being carried to
the clearing across the road--fighting men with arms shot off, legs
gone, faces blood smeared--some of them just laying there cussing God
and Man with their dying breath!

Those were awful times. Yet I have heard many of the older Negroes say
the old days were better.

Such talk always seemed to me but an expression of sentiment for some
good old master, or else the older Negroes were just too handicapped
with ignorance to recognize the benefits of liberty or the
opportunities of freedom.

But I've always been proud of my freedom, and proud of my old mother
who faced death for her freedom and mine when she escaped from the
Bradford plantation a long time before freedom came to the Negro race
as a whole.

Oklahoma Writers' Project
Ex-Slaves
570 words
10-19-1938

MARY FRANCES WEBB
Grand daughter of Sarah Vest, aged 92, (deceased)
McAlester, Okla.

I've heard my grandmother tell a lot of her experiences during
slavery. She remembered things well as she was a grown woman at the
time of the War of the Rebellion.

Her home was at Sedalia, Mo., and her owner was Baxter West, a
prominent farmer and politician. He was very kind and good to his
slaves. He provided them with plenty of food and good clothes. He
would go to town and buy six or eight bolts of cloth at a time and the
women could pick out two dresses apiece off it. These would be their
dresses for dressing up. They wove the cloth for their everyday
clothes.

The men wore jeans suits in winter. He bought shoes for all his
slaves, young and old. He had about twenty slaves counting the
children.

My grandmother was a field hand. She plowed and hoed the crops in the
summer and spring, and in the winter she sawed and cut cord wood just
like a man. She said it didn't hurt her as she was as strong as an ox.

She could spin and weave and sew. She helped make all the cloth for
their clothes and in the spring one of the jobs for the women was to
weave hats for the men. They used oat-straw, grass, and cane which had
been split and dried and soaked in hot water until it was pliant, and
they wove it into hats. The women wore a cloth tied around their head.

They didn't have many matches so they always kept a log heap burning
to keep a fire. It was a common thing for a neighbor to come in to
borrow a coal of fire as their fire had died out.

On wash days all the neighbors would send several of their women to
the creek to do the family wash. They all had a regular picnic of it
as they would wash and spread the clothes on the bushes and low
branches of the trees to dry. They would get to spend the day
together.

They had no tubs or wash boards. They had a large flat block of wood
and a wooden paddle. They'd spread the wet garment on the block,
spread soap on it and paddle the garment till it was clean. They would
rinse the clothes in the creek. Their soap was made from lye, dripped
from ashes, and meat scraps.

The slaves had no lamps in their cabins. In winter they would pile
wood on the fire in their fireplace and have the light from the fire.

The colored men went with their master to the army. They made regular
soldiers and endured the same hardships that the white soldiers did.
They told of one battle when so many men were killed that a little
stream seemed to be running pure blood as the water was so bloody.

After the war the slaves returned home with their masters and some of
the older ones stayed on with them and helped them to rebuild their
farms. None of them seemed to think it strange that they had been
fighting on the wrong side in the army as they were following their
white folks.

Those who stayed with their old master were taught to read and write
and were taught to handle their own business and to help themselves in
every way possible to take their place in life.

Oklahoma Writers' Project
Ex-Slaves
10-14-37
[Date stamp: NOV 5 1937]

EASTER WELLS
Age 83
Colbert, Okla.

I was born in Arkansas, in 1854, but we moved to Texas in 1855. I've
heard 'em tell about de trip to Texas. De grown folks rode in wagons
and carts but de chaps all walked dat was big enuff. De men walked and
toted their guns and hunted all de way. Dey had plenty of fresh game
to eat.

My mother's name was Nellie Bell. I had one sister, Liza. I never saw
my father; in fact, I never heard my mammy say anything about him and
I don't guess I ever asked her anything about him for I never thought
anything about not having a father. I guess he belonged to another
family and when we moved away he was left behind and he didn't try to
find us after de War.

My mammy and my sister and me belonged to young Master Jason Bell. We
was his onliest slaves and as he wasn't married and lived at home wid
his parents we was worked and bossed by his father, Cap'n William Bell
and his wife, Miss Mary.

After we moved to Texas, old Master built a big double log house,
weather-boarded on de inside and out. It was painted white. Dey was a
long gallery clean across de front of de house and a big open hall
between de two front rooms. Dey was three rooms on each side of de
hall and a wide gallery across de back. De kitchen set back from de
house and dey was a board walk leading to it. Vines was planted 'round
de gallery and on each side of de walk in de summer time. De house was
on a hill and set back from de big road about a quarter of a mile and
dey was big oak and pine trees all 'round de yard. We had purty
flowers, too.

We had good quarters. Dey was log cabins, but de logs was peeled and
square-adzed and put together with white plaster and had shuttered
windows and pine floors. Our furniture was home made but it was good
and made our cabins comfortable.

Old Master give us our allowance of staple food and it had to run us,
too. We could raise our own gardens and in dat way we had purty plenty
to eat. Dey took good care of us sick or well and old Mistress was
awful good to us.

My mammy was de cook. I remember old Master had some purty strict
rules and one of 'em was iffen you burnt de bread you had to eat it.
One day mammy burnt de bread. She was awful busy and forgot it and it
burnt purty bad. She knowed dat old Master would be mad and she'd be
punished so she got some grub and her bonnet and she lit out. She hid
in de woods and cane brakes for two weeks and dey couldn't find her
either. One of de women slipped food out to her. Finally she come home
and old Master give her a whipping but he didn't hurt her none. He was
glad to git her back. She told us dat she could'a slipped off to de
North but she didn't want to leave us children. She was afraid young
Master would be mad and sell us and we'd a-had a hard time so she come
back. I don't know whether she ever burnt de bread any more or not.

Once one of de men got his 'lowance and he decided he'd have de meat
all cooked at once so he come to our cabin and got mammy to cook it
for him. She cooked it and he took it home. One day he was at work and
a dog got in and et de meat all up. He didn't have much food for de
rest of de week. He had to make out wid parched corn.

We all kept parched corn all de time and went 'round eating it. It was
good to fill you up iffen you was hungry and was nourishing, too.

When de niggers cooked in dere own cabins dey put de food in a sort of
tray or trough and everybody et together. Dey didn't have no dishes.
We allus ate at de Big House as mammy had to do de cooking for de
family.

I never had to work hard as old Master wanted us to grow up strong.
He'd have mammy boil Jerusalem Oak and make a tea for us to drink to
cure us of worms and we'd run races and get exercise so we would be
healthy.

Old Mistress and old Master had three children. Dey was two children
dead between Master Jason and Miss Jane. Dey was a little girl 'bout
my age, named Arline. We played together all de time. We used to set
on de steps at night and old Mistress would tell us about de stars.
She'd tell us and show us de Big Dipper, Little Dipper, Milky Way,
Ellen's Yard, Job's Coffin, and de Seven Sisters. I can show 'em to
you and tell you all about 'em yet.

I scared Arline and made her fall and break her leg twice. One time we
was on de porch after dark one night and I told her dat I heard
something and I made like I could see it and she couldn't so she got
scared and run and hung her toe in a crack and fell off de high porch
and broke her leg. Another time while de War was going on we was
dressed up in long dresses playing grown-ups. We had playhouses under
some big castor-bean bushes. We climbed up on de fence and jest for
fun I told her dat I seen some Yankees coming. She started to run and
got tangled up in her long dress and fell and broke her leg again. It
nigh broke my heart for I loved her and she loved me and she didn't
tell on me either time. I used to visit her after she was married and
we'd sure have a good visit talking 'bout de things we used to do. We
was separated when we was about fifteen and didn't see [HW: each]
other any more till we was both married and had children. I went to
visit her at Bryant, Brazos County, Texas and I ain't seen her since.
I don't know whether she is still living or not.

I 'members hearing a man say dat once he was a nigger trader. He'd buy
and trade or sell 'em like they was stock. He become a Christian and
never sold any more.

Our young Master went to de War and got wounded and come home and
died. Old Master den took full charge of us and when de War ended he
kept us because he said we didn't have no folks and he said as our
owner was dead we wasn't free. Mother died about a year after de War,
and some white folks took my sister but I was afraid to go. Old Master
told me iffen I left him he would cut my ears off end I'd starve and I
don't know what all he did tell me he'd do. I must a-been a fool but I
was afraid to try it.

I had so much work to do and I never did git to go anywhere. I reckon
he was afraid to let me go off de place for fear some one would tell
me what a fool I was, so I never did git to go anywhere but had to
work all de time. I was de only one to work and old Mistress and de
girls never had done no work and didn't know much about it. I had a
harder time den when we was slaves.

I got to wanting to see my sister so I made up my mind to run off. One
of old Master's motherless nephews lived with him and I got him to go
with me one night to the potato bank and I got me a lap full of
potatoes to eat so I wouldn't starve like old Master said I would. Dis
white boy went nearly to a house where some white folks lived. I went
to de house and told 'em I wanted to go to where my sister was and dey
let me stay fer a few days and sent me on to my sister.

I saw old Master lots of times after I run away but he wasn't mad at
me. I heard him tell de white folks dat I lived wid dat he raised me
and I sure wouldn't steal nor tell a lie. I used to steal brown sugar
lumps when mammy would be cooking but he didn't know 'bout dat.

On holidays we used to allus have big dinners, 'specially on
Christmas, and we allus had egg-nog.

We allus had hog-jowl and peas on New Years Day 'cause iffen you'd
have dat on New Years Day you'd have good luck all de year.

Iffen you have money on New Years' Day you will have money all de
year.

My husband, Lewis Wells, lived to be one-hundred and seven years old.
He died five years ago. He could see witches, spirits and ghosts but I
never could. Dere are a few things dat I've noticed and dey never
fail.

Dogs howling and scritch owls hollering is allus a warning. My mother
was sick and we didn't think she was much sick. A dog howled and
howled right outside de house. Old Master say, "Nellie gonna die."
Sure nuff she died dat night.

Another time a gentle old mule we had got after de children and run
'em to do house and den he lay down and wallow and wallow. One of our
children was dead 'fore a week.

One of our neighbors say his dog been gone 'bout a week. He was
walking and met de dog and it lay down and stretch out on de ground
and measure a grave wid his body. He made him git up and he went home
jest as fast as he could. When he got dere one of his children was
dead.

Iffen my left eye quiver I know I'm gwineter cry and iffen both my
eyes quiver I know I gwinter laugh till I cry. I don't like for my
eyes to quiver.

We has allus made our own medicine. Iffen we hadn't we never could
astood de chills and fevers. We made a tea out'n bitter weeds and
bathed in it to cure malaria. We also made bread pills and soaked 'em
in dis tea and swallowed 'em. After bathing in dis tea we'd go to bed
and kiver up and sweat de malaria out.

Horse mint and palm of crystal (Castor-bean) and bullnettle root
boiled together will make a cure fer swelling. Jest bathe de swollen
part in dis hot tea.

Anvil dust and apple vinegar will cure dropsy. One tea cup of anvil
dust to a quart of vinegar. Shake up well and bathe in it. It sure
will cure de worse kind of a case.

God worked through Abraham Lincoln and he answered de prayers of dem
dat was wearing de burden of slavery. We cullud folks all love and
honor Abraham Lincoln's memory and don't you think we ought to?

I love to hear good singing. My favorite songs are: "Am I A Soldier Of
The Cross", an "How Can I Live In Sin and Doubt My Savior's Love." I
belongs to de Baptist church.

Oklahoma Writers' Project
Ex-Slaves
Revision of story sent in 8-13-37.

JOHN WHITE
Age 121 years
Sand Springs, Okla.

Of all my Mammy's children I am the first born and the longest living.
The others all gone to join Mammy. She was named Mary White, the same
name as her Mistress, the wife of my first master, James White.

About my pappy. I never hear his name and I never see him, not even
when I was the least child around the old Master's place 'way back
there in Georgia more'n one-hundred twenty years ago!

Mammy try to make it clear to me about my daddy. She married like the
most of the slaves in them days.

He was a slave on another plantation. One day he come for to borrow
something from Master White. He sees a likely looking gal, and the way
it work out that gal was to be my Mammy. After that he got a paper
saying it was all right for him to be off his own plantation. He come
a'courting over to Master White's. After a while he talks with the
Master. Says he wants to marry the gal, Mary. The Master says it's all
right if it's all right with Mary and the other white folks. He finds
out it is and they makes ready for the wedding.

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