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| author | Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org> | 2025-10-15 04:37:03 -0700 |
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| committer | Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org> | 2025-10-15 04:37:03 -0700 |
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diff --git a/11485-h/11485-h.htm b/11485-h/11485-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..2096310 --- /dev/null +++ b/11485-h/11485-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,528 @@ +<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"> +<html> +<head> +<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8"> +<title> + Born in Slavery: Slave Narratives from the Federal Writers' Project, 1936-1938: + Kansas Narratives, Volume VI +</title> +<meta name="author" content="Federal Writers' Project"> +</head> +<body> +<div>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 11485 ***</div> + +<p>[TR: ***] = Transcriber Note</p> + +<hr width="65%"><br><br> + +<h1>SLAVE NARRATIVES</h1> +<br> + +<h2><i>A Folk History of Slavery in the United States<br> +From Interviews with Former Slaves</i></h2> +<br> + +<h4>TYPEWRITTEN RECORDS PREPARED BY<br> +THE FEDERAL WRITERS' PROJECT,<br> +1936-1938<br> +ASSEMBLED BY<br> +THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS PROJECT<br> +WORK PROJECTS ADMINISTRATION<br> +FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA<br> +SPONSORED BY THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS</h4> +<br> +<br> + +<p>WASHINGTON 1941</p> +<br><br><br> + + + +<h2>VOLUME VI</h2> + +<h2>KANSAS NARRATIVES</h2> + + +<h3>Prepared by<br> +the Federal Writers' Project of<br> +the Works Progress Administration<br> +for the State of Kansas</h3> +<br><br><br> + + +<h2>INFORMANTS</h2> + +<a href="#HolbertClayton">Holbert, Clayton</a><br> +<a href="#SimmsBill">Simms, Bill</a><br> +<a href="#WilliamsBelle">Williams, Belle</a><br> + +<br><br><hr style="width: 65%;"><br><br> +<a name="HolbertClayton"></a> +<h3>THE AMERICAN GUIDE<br> +TOPEKA, KANSAS<br> +<br> +EX SLAVE STORY<br> +OTTAWA, KANSAS<br> +BY: Leta Gray (interviewer)</h3> +<br> + +<p>"My name is Clayton Holbert, and I am an ex slave. I am eighty-six years +old. I was born and raised in Linn County, Tennessee. My master's name +was Pleasant "Ples" Holbert. My master had a fairly large plantation; he +had, I imagine, around one hundred slaves."</p> + +<p>"I was working the fields during the wind-up of the Civil War. They +always had a man in the field to teach the small boys to work, and I was +one of the boys. I was learning to plant corn, etc. My father, brother +and uncle went to war on the Union side."</p> + +<p>"We raised corn, barley, and cotton, and produced all of our living on +the plantation. There was no such thing as going to town to buy things. +All of our clothing was homespun, our socks were knitted, and +everything. We had our looms, and made our own suits, we also had reels, +and we carved, spun, and knitted. We always wore yarn socks for winter, +which we made. It didn't get cold, in the winter in Tennessee, just a +little frost was all. We fixed all of our cotton and wool ourselves."</p> + +<p>"For our meat we used to kill fifteen, twenty, or fifty, and sometimes a +hundred hogs. We usually had hickory. It was considered the best for +smoking meat, when we butchered. Our meat we had then was the finest +possible. It had a lot more flavor than that which you get now. If a +person ran out of meat, he would go over to his neighbor's house, and +borrow or buy meat, we didn't think about going to town. When we wanted +fresh meat we or some of the neighbors would kill a hog or sheep, and +would divide this, and then when we butchered we would give them part of +ours. People were more friendly then then they are now. They have almost +lost respect for each other. Now if you would give your neighbor +something they would never think of paying it back. You could also +borrow wheat or whatever you wanted, and you could pay it back whenever +you thrashed."</p> + +<p>"We also made our own sorghum, dried our own fruits. We usually dried +all of our things as we never heard of such a thing as canning."</p> + +<p>"We always had brandy, wine, and cider on hand, and nothing was thought +of it. We used to give it to the children even. When we had corn husks, +log rolling, etc., we would invite all of the neighbors over, and then +we would serve refreshments of wine, brandy or cider."</p> + +<p>"We made our own maple syrup from the maple sugar trees. This is a lot +better than the refined sugar people have nowdays, and is good for you +too. You can't get this now though, except sometimes and it is awfully +high priced. On the plantations the slaves usually had a house of their +own for their families. They usually built their houses in a circle, so +you didn't have to go out doors hardly to go to the house next to you. +If you wanted your house away from the rest of the houses, they could +build you a house away from the others and separate."</p> + +<p>I was never sold, I always had just my one master. When slave owners +died, if they had no near relatives to inherit their property, they +would 'Will' the slaves their freedom, instead of giving them to someone +else. My grandmother, and my mother were both freed like this, but what +they called 'nigger traders' captured them, and two or three others, +and they took them just like they would animals, and sold them, that was +how 'Ples' Holbert got my mother. My grandmother was sent to Texas. My +mother said she wrote and had one letter from my grandmother after that, +but she never saw her again."</p> + +<p>"My mother used to be a cook, and when she was busy cooking, my mistress +would nurse both me and her baby, who was four weeks older than me. If +it happened the other way around, my mother would nurse both of us. They +didn't think anything about it. When the old people died, and they left +small orphan children, the slaves would raise the children. My young +master was raised like this, he has written to me several times, since I +have been out here in Kansas, but the last time I wrote, I have had no +reply, so I suppose he was dead."</p> + +<p>"When anyone died, they used to bury the body at least six feet under +the ground. There wasn't such a thing as a cemetery then, they were just +buried right on the plantation, usually close to the house. They would +put the body in a wagon, and walk to where to bury the person, and they +would sing all of the way."</p> + +<p>"The slaves used to dance or go to the prayer meeting to pass their +time. There were also festivals we went to, during the Christmas +vacation. There was always a big celebration on Christmas. We worked +until Christmas Eve and from that time until New Year's we had a +vacation. We had no such thing as Thanksgiving, we had never heard of +such a thing."</p> + +<p>"In August when it was the hottest we always had a vacation after our +crops were all laid by. That was the time when we usually had several +picnics, barbecues or anything we wanted to do to pass our time away."</p> + +<p>"After the war was over, and my father, brother and uncle had gone to +war, it left my mother alone practically. My mother had always been a +cook, and that was all she knew, and after the war she got her freedom, +she and me, I was seven or eight years old, and my brother was fourteen, +and my sister was about sixteen. My mother didn't know what to do, and I +guess we looked kind of pitiful, finally my master said that we could +stay and work for him a year, people worked by the year then. We stayed +there that year, and then we also stayed there the following year, and +he paid us the second year. After that we went to another place, Roof +Macaroy, and then my sister got married while we were there, and then +she moved on her husband's master's place, and then we went too. After +that I moved on another part and farmed for two or three years, and then +we moved to another part of the plantation and lived there three or four +years. That was almost the center of things, and we held church there. +All of the colored people would gather there. The colored people who had +been in the North were better educated than the people in the South. +They would come down to the South and help the rest of us. The white +people would also try to promote religion among the colored people. Our +church was a big log cabin. We lived in it, but we moved from one of the +large rooms into a small one, so we could have church. I remember one +time after we had been down on the creek bank fishing, that was what we +always did on Sunday, because we didn't know any better, my master +called us boys and told us we should go to Sunday school instead of +going fishing. I remember that to this day, and I have only been +fishing one or two times since. Then I didn't know what he was talking +about, but two or three years later I learned what Sunday school was, +and I started to go."</p> + +<p>"I went to a subscription school. We would all pay a man to come to +teach us. I used to work for my room and board on Saturday's, and go to +school five days a week. That would have been all right, if I had kept +it up, but I didn't for very long, I learned to read and write pretty +good though. There were no Government school then that were free."</p> + +<p>"We didn't have a name. The slaves were always known by the master's +last name, and after we were freed we just took the last name of our +masters and used it. After we had got our freedom papers, they had our +ages and all on them, they were lost so we guess at our ages."</p> + +<p>"Most of the slave owners were good to their slaves although some of +them were brutish of course."</p> + +<p>"In 1877 a lot of people began coming out here to Kansas, and in 1878 +there were several, but in 1879 there were an awful lot of colored +people immigrating. We came in 1877 to Kansas City, October 1. We landed +about midnight. We came by train. Then there was nothing but little huts +in the bottoms. The Santa Fe depot didn't amount to anything. The +Armours' Packing house was even smaller than that. There was a swinging +bridge over the river. The Kaw Valley was considered good-for-nothing, +but to raise hemp. There was an awful lot of it grown there though, and +there were also beavers in the Kaw River, and they used to cut down +trees to build their dams. I worked several years and in 1880 I came to +Franklin County."</p> + +<p>"We raised a lot of corn, and castor beans. That was the money crop. +Corn at that time wasn't hard to raise. People never plowed their corn +more than three times, and they got from forty to fifty bushels per +acre. There were no weeds and it was virgin soil. One year I got +seventy-two bushel of corn per acre, and I just plowed it once. That may +sound 'fishy' but it is true."</p> + +<p>"There used to be a castor bean mill here, and I have seen the wagons of +castor beans lined from Logan Street to First Street, waiting to unload. +They had to number the wagons to avoid trouble and they made them keep +their places. There also used to be a water mill here, but it burned."</p> + +<p>"There were lots of Indians here in the Chippewas. They were harmless +though. They were great to come in town, and shoot for pennies. They +were good shots, and it kept you going to keep them supplied with +pennies, for them to shoot with their bows and arrows, as they almost +always hit them. They were always dressed in their red blankets."</p> + +<p>"I have never used ones for work. They were used quite a bit, although I +have never used them. They were considered to be good after they were +broken."</p> + +<p>"I was about twenty-two years old when I married, and I have raised six +children. They live over by Appanoose. I ruined my health hauling wood. +I was always a big fellow, I used to weigh over two hundred eighty-five +pounds, but I worked too hard, working both summer and winter."</p> + +<p>"My father's mother lived 'till she was around ninety or a hundred +years old. She got so bent at the last she was practically bent double. +She lived about two years after she was set free."</p> + +<p>"I used to live up around Appanoose, but I came to Franklin County and I +have stayed here ever since."</p> + + + + +<br><br><hr style="width: 65%;"><br><br> +<a name="SimmsBill"></a> +<h3>THE AMERICAN GUIDE<br> +TOPEKA, KANSAS<br> +<br> +EX SLAVE STORY<br> +OTTAWA, KANSAS<br> +INTERVIEWER: Leta Gray<br> +Told by Bill Simms, ex slave, age 97 years, Ottawa, Kansas.</h3> +<p>[TR: Information moved from bottom of last page.]</p> +<br> + +<p>"My name is Bill Simms."</p> + +<p>"I was born in Osceola, Missouri, March 16, 1839."</p> + +<p>"I lived on the farm with my mother, and my master, whose name was +Simms. I had an older sister, about two years older than I was. My +master needed some money so he sold her, and I have never seen her since +except just a time or two."</p> + +<p>"On the plantation we raised cows, sheep, cotton, tobacco, corn, which +were our principal crops. There was plenty of wild hogs, turkey, ant +deer and other game. The deer used to come up and feed with the cattle +in the feed yards, and we could get all the wild hogs we wanted by +simply shooting them in the timber."</p> + +<p>"A man who owned ten slaves was considered wealthy, and if he got hard +up for money, he would advertise and sell some slaves, like my oldest +sister was sold on the block with her children. She sold for eleven +hundred dollars, a baby in her arms sold for three hundred dollars. +Another sold for six hundred dollars and the other for a little less +than that. My master was offered fifteen hundred dollars for me several +times, but he refused to sell me, because I was considered a good husky, +slave. My family is all dead, and I am the only one living.</p> + +<p>"The slaves usually lived in a two-room house made of native lumber. The +houses were all small. A four or five room house was considered a +mansion. We made our own clothes, had spinning wheels and raised and +combed our own cotton, clipped the wool from our sheep's backs, combed +and spun it into cotton and wool clothes. We never knew what boughten +clothes were. I learned to make shoes when I was just a boy and I made +the shoes for the whole family. I used to chop wood and make rails and +do all kinds of farm work."</p> + +<p>"I had a good master, most of the masters were good to their slaves. +When a slave got too old to work they would give him a small cabin on +the plantation and have the other slaves to wait on him. They would +furnish him with victuals, and clothes until he died."</p> + +<p>"Slaves were never allowed to talk to white people other than their +masters or someone their master knew, as they were afraid the white man +might have the slave run away. The masters aimed to keep their slaves in +ignorance and the ignorant slaves were all in favor of the Rebel army, +only the more intelligent were in favor of the Union army."</p> + +<p>"When the war started, my master sent me to work for the Confederate +army. I worked most of the time for three years off and on, hauling +canons, driving mules, hauling ammunition, and provisions. The Union +army pressed in on us and the Rebel army moved back. I was sent home. +When the Union army came close enough I ran away from home and joined +the Union army. There I drove six-mule team and worked at wagon work, +driving ammunition and all kinds of provisions until the war ended. Then +I returned home to my old master, who had stayed there with my mother. +My master owned about four hundred acres of good land, and had had ten +slaves. Most of the slaves stayed at home. My master hired me to work +for him. He gave my mother forty acres of land with a cabin on it and +sold me a forty acres, for twenty dollars, when I could pay him. This +was timbered land and had lots of good trees for lumber, especially +walnut. One tree on this ground was worth one hundred dollars, if I +could only get it cut and marketed, I could pay for my land. My master's +wife had been dead for several years and they had no children. The +nearest relative being a nephew. They wanted my master's land and was +afraid he would give it all away to us slaves, so they killed him, and +would have killed us if we had stayed at home. I took my mother and ran +into the adjoining, Claire County. We settled there and stayed for +sometime, but I wanted to see Kansas, the State I had heard so much +about."</p> + +<p>"I couldn't get nobody to go with me, so I started out afoot across the +prairies for Kansas. After I got some distance from home it was all +prairie. I had to walk all day long following buffalo trail. At night I +would go off a little ways from the trail and lay down and sleep. In the +morning I'd wake up and could see nothing but the sun and prairie. Not a +house, not a tree, no living thing, not even could I hear a bird. I had +little to eat, I had a little bread in my pocket. I didn't even have a +pocket knife, no weapon of any kind. I was not afraid, but I wouldn't +start out that way again. The only shade I could find in the daytime was +the rosin weed on the prairie. I would lay down so it would throw the +shade in my face and rest, then get up and go again. It was in the +spring of the year in June. I came to Lawrence, Kansas, where I stayed +two years working on the farm. In 1874 I went to work for a man by the +month at $35 a month and I made more money than the owner did, because +the grasshoppers ate up the crops. I was hired to cut up the corn for +him, but the grasshoppers ate it up first. He could not pay me for +sometime. Grasshoppers were so thick you couldn't step on the ground +without stepping on about a dozen at each step. I got my money and came +to Ottawa in December 1874, about Christmas time."</p> + +<p>"My master's name was Simms and I was known as Simms Bill, just like +horses. When I came out here I just changed my name from Simms Bill, to +Bill Simms."</p> + +<p>"Ottawa was very small at the time I came here, and there were several +Indians close by that used to come to town. The Indians held their war +dance on what is now the courthouse grounds. I planted the trees that +are now standing on the courthouse grounds. I still planted trees until +three or four years ago. There were few farms fenced and what were, were +on the streams. The prairie land was all open. This is what North Ottawa +was, nothing but prairie north of Logan Street, and a few houses between +Logan Street and the river. Ottawa didn't have many business houses. +There was also an oil mill where they bought castor beans, and made +castor oil on the north side of the Marais des Cygnes River one block +west of Main Street. There was one hotel, which was called Leafton House +and it stood on what is now the southwest corner of Main and Second +Streets."</p> + +<p>"I knew Peter Kaiser, when I came here, and A.P. Elder was just a boy +then."</p> + +<p>"The people lived pretty primitive. We didn't have kerosene. Our only +lights were tallow candles, mostly grease lamps, they were just a pan +with grease in it, and one end of the rag dragging out over the side +which we would light. There were no sewers at that time."</p> + +<p>"I had no chance to go to school when a boy, but after I came to Kansas +I was too old to go to school, and I had to work, but I attended night +school, and learned to read and write and figure."</p> + +<p>"The farm land was nearly all broke up by ox teams, using about six oxen +on a plow. In Missouri we lived near the Santa Fe trail, and the +settlers traveling on the trail used oxen, and some of them used cows. +The cows seem to stand the road better than the oxen and also gave some +milk. The travelers usually aimed to reach the prairie States in the +spring, so they could have grass for their oxen and horses during the +summer."</p> + +<p>"I have lived here ever since I came here. I was married when I was +about thirty years old. I married a slave girl from Georgia. Back in +Missouri, if a slave wanted to marry a woman on another plantation he +had to ask the master, and if both masters agreed they were married. The +man stayed at his owners, and the wife at her owners. He could go to see +her on Saturday night and Sunday. Sometimes only every two weeks. If a +man was a big strong man, neighboring plantation owners would ask him to +come over and see his gals, hoping that he might want to marry one of +them, but if a Negro was a small man he was not cared for as a husband, +as they valued their slaves as only for what they could do, just like +they would horses. When they were married and if they had children they +belonged to the man who owned the woman. Osceola is where the saying +originated, 'I'm from Missouri, show me.' After the war the smart guys +came through and talked the people into voting bonds, but there was no +railroad built and most counties paid their bonds, but the county in +which Osceola stands refused to pay for their bonds because there was +no railroad built, and they told the collectors to 'show me the railroad +and we will pay,' and that is where 'show me' originated."</p> + +<p>"My wife died when we had three children. She had had to work hard all +her life and she said she didn't want her children to have to work as +hard as she had, and I promised her on her death bed, that I would +educate our girls. So I worked and sent the girls to school. My two +girls both graduated from Ottawa university, the oldest one being the +first colored girl to ever graduate from that school. After graduation +she went to teach school in Oklahoma, but only got twenty-five dollars a +month, and I had to work and send her money to pay her expenses. The +younger girl also graduated and went to teach school, but she did not +teach school long, until she married a well-to-do farmer in Oklahoma. +The older girl got her wages raised until she got one hundred and +twenty-five dollars per month. I have worked at farm work and tree +husbandry all my life. My oldest daughter bought me my first suit of +clothes I ever had."</p> +<br> + +<p>"I have been living alone about twenty-five years. I don't know hew old +I was, but my oldest daughter had written my mother before she died, and +got our family record, which my mother kept in her old Bible. Each year +she writes me and tells me on my birthday how old I am."</p> + + + + +<br><br><hr style="width: 65%;"><br><br> +<a name="WilliamsBelle"></a> +<h3>THE AMERICAN GUIDE<br> +TOPEKA, KANSAS<br> +<br> +EX SLAVE STORY<br> +HUTCHINSON, KANSAS<br> +INTERVIEWER: E. Jean Foote</h3> +<br> + +<p>Belle Williams was born in slavery about the year 1850 or 1851. Her +mother's name was Elizabeth Hulsie, being the slave of Sid Hulsie, her +last name being the name of her master. The Hulsie plantation was +located in Carroll County, Arkansas. Belle Williams, better known as +"Auntie Belle" is most interesting. She lives in her own little home in +the one hundred block on Harvey Street, Hutchinson, Kansas. She is too +old and crippled to do hard work, so spends most of her time smoking her +pipe and rocking in her old armchair on the little porch of her home. +She is jolly, and most interesting.</p> + +<p>"Yes, I was a slave," she said. "I was born a slave on a plantation in +Carroll County, Arkansas and lived there 'till after the war. Law sakes, +honey, I can see them 'Feds' yet, just as plain as if it was yesterday. +We had a long lane—you know what a lane is—well, here they come! I run +for mah mammy, and I'll never forget how she grabbed me and let out a +yell, "It's them Feds, them blue coats."</p> + +<p>"You see my massa was a good massa. He didn't believe in whipping +niggers and he didn't believe in selling niggers, and so my mammy and +me, we didn't want to leave our mistress and massa. We called them +'Mother Hulsie' and 'Massa Sid.' One officer told my mammy that she +could take along with her, anything out of the cabin that she wanted. +Mammy looked around and said, "I don't want to take nothin' but my +chillun," so we all told Mother Hulsie 'goodbye,' and when my mammy +told her goodbye, why Mother Hulsie cried and cried, and said, 'I just +can't let you go, Elizabeth, but go on peacefully, and maybe some day +you can come back and see me.'"</p> + +<p>As the story came word after word, big tears dropped on the thin black +hands, and she reached for her tobacco can and pipe. The can was +missing, so I offered to get it for her, for I was anxious for one peep +into "Auntie's" little house, but I couldn't find the can, so after +moans and sighs, she got to her feet and found her favorite Granger +Twist. After settling; again in her chair, and when her pipe was at its +best, "Auntie" continued, "Oh, honey, it was awful! You see I never been +nowhere and I was scairt so I hung onto my mammy. The soldiers took us +to camp that night, and after staying there several days, we went on to +Springfield, Missouri, and it was right at fifty-two years ago that I +came here. I was married to Fuller, my first husband and had seven +chilluns. He helped me raise them that lived and, after he died, I +married Williams and had two chilluns, but he didn't help me raise my +chilluns. Why, honey, I raised my chilluns and my chilluns' chilluns, +and even one great-grandchild now. Why, I always been a slave. I worked +for all the early white families in this here town that needed help."</p> + +<p>I asked "Auntie" if she were ever sold on the block, and she answered, +"Law sakes, honey, I must tell you. No, I never was sold, but nuthin' +but the Dear Blessed Lawd saved me. You see Massa Sid had gone away for +a few days, and his boys was takin' care of things, when some nigger +traders came and wanted to buy some niggers, and they picked on my +grandmammy and me. How old was I? Well, I reckon I was about fourteen. +You see, honey, I never could read or write, but I can count, and I can +remember—Lawdy! how I can remember. Well, there I was on the block, +just scairt and shivering—I was just cold all over—and them there +nigger traders was jest a talkin', when down that long lane came Massa +Sid, and I'm tellin' you, it was the Dear Lawd that sent him. He was a +ridin' on his hoss, and he stopped right in front of me, standing there +on the block. He looked at his boys, then he turned to them nigger +traders and yelled out, "What you all doin' here?" The boys told him +there was just so many niggers on the place, and they wanted some money +and when the nigger traders come along they thought they would sell a +few niggers. Honey, I'm tellin' you, Massa Sid turned to them nigger +traders and said, "you nigger traders get out of here. These are my +niggers and I don't sell niggers. I can feed them all, I don't want any +help." He grabbed me right off of the block and put me on the hoss in +front of him and set me down in front of my cabin. Sceered, oh Lawdy I +was sceered! No, suh, Massa Sid never sold no niggers."</p> + +<p>"I must tell you about what happened one night while we were all there +in the camp. One of the massa's boys that loved my uncle, came crawling +on all fours, just like a pig, into camp. He passed the pickets, and +when he found my uncle he laid there on the ground in my uncle's arms +and cried like a baby. My uncle was old but he cried too and after a +while he told the boy that he must go back—he was 'fraid that the +pickets would see him and he would be shot, so he went with him, +crawling on all fours just like a pig, till he got him past the pickets, +and our young master never saw my uncle any more. Oh, honey, them was +heart-breakin' times. The first night we was in camp, my mammy got to +thinking about Mother Hulsie and how she was left all alone with all the +work, and not a soul to help her. The blue coats had gone through the +house and upset everything, so in the morning she asked the captain if +she could ask just one thing of him, and that was that she and my uncle +go back to Mother Hulsie just for the day, and help put everything away +and do the washing. The captain said they could go, but they must be +back by five o'clock, and not one nigger child could go along, so they +went back for the day and mammy did all the washing, every rag that she +could find, and my uncle chopped and stacked outside the house, all the +wood that he could chop that day, and then they came back to camp. My +mammy said she'd never forget Mother Hulsie wringing her hands and +crying, 'Oh Lawd, what will I do?' as they went down the land." + +<div>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 11485 ***</div> +</body> +</html> |