A Folk History of Slavery in the United States
From Interviews with Former Slaves
Table of Contents
TYPEWRITTEN RECORDS PREPARED BY
THE FEDERAL WRITERS' PROJECT
1936-1938
ASSEMBLED BY
THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS PROJECT
WORK PROJECTS ADMINISTRATION
FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA
SPONSORED BY THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS
Illustrated with Photographs
WASHINGTON 1941
VOLUME V
INDIANA NARRATIVES
Table of Contents Prepared by
the Federal Writers' Project of
the Works Progress Administration
for the State of Georgia
Table of Contents
INFORMANTS
Table of Contents Arnold, George W. [TR: with Professor W.S. Best and Samuel Bell]
Ash, Thomas, and Crane, Mary
Barber, Rosa
Blakeley, Mittie
Boone, Carl
Bowman, Julia
Boyce, Angie
Boysaw, Edna
Bracey, Callie [TR: daughter of Louise Terrell]
Buckner, Dr. George Washington
Burns, George Taylor
Butler, Belle [TR: daughter of Chaney Mayer]
Carter, Joseph William
Cave, Ellen
Cheatam, Harriet
Childress, James
Colbert, Sarah
Cooper, Frank [TR: son of Mandy Cooper]
Edmunds, Rev. H.H.
Eubanks, John [TR: and family]
Eubanks, John [TR: second interview]
Fields, John W.
Fields, John [TR: second interview]
Fortman, George [TR: and other interested citizens]
Gibson, John Henry
Guwn, Betty [TR: reported by Mrs. Hattie Cash, daughter]
Hockaday, Mrs.
Howard, Robert
Hume, Matthew
Jackson, Henrietta
Johnson, Lizzie
Jones, Betty
Jones, Nathan
Lennox, Adeline Rose
Lewis, Thomas
Locke, Sarah H. [TR: daughter of Wm. A. and Priscilla Taylor]
McKinley, Robert
Miller, Richard
Moorman, Rev. Henry Clay
Morgan, America
Morrison, George
Mosely, Joseph [TR: also reported as Moseley in text of interview]
Patterson, Amy Elizabeth
Preston, Mrs.
Quinn, William M.
Richardson, Candus
Robinson, Joe
Rogers, Rosaline
Rollins, Parthena
Rudd, John
Samuels, Amanda Elizabeth
Simms, Jack
Slaughter, Billy
Smith, Mr. and Mrs. Alex
Stone, Barney
Suggs, Adah Isabelle
Sutton, Katie
Thompson, George
Wamble (Womble), Rev.
Watson, Samuel
Whallen, Nancy
Whitted, Anderson
Woodson, Alex
ILLUSTRATIONS
Table of Contents Mary Crane [TR: not in original index]
Peter Dunn [TR: frontispiece, no accompanying interview]
John W. Fields
John Fields [TR: second photograph]
Anderson Whitted
[TR: Federal Writer Anna Pritchett annotated her interviews by marking each paragraph to indicate whether the information was obtained from the respondent (A) or was a comment by the interviewer (B). Since the information was presented in sequence, it is presented here without these markings, with the interviewer's remarks set apart by the topic heading 'Interviewer's Comment'.]
[TR: Information listed separately as References, such as informant names and addresses, has been incorporated into the interview headers. In some cases, information has been rearranged for readability. Names in brackets were drawn from text of interviews.]
Ex-Slave Stories
District No. 5
Vanderburgh County
Lauana Creel
AN UNHAPPY EXPERIENCE
[GEORGE W. ARNOLD]
Table of Contents
This is written from an interview with each of the following: George W. Arnold, Professor W.S. Best of the Lincoln High School and Samuel Bell, all of Evansville, Indiana.
George W. Arnold was born April 7, 1861, in Bedford County, Tennessee. He was the property of Oliver P. Arnold, who owned a large farm or plantation in Bedford county. His mother was a native of Rome, Georgia, where she remained until twelve years of age, when she was sold at auction.
Oliver Arnold bought her, and he also purchased her three brothers and one uncle. The four negroes were taken along with other slaves from Georgia to Tennessee where they were put to work on the Arnold plantation.
On this plantation George W. Arnold was born and the child was allowed to live in a cabin with his relatives and declares that he never heard one of them speak an unkind word about Master Oliver Arnold or any member of his family. "Happiness and contentment and a reasonable amount of food and clothes seemed to be all we needed," said the now white-haired man.
Only a limited memory of Civil War days is retained by the old man but the few events recalled are vividly described by him. "Mother, my young brother, my sister and I were walking along one day. I don't remember where we had started but we passed under the fort at Wartrace. A battle was in progress and a large cannon was fired above us and we watched the huge ball sail through the air and saw the smoke of the cannon pass over our heads. We poor children were almost scared to death but our mother held us close to her and tried to comfort us. The next morning, after, we were safely at home ... we were proud we had seen that much of the great battle and our mother told us the war was to give us freedom."
"Did your family rejoice when they were set free?" was the natural question to ask Uncle George.
"I cannot say that they were happy, as it broke up a lot of real friendships and scattered many families. Mother had a great many pretty quilts and a lot of bedding. After the negroes were set free, Mars. Arnold told us we could all go and make ourselves homes, so we started out, each of the grown persons loaded with great bundles of bedding, clothing and personal belongings. We walked all the way to Wartrace to try to find a home and some way to make a living."
George W. Arnold remembers seeing many soldiers going to the pike road on their way to Murfreesboro. "Long lines of tired men passed through Guy's Gap on their way to Murfreesboro," said he. "Older people said that they were sent out to pick up the dead from the battle fields after the bloody battle of Stone's river that had lately been fought at Murfreesboro. They took their comrades to bury them at the Union Cemetery near the town of Murfreesboro."
"Wartrace was a very nice place to make our home. It was located on the Nashville and Chattanooga and St. Louis railroad, just fifty-one miles from Nashville not many miles from our old home. Mother found work and we got along very well but as soon as we children were old enough to work, she went back to her old home in Georgia where a few years later she died. I believe she lived to be seventy-five or seventy six years of age, but I never saw her after she went back to Georgia."
"My first work was done on a farm (there are many fine farms in Tennessee) and although farm labor was not very profitable we were always fed wherever we worked and got some wages. Then I got a job on the railroad. Our car was side tracked at a place called Silver Springs," said Uncle George, "and right at that place came trouble that took the happiness out of my life forever." Here the story teller paused to collect his thoughts and conquer the nervous twitching of his lips. "It was like this: Three of us boys worked together. We were like three brothers, always sharing our fortunes with each other. We should never have done it, but we had made a habit of sending to Nashville after each payday and having a keg of Holland rum sent in by freight. This liquor was handed out among our friends and sometimes we drank too much and were unfit for work for a day or two. Our boss was a big strong Irishman, red haired and friendly. He always got drunk with us and all would become sober enough to soon return to our tasks."
"The time I'm telling you about, we had all been invited to a candy pulling in town and could hardly wait till time to go, as all the young people of the valley would be there to pull candy, talk, play games and eat the goodies served to us. The accursed keg of Holland rum had been brought in that morning and my chum John Sims had been drinking too much. About that time our Boss came up and said, 'John, it is time for you to get the supper ready!' John was our cook and our meals were served on the caboose where we lived wherever we were side tracked."
"All the time Johny was preparing the food he was drinking the rum. When we went in he had many drinks inside of him and a quart bottle filled to take to the candy pull. 'Hurry up boys and let's finish up and go' he said impatiently. 'Don't take him' said the other boy, 'Dont you see he is drunk?' So I put my arms about his shoulders and tried to tell him he had better sleep a while before we started. The poor boy was a breed. His mother was almost white and his father was a thoroughbred Indian and the son had a most aggravating temper. He made me no answer but running his hand into his pocket, he drew out his knife and with one thrust, cut a deep gash in my neck....
