None - American Memory - Library of Congress

Missouri
St. Louis
Ex-Slave Stories Q/IQ
Louis Thomas Page 2. O^JV/
Richardson 1 s but dere husbands are not related.
"I been living in St. Louis since 1923. When I was
a slave, I had to plow barefooted, hooked to a double horse
plow, i'or 8 or 10 years of dat time we had a white overseer
in de summer. I did not only plow barefooted but naked as
well. In de winter dey allowed me a few clothes but not
many. I worked from daylight until dark, I didn't know
nothing 'bout time.
"Making and gathering crop was my biggest task. We
made 500 bales of cotton a year, besides growing wheat, pota-
toes and other vegetables for the hands. I stayed on de plan-
tation till way after de Civil VJar was fought. If de slaves
could get as near as East St. Louis and Ohio with out getting
caught, dey would join de Yankees and help fight for freedom.
But the Rebs wouldn't think of giving slaves any guns, as mean
as they had been to us.
"Dey knew too well, we would shoot dem first thing. I
remember well I was in Tuscaloosa, Alabama and dere was a
speech made dere by General Forest on a Sunday. He said, f dere
ain't a Yankee in 500 miles of Tuscaloosa, Alabama." So de
Rebs was so happy 'bout dat, dey started early de very next
morning putting de flooring back in de bridge dey done took out