Slave Narratives: a Folk History of Slavery in the United States

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Slave Narratives: a Folk History of Slavery by Various 132[TR: Date Stamp "JUN 1 1937"]EX-SLAVE STORYAn interview on May 19, 1937 with Elbert Hunter of Method, N. C., 93 years old.I wuz borned eight miles from Raleigh on de plantation of Mr. Jacob Hunter in 1844. My parents were Stroudand Lucy an' my brothers wuz Tom, Jeems an' Henderson. I had three sisters who wuz named Caroline,Emiline an' Ann.Massa Hunter wuz good to us, an' young Massa Knox wuz good too. My mammy wuz de cook an' my pappywuz a field hand. Massa ain't 'lowed no patterollers on his place, but one time when he wuzn't ter home mymammy sent me an' Caroline ter de nex' door house fer something an' de patterollers got us. Dey carried ushome an' 'bout de time dat dey wuz axin' questions young Massa Knox rid up.He look dem over an' he sez, 'Git off dese premises dis minute, yo' dad-limb sorry rascals, if us needs yo' we'llcall yo'. 'My pappy patterolls dis place hisself.'Dey left den, an' we ain't been bothered wid 'em no more.I toted water 'fore de war, minded de sheeps, cows and de geese; an' I ain't had many whuppin's neither. Darwuz one thing dat massa ain't 'low an' dat wuz drinkin' 'mong his niggers.Dar wuz a ole free issue named Denson who digged ditches fer massa an' he always brung long his demijohnwid his whiskey. One ebenin' Missus tells me an' Caroline ter go ter de low groun's an' git up de cows an' onde way we fin' ole man Denson's demijohn half full of whiskey. Caroline sez ter lets take er drink an' so wedoes, an' terreckly I gits wobbly in de knees.Dis keeps on till I has ter lay down an' when I wakes up I am at home. Dey says dat Massa Jacob totes me, an'dat he fusses wid Denson fer leavin' de whiskey whar I can fin' it. He give me a talkin' to, an' I ain't neberdrunk no more.When we hyard dat de Yankees wuz comin' ole massa an' me takes de cattle an' hosses way down in deswamp an' we stays dar wid dem fer seberal days. One day I comes ter de house an' dar dey am, shootin'chickens an' pigs an' everthing. I'se seed dem cut de hams off'n a live pig or ox an' go off leavin' de animalgroanin'. De massa had 'em kilt den, but it wuz awful.Dat night dey went away but de nex' day a bigger drove come an' my mammy cooked fer 'em all day long.Dey killed an' stold ever'thing, an' at last ole massa went to Raleigh an' axed fer a gyard. Atter we got de gyardde fuss ceased. One of de officers what spent de night dar lost his pocket book an' in it wuz seven greenbackdollars, de fust I eber seed.We wuz glad ter be free even do' we had good white folks. De wuck hours wuz frum daybreak till dark, an' dewimmens had ter card an' spin so much eber night. We had our own chickens an' gyarden an' little ways ofmakin' money, but not so much fun.We played cat, which wuz like base ball now, only different. De children played a heap but de grown folkswucked hard. De cruelest thing I eber seed wuz in Raleigh atter slavery time, an' dat wuz a nigger whuppin'.De pillory wuz whar de co'rthouse am now an' de sheriff, Mr. Ray whupped dat nigger till he bled.I neber seed a slave sale, an' I neber seed much whuppin's. I larned some long wid de white chilluns, 'specially
Slave Narratives: a Folk History of Slavery by Various 133how ter spell.No mam, I doan know nothin' 'bout witches, but I seed a ghos'. Hit wuz near hyar, an' hit wuz a animal as bigas a yearlin' wid de look of a dog. I can't tell you de color of it case I done left frum dar.B. N.End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Slave Narratives: a Folk History of Slavery in the United States, byVarious*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SLAVE NARRATIVES ******** This file should be named 22976.txt or 22976.zip ***** This and all associated files of various formatswill be found in: http://www.gutenberg.org/2/2/9/7/22976/Produced by Marcia Brooks, and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This filewas produced from images generously made available by the Library of Congress, Manuscript Division)Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will be renamed.Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no one owns a United States copyright inthese works, so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without permissionand without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, set forth in the General Terms of Use part of thislicense, apply to copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to protect the PROJECTGUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be usedif you charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you do not charge anything for copiesof this eBook, complying with the rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose such ascreation of derivative works, reports, performances and research. They may be modified and printed and givenaway--you may do practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is subject to thetrademark license, especially commercial redistribution.*** START: FULL LICENSE ***THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE ORUSE THIS WORKTo protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free distribution of electronic works, by usingor distributing this work (or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project Gutenberg"), youagree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or onlineat http://gutenberg.org/license).Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work, you indicate that you haveread, understand, agree to and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all the terms of this agreement, you mustcease using and return or destroy all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. Ifyou paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do notagree to be bound by the terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or entity to whomyou paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8.
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