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

Slave Narratives: a Folk History of Slavery by Various 67EHBy Miss Nancy Woodburn Watkins [320227] Rockingham County Madison, North Carolina[TR: No. Words: 1,165]Ex-Slave Biography--Charles Lee Dalton, 93.In July, 1934, the census taker went to the home of Unka Challilee Dalton and found that soft talking olddarky on the porch of his several roomed house, a few hundred feet south of the dirt road locally called theAyersville road because it branches from the hard surfaced highway to Mayodan at Anderson Scales' store, ashort distance from Unka Challilie's. Black got its meaning from his face, even his lips were black, but hishair was whitening. His lean body was reclining while the white cased pillows of his night bed sunned on achair. His granddaughter kept house for him the census taker learned. Unka Challilie said: "I'se got so I ain'tno count fuh nuthin. I wuz uh takin' me a nap uh sleepin' (' AM). Dem merry-go-wheels keep up sich a racketall nite, sech a racket all nite, ah cyan't sleep." This disturbance was "The Red Wolfe Medicine Troop ofPlayers and Wheels" near Anderson Scales' store in the forks of the Mayodan and the Ayresville roads.In 1937 in the home of his son, Unka Challilie ninety-three, told the cause of his no "countness." "I wuzclean-up man in de mill in Mayodan ontill three years ago, I got too trimbly to git amongst de machinery.Daze frade I'd fall and git cut."I cum tuh Madison forty-five yeah ago, and I bought one acre, and built me a house on it, an' razed my lebenchillun dyah. My wife was Ellen Irving of Reidsville. We had a cow, pigs, chickens, and gyardum ofvegetables to hope out what I got paid at de mill.Nome I nevah learned to read an write. Ounct I thought mebbe I'd git sum lunnin but aftah I got married, Ididn't think I would.My old Marse wuz Marse Lee Dalton and I stayed on his plantation till forty-five years ago when I cum tuhMadison. His place wuz back up dyah close tuh. Mt. Herman Church. Nome we slaves ain't learn no letters,but sumtimes young mistis' 'd read de Bible tuh us. Day wuz pretty good tuh us, but sumtimes I'd ketch uhwhippin'. I wuz a hoe boy and plow man. My mothers' name wuz Silvia Dalton and my daddy's name wuzPeter Dalton. Day belonged to Marse Lee and his wife wuz Miss Matilda Steeples (Staples). Marse Lee livedon Beaver Island Creek at the John Hampton Price place. Mr. Price bought it. He married Miss Mollie Dalton,Marse Lee's daughter. Dyah's uh ole graveyard dyah whah lots uh Daltons is buried but no culled fokes. Dayis buried to the side uh Stoneville wiff no white fokes a-tall berried dyah. De ole Daltons wuz berried on deOle Jimmy Scales plantation. Day bought hit, an little John Price what runs uh tuhbaccah warehouse inMadison owns hit now. (1937) His tenant is Marse Walt Hill, an hits five miles frum Madison. I knose whahde old Deatherage graveyard is, too, up close to Stoneville whah sum Daltons is berried. Ole Marse Lee'smother was a Deatherage.Ole Marse was kind to us, an' I stayed on his plantation an' farmed till I kum to Madison. Dee Yankees, daydidn't giv us nuthin so we had kinduh to live off'n old Marse.Fuh ayteen yuz I kin member ah de Mefodis Church byah in Madison. I wuzn't converted unduh de Holinesspreachment uh James Foust but duh de revival of Reverend William Scales. William didn't bare much lunnin.His wife wuz Mittie Scales an huh mother wuz Chlocy Scales, sister to Tommie Scales, de shoemaker, whatdied lase summuh (July, 1936). William jes wanted so much tuh preach, and Mittie hoped him. I'se been uhclass leader, an uh stewart, an uh trustee in de church. It's St. Stephen's and de new brick church was built in1925, an Mistuh John Wilson's son wrote uh peace uh bout hit in de papuh. De fuss chuch wuz down dyahcross de street fum Jim Foust's "tabernacle." But de fuss cullud chuch in Madison wuz a Union chuch over