Introduction

 

ECHOES of SLAVERY - Volume I

 

IN THEIR OWN WORDS, FORMER SLAVES REVEAL

THE REAL TRUTH ABOUT SLAVERY!

 

 

 

Harriet Tubman with rescued slaves (The New York Times, 1885)

 

 

 

A CHILD BORN INTO SLAVERY WAS SIMPLY CONSIDERED AS ANOTHER ADDITION TO THE MASTER'S

WEALTH AND PROPERTY.

 

 

ABOUT THE NARRATIVES . . . . . .

 

During the Depression years between 1936 and 1938, the WPA Federal Writers' Project (FWP) sent out-of-work writers in seventeen states to interview ordinary people in order to document their life stories. Initially, only four states involved in the project (Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, and Virginia) focused on collecting the stories of people who had once been held in slavery. In 1937 the WPA directed the remaining states involved in the project to conduct interviews with former slaves as well. Federal field workers were given instructions regarding the kinds of questions to ask their informants and how to capture their dialects, the result of which may occasionally be offensive to contemporary readers (see A NOTE ON THE LANGUAGE OF THE NARRATIVES, below). The field workers often visited the people they interviewed twice in order to gather as many recollections as possible. Sometimes they took photographs of the informants and their dwellings. The completed narratives were then turned over to their state's FWP director for editing and eventual transfer to Washington, D.C.

 

The former slave narratives contained herein represent a small segment of more than two thousand first-person accounts of actual slave experiences, transcribed in their own words by the FWP and recorded for posterity.

 

 

 

 

A NOTE ON THE LANGUAGE OF THE NARRATIVES

 

The WPA former slave narratives usually involve some attempt by the interviewers to reproduce in writing the spoken language of the people they interviewed. The interviewers were writers, not professionals trained in the phonetic transcription of speech. And the instructions they received were not altogether clear. "I recommend that truth to idiom be paramount, and exact truth to pronunciation secondary," wrote the project's editor. Yet he also urged that "words that definitely have a notably different pronunciation from the usual should be recorded as heard, evidently assuming that "the usual" was self-evident. In fact, the situation was far more problematic than the project leaders recognized. All the informants were of course black, most interviewers were white, and by the 1930s, when the interviews took place, white representations of black speech had already acquired had an ugly history of entrenched stereotype dating back at least to the early nineteenth century. What most interviewers assumed to be "the usual" patterns of their informants' speech was unavoidably influenced by preconceptions and stereotypes. The result is a mélange of accuracy and fantasy, of sensitivity and stereotype, of empathy and racism that may sometimes be offensive to today's readers.

 

In order to render these narratives less stereotypical and potentially offensive, while at the same time enhancing the flow and rhythm of the reading experience, the author has taken the liberty of modifying certain words as originally transcribed by the interviewer. For example, the word gwine [going] may appear as goin’, remembah may appear as remember, or fahm may appear as farm. The vast majority of verbiage, however, remains exactly as transcribed and faithful to the character and intent of the original narratives.

 

LEGEND

 

Paragraphs, sentences, and singular words or phrases displayed in bracketed italics, [Stoneman's Calvary in 1865] or [ends of thread left on the loom], for example, represent actual transcribed commentary by the interviewer.

 

Paragraphs, sentences, and other non-italicized verbiage appearing solely within each narrative represent actual transcribed commentary of the subject being interviewed.

 

Singular words or phrases displayed in brackets, [sic] or [secessionists], for example, represent clarifications or observations by the author.

 

 

 

ANDY J. ANDERSON

Age: 94 years

Fort Worth, Texas

Interviewer: Sheldon F. Cauthier

Date of Interview: September 16, 1937

 

 

[Andy J. Anderson, 94, was born a slave to Mr. Jack Haley, who also owned Andy's parents with 12 other families and a plantation located in Williamson County, Texas. In view of the fact that all slaves used the name of their owner, Andy was known as Andy Haley but after his freedom, he changed his name to Anderson, the name his father used because he was owned by a Mr. Anderson before his sale to Mr. Haley. Shortly after the Civil War began, Andy was sold to Mr. W. T. House, of Blanco County, Texas, who sold him again in less than a year to his brother, Mr. John House. After the Emancipation Act became effective, Andy was hired by a Mr. Whisterman. His first wages were his clothes, room and board with $2.00 per month. He farmed all of his life and has been married three times, now living with his third wife and eight of his children in Fort Worth, Texas.]

 

My name is Andy J. Anderson and I was born on Marster Jack Haley's plantation in Williamson County, Texas. Marster Haley owned my folks and 'bout twelve other families of colored folks. How come I took the name of Anderson, 'stead of Haley? It is this way, my pappy was owned by Marster Anderson who sold him to Marster Haley, so he goes by the name of Anderson. They used to call me Haley but after surrender I changed the name to Anderson to have it the same as my pappy's.

 

I was born in 1843. That makes me ninety four years old and eighteen years old when the war started. Therefo’, this nigger has seen a good deal of slave life and some had experiences durin' that time and good times too.

 

Marster Haley am kind to his colored folks. In fact, he am kind to ever'body and all the folks like him. Whuppin's am not given 'cept when it am necessary and that is not often and is reasonable when it am given. The other white folks use to call weuns the petted niggers. The plantation have twelve families of slaves. There am 'bout thirty old and young workers and 'bout twenty piccaninnies that am too young for work. Them that am too young for work am took care of by a nurse during the day while the mammies am a workin' in the field and such.

 

I'm going to ‘splain how it am managed on Marster Haley's place. Marster Haley am a good manager and every one am assigned to do certain jobs. It am different now, than was then. A plantation am sort of like the small town. Ever'thing that am used on the place am made there. So, there am the shoemaker. Him also am the tanner and make the leather from the hides. There am 'bout a thousand sheep on the Marster's place, so there am the person that tends to the sheep and the wool. The sheep am sheared twice a year. The wool am carded, spun and weaved into cloth and from that cloth, all the clothes am made. There am 'bout twenty five head of cattle, such provides the milk and butter, also beef meat for eatin'. Then there am turkeys, chickens, hogs and bees. The plantation am planted in cotton, mosly. ‘Course, there am corn and wheat. The corn am for feed for the stock and to make corn meal for the humans. The wheat am for to make flour. Marster don't sell any corn or wheat, unless if he have extra. Cotton am what he raised for sale.

 

Let me tell you how we cut and thresh the wheat. There am no binders, or threshin' machines, so weuns cut the wheat by hand, usin' a cradle. To thresh the grain, it am hung over a rail with the heads down, and the heads am beat with a stick. That knocks the kernels out and they falls on a canvas that am spread to catch them. Now, to clean the wheat, weuns have to wait for a day when the wind am blowin' jus' right. When that day comes, weuns pick the wheat up with pails, raise it up and pour it out and the wind blows the chaff and such away.

 

The livin' for the colored folks am good. The quarters am built from logs like they was all they am in them days. The floor am dirt but weuns have a table and bench, a bunk with straw ticks on for sleepin' pupose, and a fire place for cookin' and heat. Marster allows plenty of good rations, but he watch close for the wastin' of the food.

 

The war starts and that makes a big change on the Marster's place. The Marster joins the army and hires a man named Delbridge for overseer to help the Marster's son, John. Then, in 'bout three months, the soldiers come and took Marster John to the army by force. They put him on a hoss and tooks him away. There come pretty neah bein' some hurt niggers the day they took Marster John away. You see, weuns don't know they had the right to took Marster away, so weuns colored folks crowded 'round the Marster and warnt going to allow them to took him. The Marster told weuns to go away 'cause the soldiers have the right to took him and weuns jus' get hurt if weuns try to stop the soldiers, so weuns dispatched.

 

After Marster John am took away and the overseer am left in whole charge, hell starts to pop. The first thing he does am to cut the rations. He weigh out the meat, three pounds to the person for the week and he measures out a peck of meal, warnt enough. He half starve the niggers and demands more work and he starts the whuppin’s. I guess

Impressum

Verlag: BookRix GmbH & Co. KG

Tag der Veröffentlichung: 24.01.2018
ISBN: 978-3-7438-5227-3

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