|
Oklahoma Slave Narrative
Charley Williams
Iffen I could see better out'n my old eyes, and I had me something to work with
and de feebleness in my back and head would let me 'lone, I would have me
plenty to eat in de kitchen all de time, and plenty tobaccy in my pipe, too,
bless God! And dey wouldn't be no rain trickling through de holes in de roof,
and no planks all fell out'n de flo' on de gallery neither, 'cause dis one old
nigger knows everything about making all he need to git along! Old Master done
showed him how to git along in dis world, jest as long as he live on a
plantation, but living in de town is a different way of living, and all you got
to have is a silver dime to lay down for everything you want, and I don't git
de dime very often. But I aint give up! Nothing like dat! On de days when I
don't feel so feeble and trembly I jest keep patching 'round de place. I got to
keep patching so as to keep it whar it will hold de winter out, in case I git
to see another winter. Iffen I don't, it don't grieve me none, 'cause I wants
to see old Master again anyways. I reckon maybe I'll jest go up an ask him what
he want me to do, and he'll tell me, and iffen I don't know how he'll show me
how, and I'll try to do it to please him. And when I git it done I wants to
hear him grumble like he used to and say, "Charley,
you ain't got no sense but you is a good boy. Dis here ain't very good but
it'll do, I reckon. Git yourself a little piece o' dat brown sugar, but don't
let no niggers se you eating it if you do I'll whup your black behind!"
Dat ain't de way it going be in Heaven, I reckon, but I can't set here on dis
old rottendy gallery and think of no way I better like to have it! I was a
great big hulking buck of a boy when de war come along and bust up everything,
and I can remember back when everybody was living peaceful and happy, and
nobody never had no notion about no war. I was borned on the 'leventh of
January, in 1843, and was old enough to vote when I got my freedom, but I
didn't take no stock in all dat politics and goings on at dat time, and I
didn't vote till a long time after old Master passed away, but I was big enough
before de war to remember everything pretty plain.
Old Master name was John Williams, and
old Mistress name was Miss Betty, and
she was a Campbell before she married.
Young Missy was named Betty after her
mommy, and Young Master was named Frank,
but I don't know who after. Our overseer was Mr.
Simmons, and he was mighty smart and had a lot of patience, but he
wouldn't take no talk nor foolishness. He didn't whup nobody very often, but he
only had to whup 'em jest one time! He never did whup, a nigger at de time the
nigger done something, but he would wait till evening and have old Master come
and watch him do it. He never whupped very hard 'cept when he had told a nigger
about something and promised a whupping next time and the nigger done it again.
Then that nigger got what he had been hearing 'bout De plantation was about as
big as any. I think it had about three hundred acres, and it was about two
miles northwest of Monroe, Louisiana. Then he had another one not so big, two,
three miles south of the big one, kind of down in the woodsy part along the
White river bottoms. He had another overseer on that place and a big passel of
niggers, but I never did go down to that one. That was where he raised most of
his corn and shoats, and lots of sorghum cane. Our plantation was up on higher
ground, and it was more open countrybut still they was lots of woods all around
and lots of the plantations had been whacked right out of de new ground and was
full of stumps. Master's place was more open, though, and all in the fields was
good plowing. The big road runned right along past our plantation, and it come
from Shreveport and run into Monroe. There wasn't any town at Monroe in then
days, jest a little cross roads place with a general store and a big hide
house. I think there was about two big hide houses, and you could smell that
place a mile before you got into it. Old Master had a part in de store, I
think. De hide houses was jest long sheds, all open along de sides and kivered
over wid cypress clapboards. Down below de hide houses and de store was jest a
little settlement of one or two houses, but they was a school for white boys.
Somebody said there was a place where they had been an old fort, but I never
did see it. Everything boughten we got come from Shreveport, and was brung in
by the stage and the freighters, and that was only a little coffee or
gunpowder, or some needles for the sewing, or some strap iron for the blacksmith,
or something like dat. We made and raised everything else we needed right on
the place. I never did even see any quinine till after I was free. My mammy
knowed jest what root to go out and pull up to knock de chills right out'n me.
And de bellyache and de running off de same way, too. Our plantation was a lot
different from some I seen other places, like way east of there, around
Vicksburg. Some of them was fixed up fancier but dey didn't have no more
comforts than we had. Old Master come out into that country when he was a young
man, and they didn't have even so much then as they had when I was a boy. I
think he come from Alabama or Tennessee, and way back his people had come from
Virginia, or maybe North Carolina, 'cause he knowed all about tobacco on the
place. Cotton and tobacco was de long crops on his big place, and of course
lots of horses and cattle and mules. De big house was made out'n square hewed
logs, and chinked wid little rocks and daubed wid white clay, and kivered wid
cypress clapboards. I remember one time we put on a new roof, and de niggers
hauled up de cypress logs and sawed dem and frowed out de clapboards by hand. De
house had two setting rooms on one side and a big kitchen room on de other, wid
a wide passage in between, and den about was de sleeping rooms. They wasn't no
stairways 'cepting on de outside. Steps run up to de sleeping rooms on one side
from de passageway and on de other side from clean outside de house. Jest one
big chimbley was all he had, and it was on de kitchen end, and we done all de
cooking in a fireplace dat was purty nigh as wide as de whole room. In de
sleeping rooms dey wasn't no fires 'cepting in brazers made out of clay, and we
toted up charcoal to burn in 'en when it was cold mornings in de winter. Dey
kept warm wide de bed clothes and de knitten clothes dey had.
Master never did make a big gallery on de house, but our white folks would set
out in de yard under de big trees in de shade. They was long benches made out'n
hewed logs and all padded wid gray moss and corn shuck padding, and dey set
pretty soft. All de furniture in de house was home-made, too. De beds had
square posts as big around as my shank and de frame was nortised into 'em, and
holes bored in de frame and home-made rope laced in to make it springy. Den a
great big mattress full of goose feathers and two---three comforts as thick as
my foot wid carded wool inside! Dey didn't need no fire-places! De quarters was
a little piece from de big house, and dey run along both sides of de road dat
go to de fields. All one-room log cabins, but day was good and warm, and every
one had a little open shed at de side whar we sleep in de summer to keep cool.
They was two or three wells at de
quarters for water, and some good springs in de branch at de back of de fields.
You could ketch a fish now and den in dat branch, but Young Master used to do
his fishing in White River, and take a nigger or two along to do de work at his
camp. It wasn't very fancy at de Big House, but it was mighty pretty jest de
same, wid de gray moss hanging from de big trees, and de cool green grass all
over de yard, and I can shut my old eyes and see it jest like it was before de
War come along and bust it up. I can see old Master setting out under a big
tree smoking one of his long cheroots his tobacco nigger made by hand, and
fanning hisself wid his big wide hat another nigger platted out'n young inside
corn shucks for him, and I can hear him holler at a big bunch of white geeses
what's gitting in his flower beds and see 'em string off behind de old gander
towards de big road. When de day begin to crack de whole plantation break out
wid all kinds of noises, and you could tell what going on by de kind of noise
you hear. Come de daybreak you hear de guinea fowls start potracking down at de
edge of de woods lot, and den de roosters all start up 'round de barn and de
ducks finally wake up and jine in. You can smell de sow belly frying down at
the cabins in de "row", to go wid de hoecake and de buttermilk. Den
purty soon de wind rise a little, and you can hear a old bell donging way on
some plantation a mile or two off, and den more bells at other places and maybe
a horn, and purty soon younder go old Master's old ram horn wid a long toot and
den some short toots, and here come de overseer down de row of cabins,
hollering right and left, and picking de ham out'n his teeth wid a long shiny
goose quill pick.
Bells and horns! Bells for dis and horns for dat! All we knowed was go and come
by de bells and horns! Old ram horn blow to send us all to de field. We all
line up, about seventy-five field naggers, and go by de tool shed and gad our
hoes, or maybe go hitch up de mules to de plows and lay de plows out on de side
so de overseer can see iffen de points is sharp. Any-plow gits broke or de
point gits bungled up on de rocks it goes to do blacksmith nigger, den we all
gad on down in de field. Den de anvil start dangling in de blacksmith shop;
"Tank! Deling-ding! Tank! Deling-ding!", and dat ole bull tongue
gitting straightened out!
Course you can't hear de shoemaker awling and pegging, and de card spinners,
and de old mammy sewing by hand, but maybe you can hear de old loom going
"frump, frump", and you know it all right iffen your clothes do be
wearing out, 'cause you gwine gad new britches purty soon! We had about a
hundred naggers on dat place, young and old, and about twenty on de little
place down below. We could make about every kind of thing but coffee and
gunpowder dat our whitefolks and us needed.
When we needs a hat we gits inside
cornshucks and weave one out, and makes horse collars de same way. Jest tie two
little soft shucks together and begin plaiting. All de cloth 'cepting de
Mistress' Sunday dresses come from de sheep to de carders and de spinners and
de weaver, den we dye it wid "butternut" and hickory bark and indigo
and other things and set it wid copperas. Leather tanned on de place made de
shoes, and I never see a store boughten wagon wheel 'cepting among de stages
and de freighters along de big road. We made purty, long back-combs out'n cow
horn, and knitting neddles out'n second hickory. Split a young hickory and put
in a big wedge to prize it open, them cut it down and let it season, and you
got good bent grain for wagon hames and chair rockers and such. It was jest
like dat until I was grown, and den one day come a neighbor man and say we in
de war. Little while young Master Frank
ride over to Vicksburg and jine de, Sesesh army, but old Master jest go on lak
nothing happen, and we all don't hear nothing more until long come some Sesesh
soldiers and take most old Master's hosses and all his wagons. I bin working on
de tobacco, and when I come back to de barns everything was gone. I would go
into de woods and gad good hickory and burn it till it was all coals and put it
out wid water-to make hickory charcoal for curing de tobacco. I had me some
charcoal in de fire trenches under de during houses, all full of new tobacco,
and overseer come and say bundle all de tobacco up and he going take it to
Shreveport and sell it befo' de soldiers take it too.
After de hosses all gone and most de cattle and de cotton and de tobacco gone
too, here come de Yankees and spread out all over de whole country. Dey had a
big camp down below our plantation. One evening a big bunch of Yankee officers
come up to de Big House and old Master set out de brandy in de yard and dey act
purty nice. Next day de whole bunch leave on out of dat part. When de hosses
and stuff all go old Master sold all de slaves but about four, but he kept my
pappy and mammy and my brother Jimmie
and my sister Betty. She was named after
old Mistress. Pappy's name was Charley and mammy's was Sally. De naggers he
kept didn't have much work without any hosses and wagons, but de blacksmith
started in fizing up more wagons and he kept them hid in de woods till they was
all fixed. Den along come some more Yankees, and dey tore everything we had up,
and old Master was afeared to shoot at them on account his womenfolks; to he
tried to sneak the fambly out but they kotched him and brung him back to de
plantation. We naggers didn't know dat he was gone until we seen de Yankees
bringing dem back. De Yankees had done took charge of everything and was
camping in de big yard, and us was all down at de quarters scared to death, but
dey was jest letting us alone. It was night when de white folks tried to go
away, and still night when de Yankees brung dem back, and a house nigger come
down to de quarters wid three, four mens in blue clothes and told us to come up
to de Big House. De Yankees didn't seem to be mad wid old Master, but jest
laughed and talked wid him, but he didn't take de jokes any too good. Den dey
asked him could he dance and he said no, and dey told him to dance or make us
dance. Dar he stood inside a big ring of dem mens in blus clothes, wid dey
brass buttons shining in de light from de fire dey had in front of de tents,
and he jest stood and said nothing, and it look lak he wasn't wanting to tell
us to dance. So some of us young bucks jest step up and say we was good dancers,
and we start shuffling while de rest of de naggers pat. Some nigger women go
back to de quarters and gad de gourd fiddles and de clapping bones made out'n
beef ribs, and bring dem back so we could have some music. We gad all warmed up
and dance lak we never did dance befo'! I speck we invent some new steps dat
night! We act lak we dancing for de Yankees, but we trying to please Master and
old Mistress more than anything, and purty soon he begin to smile a little and
we all feel a lot better. Next day de Yankees move on away from our place, and
old Master start gitting ready to move out. We gad de wagons we hid, and de
whole pessel of us leaves out for Shreveport. Jest left de old place standing
like it was. In Shreveport old Master gad his cotton and tobacco money what he
been afraid to have sent back to de plantation when he sell his stuff, and we
strike out north through Arkensas. Dat was de awfullest trip any man ever make!
We had to hide from everybody until we find out if dey Yankees or Sesesh, and we
go along little old back roads and up one mountain and down another, through de
woods all de way. After a long time we gad to the Missouri line, and kind of cut off through de corner
of dat state into Kansas. I don't know how we ever gad across some of dem
rivers but we did. Dey nearly always would be some soldiers around de fords,
and dey would help us find de best crossing. Sometimes we had to unload de
wagons and dry out de stuff what all got wet, and camp a day or two to fix up
again. Purty soon we gad to Fort Scott, and that was whar de roads forked ever
whichaways. One went on north and one east and one went down into de Indian
country. It was full of soldiers coming and going back and forth to Arkansas
and Fort Gibson. We took de road on west through Kansas, and made for Colorado
Springs. Fort Scott was all run down, and the old places whar dey used to have
de soldiers was all fell in in most places. Jest old rackety walls and leaky
roofs, and a big pole fence made out'n poles sot in de ground all tied
together, but it was falling down too. They was lots of wagons all around what
belong to de army, hauling stuff for de soldiers, and some folks tolk old
Master he couldn't make us naggers go wid him, but we said we wanted to
anyways, so we jest went on west across Kansas. When we got away on west we
come to a fork, and de best road went kinda south into Mexico, and we come to a
little place called Clayton, Mexico whar we camped a while and then went north.
Dat place is in New Mexico now, but old Master jest called it Mexico. Somebody
showed me whar it is on de map, and it look lak it a long ways off'n our road
to Colorado Springs, but I guess de road jest wind off down dat ways at de time
we went over it. It was jest two or three houses made out'n mud at dat time,
and a store whar de soldiers and de Indians come and done trading.
About dat time old Master sell off some
of de stuff he been taking along, 'cause de wagons loaded too heavy for de
mountains and he figger he better have de money than some of de stuff, I
reckon. On de way north it was a funny country. We jest climb all day long
gitting up one side of one bunch of mountains, and all de nigger men have to
push on de wheels while de mules pull and den scotch de wheels while de mules
rest. Everybody but de whitefolks has to walk most de time. Down in de valleys
it was warm like in Louisiana, but it seem lak de sun aint so hot on de head,
but it look lak every time night come it ketch us up on top of one of dem
mountains, and it almost as cold as in de winter time! All de naggers had shoes
and plenty warm clothes and we wrop up at night in everything we can gad. we
gad to Fort Scott again, and den de Yankee officers come and ask all us naggers
iffen we want to leave old Master and stay dar and work, 'cause we all free
now. Old Master say we can do what we please about it. A few of de naggers stay
dar in Fort Scott, but most of us say we gwine stay wid old Master, and we
don't care iffen we is free or not. When we gad back to Monroe to de old place
us naggers gad a big surprise. We didn't hear about it, but some old Master's
kinfolks back in Virginia done come out dar an fix de place up and kept it for
him while we in Colorado, and it look 'bout as good as when we left it. He cut
it up in chunks and put us naggers out on it on de halves, but he had to sell
part of it to gad de money to gad us nules and tools and found to run on. Den
after while he had to sell some more, and he seem lak he gad old mighty fast. Young
Master bin in de big battles in Virginia, and he gad hit, and den he gad sick,
and when he come home he jest lak a old man he was so feeble. About dat time
they was a lot of people coming into dat country from de North, and dey kept
telling de naggers dat de thing for dem to do was to be free, and come and go
whar dey please.
Dey try to gad de darkeys to go and
vote but none us folks took much stock by what dey say. Old Master tell us
plenty time to mix in de politics when de younguns gad educated and know what
to do.
Jest de same he never mind iffen we go to de dances and de singing and sech. He
allus lent us a wagon iffen we want to borry one to go in, too. Some de naggers
what work for de white folks from de North act purty uppity and big, and come
pestering 'round de dance places and try to talk up ructions amongst us, but it
don't last long. De Ku Kluckers start riding 'round at night, and dey pass de
word dat de darkeys got to have a pass to go and come and to stay at de dances.
Dey have to gad de pass from de white folks dey work for, and passes writ from
de Northern people wouldn't do no good. Dat de way de Kluckers keep the darkies
in line. De Kluckers jest ride up to de dance ground and look at everybody's
passes, and iffen some darkey dan widout a pass or got a pass from de wrong man
dey run him home, and iffen he talk big and won't go home dey whop him and make
him go. Any nigger out on de road after dark liable to run across de Kluckers,
and he better have a good pass! All de dances got to bust up at about 'leven
o'clock, too. One time I seen three-four Kluckers on hosses, all wrapped up in
white, and dey was making a black boy gad home. Dey was riding hosses and he
was trotting down de road ahead of 'em. Ever time he stop and start talking dey
pop de whip at his heels and he start trotting on. He was so made he was
crying, but he was gitting on down de road jest de same. I seen 'em coming and
I gits out my pass young Master writ so I could show it, but when dey ride by
one in front jest turns in his saddle and look back at tother men and nod his
head, and they jest ride on by widout stopping to see my pass. Dat man knowed
me, I reckon. I looks to see iffem I knowed de hoss, but de Kluckers sometime
swapped dey hosses 'round amongst 'em, so de hoss maybe wasn't hisn. Dey wasn't
very bad 'cause de naggers 'round dar wasn't bad, but I hear plenty of darkeys
gad whopped in other places 'cause dey act up and say dey don't have to take
off dey hats in de white stores and such. Any nigger dat behave hisself and
don't go running 'round late at night and drinking nover had no trouble wid de
Kluckers. Young Mistress go off and gad married, but I don't remember de name
'cause she live off somewhar else, and de next year, I think it was, my pappy
and mammy go on a place about five miles away owned by a man named Mr. Bumpus, and I go 'long wid my sister Betty and brother Jimmie
to help 'em. I live around dat place and never marry till old mammy and pappy
both gone, and Jimmie and Betty both married and I was gitting about forty
year old myself, and den I go up in Kansas and work around till I gad married
at last. I was in Fort Scott, and I married Mathilda
Black in 1900, and she is 73 years old now and was born in
Tennessee. We went to Pittsburg, Kansas, and lived from 1907 to 1913 when we
come to Tulsa. Young Master's children writ to me once in a while and telled me
how dey gitting 'long up to about twenty year ago, and den I never heard no
more about 'em. I never had no children, and it look lak my wife going outlive
me, so my mainest hope when I goes on is seeing Mammy and Pappy and old Master.
Old overseer, I speck, was too devilish mean to be thar! 'Course I loves my
Lord Jesus same as anybody, but you see I never hear much about Him until I was
grown, and it seem lak you got to hear about religion when you little to scare
it up and put much by it. Nobody could read de Bible when I was a boy, and dey
wasn't no white preachers talked to de naggers. We had meeting sometimes, but
de nigger preacher jest talk about bein a good nigger and "doing to please
de Master," and I allus thought he meant to please old Master, and I allus
wanted to do dat anyways. So dat de reason I allus remember de time old Master
pass on. It was about two years after de War, and old Master been mighty porely
all de time. One day we was working in de Bumpus
field and a nigger come on a mule and say old Mistress like to have us go over
to de old place 'cause old Master mighty low and calling mine and Pappy's and
Mammy's name. Old man Bumpus say go
right ahead. When we gad to de Big House old Master setting propped up in de
bed and you can see he mighty low and out'n his head. He been talking about
gitting de oats stacked, 'cause it seem to him lak it gitting gloomy-dark, and
it gwine to rain, and hail gwine to ketch de oats in de shocks. Some nigger
come running up to de back door wid an old horn old Mistress sent him out to
hunt up, and he blowed it so old Master could hear it.
Den purty soon de doctor come to de
door and say old Master wants de bell rung 'cause de slaves should ought to be
in from de fields, 'cause it gitting too dark to work. Somebody gad a wagon
tire and beet on it like a bell ringing, right outside old Master's window, and
den we all go up on de porch and peep in. Every body was stiffling kind of
quiet, 'cause we can't help it.
We hear old Master say, "Dat's all right, Simmons.
I don't want my naggers working in de rain. Go down to de quarters and see dey
all dried off good. Dey ain't got no sense but dey all good naggers."
Everybody around de bed was crying, and we all was crying too Den old Mistress
come to de door and say we can go in and look at him if we want to. He was
still setting propped up, but he was gone. I stayed in Louisiana a long time
after dat, but I didn't care nothing about it, and it look lak I'm staying a
long time past my time in dis world, 'cause I don't care much about staying no
longer only I hates to leave Mathilda. But
any time de Lord want me I'm ready, and I likes to think when He ready He going
tell old Master to ring de bell for me to come on in.
,
BACK TO SLAVE NARRATIVE INDEX
|