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Texas Slave Narrative

  Amelia Barnett

"Sometimes at night, when we was in our log-cabin down in de slave quarters, I'd tell mammy, 'Mammy, make me a ashcake.'"'All right, Mela , I'll make yo' some right here in de fireplace." "She baked 'em right in de ashes. Dere was times when she roasted ribs in de cabin. Dey sure was good."But dere is one thing dat I never had in my life-I never had a teaspoonful ob coffee in my life. I jes' don't lak coffee, and it's not dat I think dat it would harm me. Mammy would try to make me drink it, but I wouldn't. I jes' don' lak it. "We used to drink a toddy durin' Christmas. Mawster Barnett had a place up beside de house where he kept whiskey but he never did git drunk. On Christmas us chillun would play ring-games and de older folks would jes' set down and watch us. Sunday was a day ob rest, but if it was wheat and fodder time, dere was work to do even on Sundays."Durin' de cotton pickin' time a big bell was rung to git us up about four o'clock in de mawnin'. We had to go to de field and pick when it was still dark. Dere was times durin' scrappickin' when it was so cold dat we had to make a big fire in de field and wahm our hands."Mawster Barnett sho' whooped me at times. "'Mela ,' he'd say, 'tote in dem clothes.'"If I wouldn't do it I'd git a whoopin'. I got mo'e whoopin's den de others, cause I was jes' full of devilment."Den jes' befo' freedom mammy died. She left five chillun-four girls and one boy. Den I done field work and house work.

Mawster Barnett never did tell us dat we was free, and we got de news f'om other folks dat we was free. We was supposed to have been freed on June 19, 1865. When I knowed dat I was free I kept on workin' fo' Mawster Barnett fo' about six months. I helped him gather his crops but I wasn't paid fo' it. Den de only way dat I got away was dat I jes' got up and walked off. It was on Christmas eve day dat I went away. I walked to another white fambly, about two miles away. Brady was dere name. I stayed dere jes' one day, and den I walked to de Schuff place, where I had a servant-friend. "I cain't read or write and I kin remembah when I got married, but not de year. I was married to Josephns Barnett . I always called him 'Cephns .' We had twelb chillun and dere is only three ob dem livin' now. One daughter, Ella , lives here wid me and she ain't never been married. 'Cephns died in 1917."After we was married, 'Cephns worked fo' Sidney Green's ferry here in Bastrop. Dis ferry was operated by hand. I believe dat dere was a charge ob a dime fo' walkers, and thutty-five cents fo' de wagons. Dis was fo' a round-trip, I believe."'Cephns wasn't allowed to take anybody over at night, unless he was a doctah. But one night he took a white man over and when he put him on de other side ob de Colorado River, he asked de man, 'Ain't you' goin' to pay me fo' dat trip?' "'No, I ain't goin' to pay you a cent:' "Den he took out a gun and shot at my husband. He ducked and run into a little shed on de ferry and he never did take nobody across again at night, unless he could show dat he was a doctah. "De Green ferry could carry three wagons at one time; but de new ferry, Bowie's, dat stahted in business near here could tote only one wagon. One day a Mr. Hugh Duval , a white man, thought he would try out de new ferry. He had jes' been to Austin to buy a new stove. He put de wagon in de boat and dey stahted fo' de other side. Befo' dey could git across de ferry boat stahted to sinkin' right dere. Mr. Duval unhitched de mules and stahted swimmin' fo' de shore. Nobody was drowned, but dey sho' lost dat new stove. In de early days de Colorado Rivah got up so high here several times dat a lot ob folks went on de streets in skiffs. I know dat dey tied a boat to a store on Main Street, here in Bastrop. We was livin' on de other side of de rivah at dat time. "I have had to work hard all ob my life. After we was married, I used to do de cookin' in de Claiborne House and de Nickison House, both ob 'em was hotels. I was paid six dollahs a week and I got my meals. Even to dis day I do my own washin' and cook my own vittles. "I was never bothered by de Ku Klux Klan; but I remembah how de patrols used to chase slaves dat never had no passes f'om dere mawsters. 'Cephns was courtin' a girl a long time befo' he married me. He belong to a Barnett , too, but he wasn't no kin to my mawster. 'Cephns ' mawster would allow him to roam around without a pass. De patrols found out dat 'Cephns was over at his girls house on a plantation nearby. Dey run him out ob de girl's house and he got so scared dat he run home and jumped over a fence to git dere, and he tore his linen britches. 'Cephns sho' could outrun dem patrols.

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