Bill Collins

Bill Collins , ex-slave, was first owned by Jack Collins , who lived in Louisiana. When Jack Collins died, the children were divided among Jack Collins ' heirs. Bill Collins became the slave of Tom Collins , who was the son of old Jack Collins . Tom Collins ' home was near the present town of Nacagdoches, Texas.

Tom Collins owned a large plantation of approximately two hundred acres. They had a large log house with fire places in it that he and his family lived in. The slaves lived in a small cabin in the back yard. We didn't have beds like the master did, we just had some old rags to sleep on. I had one sister named Mary and one brother named Joe . I just can't remember my father but my mother worked or belonged to a Yankee doctor in Nacogdoches. I can't remember ever playing any thing but base. We played base a little before I was big enough to work in the fields. After we got big enough to work in the fields we has to work so hard we never did have any time for playing. When winter time came master bought us all a pair of shoes but we always went barefooted in the summer time. We always wore home spun pants and shirts. They were spun by the older slave women. They did most of this at night. Some of them had to work in the fields all day and spin at night. We didn't have nobody to look after us when we were sick, I allus worked. No, a nigger don't get very sick no ways, so we just just kept on working. We never had no church and school on our place but a preacher use to come around once in a while and preach to us. I never did learn to read and write. Never did see a jail for the darkies but remember one night when a slave from a close plantation came and stayed in our woods. He was trying to run away but got caught. These slaves would run away from their masters because they did not treat them right. Some times when they were caught and carried back to their plantations they were put in chains for safe keeping. My duties were all kinds of field work. We were awakened by a large plantation bell which rang every morning at four o'clock. The bell called and said, get up I'm coming after you, and said if they did not answer the call the over-seer would whip them. The slaves had to have passes to go and come from one plantation to another. I just can remember the "Nigger Dogs", that were used to catch the slaves. The darkies from the old states were lots smarter than the Texas negroes, they hoo-hoed the dogs, by putting red pepper in their shoes. After they had put pepper in their shoes the dogs wouldn't chase them any further. I was mis-treated lots of times, I went to sleep and old Master come in and hit me over the head. Some times we were tied to stales and beat when we did not do what the master or over-seer said do. One man was beat from nine in the morning until sun-down. General Thomas Rusk's slaves were called free slaves, because he was so kind to them and let them go and come with out a pass. These slaves of Rusk's often paid us visits. Other than the free negroes of Rusk , he seemed to think that the others were all mistreated. Bill said, the Ku Klux Klan whipped the slaves when they run off from their master's and that the Yankees had to come in and kill them. I was twelve years old when the war broke out between the North and South. I knew very little about it except that we heard the guns and cannons, and too, we often saw the soldiers passing by. After the war was over he and his brother Joe told their mistress they were going to Nacogdoches. They had been told that they were free and that they were supposed to go to Nacogdoches. Bill said, his mistress was always so good to them that he hated telling her so he never said why they were going. She told them to wait that their master had gone to Shreveport and would bring them something back but they never waited. A man from San Augustine spoke to them and told them that they were free, free to go where they pleased. He, his sister, and brother went to a Yankee Doctor's house that lived in Nacogdoches. This doctor owned his mother. They lived here for a while. The first job he ever had was for Josh Millard , chopping cotton. Millard promised to pay him five dollars a month but worked him five months and never did pay him any thing. He said it was hard to get work any where as most of the Southerners thought they were supposed to work for nothing.