Slave Earnings

“Slaves had money in slave time.  My daddy bought a horse.  He made a crop every year.  He made his bale of cotton.  He made corn to feed his horse with.  He belonged to his white folks but he had his house and lot right next to theirs.  They would give him time you know.  He didn’t have to work in the heat of the day.  He made his crop and bought his whiskey.  The white folks fed ’im.  He had no expenses ’cept tending to his crop.  He didn’t have to give Tom Eford anything he made.  He just worked his crop in his extra time.  Many folks too lazy to git theirselves somethin’ when they have the chance to do it.  But my daddy wasn’t that kind.  His old master gave him the ground and he made it give him the money.

“My daddy left me plenty but I ain’t got it now.  I didn’t care what happened when he died.  People made out like they was goin’ to put my money in the bank for me and took it and destroyed it.  Used it for theirselves I reckon.  Now I need it and ain’t got it—­ain’t got a penny.  For five or six years at my home, I made good crops.  We raised everything we needed at home.  Didn’t know what it was to come to town to buy anything.  If anybody had told me twenty years ago I would be in this shape, I wouldn’t have believed it because I had plenty.

What Slaves Got When Freed

“They said they was gwine a give the slaves something, but they never did do it.  Then the master made out like he was gwine a give the slaves so much if they stayed ’round and made his crops for him, but he didn’t do it.

Come Again

“If the Lord lets you git back tomorrow, try and come a little sooner in the day than you did today.  I gits up about six in the morning.  I don’t believe in layin’ in bed late.  I go to bed directly after dark and I wake up early.  The Lord never did mean for nobody to sleep all day.”

Interviewer’s Comment

A number of people testify to Laura Thornton’s age.  I am trying to check up on it.  Results later.  If she isn’t a hundred [HW:  and] five years old, she is “mighty nigh” it.  She has feeble health, but a surprisingly alert mind, and a keen sharp memory.  She has a tendency to confuse Reconstruction times with slavery times, but a little questioning always brings out the facts.

She doesn’t like to talk much about marriage in slavery.  Evidently she dislikes the fact that one of her children ms born before emancipation.  She was evidently married only once, as questioning brought out; but she will refer to the marriage before emancipation and the one afterward as though they were to different persons.

[HW:  Curtis, Ark.  Emma (Bama?) Tidwell]

OLD SLAVE STORIES