Colored men work in barber shops, in restaurants as waiters, and are largely employed as porters in hotels and on railway coaches.  Colored women work in hotels as cooks, chamber maids, and are commonly employed as elevator operator in hotels and office buildings.

Not many negroes are in business locally, as race prejudice prevents white folks from trading at colored stores, and the local colored population is too small to provide many customers of their own race.  Many ambitious colored folks have left here and gone to the large cities of the north, and made conspicious successes in business.  Some have succeeded in the professions as doctors, lawyers, actors, and writers and other vocations.

All in all, the race has progressed to an astonishing degree since being set free a generation ago.

Politics:  Formerly, the negro, attributing his freedom to the efforts of Abraham Lincoln in his behalf, voted almost solidly for the Republican Party.  Now, however, the Democrats have, by remembering the race when passing out jobs, gained recruits among the colored people, and some negro Democrats are found here.  The negro has been accused of voting for money, but it is doubtful if as a race, he is any more prone to this practice than his white fellow citizens among whom this abuse seems to be growing.

BELL CO.  (Nelle Shumate)

Mandy Gibson: 

There were auction-blocks near the court houses where the slaves were sold to the highest bidders.  A slave would be placed on a platform and his merits as a speciman of human power and ability to work was enomerated the bidding began.  Young slave girls brought high prices because the more slave children that were born on one’s plantation the richer he would be in the future.  Some slaves were kept just for this purpose, the same as prize thorough-bred stock is kept.  In many instances slaves were treated like brutes and their places to sleep were like barn sheds with only a little straw, on which to sleep.  Mrs. Neikirk’s mother said that she distinctly remembered that the slaves she knew of had only the roughest of food such as:  corn bread molasses, and scraps from their owner’s table.  Their clothing was such as their owners saw fit to give them and the cheapest.

An old negro woman, Aunt Mandy Gibson by name, died last month, Sep. in Middlesboro and I have heard her tell about coming here from Alabama when the town of Middlesboro was first founded.  When asked about her old home people she would go to great lengths to explain about her people having been slaves, but she would always add that they did not mind slavery as they at that time knew nothing of the outdoor life and therefore desired nothing better.  She also said that the family that owned her was a kind nature and was good to slaves.