Born in a weather-beaten shanty in Madison, Fla.  September 14, 1841 of a large family, he moved to Jacksonville at the age of three with the “Master” and his mother.

Very devoted to his mother, he would follow her into the cotton field as she picked or hoed cotton, urged by the thrashing of the overseer’s lash.  His master, a prominent political figure of that time was very kind to his slaves, but would not permit them to read and write.  Relating an incident after having learned to read and write, one day as he was reading a newspaper, the master walked upon him unexpectingly and demanded to know what he was doing with a newspaper.  He immediately turned the paper upside down and declared “Confederates done won the war.”  The master laughed and walked away without punishing him.  It la interesting to know that slaves on this plantation were not allowed to sing when they were at work, but with all the vigilance of the overseers, nothing could stop those silent songs of labor and prayers for freedom.

On Sundays the boys on the plantation would play home ball and shoot marbles until church time.  After church a hearty meal consisting of rice and salt picked pork was the usual Sunday fare cooked in large iron pots hung over indoor hearths.  Sometimes coffee, made out of parched corn meal, was added as an extra treat.

He remembers the start of the Civil war with the laying of the Atlantic Cable by the “Great Eastern” being nineteen years of age at the time.  Hearing threats of the War which was about to begin, he ran away with his brother to Lake City, many times hiding in trees and groves from the posse that was looking for him.  At night he would cover up his face and body with spanish moss to sleep.  One night he hid in a tree near a creek, over-slept himself, in the morning a group of white women fishing near the creek saw him and ran to tell the men, fortunately however he escaped.

After four days of wearied travelling being guided by the north star and the Indian instinct inherited from his Indian grandmother, he finally reached Lake City.  Later reporting to General Scott, he was informed that he was to act as orderly until further ordered.  On Saturday morning, February 20, 1861, General Scott called him to his tent and said “Squire; I have just had you appraised for $1000 and you are to report to Col.  Guist in Alachua County for service immediately.”  That very night he ran away to Wellborn where the Federals were camping.  There in a horse stable were wounded colored soldiers stretched out on the filthy ground.  The sight of these wounded men and the feeble medical attention given them by the Federals was so repulsive to him, that he decided that he didn’t want to join the Federal Army.  In the silent hours of the evening he stole away to Tallahassee, throughly convinced that War wasn’t the place for him.  While in the horse shed make-shift hospital, a white soldier asked one of the wounded colored soldiers to what regiment he belonged, the negro replied “54th Regiment, Massachusetts.”