Mr. and Mrs. Mann were of a party of more than 100 ex-slaves who left Richmond in 1880 for Silver Creek where Mr. Mann worked in the coal mines.  Two years later they moved to Wadsworth where their first child was born.

In 1883 they came to Akron.  Mr. Mann, working as laborer, was able to purchase two houses on Furnace Street, the oldest and now one of the poorer negro sections of the city.  It is situated on a high bluff overlooking the Little Cuyahoga River.

Today Mrs. Mann, her daughter, a son-in-law and one grandchild occupy one of the houses.  Three children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Mann, but only one is living.  Mr. Mann, a deacon in the church, died three years ago.  Time has laid its heavy hand on her property.  It is the average home of colored people living in this section, two stories, small front yeard, enclosed with wooden picket fence.  A large coal stove in front room furnishes heat.  In recent years electricity has supplanted the overhead oil lamp.

Most of the furnishings were purchased in early married life.  They are somewhat worn but arranged in orderly manner and are clean.

Mrs. Mann is tall and angular.  Her hair is streaked with gray, her face thin, with eyes and cheek bones dominating.  With little or no southern accent, she speaks freely of her family, but refrains from discussing affairs of others of her race.

She is a firm believer in the Bible.  It is apparent she strives to lead a religious life according to her understanding.  She is a member of the Second Baptist Church since its organization in 1892.

Having passed her three score and ten years she is “ready to go when the Lord calls her.”

WPA in Ohio
Federal Writers’ Project
Bishop & Isleman
Reporter:  Bishop
(Revision)
July 8, 1937

Topic:  Ex-Slaves
Jefferson County, District #5

JOHN WILLIAMS MATHEUS
Ex-Slave, 77 years

“My mothers name was Martha.  She died when I was eleven months old.  My mother was owned by Racer Blue and his wife Scotty.  When I was bout eleven or twelve they put me out with Michael Blue and his wife Mary.  Michael Blue was a brother to Racer Blue.  Racer Blue died when I was three or four.  I have a faint rememberance of him dying suddenly one night and see him laying out.  He was the first dead person I saw and it seemed funny to me to see him laying there so stiff and still.”

“I remember the Yankee Soldier, a string of them on horses, coming through Springfield, W. Va.  It was like a circus parade.  What made me remember that, was a colored man standing near me who had a new hat on his head.  A soldier came by and saw the hat and he took it off the colored man’s head, and put his old dirty one on the colored man’s head and put the nice new one on his own head.”

“I think Abraham Lincoln the greatest man that ever lived.  He belonged to no church; but he sure was Christian.  I think he was born for the time and if he lived longer he would have done lots of good for the colored people.”