Interviewer’s Comment

Mr. Howard seems to be a very kind old man, lives in the house for aged colored people (The Alpha Home).

He has no relatives, except a brother.  He seems well satisfied living in the home.

Submitted January 10, 1938
Indianapolis, Indiana

Grace Monroe
Dist. 4
Jefferson County

Slave story
Mr. Matthew Hume, A former slave

Mr. Hume had many interesting experiences to tell concerning the part slavery had played in his family.  On the whole they were fortunate in having a good master who would not keep an overseer who whipped his “blacks”.

His father, Luke Hume, lived in Trimble County Kentucky and was allowed to raise for himself one acre of tobacco, one acre of corn, garden stuff, chickens and have the milk and butter from one cow.  He was advised to save his money by the overseer, but always drank it up.  On this plantation all the slaves were free from Saturday noon until Monday morning and on Christmas and the Fourth of July.  A majority of them would go to Bedford or Milton and drink, gamble and fight.  On the neighboring farm the slaves were treated cruelly.  Mr. Hume had a brother-in-law, Steve Lewis, who carried marks on his back.  For years he had a sore that would not heal where his master had struck him with a blacksnake whip.

Three good overseers were Jake Mack and Mr. Crafton, Mr. Daniel Payne was the owner who asked his people to report any mistreatment to him.  He expected obedience however.

When Mr. Hume was a small boy he was placed in the fields to hoe.  He also wanted a new implement.  He was so small he was unable to keep near enough to the men and boys to hear what they were talking about, he remembered bringing up the rear one day, when he saw a large rock he carefully covered it with dirt, then came down hard on it breaking his hoe.  He missed a whipping and received a new tool to replace the old one, after this he could keep near enough to hear what the other workers were talking about.

Another of his duties was to go for the cattle, he had to walk around the road about a mile, but was permitted to come back through the fields about a quarter of a mile.  One afternoon his mistress told him to bring a load of wood when he came in.  In the summer it was the custom to have the children carry the wood from the fields.  When he came up he saw his mistress was angry this peeved him, so that he stalked into the hall and slammed his wood into the box.  About this time his mistress shoved him into a small closet and locked the door.  He made such a howl that he brought his mother and father to the rescue and was soon released from his prison.