Her maiden name was Rosa Fox Ellison, taken as was the custom, from the slave-holder who held her as a chattel.  Her parents took her away from the plantation when they were freed and lived in different localities, supported by the father who was now paid American wages.  Her parents died while she was quite young and she married Fox Ellison, an ex-slave of the Fox Ellison plantation.  His name was taken from the same master as was hers.  She and her husband lived together forty-three years, until his death.  Nine children were born to them of which only one survives.  After this ex-slave husband died Rosa Ellison married a second time, but this second husband died some years ago and she now remains a widow at the age of seventy-six years.  She recalls that the master of the Fox Ellison plantation was spoken of as practicing no extreme discipline on his slaves.  Slaves, as a prevailing business policy of the holder, were not allowed to look into a book, or any printed matter, and Rosa had no pictures or printed charts given her.  She had to play with her rag dolls, or a ball of yarn, if there happened to be enough of old string to make one.  Any toy or plaything was allowed that did not point toward book-knowledge.  Nursery rhymes and folk-lore stories were censured severely and had to be confined to events that conveyed no uplift, culture or propaganda, or that conveyed no knowledge, directly or indirectly.  Especially did they bar the mental polishing of the three R’s.  They could not prevent the vocalizing of music in the fields and the slaves found consolation there in pouring out their souls in unison with the songs of the birds.

Federal Writers’ Project
of the W.P.A. 
District #6
Marion County
Anna Pritchett
1200 Kentucky Avenue, Indianapolis, Indiana

Folklore
Mrs. Mittie Blakeley—­ex-slave
2055 Columbia Avenue, Indianapolis, Indiana

Mrs. Blakeley was born, in Oxford, Missouri, in 1858.

Her mother died when Mittie was a baby, and she was taken into the “big house” and brought up with the white children.  She was always treated very kindly.

Her duties were the light chores, which had to be well done, or she was chided, the same as the white children would have been.

Every evening the children had to collect the eggs.  The child, who brought in the most eggs, would get a ginger cake.  Mittie most always got the cake.

Her older brothers and sisters were treated very rough, whipped often and hard.  She said she hated to think, much less talk about their awful treatment.

When she was old enough, she would have to spin the wool for her mistress, who wove the cloth to make the family clothes.

She also learned to knit, and after supper would knit until bedtime.

She remembers once an old woman slave had displeased her master about something.  He had a pit dug, and boards placed over the hole.  The woman was made to lie on the boards, face down, and she was beaten until the blood gushed from her body; she was left there and bled to death.