Slave Narratives: A Folk History of Slavery in the United States - From Interviews with Former Slaves - Georgia Narratives, Part 2

Work Projects Administration

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• Publié par: ebbi
• Publié le: 08 décembre 2010
• Nombre de lectures: 82
• Langue: English

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The Project Gutenberg EBook of Slave Narratives: A Folk History of Slavery in the United States, by Work Projects Administration This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net Title: Slave Narratives: A Folk History of Slavery in the United States From Interviews with Former Slaves Georgia Narratives, Part 2 Author: Work Projects Administration Release Date: July 28, 2007 [EBook #22166] Language: English Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 *** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SLAVE NARRATIVES: GEORGIA *** Produced by Janet Blenkinship and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by the Library of Congress, Manuscript Division) SLAVE NARRATIVES A Folk History of Slavery in the United States From Interviews with Former Slaves TYPEWRITTEN RECORDS PREPARED BY THE FEDERAL WRITERS' PROJECT 1936-1938 ASSEMBLED BY THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS PROJECT WORK PROJECTS ADMINISTRATION FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA SPONSORED BY THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS Illustrated with Photographs WASHINGTON 1941 VOLUME IV GEORGIA NARRATIVES PART 2 Prepared by the Federal Writers' Project of the Works Progress Administration for the State of Georgia Transcribers note: [TR:] = Transcriber Note [HW:] = Handwritten Note Every effort was made to faithfully reflect the distinctive character of this document. Some obvious typographic errors have been corrected. The above notes are placed inline, to cover all other unusual comments. Hover over HW: with a mouse to see the changes made. INFORMANTS Garey, Elisha Doc 1 Garrett, Leah 11 Gladdy, Mary 17 Gray, Sarah 28 Green, Alice 31, 38 Green, Isaiah (Isaac) 48, 57 Green, Margaret 60 Green, Minnie 64 Gresham, Wheeler 66 Griffin, Heard 72 Gullins, David Goodman 78 Hammond, Milton 91 Harmon, Jane Smith Hill 97 Harris, Dosia 103 Harris, Henderson 115 Harris, Shang 117 Hawkins, Tom 126 Heard, Bill 136 Heard, Emmaline 147, 154, 160 Heard, Mildred 165 Heard, Robert 170 Henderson, Benjamin 173 Henry, Jefferson Franklin 178 Henry, Robert 194 Hill, John 200 Hood, Laura 208 Hudson, Carrie 211 Hudson, Charlie 220 Huff, Annie 233 Huff, Bryant 238 Huff, Easter 244 Hunter, Lina 252 Hurley, Emma 273 Hutcheson, Alice 281 Jackson, Amanda 289 Jackson, Camilla 294 Jackson, Easter 299 Jackson, Snovey 303 Jake, Uncle 310 Jewel, Mahala 315 Johnson, Benjamin 322 Johnson, Georgia Johnson, Manuel Johnson, Susie Jones, Estella Jones, Fannie Jones, Rastus 327 337 343 345 351 356 PLANTATION LIFE as viewed by ex-slave ELISHA DOC GAREY 258 Lyndon Avenue Athens, Georgia Written by: Sadie B. Hornsby Athens — Edited by: Sarah H. Hall Athens — and John N. Booth District Supervisor Federal Writers' Project Res. 6 & 7 Augusta, Ga. [Pg 1] Asked for the story of his early life and his recollections of slavery, Elisha replied: "Yes Ma'am, 'deed I'll tell [Pg 2] you all I knows 'bout dem days." His next words startled the interviewer. "I knowed you was comin' to write dis jedgment," he said. "I seed your hand writin' and long 'fore you got here I seed you jus' as plain as you is now. I told dese folks what I lives wid, a white 'oman was comin' to do a heap of writin'. "I was born on de upper edge of Hart County, near Shoal Crick. Sarah Anne Garey was my Ma and I was one of dem shady babies. Dere was plenty of dat kind in dem times. My own sister was Rachel, and I had a half sister named Sallie what was white as anybody. John, Lindsay, David, and Joseph was my four brothers. "What did us chillun do? Us wukked lak hosses. Didn't nobody eat dar 'less dey wukked. I'se been wukkin' ever since I come in dis world. "Us lived in log huts. Evvy hut had a entry in de middle, and a mud chimbly at each end. Us slep' in beds what was 'tached to de side of de hut, and dey was boxed up lak wagon bodies to hold de corn shucks and de babies in. Home-made rugs was put on top of de shucks for sheets, and de kivver was de same thing. "I still 'members my grandma Rachel. De traders fotched her here f'um Virginny, and she never did learn to talk plain. Grandma Sallie Gaines was too old for field wuk, so she looked atter de slave babies whilst deir [Pg 3] Ma's was wukkin' in de field. Grandpa Jack Gaines was de shoemaker. "Most of de time I was up at de big house waitin' on our white folks, huntin' eggs, pickin' up chips, makin' fires, and little jobs lak dat. De onliest way I could find to make any money in dem days was to sell part'idges what I cotched in traps to dem Yankees what was allus passin' 'round. Dey paid me ten cents apiece for part'idges and I might have saved more of my money if I hadn't loved dat store boughten pep'mint candy so good. "What I et? Anything I could git. Peas, green corn, 'tatoes, cornbread, meat and lye hominy was what dey give us more dan anything else. Bakin' was done in big old ovens what helt three pones of bread and in skillets what helt two. Big pots for bilin' was swung over de coals in de fireplace. Dey was hung on hooks fastened to de chimbly or on cranes what could be swung off de fire when dey wanted to dish up de victuals. Hit warn't nothin' for us to ketch five or six 'possums in one night's huntin'. De best way to tote 'possums is to split a stick and run deir tails thoo' de crack—den fling de stick crost your shoulders and tote de 'possums 'long safe and sound. Dat way dey can't bite you. Dey's bad 'bout gnawin' out of sacks. When us went giggin' at night, us most allus fotched back a heap of fishes and frogs. Dere was allus plenty of fishes and rabbits. Our good old hound dog was jus' 'bout as good at trailin' rabbits in de daytime as he was at treein' 'possums at night. I was young and spry, and it didn't seem to make no diff'unce what I et dem days. Big gyardens was scattered over de place whar-some-ever Marster happened to pick out a good gyarden spot. Dem gyardens all [Pg 4] b'longed to our Marster, but he fed us all us wanted out of 'em. "All dat us chillun wore in summer was jus' one little shirt. It was a long time 'fore us knowed dere was folks anywhar dat