Good Lil’ Boys and Girls from Old Dominion State of Virginia Free Line State of Maryland Blue Grass State of Kentucky Volunteer State of Tennessee: Black Children Speak Series!

By Sharon Kaye Hunt

The book is one of twelve books of the Black Children Speak Series. The books are compiled of the interviews taken from slaves by the interviewers of the Federal Writers Project of the Works Progress Administration (WPA) in 19361938. The most of the ex-slaves giving the interviews were children, who gave some during slavery and gave interviews of their experiences and insights about living on plantations. The ex-slaves answered questions on all aspects of the plantations in seventeen states of the United States before the Civil War. African Americans were freed from slavery after the Civil War in 1865. The series is dedicated to all people of the world. Also included are sections on inventions and food for thought, which has A Scripture Cake for Good Lil Boys and Girls.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Aug 26, 2016
• ISBN: 9781524524845

Sharon Kaye Hunt

Sharon Hunt, born in Nobletown and is a 1965 graduate of Wewoka High School. She graduated with B.S. and M.S Degrees from Oklahoma State University. She did further study at Kansas State University. Ms. Hunt is a retired registered dietitian and worked as a dietitian at St. Luke’s and Texas Children’s Hospitals in Houston, Texas. Ms. Hunt taught food and nutrition for more than forty years at Langston University and Fort Valley State University, Fort Valley, Georgia. While at Fort Valley, Ms. Hunt wrote a cookbook Bread from Heaven and appeared on QVC Home Shopping Network three times. Ms. Hunt wrote the original recipe for the World Largest Peach Cobbler for Peach County, Georgia. Ms. Hunt co-founded the undergraduate chapter of Delta Sigma Theta at Oklahoma State University in Stillwater, Oklahoma and served as the charter president of the Warner Robins Alumnae Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority in Warner Robins, Georgia. Currently, Ms. Hunt is retired from teaching and has begun a new career in African-American History. She has self-published 35 books on different aspects of history. She mainly writes about Oklahoma and Georgia. She hopes to be on the move to write 11th grade Black history books and to include more history about the slaves in eleventh grade history in the United States. Ms. Hunt promoted a Community Pride Sign to be placed in her hometown of Wewoka, Okla. On the African leader -Lawyer James Coody Johnson who assisted slaves and Native Americans. To get an understanding of slaves’ survival food, Ms. Hunt submitted a proposal to the Oklahoma Legislature to vote in the “Cornmeal-hoecake Bread” as Oklahoma’s official bread. Ms. Hunt is writing a series of books to show how the slaves may have celebrated Thanksgiving and Christmas Dinners during their harsh times.The former slaves gave ideas about how they celebrated different holidays.

Book preview

GOOD

LIL’ BOYS and GIRLS

from

Old Dominion State

of

Virginia

Free Line State

of

Maryland

Blue Grass State

of

Kentucky

Volunteer State

of

Tennessee

137436.png

(Black Children Speak Series!)

Sharon Kaye Hunt

Copyright © 2016 by Sharon Kaye Hunt.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Scripture quotations marked KJV are from the Holy Bible, King James Version (Authorized Version). First published in 1611. Quoted from the KJV Classic Reference Bible, Copyright © 1983 by The Zondervan Corporation.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

Rev. date: 08/25/2016

Xlibris

1-888-795-4274

www.Xlibris.com

738467

CONTENTS

Dedication

Acknowledgments

Introduction

(ABOUT VIRGINIA)

(VIRGINIA SLAVE NARRATIVES: VOLUME XVII)

1. Allen Plantation in Luenburg County, Virginia

2. Arising –Nat Turner

3. Auction Block in Petersburg

4. Buying and Selling Slaves

5. Charles Grandy –Ex-Slave and Civil War Veteran

6. Civil War

7. Dancing School

8. Emigrates

9. Geniune Indian

10. See Gift under Maryland

11. Home for Ourselves

12. Freedom

13. Freedom in April or May in Virginia

14. Freedom to Worship

15. Good Education

16. Housing in Virginia

17. Invention

18. John Brown

19. Marriage

20. Marriage in Chesterfield County

21. Married to Her Son

22. Master a Nigger Lover

23. Mother Suffered

24. Relationship

25. Runaway Slave

26. Serving God

27. Slaves

28. Slaves Clothes

29. Two Sets of White Slaves

30. Washing House

31. Washington, D.C.

32. Who is my Father?

ABOUT MARYLAND

1. African Type-

2. Amen

3. Auction

4. Baltimore City

5. Blood Hounds

6. Better Servants

7. Big House in Maryland

8. Bishop Williams

9. Bought and Sold

10. Boys Work

11. Big House in Virginia

12. Boats Owned by Master

13. Branded

14. Bryantown

15. Buchanan

16. Captured

17. Charles County

18. Church

19. Civil War

20. Clothes Made from Sheep’s Wool

21. Clothes on the Plantation

22. Colored Overseer

23. Communion

24. Dangerous Territory for One Group

25. Dorsey Plantation

26. Dorsey’s Reapers

27. Driven

28. Escape

29. Eastern Shore

30. Education

31. Father’s Assistance

32. Farms in Frederick County

33. Father Bought Mother

34. Food

35. Food for Another Plantation

36. Freedom

37. Gentry Slave Owner

38. Gifts for the Sailors

39. Given Away

40. Gingerbread

41. Girls Sold

42. Good Education

43. Grandmother was Indian

44. Grandparents

45. Harriet Tubman

46. Housing

47. Huts for Housing on the Plantation

48. Jails

49. Marriage on the Plantation

50. Master and Overseer

51. Meetings

52. Montgomery County

53. Mother’s Duty and Poor White Trash

54. My Father

55. Negro Pioneer Teacher of Portsmouth(Place in VA)

56. No Children

57. Old Maid

58. One Could Read

59. Owner –A Distant Relative of Patrick Henry

60. Plantation Living

61. Poor Whites and Slaves

62. Slave Trader

63. Sheriff’s Sale

64. Steamship

65. Training Blood Hounds

66. Traveler’s Rest

67. Work Times

ABOUT KENTUCKY

1. Ash Hopper

2. Bacon Meat

3. Big House in Kentucky

4. Begged for Mercy

5. Bought and Sold

6. Cornshucking

7. Father Bought Him

8. Gallery for Slaves

9. Good Luck/Bad Luck

10. Food from the Farm

11. Slave Experiences

12. Plantation Happenings in Kentucky

13. Story of Uncle Dick

14. ANDERSON COUNTY-Story of Ann Gudgel

15. Bell County

16. Boyd County- Emancipation Proclamation

17. CALDWELL COUNTY-Children’s story.

18. CALLOWAY COUNTY- Horse racing!

19. CLAY COUNTY- Mexican Army

20. CHRISTIAN COUNTY-Master is the father.

21. CASEY COUNTY –Slavery Before the Civil War

22. CLARK COUNTY –Revolutionary War Slaves

23. CHRISTIAN COUNTY-Negro Holiness Meeting

24. BREATHITT COUNTY- Civil War

25. FLOYD COUNTY

26. GARRARD COUNTY: Place for Uncle Tom lived.

27. HOPKINSVILLE

28. LAWRENCE COUNTY: White Union Volunteer’s Account of the Civil War

29. Jefferson County-Religious Master

30. LAUREL COUNTY-Master was a southern republican.

31. Aunt Jenny

32. Leslie County

33. MARTIN COUNTY –Blessing or Curse

34. Montgomery County-

35. ROCKDALE COUNTY-UNDERGROUND RAILROAD

36. Union County -Will of Negroes and A Bill of Sale:

37. Union County- Civil War

38. Wayne County-Witches Spell

39. Webster County- Slaves Sales

40. OODFORD COUNTY- George Henderson

41. JEFFERSON COUNTY –Children’s Last Names

ABOUT TENNESSEE

1. Air Ships or Air Planes

2. All Gone

3. Baptist Church

4. Black Pot

5. Born a Slave –Building Bridges

6. Born Free

7. Battle of Murfreesboro

8. Blacks in the Back

9. Boy’s Clothing

10. Bell Rings for George Washington’s Birthday

11. Big Dinners

12. Black Horse Named Jeff Davis

13. Boy’s Work

14. Bull Whip

15. Cannons-

16. Climbing a Mountain

17. Cherokee Indian Ancestry

18. Children Bad

19. Children for Sale

20. Cooking for the Dogs

21. Cumberland River

22. Digging Wells for Water

23. Driven Mother

24. Eating Meat

25. Father’s House After Slavery

26. Father’s House

27. Favorite Songs

28. Field Hand -Pretty Woman

29. First Pair of Shoes

30. Folklore- Material from Upper

31. Forty Acres

32. Free Born

33. Freedom

34. Free to Walk

35. Free to Work

36. George Hooper

37. Georgia’s Prayer Grounds

38. Good Christian

39. Gift

40. Good Cook

41. Hard Times

42. Good Daughter

43. Good Mistress

44. Good People

45. Heir

46. Hired Out

47. Hiding in Caves

48. Hoe Cake

49. Human Beings

50. Joseph Leonade’s Star

51. Irish People

52. Judgement Day

53. Klan in Nashville

54. Marriages –Black and White

55. Misses Heads for the Mountain

56. Mistress Kin to Abraham Lincoln

57. Mistress Taught Prayer

58. Mothers Bought and Sold

59. Mother Sold Three Times

60. Music Man

61. Nashville

62. Nashville’s Lights

63. No More Slave

64. Let’s Pray

65. Part Indian Parents

66. Pretty Boy

67. Red Hankerchief

68. Religious Master

69. Rope

70. Running from the Patrol

71. Sitting Up

72. Sold to a Doctor

73. Songs

74. Stealing

75. Uncle Mobile Hopson

76. Uncle Shep

77. Wedding Gift

78. Women Beater

79. Yellow Fever

80. Young People

References

Dedication

Above all, I dedicate my works to the love of Jesus Christ! The body of work is dedicated to my ancestors, my parents and brothers. Dedicated to the readers-For all people!

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The book- GOOD LIL’ BOYS AND GIRLS from the four former slaveholding states, is part of twelve(12) Black Children Speak Series. The Series are made up from interviews taken from ex-slaves by Works Project Administration (WPA) for the District of Columbia Sponsored by the Library of Congress. The title of the project SLAVE NARRATIVES-A Folk History in the United States Interviews with Former Slaves.

The ‘Black Children Speak Series’ show the answers about childhood from ex-slaves- Born in Slavery: Slave Narratives from the Federal Writers’Project, 1936-1938.

Ex-Slaves were interviewed from seventeen states.

The author is indebted to the WPA writers taking the interviews, the ex-slaves and the Library of Congress.

As an extra, more than one hundred Black Inventors and their Inventions are includedIn each of the Series. The inventions are from the Black Invention Museum. Some of the inventors were slaves.

DISCLAIMER: The words of the ex-slaves have not been edited. Ex-slaves spoke in the language they knew. Some words may be offensive in the ex-slaves’ discription of the activities of their childhood.

All recipes were developed by the Author. The recipes are only suggestions.

INTRODUCTION

Each of the Black Children Speak Series will be comprised of the answers given on topics of what slave children experienced on plantations more than 150 years ago. There were twenty questions asked by the interviewers of the Writers’ Project Sponsored by the Works Progress Administration. For each of the Series, the author has selected informative information that gives perspectives on slave children’s impact on the United States then and now. The highlights are taken from the answers given about living on a white plantations in the slave states of Virginia, Maryland, Kentucky and Tenessee

EACH SERIES HAS THE FOLLOWING:

1- Summaries of highlights of questions asked to ex-slaves about their childhood.

Sample of Instructions to WPA writers and twenty questions(notes to interviewers):

STORIES FROM EX-SLAVES

The main purpose of these detailed and homely questions is to get the Negro interested in talking about the days of slavery. If he will talk freely, he should be encouraged to say what he pleases without references to the questions. If should be remembered that the Federal Writers’ Project is not interested in taking sides on any question. The worker should not censor any material collected, regardless of its nature.

It will not be necessary, indeed it will probably be a mistake, to ask every person all of the questions. Any incidents or facts he can recall should be written down as nearly as possible just as he says them, but do not use dialet spelling or complicated that it may confuse the reader.

A second visit, a few days after the first one, is important so that the worker may gather all the worthwhile recollections that the first talk has aroused.

Questions asked by the interviewers to each informant about the African lineage and plantation history.

1. When and where were you born?

2. Give the names of your father and mother. Where did they come from? Give names of your brothers and sisters. Tell about your life with them and describe your home and the quarters. Describe the beds and where you slept. Do you remember anything about your grandparents or any stories told you about them?

3. What work did you do in slavery days? Did you ever ern any money? What did you buy with this money?

4. What did you eat and how was it cooked? Any possums? Rabbits? Fish? What food did you like best" Did the slaves have their own gardens?

5. What clothing did you wear in hot weather? Cold weather? On Sundays? Any shoes? Describe Your Sundays?

6. Tell about your master, mistress, their children, the house they lived in, the overseer or driver, poor white neighbors.

7. How many acres in the plantation? How many slaves on it? How and at what time did the overseer wake up the slaves? Did They work hard and late at night? How and for what cause were the slaves punished? Tell what you saw. Tell some of the stories you heard.

8. Was there a jail for slaves? Did you ever see any slaves sold or auctioned off? How did groups of slaves travel? Did you ever see slaves in chains?

9. Did the white folks help you to learn and write?

10. Did the slaves have a church on your plantation? Diid they read the Bible? Who Was your favorite preacher? Your favorite Spirituals? Tell about the baptizing: baptizing songs. Funerals and funeral songs.

11. Did the slaves ever run away to the North? Why? What did you hear about Patrollers? How did slaves carry news from one plantation to another? Did you hear of trouble between the blacks and whites?

12. What did the slaves do when they went to their quarter after the day’s work was done on the plantation? Did they work on Saturday afternoon? What did they do Saturdy nights? Sundays? Christmas morning? New Year’s Day? Any other holiday? Cornshucking? Cotton Picking? Dances? When some of the white master’s Family married or died? A wedding or death mong the slaves?

13. What games did you play as a child? Can you give the words or sing any of the play songs or ring games of the chidren? Riddles? Charms? Stories about animals? What do you think of voodoo? Can you give the words or sing any lullabies? Work songs? Plantation hollers? Can you tell a funny story you have heard or something that happened to you? Tell about the ghosts you have seen.

14. What slaves became sick who looked after them? What medicine(herbs, leaves, or roots) did the slaves use for sickness? What charms did they wear and to keep off what diseases?

15. What do you remember about the war that brought your freedom? What happened on the day news came that you were free? What did your master say and do? When the Yankees came what did they do and say?

16. Tell what work you did and how you lived the first year after the war and what you saw or heard about the Ku Klux Klan and the Nightridders. Any school then for Negroes? Any land?

17. When did you marry? Describe the Wedding. How many children and grandchildren have you and what are they doing?

18. What do you think of Abraham Lincoln? Jefferson Davis? Booker Washington? Any ther prominent white men or Negro you have known or heard of?

19. Now that slavery is ended what do you think of it? Tell why you joined a church and why you think all people should be religious.

20. Was the overseer poor white trash? What were some of his rules?

(ABOUT VIRGINIA)

Statehood: June 25, 1788

Capital City: Richmond

Border States: Kentucky, Maryland, North Carolina, Tennesse, West Virginia.

Coast Line: 112 miles

Flower: Dogwood

Tree: Dogwood

Bird: Cardinal

Constitution: 10th State

Nickname: The Old Dominion State

Motto: Sic semper tyrannis

-Thus alyways to tryants

Geology: Land Area:39,700 sq. mi. 36th

Inland water: 1.063 sq. mi.

Largest city: Virginia Beach

Song: Carry Me Back to Old Virginia

Words and music by: James A. Bland

Origin of state’s name: Named for England’s Virgin Queen, Elizabeth I

Presidential Birthplace:

George Washington: 1789-1797

Thomas Jefferson: 1801-1809

James Madison: 1809-1817

James Monroe: 1817-1825

William Henry Harrison: 1841

John Tyler: 1841-1845

Zachary Taylor:1849-1850

Woodrow Wilson: 1913-1921

(VIRGINIA SLAVE NARRATIVES: VOLUME XVII)

1. Allen Plantation in Luenburg County, Virginia

-Lord, help me!

You know we used to call Marster Allen, Colonel Allen. His name was Robert. He was a home general, an’ a lawyer, too. When we went to court any slave he said to free, was freed an’ turned aloose. De white fo’ks as well as slaves obeyed Marster Allen.

For clothin’ we were ‘llowed two suits a year –one for spring, an’ one for winter, was all ye’ had. De underclothes was made at home. Yo’ also got two pairs of shoes an’ homemade hats and capes. The white fo’ks or your slave owners would teach dem who could catch on easy an’ dey would teach de other slaves, an’ dats how dey all slaves clothed. Our summer hats were made out of plaited straw. Under clothes made out of snacks an’ bags.

"Us had plenty of food sech as ‘twas cornbread, butter milk,sweet potatoes, week days. Ha! Ha!

Honey, guess dats why niggers don’t like cornbread today; dey got a dislike for dat bread from back fo’ks. On Sunday we had biscuits, and sometimes a little extra food,which old Mistess would send out to Mother for us."

O, yes, honey, I can ‘member when de Yankees came into dis town; dey broke in stores an’told all de niggers to go an’ git anything dey wanted.

Ex-Slave Charles Crawley.

OLD TESTAMENT

LAMENTATIONS 3:24

The Lord is my portion saith my soul therefore will I hope in him.

2. Arising –Nat Turner

-Fed up with the devil!

Back ‘fore the sixties, I can ‘member my Mistress, Miss Sara Ann, comin’ to de window an’ hollerin’, De niggers is arisin’! De niggers is arisin’! De niggers is killin’ all de white folks, killin’ all De babies in de cradle! It must have been Nat Turner’s Insurrection: which wuz sometime ‘fo de breakin’ of de Civil War.

I wuz waitin’ on table in dinin’ room an’ dis day dey had finished eatin’ early an’ I wuz cleanin’ off been a good size gal."

Ex-Slave Mrs. Fanny Berry

OLD TESTAMENT

LAMENTATIONS 3:25

The Lord is good unto them that wait for him; to the soul that seeketh him.

3. Auction Block in Petersburg

-Stand up for Jesus!

There was a auction block, I saw right here in Petersburg on the corner of Sycamore street nd Bank street. Slaves were auctioned off to de highest bidder. Some refused to be sold by dat, I mean, cried. Lord! Lord! I done seen dem young’uns fout and kick like crazy fo’ke; Child it was pitiful to see ‘em. Den dey would handcuff an’ beat ‘em unmerciful. I don’ like to talk ‘bout bac’ dar. It brun’ a sad feelin’ up me. If slaves ‘belled, I done seed dem whip ‘em wid a strop cal’ ‘cat nine tails. Honey, dis strop wuz ‘bout broat as you hand, from thum’ to little finger, an’ ‘twas cut in strips up. Yo’ done seen dem whips at they whip horses wid? Well dey was used too."

Ex-Slave Charles Crawley.

OLD TESTAMENT

LAMENTATIONS 3:26

It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the Lord.

4. Buying and Selling Slaves

-People in darkness, O,Lord!

When Graves bought us, he sold three of us an’ three slaves. My brother an’ sister went down south. Muma send to de cotton country an’ too, she say. They were made to work in th’ cotton fields by their new marster, out in dem white fields in the bramlin’ sun from th’ time it breked day ’till yo’ couldn’t see at night an’ yes in deedy an’ if God isn’t my righteous judge they were given half to eat, no not ‘enough to eat. Dey was beatin if dey asked for any mo’.

Ex-Slave Mrs. Minnie Fulkes

OLD TESTAMENT

LAMENTATIONS 3:27

It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth.

5. Charles Grandy –Ex-Slave and Civil War Veteran

-Submit to God!

"Charles Grandy was born February 19, 1842, in Mississippi. While still an infant, he was brought to Norfolk. When the family arrived in Norfolk his father was arrested on some plantation charge pretentions charge, and the whole family was placed in prison. After their release, they were taken to a plantation near Hickory Ground, Virginia, and sold. Slaves, at this time, were often taken to rural districts in carts, and sold to owners of plantations, as they were needed. Family life, friendships, and love affairs were often broken up: many times never to be united.

Following the general routine of slaves, the Grandy family was given a shanty: food and clothing was also issued to them, and had to last until the master decided to give out another supply. Usually, he issued them their allowance of food weekly. Often the supply was insufficient for their needs.

Charles played around the plantation ‘big house’, doing small errands until he reached the age of five, then his play days ended. While playing on the wood pile one morning, his master called him, ‘boy do you see this grass growing along the side of the fence? Well put it all up.’ When his first task was finished, he was carried to the field to pull the grass from the young cotton and other growing crops. This work was done by hand because he was still too young to use farm implements. Now he went to his task daily: from early in the morning until late in the evening. The long toilsome days completely exhausted the youngster.

Often he would fall asleep before reaching home, and spend a good portion of the night on the bare ground. Awakening, he would find it quite a problem to locate his home in the darkness of night.

From the stage of grass pulling by hand, he grew strong enough, in a few years, to use the rake and sickle. While attempting to carry out his master orders to cut corn tassels with a large sharp knife, his elbow was seriously cut. He was taken