Good Li’L Boys and Girls from the Lone Star State of Texas: Black Children Speak Series!

By Sharon Kaye Hunt

This book is one of twelve books of the Black Children Speak series. The books are compiled from the interviews taken from slaves by the interviewers of the Federal Writers Project of the Works Progress Administration (WPA) in 19361938. Most of the ex-slaves giving the interviews were children 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.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Oct 25, 2016
• ISBN: 9781524551865

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.

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Copyright © 2016 by Sharon Kaye Hunt.

ISBN:      Softcover      978-1-5245-5187-2

                eBook          978-1-5245-5186-5

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.

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.

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.

Rev. date: 10/25/2016

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CONTENTS

Acknowledgments

Introduction

About Texas

Texas Narrative, Volume XVI, Part 1

1.   A Different Country

2.   Africy People

3.   A Juksie-My Mother

4.   American Indians in Texas

5.   Army

6.   Auction Block

7.   Back of the Church

8.   Baptist Preacher

9.   Baptizing

10.   Beehives

11.   Big House v Log Huts

12.   Bill of Sale

13.   Blowing the Horn

14.   Better Off

15.   Blue Bellies

16.   Brief Story of his Life

17.   Bright Colored

18.   Broomstick Style

19.   Brought from Alabama

20.   Bullets

21.   Bunch of Dogs

22.   Buskrys – Poor Whites

23.   Buying Slaves

24.   Candy

25.   Chained in

26.   Children

27.   Christmas Day

28.   Civil War-

29.   Civil War- Hard Times

30.   Cleaned the Confederate Soldiers

31.   Coming to Texas

32.   Connally in Texas

33.   Cooking Turkeys

34.   Confederate Money

35.   Cotton- Three Hundred Pounds A Day

36.   Cullud Driver

37.   Cullud Folks Marrying

38.   Curtizing to the Cook

39.   Cut Hair

40.   Doctor

41.   Drinking Toddy

42.   Dogs

43.   Good Valuables

44.   Eating Possums

45.   Extra Cotton Patch

46.   Fat Girl on Sale

47.   Grease on the Mouth

48.   Field Worker

49.   Fourth of July

50.   Fourth of July-1865

51.   Fireplace for Cooking

52.   Freeborn Frenchman in Beaumont

53.   Given Away

54.   Good Master

55.   Hairdresser

56.   Harriet Tubman

57.   Hell on Earth

58.   Hired Out

59.   Houston

60.   Hickory Wood

61.   Indian Chief

62.   June 19th

63.   Ku Klux in Texas

65.   Racing Horses

66.   Serbia

67.   Selling Slaves

68.   Sold in New Orleans

69.   Speculators

Texas Slave Narratives, Volume XVI, Part 2

1.   A Negro Baptist Preacher

2.   African Methodist Church

3.   Africa

4.   After the war

5.   After the War –Freed

6.   Auctioned Off

7.   After the War-Run

8.   Ash Cakes

9.   Aunt Becky

10.   Bad Influence

11.   Before Daybreak

12.   Before Daybreak

13.   Big Sale

14.   Baptist Church

15.   Best Cook in Texas

16.   Big Ox

17.   Big Plantation

18.   Big Wood Pile

19.   Black Children and Questions

20.   Black Smith Duties

21.   Blue Bellies

22.   Blind

23.   Born in Georgia

24.   Born in Macon, Georgia

25.   Born in Louisiana

26.   Born in Louisiana lives in Beaumont, Texas

27.   Born near Marshall, Texas

28.   Born in Texas

29.   Born on Christmas

30.   Box Car

31.   Brazos River

32.   Breaking Horses

33.   Breast Works

34.   Bull Whip

35.   Burying Slaves

36.   Cabins in a Row

37.   Called him Major

38.   Campbell County in Virginia

39.   Carrying Dinner and Notes

40.   Catching the Spirit

41.   Changed My Name

42.   Children Picking Cotton

43.   Cherish

44.   Clean up the Wood

45.   Choctaw Nation

46.   Civil War

47.   Coachman

48.   Conjuring

49.   Cooking in the Grand Hotel

50.   Corn Coffee

51.   Cotton

52.   Creole

53.   Cow Horn

54.   Dogs on a Runaway Girl

55.   Droves

56.   Devil’s Work

57.   Eagle and the Baby

58.   Eggs in the Baskets

59.   Eight Year Old Sold

60.   Expert Cook

61.   Federal Army

62.   Feet in the Fire

63.   Federals Coming

64.   Fighting Indians

65.   Fighting on the Plantation

66.   Food for the White Folks

67.   Freeborn Mother

68.   Free, but not Free

69.   French Man from Canada

70.   Georgia’s Horse Beds

71.   Given Away

72.   Going to Fort Worth, Texas

73.   Going to Texas

74.   Good Cheer

75.   Good Eating

76.   Gospel

77.   Grandma Licensed to be a Doctor

78.   Guinea Men

79.   Harrison County

80   Home Remedies

81.   Hundred Slaves in Ogletrope County, Georgia

82.   Half-Breed-

83.   Half-Indian and Half Negro

84.   Heard the Call at 25 years old

85.   Hollering for Santa Claus

86.   Home Made Shoes

87.   Horse Rider

88.   Hot Coals

89.   Insulted white men

90.   John’s People

91.   Judge’s Slaves

92.   Kept Together

93.   Kiochi Tribe

94.   Klu Klux Klan

95.   Lived in the House

96.   Made Shoes

97.   Major’s Woman

98.   Marriage

99.   Marriage in Virginia

100.   Married by a Cullud Preacher

101.   Master A Preacher

102.   Master Breeds Women

103.   Master a Preacher man

104.   Master’s Daughter to School

105.   Master Outlined the Bible

106.   Mexico

107.   Mules and Oxen

108.   Musician

109.   MINK

110.   My Father

111.   No Place to Go

112.   Long Table

113.   Name Yourself

114.   Nutmeg

115.   Old Massa

116.   Organization of the Klan

117.   Orphaned

118.   Palestine, Texas

119.   Pass

120.   Peach Cobbler

121.   Piece of Paper

122.   Pinned

123.   Pink Roses

124.   Plantation in Arkansas has 3,000 Slaves

125.   Power

126.   Pray, Master, Pray

127.   Praying in the Woods

128.   Preacher Sells Whiskey

129.   Preaching Under the Arbor

130.   Preacher Buys Slaves

131.   Rations

132.   Raw Bone

133.   Red Pepper in His Eyes

134.   Red River, Texas

135.   Remarkable Negro in San Antonio

136.   Roustabout Boy

137.   Run-a-way Camp

138.   Sailing On

139.   Shipped to Texas

140.   Sister Sold

141.   Slavery Time was Hell

142.   Southern Soldiers and Klan

143.   Spelling Words

144.   Store Bought

145.   Sugarcane in Louisiana

146.   The Old Meadow in South Carolina

147.   Timber

148.   Too Old to Preach

149.   Turned a Loose

150.   Under the House

151.   Voting

152.   West Columbia, Texas

153.   Weddings and Funerals

154.   Wedding Dress

155.   White Folks Steal

156.   Whipping

157.   White Preacher

158.   White Girl’s Wedding Dress

159.   Yankees

160.   Yankee Army

Texas Slave Narratives, Part 3

1.   African

2.   Alabama Indians

3.   Boll-Weevil

4.   Bad Man with No Nation Children

5.   Decides on Texas

6.   Discharge from War

7.   Eating Dog

8.   Foster Mother

9.   Free

10.   Lanier’s Name

11.   Louisiana Shirt

12.   Master Doings

13.   Master’s Suicide

14.   McCoy

15.   Grandmother and Indians

16.   Monkey Business

17.   Preacher Man

18.   Registering to Vote

19.   Remembering War

20.   Sabine River

21.   Servant in the Army

22.   Salt in Texas

23.   Shortenin’ Bread

24.   Sold Twice

25.   Spaniard

26.   Three Cooks

27.   Waiting Boy

28.   Wallet

29.   Walking Barefooted

30.   Woodruff

31.   Worshipful Master

Texas Slave Narratives, Part 4

1.   American Indians

2.   Black and White Children

3.   Clearing Ground

4.   Coyotes Stealing Shoes

5.   Dance Contest

6.   Dogs

7.   Messenger Boy

8.   Organization

9.   Overseer

10.   Stealing Pumpkins

11.   Voting after Surrender

Extra: 128 Black Inventors And Their Inventions

References

Dedication

All of my work and life is dedicated to Jesus Christ, head of my life.

The body of work is dedicated to my ancestor, my parents and brothers.

Dedicated to the readers-For all people!

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The book-GOOD LI’L BOYS AND GIRLS from the Lone Star State of Texas is a part of the twelve(12) Black Children Speak Series. The Series are made up from interviews taken from ex-slaves by Works Progres 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 included in 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’ description 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 the slave children experienced on plantations more than 150 years ago.

There were twenty questions asked by the interviewers of the Federal Writers’ Project sponsored by the Works Progress administration. For each of the Series, the author has selected informative information that gives perspective on slave children’s impact on the United States then and now.

Each Series has the following:

1. The author has selected highlights from summaries of questions asked to ex-slaves about their childhood from seventeen states. These highlights have been developed into 12 books called the Black Children Speak Series. The highlights are in the slave children’s own words as written by the WPA writers.

Sample of Instructions to WPA writers and twenty questions:

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. It should be remembered that the Federal Writers’ Project is not interested in taking sides on any questions. 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 dialect 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:

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 earn any money? What did you buy with this money?

4. What did you eat and how was it cooked? Ant 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 any slaves in chains?

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

10. Did the slaves have a church on your plantation? Did 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 troubles between the blacks and the whites.

12. What did the slaves do when they went to their quarters after the day’s work was done on the plantation? Did they work on Saturday afternoon? What did they do Saturday nights? Sundays? Christmas morning? New Year’s Day?

Any other holiday? Corn shucking? Cotton Picking? Dances? When some of the white master’s family married or died? A wedding or death among the slaves?

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

14. When 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 disease?

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

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

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

18. What do you think of Abraham Lincoln? Booker Washington? Any other prominent white man or you have heard of?

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

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

II. Bye Lines-short lines from Negro Spirituals or popular sayings added at the top of the sayings.

III. Scriptures –at the bottom of each sayings. Each sayings has an old or new testament scripture(s).

IV. Foods for Thought- The author has developed five recipes that can become popular in the state.

V. Extra-List of inventions by African-Americans

TEXAS SLAVE NARRATIVES –BORN in SLAVERY: Slave Narratives from the Federal Writers’ Project, 1936-1938

ABOUT TEXAS

About Texas Slaves

The ex-slaves of Texas had familiar information about their Experiences during slavery.

Also, Bible verses will be highlighted from the books of The First and Second Epistles of Paul to the Corinthians.

The following will be pointed out:

1. Ages before the Civil War –Most of the informants were children at the end of the Civil War. However, some ranged in ages 2 years up to 35 years.

2. Coming to Texas- A great number of the slaves came with their owners from Georgia,Mississippi, Alabama, Tennessee, Missouri, Virginia, Louisiana and South Carolina.

3. Auctioned and Stole- Women and men recounted their experiences of being sold on the auction block or stolen from their families.

4. Plantation Size-The sizes of the plantations ranged from 300 acres up to more than a thousand acres. After Texas became a state, the slaves assisted their masters in settling the land.

5. Master’s children-The master had children by their white wives, but their were children by slave women.

6. Breeding Women-These women were kept by the slave traders to produce the type of slaves needed for hard work.

7. Half-Breeds-The slaves had mixed with Indians, Mexicans and white.

8. Runaway Slaves-Men slaves ranaway more frequently, however, if caught they were punished by being whipped or even death.

9. Work-All slaves worked sun-up to sun down. The worked according to the tasked assigned in fields such as cotton, corn, sugar cane, rice, farm animals or wherever.

10. Church-If the owners allowed church, the slaves went to church and set either behind the whites or set in the balcony.

11. Brush Arbors-Slaves were allowed to worship and pray in brush arbors or go to the woods for secret praying grounds. If the slaves had church in the cabins a large black pot was put in the center to keep the noise down.

12. Nigger Dogs-These were blood hounds used for hunting runaways.

13. Speculators- These were people who went through the communites buying, stealing and selling slaves.

14. Dialect-The spoken language of the slaves.

Even though the slaves were not allowed to read or write, it was amazing how they understood the demands of their masters.

15. Master, Massa, Marster, Ole Massa, Boss man-

These were names called to the white man owners.

16. Missy, Missie, Miss, Ole Miss, Mistus- The wife of the plantation owners were called these names.

17. Slave Markets- Special places in each state where slaves were kept in pens and chains for the owners to buy or sell. They were treated worse than cows and horses.

18. Food to eat- Most of the food came from pork, beef, mutton, peas, beans, cakes, pies, watermelons and many wild animals.

19. Pay for Work- None of the slaves were paid for work.

20. June 19th- Some slaves said their bosses read the Emancipation Proclamation and stated they were free. Some stayed with the masters or others went elsewhere and hired themselves out.

21. Marriage between slaves- The masters had to approve the marriages. The man and woman oftened lived on different plantations. The husband to have a pass to visit hi wife Wednesday and Saturday nights.

22. Patterrollers and Klu Klux Klan- People who terrorized the slaves.

23. Schools after the Surrender – The Klu Klux Klan burned many government schools and private homes after the war or during reconstruction.

24. Overseer or driver –People putt in place to run the plantation.

25. Yankees – Many of the iformants said they were scaird of the Yankee because they came to the plantations and took all of the foods, stole the horses and cow.

26. Promise to Pay-General Sherman promised 40 acres and a mule but the slaves were unfortunate.

27. Clothes to Wear –All clothing shoes and children clothes were made on the plantation. The women were the weavers and the men tan the shoes from cowhides.

28. Children’s Duties- Children at the ages of eight to 12 were able to go to the fields tote water, meals, chop cotton or pick cotton.

29. Cabins-Designated slave housing, usually an entire family lived in a one-room log cabin; They had dirt floors, fireplaces and small amount of beds and other furniture.

30. Big House –A stately built residence for the owner. Slave cabins were built behind the big house. All slaves who cooked or served in the house were called house niggers

And those working hands in the fields were called field niggers.

TEXAS NARRATIVE, VOLUME XVI, PART 1

1. A Different Country

-O,Lord a stranger!

"I was born a slave. I’m a Madgasser (Madagascar) nigger.

I seed slaves sold and they was yoked like steers and sold by pairs sometimes. Dey wasn’t ’lowed to marry, ’cause they could be sold and it wasn’t no use, but you could live with ’em.

Ex-Slave John Barker, age 84, was born near Cincinnati, Ohio, the property of the Barker family, who moved to Missouri and later to Texas. He and his wife live in a neat cottage in Houston, Texas

New Testament

ICorinthians 1:1,2

Paul, called to be an apostle of Jesus Christ, through the will of God, and Sosthenes our brother, 2 Unto the church of God at Corinth, to them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, with all that in every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both theirs and ours.

2. Africy People

-Stranger in a new land!

"My grandpa was Lewis Moore and grandma name Polly, but dey wasn’t reg’lar Africy people. My grandma, she have right smart good blood in her.

"When old massa come to Texas he brung us over first by wagon, a mule wagon with a cover over de top, and he rent de house clost to Liberty. But de nex’ year he find a place on de river bottom near Grand Cane and it jes’ suit him for de slaves he have, so he brung all de rest over from Louisiana.

Ex-Slave Sally Banks Chambers, wife of Ben Chambers of Liberty, does not know her age. She was born a slave of Jim Moore, in Oakland, Louisiana. Sally has been married three times and has had seven children, about 54 grandchildren and 14 great-grandchildren and 13 great-grandchildren. Heavy gold earrings hang from her ears and she dresses, even in midsummer, in a long-sleeved calico shirt, heavy socks and shoes, and a sweeping skirt many yards wide.

New Testament

I Corinthians 1:3

Grace be unto you, and peace from God, our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ.

3. A Juksie-My Mother

-Lord, keep me!

"Everythin’ I tell you am the truth, but they’s plenty I can’t tell you. I heard plenty things from my mammy and grandpappy. He was a fine diver and used to dive in the Alabama river for things what was wrecked out of boats, and used to dive in the Alabama river for things what was wrecked out of boats, and used the white folks would git him to go down for things the wanted. They’d let him down by a rope to find things on the bottom of the riverbed. He used to git a piece of money for doin’ it.

"My grandmammy was a juksie, ’cause her mammy was a nigger and her daddy a Choctaw Indian. That’s what makes me so mixed up with Indian and African and white blood. Sometimes it mattered to me, sometimes it didn’t. It don’t know more, ’cause I’m not too far from the end of my days.

"I had one brother and one sister I helped raise. They was mostly nigger. The Carters told me never to worry ’bout them, though,’cause my mammy was their blood and all of us in our fam’ly would never be sold, and sometime they’d make free men and women of us. My brother and sister lived with the niggers, though.

I was trained for a houseboy and to tend the cows. The bears was so bad then a ’sponsible pusson who could carry a gun had to look after them,

Ex-Slave Cato Carter

New Testament

I Corinthians 1:4

I thank God always on your behalf, for the grace of God is given you by Jesus Christ.

4. American Indians in Texas

-Save our souls!

Uncle Willis memory is vivid. He is familiar with the older figures in the history of the County. He tells tales of having travelled by oxen to West Texas for flour and being gone for six months at a time. He remembers the Keechi and the Kickapoo Indians and also claims that he can point out a tree where the Americans hung an Indian Chief. He says that he has plowed up arrows, pots and flints on the Reubens Bains place and on the McDaniel farms. He can tell of the early lawlessness in the County. His face lights up when he recalls how the Yankee soldiers came through Centerville telling the slave owners to free their slaves. He also talks very low when he mentions the name of Jeff Davis because he says, "Wha’ man eavesdrops the nigger houses in slavery time and if yer’ sed’ that Jeff Davis was a good man, they barbecued a hog for you, but if yer’ sed’ that Abe Lincoln was a good man, yer’ had to fight or go to the woods.’

Among the most interesting tales told by Uncle Willis is the tale of the Lead mine. Uncle Willis says that some where along Boggy Creek near a large hickory tree and a red oak tree, near Patrick’s Lake, he and his master, Ause McDaniels, would dig lead out of the ground which they used to make pistol and rifle balls for the old Mississippi rifles during slavery time. Uncle Willis claims that they would dig slags of lead out of the ground some 12 and 15 inches long, and others as large as a man’s fist. They would carry this ore back to the big house and melt it down to get the trash out of it, then the would pour it into molds and make rifle balls and pistol.

Ex-Slave Uncle Willis Anderson

New Testament

I Corinthians 1:5

That in every thing ye enriched by him, in all utterance, and in all knowledge.

5. Army

-Fight for Jesus!

"One day Marster Bob comes to me and says, ‘Jim, how you like to jine de army?’ You see, de war had started. I says to him, ‘What does I have to do? And he says, ‘Tend hosses and ride ’em.’ I was young den and thought it would be lots of fun, so I says I’d go. So de first thing I knows, I’s in de army away off east from here, somewhar dis side of St.Louis and in Tennessee and Arkansas and other places. I goes in de army ’stead of Dr. Carroll.

"After I gits in de army, it wasn’ so much fun, ’cause tendin’ hossess and ridin’

Wasn’ all I done. No, sar, I has to do shootin’ and git shooted at! One time we stops de train, takes Yankee money and lots of other things off dat train. Dat was way up de other side of Tennessee.

"You’s heard of de battle of Independence? Dat’s whar we fights for three days and nights. I’s not tendin’ hosses dat time. Dey gives me a rifle and sends me up front fightin’, when we wasn’ runnin’. We does a heap of runnin’ and dat comes to ’treat, I’s all ready.

"I gits shot in de shoulder in dat fight and lots of our soldier gits killed and we loses our supply, jus’ leaves it and runs. ’Nother time we fights two days and nights and de Yankees was bad dat time, too, and we had to run through the river. I sho’ thought I’s gwine git drowned den. Dat’s de time we tries to git in St. Louis, but de Yankees mans stop us.

I’s free after de war and goes back to Texas, to Gonzales County, and gits a job doin’ cowbody work for Marster Ross herdin’ cattle. And right dere’s whar I’s lucky for not gittin’ in jail or hanged.

Ex-Slave James Cape

New Testament

I Corinthians 1:6

Even as the testimony of Jesus Christ was confirmed in you.

6. Auction Block

-No more for me!

Slave times down here and to put the papers in my bosom but to do whatever the white folks tells me, even if they wants to sell me. But he say, ’Fore you gets off de block, jes’ pull out the papers, but jes’ hold ’em up to let folks see and don’t let ’em out of your hands, and when they sees them they has to let you alone.

"Miss Olivia cry and carry on and say be careful of myself ’cause it sho’ rough in Texas. She give me a big basket what had so much to eat in it I couldn’t hardly heft it and ’nother with clothes in it. They put me in the back and a the boat where the big, old wheel what run the boat was and I goes to New Orleans, and the captain puts me on ’nother boat and I comes to Galveston, and that captain put me on ’nother boat and I comes up this here Buffalo Bayou in Houston.

"I looks ’round Houston, but not long. It sho’was a dumpy little plaace then and I gets stagecoach to Austin. It takes us two days to get there and I thinks my back busted sho’ ’nough, it was sich rough ridin’. Then I has trouble sho’. A man asks me where I goin’ and says to come ’long and he takes me to a Mr. Charley Crosby. They takes me to the block what they sells slaves on. I gets right up like they tells me, ’cause I ’lects what Mr. Will done told me to do, and they starts biddin’ on me. And when they cried off and this Mr. Crosby come up to get me, I jes’ pulled out my papers and helt ’em up high and when he sees ’em, he say, ‘Let me see them’. But I says, ‘You jes’ look at it up here,’ And he squints up and say, ‘This gal am free and has papers,’ and tells me he a legislature man and takes me and lets me stay with his laves. He is a good man.

"He tells me there’s a slave refugee camp in Wharton County but I didn’t have no money left, but he pays me some for workin’ and when the war’s over I starts to hunt momma ’gain,and finds her in Wharton County near where Wharton is. Law me, talk ’bout cryin’ and singin’ and cryin’ some more, we sure done it. I stays with momma till I gets married in 1871 to John Armstrong.

Ex-Slave Mary Armstrong

New Testament

I Corinthians 1:7

So that ye come behind in no gift; waiting for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

7. Back of the Church

-Lord is in all places!

"Dey ain’t no whuppin’ on our place and on Sunday us all go to church, and Massa John do de preachin’. Dey rides in de buggy and us follow in de wagon. De white folks sets in front de church and us in back.

"I can’t tell you how long us stay at de college, ’zactly, but us moves to Warm Springs to take de baths and drink de water, in Scott County. Dat two, three years befo’ de war, and Massa John run de hotel and preach on Sunday. I think dere am three springs, one Sulphur water and one lime water and one a warm spring. I does a little bit of rverythin’ round de hotel, helps folks off de stage when it druv up, wait on table and sich. When I hears de horn blow - - you know, de stage driver blow it when dey top de hill ’bout two miles ’way, to let you know dey comin’ - - I sho’ hustle round and git ready to meet it, ’cause most times folks what I totes de grips for gives me something. Dat de first money I ever seed. Some de folks gives me de picayune - - dat what us call a nickel,