My Life in the South | Page 4

generally completed three-quarters of an hour
before our guests came, we were placed in line, the boys together and
the girls by themselves. We were then drilled in the art of addressing
our expected visitors. The boys were required to bend the body forward
with head down, and rest the body on the left foot, and scrape the right
foot backward on the ground, while uttering the words, "how dy Massie
and Missie." The girls were required to use the same words,
accompanied with a courtesy. But when Master and Mistress had left,
the little African wools were neglected until the news of their next visit.
Our sand-hill days were very pleasant, outside of the seldom changed
diet, namely the mush, which we had sometimes to eat with molasses,
the treatment of Gilbert, and the attempt to straighten out our unruly
wools.
I said that my father was brought from Africa when but a boy, and was
sold to old Col. Dick Singleton; and when the children were of age, the
Colonel divided his plantations among them, and father fell to Col.
M.K. Singleton, who was the second son.
On this large plantation there were 465 slaves; there were not so many
when it was given to Col. M.R., but increased to the above stated

number, up to the time of emancipation.
My father was not a field hand; my first recollection of him was that he
used to take care of hogs and cows in the swamp, and when too old for
that work he was sent to the plantation to take care of horses and mules,
as master had a great many for the use of his farm.
I have stated that father said that his father's name in Africa was
Moncoso, and his mother's Mongomo, but I never learned what name
he went by before he was brought to this country. I only know that he
stated that Col. Dick Singleton gave him the name of William, by
which he was known up to the day of his death. Father had a surname,
Stroyer, which he could not use in public, as the surname Stroyer
would be against the law; he was known only by the name of William
Singleton, because that was his master's name. So the title Stroyer was
forbidden him, and could be used only by his children after the
emancipation of the slaves.
There were two reasons given by the slave holders why they did not
allow a slave to use his own name, but rather that of the master. The
first was that, if he ran away, he would not be so easily detected by
using his own name as by that of his master. The second was that to
allow him to use his own name would be sharing an honor which was
due only to his master, and that would be too much for a negro, said
they, who was nothing more than a servant. So it was held as a crime
for a slave to be caught using his own name, a crime which would
expose him to severe punishment. But thanks be to God that those days
have passed, and we now live under the sun of liberty.
MOTHER.
Mother's name was Chloe. She belonged to Col. M.R. Singleton too;
she was a field hand, and never was sold, but her parents were once.
Mr. Crough who, as I have said had owned this plantation on which
mother lived, had sold the plantation to Col. Dick Singleton, with
mother's parents on it, before she was born.
Most of the family from which mother came, had trades of some kind;
some were carpenters, some were blacksmiths, some house servants,
and others were made drivers over the other negroes. Of course the
negro drivers would be under a white man, who was called the overseer.
Sometimes the negro drivers were a great deal worse to their fellow
negroes than were the white men.

Mother had an uncle by the name of Esau, whom master thought more
of than he did of the overseer. Uncle Esau was more cruel than was any
white man master ever had on his plantation. Many of the slaves used
to run away from him into the woods. I have known some of the
negroes to run away from the cruel treatment of Uncle Esau, and to stay
off eight or ten months. They were so afraid of him that they used to
say that they would rather see the devil than to see him; they were glad
when he died. But while so much was said of Uncle Esau, which was
also true of many other negro drivers, the overseers themselves were
not guiltless of cruelty to the defenceless slaves.
I have said that most of the