Slave Narratives: A Folk History of Slavery in the United States From Interviews with Former Slaves

Slave Narratives: A Folk History
of Slavery
by Work Projects
Administration

The Project Gutenberg EBook of Slave Narratives: A Folk History of
Slavery
in the United States From Interviews with Former Slaves, 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.org
Title: Slave Narratives: A Folk History of Slavery in the United States
From Interviews with Former Slaves Tennessee Narratives
Author: Work Projects Administration
Release Date: November 27, 2006 [EBook #19932]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ASCII
*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SLAVE
NARRATIVES ***

Produced by Diane Monico 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.)

[TR: ***] = Transcriber Note

[HW: ***] = Handwritten Note

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 XV
TENNESSEE NARRATIVES
Prepared by the Federal Writers' Project of the Works Progress
Administration for the State of Tennessee

INFORMANTS
Batson, Frances 1
Casey, Julia 3 Chappel, Cecelia 5 Childress, Wiley 9

Falls, Robert 11
Gaines, Rachel 17 Goole, Frankie 19 Gray, Precilla 24 Greer, Jenny 27
Grisham, Emma 28
Hudson, Measy 31 Hyde, Patsy 33
Kannon, Ellis Ken 37
Martin, Scott 40 Matthews, Ann 43 Moore, Rev. John 47 Moss,
Andrew 49 Moss, Mollie 55
Odell, Andy 60
Parker, Laura Ramsey 62
Reece, Naisy 64
Simpkins, Millie 66 Star, Joseph Leonidas 70
Thomas, Dan 74
Watkins, Sylvia 76
Young, Narcissus 80

INTERVIEW FRANCES BATSON 1213 Scovel St. Nashville,
Tennessee
"I dunno jes how ole I ez. I wuz baw'n 'yer in Nashville, durin' slabery.
I must be way pas' 90 fer I member de Yankee soldiers well. De
chilluns called dem de 'blue mans.' Mah white folks wuz named
Crockett. Dr. Crockett wuz our marster but I don't member 'im mahse'f.
He d'ed w'en I wuz small. Mah marster wuz mean ter mah mammy
w'en her oler chilluns would run 'way. Mah oler br'er went ter war wid
mah marster. Mah younger br'er run 'way, dey caught 'im, tuk 'im home
en whup'd 'im. He run 'way en wuz nebber found."

"We wuzn't sold but mah mammy went 'way, en lef' me en I got up one
mawnin' went ter mah mammy's room, she wuz gon'. I cried en cried
fer her. Mah Missis wouldn't let me outa' de house, fer fear I'd try ter
find her. Atter freedum mah br'er en a Yankee soldier kum in a waggin
en git us. Mah white folks sed, I don' see why you ez takin' dez chilluns.
Mah brudder said, 'We ez free now.' I member one whup'in mah missis
gib me. Me en her daughter slipped 'way ter de river ter fish. We kotch
a fish en mah missis had hit cooked fer us but whup'd us fer goin' ter de
river."
"Whar de Buena Vista schul ez hit useter be a Yankee soldiers Barrick.
Eber mawnin' dey hadder music. We chilluns would go on de hill,
(whar the bag mill ez now) en listen ter dem. I member a black hoss de
soldiers had, dat ef you called 'im Jeff Davis he would run you."
"I member de ole well on Cedar Street, neah de Capitol, en six mules
fell in hit. Dat wuz back w'en blackberries wuz growin' on de Capitol
Hill. En Morgan Park wuz called de pleasure gyarden. En hit wuz full
ob Yankee soldiers. Atter de war dere wuz so many German peeple
ober 'yer, dat fum Jefferson Street, ter Clay Street, wuz called Dutch
town."
"I wuzn't bawn w'en de sta'rs fell. We didn't git nothin' w'en we wuz
freed. Dunno much 'bout de Klu Klux Klan."
"Mah mammy useter tell me how de white folks would hire de slaves
out ter mek money fer de marster en she tole me sum ob de marsters
would hide dere slaves ter keep de Yankees fum gittin' dem."
"I don' b'leeve in white en black ma'iages. Mah sistah ma'ied a lite man.
I wouldin' marry one ef hit would turn me ter gold. Dunno nothin' 'bout
votin', allus tho't dat wuz fer de men."
"I can't think ob any tales er nuthin 'bout ghos'. 'Cept one 'bout a
marster tyin' a nigger ter a fence en wuz beatin' 'im. A Yankee kum
'long made 'im untie de