Slave Narratives: A Folk History of Slavery in the United States | Page 5

ship cattle. These men were called "Nigger-traders" and they
would ship whole boat loads at a time, buying them up, two or three
here, two or three there, and holding them in a jail until they had a boat
load. This practice gave rise to the expression, "sold down the river."
My father was to be sold at auction, along with all of the rest of Zeke
Samples' property. Bob Cowherd, a neighbor of Matt Duret's owned
my grandfather, and the old man, my grandfather, begged Col. Bob to
buy my father from Zeke Samples to keep him from being "sold down

the river." Col. Bob offered what he thought was a fair price for my
father and a "nigger-trader" raised his bid "25 [TR: $25?]. Col. said he
couldn't afford to pay that much and father was about to be sold to the
"nigger-trader" when his father told Col. Bob that he had $25 saved up
and that if he would buy my father from Samples and keep the
"nigger-trader" from getting him he would give him the money. Col.
Bob Cowherd took my grandfather's $25 and offered to meet the
traders offer and so my father was sold to him.
The negroes in and around where I was raised were not treated badly,
as a rule, by their masters. There was one slave owner, a Mr. Heady,
who lived nearby, who treated his slave worse than any of the other
owners but I never heard of anything so awfully bad, happening to his
"niggers". He had one boy who used to come over to our place and I
can remember hearing Massa Williams call to my grandmother, to cook
"Christine, give Heady's Doc something to eat. He looks hungry."
Massa Williams always said "Heady's Doc" when speaking of him or
any other slave, saying to call him, for instance, Doc Heady would
sound as if he were Mr. Heady's own son and he said that wouldn't
sound right.
When President Lincoln issued his proclamation, freeing the negroes, I
remember that my father and most all of the other younger slave men
left the farms to join the Union army. We had hard times then for
awhile and had lots of work to do. I don't remember just when I first
regarded myself as "free" as many of the negroes didn't understand just
what it was all about.
Ed. Note: Mrs. Crane will also pose for a picture.

Submitted by: William Webb Tuttle District No. 2 Muncie, Indiana
SLAVES IN DELAWARE COUNTY ROSA BARBER 812 South
Jefferson Muncie, Indiana
Rosa Barber was born in slavery on the Fox Ellison plantation at North
Carden[TR:?], in North Carolina, in the year 1861. She was four
[HW: ?] years old when freed, but had not reached the age to be of
value as a slave. Her memory is confined to that short childhood there
and her experiences of those days and immediately after the Civil War
must be taken from stories related to her by her parents in after years,
and these are dimly retained.

Her maiden name was Rosa Fox Ellison, taken as was the custom, from
the slave-holder who held her as a chattel. Her parents took her away
from the plantation when they were freed and lived in different
localities, supported by the father who was now paid American wages.
Her parents died while she was quite young and she married Fox
Ellison, an ex-slave of the Fox Ellison plantation. His name was taken
from the same master as was hers. She and her husband lived together
forty-three years, until his death. Nine children were born to them of
which only one survives. After this ex-slave husband died Rosa Ellison
married a second time, but this second husband died some years ago
and she now remains a widow at the age of seventy-six years. She
recalls that the master of the Fox Ellison plantation was spoken of as
practicing no extreme discipline on his slaves. Slaves, as a prevailing
business policy of the holder, were not allowed to look into a book, or
any printed matter, and Rosa had no pictures or printed charts given her.
She had to play with her rag dolls, or a ball of yarn, if there happened
to be enough of old string to make one. Any toy or plaything was
allowed that did not point toward book-knowledge. Nursery rhymes
and folk-lore stories were censured severely and had to be confined to
events that conveyed no uplift, culture or propaganda, or that conveyed
no knowledge, directly or indirectly. Especially did they bar the mental
polishing of the three R's. They could not prevent the vocalizing of
music in the fields and the slaves found consolation there in pouring
out their souls in unison with the