Slave Narratives: A Folk History of Slavery in the United States | Page 7

good worker and was never mistreated by his master. He
married my mother in 1825, and they had eighteen children. Master
Miley Boone gave father and mother their freedom in 1829, and gave
them forty acres of land to tend as their own. He paid father for all the
work he did for him after that, and was always very kind to them.
My mother was born in slavery, in Marion County, Kentucky, in 1802.
She was treated very mean until she married my father in 1825. With
him she gained her freedom in 1829. I was the last born of her eighteen
children. She was a good woman and joined church after coming to
Indiana and died in 1917, living to be one hundred and fifteen years
old.

I have heard my mother tell of a girl slave who worked in the kitchen of
my mother's master. The girl was told to cook twelve eggs for breakfast.
When the eggs were served, it was discovered there were eleven eggs
on the table and after being questioned, she admitted that she had eaten
one. For this, she was beaten mercilessly, which was a common sight
on that plantation.
The most terrible treatment of any slave, is told by my father in a story
of a slave on a neighboring plantation, owned by Daniel Thompson.
"After committing a small wrong, Master Thompson became angry,
tied his slave to a whipping post and beat him terribly. Mrs. Thompson
begged him to quit whipping, saying, 'you might kill him,' and the
master replied that he aimed to kill him. He then tied the slave behind a
horse and dragged him over a fifty acre field until the slave was dead.
As a punishment for this terrible deed, master Thompson was
compelled to witness the execution of his own son, one year later. The
story is as follows:
A neighbor to Mr. Thompson, a slave owner by name of Kay Van
Cleve, had been having some trouble with one of his young male slaves,
and had promised the slave a whipping. The slave was a powerful man
and Mr. Van Cleve was afraid to undertake the job of whipping him
alone. He called for help from his neighbors, Daniel Thompson and his
son Donald. The slave, while the Thompsons were coming, concealed
himself in a horse-stall in the barn and hid a large knife in the manger.
After the arrival of the Thompsons, they and Mr. Van Cleve entered the
stall in the barn. Together, the three white men made a grab for the
slave, when the slave suddenly made a lunge at the elder Mr.
Thompson with the knife, but missed him and stabbed Donald
Thompson.
The slave was overpowered and tied, but too late, young Donald was
dead.
The slave was tried for murder and sentenced to be hanged. At the time
of the hanging, the first and second ropes used broke when the trap was
sprung. For a while the executioner considered freeing the slave
because of his second failure to hang him, but the law said, "He shall
hang by the neck until dead," and the third attempt was successful."

Federal Writers' Project of the W.P.A. District #6 Marion County Anna

Pritchett 1200 Kentucky Avenue, Indianapolis, Indiana
FOLKLORE MRS. JULIA BOWMAN--EX-SLAVE 1210 North West
Street, Indianapolis, Indiana
Mrs. Bowman was born in Woodford County, Kentucky in 1859.
Her master, Joel W. Twyman was kind and generous to all of his slaves,
and he had many of them.
The Twyman slaves were always spoken of, as the Twyman
"Kinfolks."
All slaves worked hard on the large farm, as every kind of vegetation
was raised. They were given some of everything that grew on the farm,
therefore there was no stealing to get food.
The master had his own slaves, and the mistress had her own slaves,
and all were treated very kindly.
Mrs. Bowman was taken into the Twyman "big house," at the age of six,
to help the mistress in any way she could. She stayed in the house until
slavery was abolished.
After freedom, the old master was taken very sick and some of the
former slaves were sent for, as he wanted some of his "Kinfolks"
around him when he died.
Interviewer's Comment
Mrs. Bowman was given the Twyman family bible where her birth is
recorded with the rest of the Twyman family. She shows it with pride.
Mrs. Bowman said she never knew want in slave times, as she has
known it in these times of depression.
Submitted January 10, 1938 Indianapolis, Indiana

Wm. R. Mays Dist 4 Johnson Co.
ANGIE BOYCE BORN IN SLAVERY, Mar. 14, 1861 on the Breeding
Plantation, Adair Co. Ky.
Mrs. Angie Boyce here makes mention of facts as outlined to her