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

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

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Title: Slave Narratives: A Folk History of Slavery in the United States From Interviews with Former Slaves Georgia Narratives, Part 2
Author: Work Projects Administration
Release Date: July 28, 2007 [EBook #22166]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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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 IV GEORGIA NARRATIVES PART 2
Prepared by the Federal Writers' Project of the Works Progress Administration for the State of Georgia

INFORMANTS
Garey, Elisha Doc 1 Garrett, Leah 11 Gladdy, Mary 17 Gray, Sarah 28 Green, Alice 31, 38 Green, Isaiah (Isaac) 48, 57 Green, Margaret 60 Green, Minnie 64 Gresham, Wheeler 66 Griffin, Heard 72 Gullins, David Goodman 78
Hammond, Milton 91 Harmon, Jane Smith Hill 97 Harris, Dosia 103 Harris, Henderson 115 Harris, Shang 117 Hawkins, Tom 126 Heard, Bill 136 Heard, Emmaline 147, 154, 160 Heard, Mildred 165 Heard, Robert 170 Henderson, Benjamin 173 Henry, Jefferson Franklin 178 Henry, Robert 194 Hill, John 200 Hood, Laura 208 Hudson, Carrie 211 Hudson, Charlie 220 Huff, Annie 233 Huff, Bryant 238 Huff, Easter 244 Hunter, Lina 252 Hurley, Emma 273 Hutcheson, Alice 281
Jackson, Amanda 289 Jackson, Camilla 294 Jackson, Easter 299 Jackson, Snovey 303 Jake, Uncle 310 Jewel, Mahala 315 Johnson, Benjamin 322 Johnson, Georgia 327 Johnson, Manuel 337 Johnson, Susie 343 Jones, Estella 345 Jones, Fannie 351 Jones, Rastus 356

+------------------------------------------------------------------------+ |[TR:] = Transcriber Note | | | |[HW:] = Handwritten Note | | | |Every effort was made to faithfully reflect the distinctive character of| |this document. Some obvious typographic errors have been corrected. The | |above notes are placed inline, to cover all other unusual comments. | +------------------------------------------------------------------------+

PLANTATION LIFE as viewed by ex-slave
ELISHA DOC GAREY 258 Lyndon Avenue Athens, Georgia
Written by: Sadie B. Hornsby Athens --
Edited by: Sarah H. Hall Athens --
and
John N. Booth District Supervisor Federal Writers' Project Res. 6 & 7 Augusta, Ga.
Asked for the story of his early life and his recollections of slavery, Elisha replied: "Yes Ma'am, 'deed I'll tell you all I knows 'bout dem days." His next words startled the interviewer. "I knowed you was comin' to write dis jedgment," he said. "I seed your hand writin' and long 'fore you got here I seed you jus' as plain as you is now. I told dese folks what I lives wid, a white 'oman was comin' to do a heap of writin'.
"I was born on de upper edge of Hart County, near Shoal Crick. Sarah Anne Garey was my Ma and I was one of dem shady babies. Dere was plenty of dat kind in dem times. My own sister was Rachel, and I had a half sister named Sallie what was white as anybody. John, Lindsay, David, and Joseph was my four brothers.
"What did us chillun do? Us wukked lak hosses. Didn't nobody eat dar 'less dey wukked. I'se been wukkin' ever since I come in dis world.
"Us lived in log huts. Evvy hut had a entry in de middle, and a mud chimbly at each end. Us slep' in beds what was 'tached to de side of de hut, and dey was boxed up lak wagon bodies to hold de corn shucks and de babies in. Home-made rugs was put on top of de shucks for sheets, and de kivver was de same thing.
"I still 'members my grandma Rachel. De traders fotched her here f'um Virginny, and she never did learn to talk plain. Grandma Sallie Gaines was too old for field wuk, so she looked atter de slave babies whilst deir Ma's was wukkin' in de field. Grandpa Jack Gaines was de shoemaker.
"Most of de time I was up at de big house waitin' on our white folks, huntin' eggs, pickin' up chips, makin' fires, and little jobs lak dat. De onliest way I could find to make any money in dem days was to sell part'idges what I cotched in traps to dem Yankees what was allus passin' 'round. Dey paid me ten cents apiece for part'idges and I might have saved more