| PAGE. | |
| [CHAPTER I] | |
|---|---|
| Correct Date of Birth.—Reasons Ex-Slaves Cannot givetheir Ages.—Childhood Days in Slavery.—Emigrationto Missouri in 1844.—Return to Virginia in1847.—Life in the New Country.—Hunting, Fishingand Playing.—Treed by Wild Hogs.—NarrowEscape from Abolitionists at Cincinnati, Ohio, andService as a Slave for Seventeen Years Thereafter asa Result | [11] |
| [CHAPTER II] | |
| Happy Days Spent Till Thirteen Years Old.—The OldMillpond and the Trusted Old Slave Miller.—SlaveChildren Treated Tenderly and Kindly.—Overseer’sBrutality Checked by Old Mistress.—Whipped onAccount of a Lie Told by a Poor White Man.—Statusof Poor White Trash.—Fewer Liberties ThanSlaves.—No Association or Intermarriage with theRuling Class.—Hauled to the Polls and Forced toVote as the Master Class Directed.—Poor Whites asWell as the Slaves Freed by the War.—Both ClassesEqually Illiterate.—The Old Master Class and theColored People Can Live in Peace, were it not forthe Poor White Trash | [24] |
| [CHAPTER III] | |
| Runaway Negroes.—Cause and Effect.—Some Dangerousto Capture.—Mean Masters and Good Ones.—TheGood and the Mean Slave.—The Unruly andFighting Class, Who Would not Submit.—Inferiorand Superior Blood and How Divided.—The TypicalPoor Whites Have Inferior Blood in TheirVeins.—Superior Blood in Slave Veins.—How SuperiorBlooded Slaves Took in Their Situation andSpent Life in Their Master’s Service and are theBetter Class of Colored Citizens To-day.—BloodWill Tell, Regardless of the Color of the Individualin Whose Veins it Flows | [32] |
| [CHAPTER IV] | |
| Visit to the Old Home, July, 1893.—Great Changes Since1849.—Plantations Deserted.—Masters and SlavesGone.—Land Returned Almost to Primeval Condition.—FewOld Inhabitants Found.—Old MajorStill Active at Ninety-five Years.—That old PublicHighway, that was the Pride of the Community.—Its{vii}Old Bed Cut in Gullies or Grown up in Forest.—WhatRailroads Have Done for that Country andthe South | [43] |
| [CHAPTER V] | |
| Extent to Which Education Has Stamped Out Belief inSuperstition, Voodooism, Tricking and ConjuringAmong Colored People.—More Dense the Ignorancethe More Prosperous the Business of the Conjurer.—AllPains and Aches Due to Tricking.—ConjurersBoast of Their Ability to do the Impossible,and How They Were Feared.—A Live ScorpionTaken Out of a Man’s Leg.—A Noted Old ConjurerPlaces His “Jack” Under the Master’s DoorStep, Which Prevents Him from Carrying His Slavesout of the Country.—Slaves in Missouri not Believersin Voodooism Much.—Indians Believe inSpirit Dance, Colored in Voodooism and the WhitePeople in Witchcraft | [52] |
| [CHAPTER VI] | |
| Carried to the Cotton Fields of Mississippi in 1849.—CottonPicking Under a Mean Overseer and Method ofTreatment.—Good Masters Even in That State.—MasterDecides to Carry His Slaves Back to Missouri,Which Causes Great Rejoicing.—HandshakingWhen they Reached Brunswick, Mo.—Work ina Tobacco Factory.—Positive Refusal to go withMaster to Texas in 1855.—His Anger, but Final Acquiescence.—PleasantLife in Tobacco Factories BecauseMaster did not whip his Slaves nor Allow it tobe Done by Others.—White and Colored preachers.—Rev.Uncle Tom Ewing and his ObjectionablePrayer.—Virtue and Marital Relations Encouragedby Masters Among Slaves.—High Toned Slaves.—Deathby Suicide rather than Disgrace | [60] |
| [CHAPTER VII] | |
| Status of Free Negroes in Missouri Prior to the War.—Hadbut Little More Liberties than Slaves.—Guardiansto Attend to their Business.—Could not LeaveHome without a Pass.—Free Davy an Exception.—Respectedand Treated like a Man by all who KnewHim.—Blood will Tell and he had Superior Blood.—FreeBorn People Considered Themselves Betterthan Those Freed by the War.—Bitter Feeling Betweenthe two Classes ended Several Years after theWar.—The War Freed Both Classes.—Rev. Jesse{viii}Mills and Rev. Moses White, Ex-Slaves and Failureto get Assignments.—Rev. W. A. Moore and J. W.Wilson, Ex-Slaves Occupying good Charges | [76] |
| [CHAPTER VIII] | |
| Life on a Farm and Master hard to Please.—SlavesRaised their Own Crop which Master sold for Them.—GoodOld Father Ashby Treated his SlavesKindly while Rev. S. J. M. Beebe was the MeanestMaster in the Neighborhood.—Chas. Cabell, CalledHard Master.—Personal Experience Shows he had aLazy lot of Slaves.—Ill-treated beast of Burden andIll-treated Slaves are much Alike.—Dan Kellogg asa Free Sailer Before the War and as a Rebel BushwhackerDuring it | [82] |
| [CHAPTER IX] | |
| Campaign of 1860, more Exciting than the Hard CiderOne of 1840.—Bob Toombs’ Declaration.—Split inthe National Democratic Party at Charleston, S. C.,April 23, 1860.—Cause and Results.—LincolnElected.—Missouri’s Vote for S. A. Douglass.—HigherPower than Man in Control.—All ClassesSuffered by the War, but Neutrals Most.—Poor IlliterateWhites out as Patrols to Keep Slaves Quiet.—Funwith those Patrols who Could not Read Passes.—LindseyWatts, and How He Fooled Them.—WhoSet the Town on Fire?—No Judas AmongSlaves.—They Believed the War was for their Freedom.—BestBlood Went South to Shoot and beShot at While Cowards Remained as Bushwhackers.—JamesLong, the Original Lincoln Man.—HisMisfortune a Blessing.—Slave Property a DeadWeight to Owners After 1862.—Business of NegroTraders at an End for Ever.—Master’s Slave his bestFriend After All.—Master’s Property Stolen byWhite Thieves in Uncle Sam’s Uniform.—YoungMaster Returns after the War, Broken in Health,Cash and Disfranchised | [93] |
| [CHAPTER X] | |
| Enlistment of Colored Troops at Brunswick, Mo., from1863 to the Close of the War and how Assigned.—Mastergave his Slaves free Passes to Induce them toRemain with Him and out of the Army.—Contractto Remain with Him One Year Broken, and theCause.—Elopement with the Girl I Loved.—ExcitingChase Thirty Miles on Horseback, Armed with{ix}a Pair of Colt’s Navies.—Pursued by the Girl’sMaster and His Friends.—Laclede Reached in Safetyand Pursuers Fooled.—Full History of Flight,Escape, Marriage by Rev. John Turner of Leavenworth,Kansas.—Visit to Old Master in January,1865.—Found him Dejected.—Farm Rifled by ThievesDressed as Soldiers, but They Left Him the Land | [107] |
| [CHAPTER XI] | |
| New Problem to Solve.—Self Sustenance and Economy.—AllBills to Pay and Furnish Necessaries.—DifferenceBetween White Men in a Free State and OldMaster Class in Dealing with Ex-Slaves.—GreatConfidence in the Word of Old Master Class, WhoWould Not Lie to Slaves.—Cheated by White Menin Kansas.—Has Old Master Class Degenerated?—ColoredPeople set Free Without a Dollar or NextMeal and Told to “Root Hog or Die” by a GreatChristian Nation.—Who Made this Country Tenablefor the White Man and Whose Service BroughtMillions of Dollars to it, which Benefited the Northas well as the South?—Jealousy of Unskilled WhiteLaborers caused Prejudice Against Colored People.—PoorWhite Trash and Foreign Laborers are theColored People’s Enemies.—Irish Enmity and theCause.—Similar past History Should have Madethem Friends, Rather than Enemies.—Lynching notDone by Old Master Class.—Opening of the Eyes ofthe Old Master Class.—Is it Too Late? | [112] |
| [CHAPTER XII] | |
| The Progress Made by the Colored People, Morally, from1865 to 1894.—They are the Equals in Scholarship ofany Other Class of Students.—There is no Such Thingas a Negro Race in This Country.—They are ColoredAmericans, Nothing More.—This is TheirHome and They Are Here to Stay by the Will ofGod.—Old Flag is His.—He has Defended it in thePast and Will Defend it Again.—He Will Stand orFall With the Loyalist.—How Colored FamiliesWere Established.—Their Names.—They are theEquals of any Other Class With no More Cash.—Contentedand Faithful Laborers.—They are NotAnarchists, But can be Relied Upon in Case of War.—CanSame be Said of Other Adopted Citizens?—TheNegro Will Stand by the True Americans in allCases.—Why Should Colored Loyalists Suffer{10}Injustice at the Hands of the American People?—NotTreated Fairly by the Press.—Injustice of MineOwners and Manufacturers.—All the Colored PeopleAsk of the Americans is Fair Play in the Race ofLife, With its Other Adopted Citizens | [128] |
| [CHAPTER XIII] | |
| The Colored People are Charged with Being Imitatorsand it is Admitted.—Mistakes made by FollowingWhite People.—Advice Given in Good Faith.—TheHand Should be Trained With the Head.—Have weas Many Colored Artisans Now as we had at theClose of the War?—History of Tuskeegee IndustrialInstitute and its Founder.—How Managed.—Not aWhite Man in It.—$15,000, Donated to it by aSouthern White Woman, Descendent of the OldMaster Class.—Similar Institutions Springing up inthe Southland | [137] |
| [CHAPTER XIV] | |
| Need of Money and How to Get It.—Business Housesand How to Sustain Them.—Take the Jew for aPattern.—We are Producers.—He Is Not, yet AccumulatesCapital.—Our Preachers, Teachers and LeadersShould Lead us to be a United People.—Prejudicedue to Condition, not Color.—We are Responsiblefor our Children’s Idle Condition.—Failure toEducate the Hand as Well as the Head.—WhiteMen Have Used the Advantage we Gave them.—Dutyof Our Ministers not Fulfilled.—We CannotAlways Rely Upon White Philanthropists, But MustHelp Ourselves | [143] |
| [CHAPTER XV] | |
| Went Into Business in 1866, Which was Destroyed byFire With Great Loss.—Reopened and Burnt OutAgain, Losing Six Hundred Dollars.—Reopenedand After Three Years Failed.—Went Into Politicsand Beaten by Twenty-Five Votes by Ex GovernorGlick, For the Kansas Legislature.—Pressed forCash to Buy Bread.—Elected Doorkeeper StateSenate in 1881.—Foreman on Construction Train, A.N. R. R.—Appointed to Position at Washington.—PromotedThree Times.—Personal Experience inPension Office.—Different Commissioners Compared.—Gen.J. C. Black, the Ideal One.—Advice to NewAppointees and What They May Expect.—Life inWashington as a Clerk.—Old Clerks are the Reliablesand Cannot be Displaced | [155] |
CHAPTER I.
My mother often told me that I was born, March 3rd, of the year that Martin Van Buren was elected President of the United States, and I have therefore always regarded March 3rd, 1836, as the date of my birth. Those who are familiar with the customs that obtained at the South in the days of slavery, will readily understand why so few of the ex-slaves can give the correct date of their birth, for, being uneducated, they were unable to keep records themselves, and their masters, having no special interest in the matter, saw no necessity for such records. So that the slave parents, in order to approximate the birth of a child, usually associated it with the occurrence of some important event, such, for instance, as “the year the stars fell,” (1833), the death of some prominent man, the marriage of one of the master’s children, or some notable historical event. Thus by recalling any one of these occurrences, the age of their own children was determined. Not being able to read and write, they were compelled to resort to the next best thing within reach, memory, the only diary in which the records of their marriages, births and deaths were registered, and which was also the means by which their mathematical problems were solved, their accounts kept, when they had any to keep.
Of course there were thousands of such cases as E. M. Dillard’s, the one which I shall mention, but as his case will represent theirs, I will speak of his only. He was an intimate acquaintance of mine, a man born a slave, freed by the emancipation proclamation when over thirty years old, without even a knowledge of the alphabet, but he had a practical knowledge of men and business matters, which enabled him to acquire a comfortable living, a nice home, to educate his children and conduct a small business of his own. But the greatest wonder about this man was the exactness and correct business way in which he conducted it in buying and selling, and especially in casting up accounts, seemingly with care, accuracy, and rapidity as any educated man could have done. But it was the result of a good memory and a full share of brain.
The memories of slaves were simply wonderful. They were not unmindful, nor indifferent as to occurrences of interest transpiring around them, but as the principal medium through which we obtain information was entirely closed to them, of course their knowledge of matters and things must necessarily have been confined within a very narrow limit; but when anything of importance transpired within their knowledge, they knowing the date thereof, could, by reference to it as a basis, approximate the date of some other event in question. Then there were a great many old men among them that might be called sages, men who knew the number of days in each month, in each year, could tell the exact date when Easter and Whit Sunday would come, because most masters gave Monday following each of these Sundays as a holiday to slaves.
These old sages determined dates by means of straight marks and notches, made on a long stick with a knife, and were quite accurate in arriving at correct dates. I have often seen the sticks upon which they kept their records, but failed to understand the system upon which they based their calculations, yet I found them eminently correct. It was too intricate for me.
My parents belonged to Lemuel Bruce, who died about the year 1836, leaving two children, William Bruce and Rebecca Bruce, who went to live with their aunt, Mrs. Prudence Perkinson; he also left two families of slaves, and they were divided between his two children; my mother’s family fell to Miss Rebecca, and the other family, the head of which was known as Bristo, was left to William B. Bruce. Then it was that family ties were broken, the slaves were all hired out, my mother to one man and my father to another. I was too young then to know anything about it, and have to rely entirely on what I have heard my mother and others older than myself say.
My personal recollections go back to the year 1841, when my mother was hired to a lady, Mrs. Ludy Waddel by name. Miss Rebecca Bruce married Mr. Pettis Perkinson, and soon after her slaves were taken to their new home, then known as the Rowlett Place, at which point we began a new life. It is but simple justice to Mr. Perkinson to say, that though springing from a family known in that part of the country as hard task-masters, he was himself a kind and considerate man. His father had given him some ten or twelve slaves, among whom were two boys about my own age. As we were quite young, we were tenderly treated.
To state that slave children under thirteen years of age were tenderly treated probably requires further explanation. During the crop season in Virginia, slave men and women worked in the fields daily, and such females as had sucklings were allowed to come to them three times a day between sun rise and sun set, for the purpose of nursing their babes, who were left in the care of an old woman, who was assigned to the care of these children because she was too old or too feeble for field work. Such old women usually had to care for, and prepare the meals of all children under working age. They were furnished with plenty of good, wholesome food by the master, who took special care to see that it was properly cooked and served to them as often as they desired it.