Jayhawkers
“I never heard my mother speak of jayhawkers, but I have heard her say that they used to catch the slaves when they were out. I don’t know whether it was jayhawkers or not. I don’t know what they done with them after they caught them. I have heard other people speak of jayhawkers. My people were very good to us. They never bothered my mother. She could go and come when she pleased and they would give her a pass any time she told them she wanted one.”
Really Scared to Death
“I know one thing my ma told me. When the soldiers came through, there was an old rebel eating breakfast at our place. He was a man that used to handcuff slaves and carry them off and sell them. He must have stolen them. When he heard that the Yankees were marching into town with all them bayonets shining, it scared him to death. He sat right there at the breakfast table and died. I don’t know his name, but he lived in Tennessee.”
Mother’s Work
“My mother was a cook and she knitted. She molded candles and milked the cows, and washed and ironed. She and her children were the only slaves they owned. They never whipped my mother at all. I stayed in the house. They kept me there. I never had to do anything but keep the flies off the table when they were eating.”
Schooling
“My grandfather gave me my schooling after I came here. I had come here in 1869. I went to school in Capitol Hill and Union Schools. Mrs. Hoover (white) was one of the teachers at Union School when I was there. She was a good teacher. Miss Lottie Andrews—she is a Stephens now—was another one of my teachers.”
How Freedom Came
“My master came right on the back porch and called my mother out and told her she was free, that he wasn’t going in no war. That was at the beginning when they were mustering in the soldiers to fight the War. And he didn’t go neither. She stayed with him till after emancipation. She was as free as she could be and he treated her as nice as anybody could be treated. She had the keys to everything.”