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364 NW 8th St., Miami, Fla.
1 Where, and about when, were you born? In Perry, Ca. in 1844.
2 If you were born on a plantation or farm, what sort of farming section was it in? Ole Dr. Jameson's plantation near Perry, Ca. north of Macon.
1 3. How did you pass the time as a child? What sort of chores did you do and what did you play?
2 I worked around the table in my Massy's dining room, I didn't play. I sometimes pulled threads for mother. She was a fine seamstress for the plantation.
3 Was your master kind to you? Yes; I was the pot.
4 How many slaves were there on the same plantation or farm? He must have had about 400 slaves.
1 6. Do you remember what kind of cooking utensils your mother used?
2 We had copper kettles, crocks, and iron kettles. "I waited on de table when Lincun came dare. That day we had chicken hash and batter cakes and dried venison."
3 7. What wore your main foods and how were they cooked?
4 We had everything that was good (I are in my Massy's kitchen) Sweet potatoes biscuits, corn bread, pies and everything we eat now.
5 Do you remember making imitation or substitute coffee by grinding up corn or peanuts? No, we always had the best of Java coffee. I used to grind it in the coffee mill for my Massy.
6 Do you remember ever having, when you were young, any other kind of bread besides corn bread? Yes. Batter cakes, biscuits and white broad.
1 10. Do you remember evaporating sea water to get salt?
2 No. We did not live so far from Macon and the Ole Doctor he was rich and bought such things. That is new he come to be so rich. He didn't charge the poor folks when he doctored then, but they would be so glad that he made them well that they kop' a givin' him things, bed quilts, chichone, just ever' thing. Then he had such a big plantation about 200 or 300 acres, but I didn't live on the plantation. I worked in his home.
3 11. When you were a child, what sort of stove do you remember your mother having. Did they have a hanging pot in the fire place, and did they make their candles of their own tallow?
4 My mother did not cook, - she was a special seamstress servant. They had fireplaces on the plantation and they always used tallow candles at the doctor's place until after the 'mancipation, then the doctor was one of the first ones to buy coal oil lamps.
5 12. Did you use an open well or pump to get the water?
6 No, we went to the spring to get the water. We toted it in cedar bucket. The spring was boxed into a well shaped hole, deep enough to dip the water out of it. It was the best water. They had a town pump at Macon.
7 Do you remember when you first saw ice in regular form? Yes. They had icicles in Georgia.
8 Did your family work in the rice fields or in the cotton fields on the farm, or what sort of work did they do? My father was a blacksmith. He did all kinds of blacksmithing. No even made plows.
1 15. If they worked in the house or about the place, what sort of work did they do?
2 My mother was one of the best seamstresses; she sewed all day long with her fingers. She made the finest silk dresses and even made tailored suits.
3 16. Do you remember ever helping tan and cure hides and pig hides?
4 They did those things on the plantation. They cured goat skins and sheep skins, too. The sheep skins would dry so slowly that they would let the slaves lie on them at night to keep them warm and hasten the drying.
5 17. As a young person what sort of work did you do? If you helped your mother around the house or cut firewood or swept the yard, say so.
6 I cleaned and dusted and waited on the table, made beds and put everything in odor, washed dishes, polished silverware and did the most trusty work.
7 18. When you were a child do you remember how people wove cloth, or spun thread, or picked out co ton seed, on weighed to ton, or what sort of bag was used on the co ton bales? I did not need to spin but I used to play with the spinning wheels. They ginned the cotton on the plantation. They used a horse to mull the gin.
8 They weighed the cotton with a beam and weight. A good slave picked 200 lbs. of cotton a day. Nancy could pick 3 or 400 lbs day. She'd go out early in the day and run in ahead of the sun and no one would know she had been out. That's how she would get ahead of the rest.
9 19. Do you remember what sort of soap they used? How did they get the lye for making the soap?
10 They made soft soap boiled in a big kettle They made the lye out of ashes packed in an old barrel that bad a hole in the bottom. They would made a hollow in the top of the barrel and pour rain water in it. This would gradually soak through the ashes and seep out of the bottom of the barrel which they tipped up so that it would drain the lye out into a vassal. Then they would take the lye and boll it in the kettle with old grease and meat rinds. The lye as very strong. They had to be careful not to get any of it on their hands or it would take the skin off. As they would stir the grease and lye it would foam and cook like a jelly and when it cooled we had soft soap. It would sure chase the dirt, but it was hard on the hands.
11 What did they use for dyeing thread and cloth, and how did they dye them? They would dig indigo roots and cook the roots and branches for blue dye. For purple they mired red and blue. They would pick the berries off the gallberrg bushes for rod. The robin's yellow and mixed yellow and rod for orange; and fellow and blue for green.
1 21. Did your mother use big, wooden washtubs with out-out holes on each side for the fingers?
2 Yes. We made cedar tubs on the plantation. And we had some men what made large wooden bowls out of juggles out from logs of the tupla tree. They would run them through a machine and they would come out round and then they would smooth them down. They mixed broad in those big bowls.
3 22. Do your remember the way they made shoes by hand int the country?
4 Yes, all our shoes were made on the plantation.
5 23. Do you remember saving the o' chicken feathers and goose feathers always for your featherbeds?
6 Yes.
7 24. Do you remember when women wore hoops in their skirts, and wen they stopped wearing them and wore narrow skirts?
8 Yes. The doctor's folks were so stylish that they would not lot the servants wear hoops, but we could got the old ones that they threw away and have a big time playing with them and we would go around with them on when they were gone and couldn't see us.
9 25. Do you remember when you fir t saw your first windmill?
10 Never did see one.
11 26. Do you remember when you first saw bed springs instead of bed ropes?
12 Yes. When I was a slaw, I slept in a gunny sack bunk with the sacks nailed against the well on two sides, in a corner of the room and them there was a post at the corner of the bed and two pales nailed from the post to the walls and the gunny sacks were nailed to those poles. My bed was a two-story bed. There was another gunnysack bed above me with poles fastened to the same post. We tore old rags and made rag rags for quilts to cover us with. I worked in the doctor's house in the daytime but I had to sleep in the shed at night. Than after I wasn't a slave no more, I never slop on anything else bat a rope bad. When springs cans I wondered what anyone wanted wid 'em. Rope beds was good enough.
13 27. When did you see the first buggy and what did it look like?
14 The doctor, he had the best of such things. He had a regular buggy and sometime she driv two horses in hit. Uncle Albert, he was his driver. When the doctor wanted to put on great style, and go to the station to meet some rich company he had one of these fancy cabs with the driver sittin' up high in front, but when he went to see his patients, he'd take his feet to go round. He had two saddle pecks with a strap that he would threw over his shoulder. He would have one pack banging in front and the other hanging behind.
15 28. Do you remember your grandparents?
16 No, my mother's mother was taken from her and sold when she was a baby. So I never seed my grandmother and I don't know any more about my grandfather than a goose about a band box.
17 Do you remember the money called "shin-plasters?" I've seen plenty. I guess my master had barrels of them.
1 30. What interesting historical events happended during your Youth, - such as Sherman's Army passing through your section? Hid you witness the happenings and what was the reaction of the other Negroes to them? Sherman's army went through
2 Perry but they did not do any damage there. They expected them to come and buried lots of food and valuable things, and when they came they took them to the smoke houses and told them to help themselves. They did not born any houses there.
3 31. Did you know any Negros who enlisted or joined the northern army?
4 Yes, plenty went with their boss, but ran off to Sherman's army when he came along. One woman's husband I knowed, Mr. Bothal, he stayed with his master and didn't run off with the Northern army. When he was given his freedom, his master give him nice house.
5 Did you know any Negroes who enlisted in the Southern Army? About all I knew.
1 33. Did your master join the Confederacy? What do you remember of his return from the war? Or was he wounded or killed?
2 His two sons joined the army. James was killed, but Bud, he would never get through telling war stories when he same back.
3 34. Did you live in Savannah when Sherman and the Northern fordes marked through the state, and do you remember the excitement in your town or around the plantation where you lived?
4 No.
5 Did your master's house get robbed or burned during the time of Sherman's march? No.
6 What kind of uniforms did they wear during the civil war? Blue and gray.
1 37. What sort of medicine was used in the days just after the war? Describe a Negro doctor of that period.
2 We never got sick. Sometimes they would give us oil with a drop or two of turpentine in a big spoonful. They put turpentine on outs and sores.
3 38. What do you remember about Northern people or outside people moving into a community after the war?
4 Yes, Jake Enos, he as a colored teacher. He was sent down to teach the colored school. He taught around from Atlanta to Florida. He took yellow fever and died My brother he teached school, but I never went to school. I larned my ABC's from my massy's children. I aint never forgot 'em. I could say 'em now.
5 39. How did your family's life compare after Emancipation with it before?
6 I had it the same. I had it good with my massy, but the rest was paid some little wages. Our plantation was called a free place. Some of the slaves worked so well and made money for the massy and gained their freedom even befo' 'mancipation. I heard one come to him and say I how dat man 810 an' he retched down in his pocket an' paid hit.
7 Do you know anything about political meetings and clubs formed after the war? I heered about do KuKluxers but I never did see none.
8 Do you know anything regarding the letters and stories from Negros who migrated north after the war? I hear talk 'bout some massas goin' arter dem an' bringin' back mor'n dey had in do fust place.
1 42. Were there any Negroes of our acquaintance who were skilled in any particular line of work, if so give details?
2 The Turaers made furniture wid logs an' bumps on just like that stand and bed. They made fancy chairs an' put cowhide seats stretch-across 'em.
3 43. What sort of school system was there for the instruction of the Negro? Were there any Negro ten hers in your community?
4 Yes. My son, he wont to Negro school three months any ar. The son said that he studied Webster's Speller, Harvey's Reader, learned his ABC's and studied some in history, geography and arithmetic.
5 How old were you at the close of the civil war? 21 years.
1 45. Describe the type of early religious meeting, the preachers, etc.
2 I went to town to my massy's church. I sat 'long side on 'em and held the baby. My father, he hold meetings on the plantation and prayer meetings just like they have now.
3 Do your friends believe in charms and conjure bags, and what bas been their experience with magic and spells? I guess some claim dey believe in sech things, but I don't know whether they do or not.
1 47. Did you ever use an ox to plow with? that kind of plow?
2 Yes, I see 'em plow wid oxen. Dey used the kind of plows they made on the plantation, I didn't plow, but I used to have fun a goin' roun' in the old ox two-wheel wagon cart. I'd go down de hill in it; we'd get in the dump cart and holler an' have a big time.
3 How much did various foods and drinks and commodities cost just at the end of the war and afterwards? I don't know what things cost.
Taswell, Salena -- Additional Interview Salena Taswell, 364 NW 8th St. Miami, Florida, is one of the oldest ex-slave women in Miami. Like most ex-slaves
she is very courteous; she will talk about the "old times", if she has once gained confidence in you, but her answers will be so laconic that two or three visits are necessary in order for an interviewer to gain tangible information without appearing too prudish.
With short, measured step, bent form, unsteady head, wearing a beaming smile, Salena takes the floor.
"Ole Dr. Jameson, He was my Massy. He had a plantation three mile from Perry, Georgia. I can 'member whole lots about working for them. Y' see I was growned up when peace came.
"My mother used to be a seamstress and sewed with her fingers all the time. She made the finest kind of stitches while I worked around de table or did any other kind of house work.
"I knowed de time when Ab'ram Linkum come to de plantation. He come through there on the train and stopped over night oncet. He was known by Dr. Jameson and he care to Ferry to see about the food for the soldiers.
"We all had part in entertaining' him. Some shined his shoes, some cooked for him, an' I waited on de table, I can't forget that. We had chicken hash and batter cakes and dried venison that day. You be sure we knowed he was our friend and we catched what he had t' say. Now, he said this: (I never forget that 'slong as I live) 'If they free de people, I'll bring you back into the Union' (To Dr. Jameson) 'If you don't free your slaves, I'll "whip" you back into the Union.
Before I'd allow my wife an' children to be sold as slaves, Ill wade in blood and water up to my neck'
"Now he said all that, if my mother and father were living, they'd tell y' the same thing. That's what Linkum said.
"He came through after Freedom and went to the 'Sheds' first. I couldn't 'magine what was going on, but that came runnin' to tell me and what a time we had.
"Linkum went to the smoke house and opened the door and said 'Nelp yourselves; take what you need; cook yourselves a good meal! and we sho' had a celebration!"
"The Dr. didn't care; he was lib'ral. After Freedom, when any of us got married he'd give us money and send a servant along for us. Sometimes even he'd carry us himself to our new home."
(DADE COUNTY. FLORIDA, FOLKLORE, MIAMI'S EX-SLAVES)
There is a unique organization in the colored population of Miami known as the "Ex Slave Club." This club now claims twenty-five members, all over 88 years of age and all of whom were slaves in this country prior to the Civil War. The members of this interesting group are shown in the accompanying photograph. The stories of their lives as given verbatim by these aged men and women are recorded in the following stories:"
