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Ex-Slave
Place of Birth: Some where in South Carolina Date of Birth: About 1857 Present Residence: On Jackson Street, Hawkinville, Georgia Interviewer: Elizabeth Watson Interviewed: April, 1937.
"Aunt" Ella's story, condensed, is as follows: She was next to the youngest of six children born to a slave couple in South Carolina. When she was a baby --- some time prior to 1860, her mother and five children (including herself) were sold to an Alabama planter who lived "twelve miles west of the Georgia line". This sale forever separated that part--- two-thirds---of the family which moved to Alabama from the father-husband and one child, a son, who remained in South Carolina.
The Alabama owner of "Aunt" Ella's mother was a man named Wesley Morris, whom she refers to as having been "a good liver and a good Marster", which impressions were formed prior to her emancipation at the age of eight in 1865.
"Aunt" Ella also remembered that the slaves attended the whites' churches, occupying reserved rear seats. The Yankees were the first to tell the slaves on Mr. Morris' plantation that they were free. Some stayed on with their ex-master, while others went away.
When she was a young woman, Ella married in Alabama, where she had one child --- a son. This son moved to Mississippi in early life, where she joined him after the death of her husband --- about twenty years ago. About fifteen years ago, she and her son came to Hawkinsville to live. But now she knows nothing of the whereabouts of this son; he left her several years ago and she doesn't even know whether or not he is living.
"Aunt" Ella lives in a house with a colored couple, occupying a part of it which she rents from them. In the rear of this house she cultivates a garden, and in the front yard she grows flowers --- beautiful roses and other flowering plants. When her garden "comes up", she will have corn, peas, beans, onions, etc., all of which attests the industry of this old woman, bereft of kin and ties, who still finds life an interesting "adventure."
"Do you remember any stories they used to tell the children?"
she was asked.
Ella Stinson
"Dey always tole me de story 'bout de ole witch who git out of her skin. I ain't know it all. In dem days I guess dose kinder things went on. Dey say while she was out ridin' with de ole witch, she lef' her skin behin' her, and when she came back, de other woman had put salt and pepper on it; and when she say, 'Skinny, Skinny don't you know me?' de ole skin wouldn't jump up, so she ain't got no skin a-tall."
"Granny," called her bright faced little granddaughter, "tell the ladies about the Mistis what got bury."
"Oh, yes," Laura nodded, "I 'member. Dey didn't bury her so far. A bad man went dere to git her gold ring off her finger. She made a sound, like 'Shhsss', jus' like bref' comin', and de man got skeared. He ran off. She got up direckly and come to de house." Laura shuddered. "Dey was skeared o' dat Mistis de res' o' her life, and say she were hants."
"Mother, tell 'em 'bout de boy you saw," urged her daughter who was busy ironing in the hall."Right out here dere was a fambly," Laura said. "Dey got ready to bury a boy. Ev'ybody was in de house. I peep in.
De mother and all was cryin' and carryin' on. I saw somethin' move in de coffin - den de head riz up - den de boy situp and look 'roun - ev'ybody rush out screamin'."Laura's recollections of gruesome events might have gone on indefinitely, so the subject was turned to spirituals."Lil' Laura kin sing good," she said. "Come on, honey, sing a song for de lady."So the 16 year old girl sang in a beautiful soprano voice the "Jubilee songs" which Laura said were sung on
plantations around Augusta.
"Oh, hand me down, Hand me down, Hand me down, Hand me down, Hand me down de silver trumpet, Gabriel!Knock it down,Throw it down, Any way you get it down, Hand me down the silver trumpet, Lawd!"Then she sang "My Lawd is so High.""My Lawd is so high, You can't come over him So low, you can't come under him, So wide, you can't go 'round him
You have to come in by de door."
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