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Matilda was not at home. Her son directed the interviewers to a house where she was visiting, and a kindly, voluminous yellow woman opened the door.
"Yes, she here, visitin'," she said, inviting the visitors to the back porch. Matilda was sitting there, rocking and mumbling, senile, patiently waiting for death to release her from "dis yere hard worl' when I has so much trouble, honey, I kain't 'member nuthin' 'bout dem days but whupping, whup, whup - all de overseers what come from de Norf, jus' whuppin' my mother and me, all de time, when I working, plowing."
Matilda was shrivelled. Her arms and legs were scaly like alligator hide. Her chin had tufts of whiskers. Her eyes were blind with cateract, and her mumbled replies, given in answer to screamed questions, gave a terrible picture of the worst phase of plantation life.
She had been plowing four years when the War started. "I was in about my thirteenth when de war end," she remembered. "My mother had nine chillun. Some die. From de fus' overseer, dey whu-hoop me to show me how to work - and I work hard, all de time - we never had no good times. It was in Columbia County, but I so ole I kain't rekellect my marster name. Seem like my
Mistis was name Lamkin, but I kain't remember, honey, I had too hard time. We live in a weather-board house, jus' hulled in. We had to eat anything they give us, mos'ly black 'lasses in a big ole hogshead. When de war gwine on, we had to live on rice, mostly, what they raise. We had a hard time - we didn't know we was free for a long time. Mr. Clag, de las' overseer, come and tole us we was free.
"All five overseer so mean, de slaves run away. Dey dug cave in de wood, down in de ground, and dey hide dere. Dey gits de blood-houn's to fin' 'em - den dey whips 'em in de wood, dey buckle 'em down to a log and beat de breaf' outter dem till de blood run all over everywhere. When night come, dey drug 'em to dey house and greases 'em down wid turpentine, and rub salt in dey woun's to mek 'em hurt wuss. I see de man, drinkin' whiskey to mek him mean, while de overseer look on and tell him what to do--
"Dey whup me - cut de breaf outter me --- dey tie my mother to a tree and whip her --- I crawl under de house and cry."
Matilda moaned. The listening women sighed in sympathy, and her friend said:
"When Matilda's mind was clearer she told us terrible stories. It made us thankful we weren't born in those times."
Matilda raised her head. She was "rekellecting" again:
"De las' overseer come down befo' de war start, he like to kilt us. He'd strip us down to de wais' --- tie men to trees and drink and beat 'em jus' to be whipping." Matilda's voice was filled with past horror as she went on breathlessly: "I 'member dere was two old women, dey couldn't work much. De overseer so mean, he tie 'em to a buggy, stark mother nekked, put a belly band on 'em, and driv' 'em down de road like dey was mules, whippin' 'em till dey drap down in de road. Dere was some white ladies what see it, and dey reported him and prosecuted his, and he got run out of de county."
Hannah Murphy Augusta, Ga. (Maude Barragan Interviewer)
