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Bibliography: Interviews with Katie Rose, widow of Patrick Rose, 412 Sumner Street, Evansville, Indiana
"Surest thing you knows, I was a slave in my girlhood and I was smart and happy. I remembers way back before the Civil War and knows a heap about slavery."
The aged negress stopped talking to laugh gleefully over some remembered prank, then continued, "My master was John Holloway, one good man, and his wife was named Laurah. I was a little child when Mistress Laurah took a fancy to me. She always petted me and I followed her around like a dog follows its master.
"Marse John lived in a fine white house about four miles from Henderson. Yes I'se a Kentuckian; we lived on the old plank road and I remembers how us children uster stan out on the big front porch and listen to the sound of hosses hoofs as the hunters and hossback riders galloped over that old plank road; miles and miles of plank road reached from the Ohio river to away up the Alvis hill and out into the woods. We could hear hosses for miles away and often they would leave the plank road and take the dirt road and we would not see them as then they would not pass our house and we would watch and watch for them but not catch a glimpse of them.
Young Marse Johnie and young missus Nanny both were kind to us at home. Young Missus was sent away to school and we only saw her twice a year; that was when she was home on a visit. We slave children would clap our hands when old missus called mammy into the kitchen to bake ginger cake. Always she had her bake a big barrel full of the sweet cakes and when young missus got home, old missus would blow a horn, she called it the farm horn, it was made from a cow's horn and could be heard all over the farm. When she sounded that horn the slaves all knew to come to the house, and stopped whatever work they had started to do, when Young Missus got home, the big barrel of ginger cakes was rolled out on the front porch. Old Missus sounded the horn and all of the slaves would come up and kiss Young Missus' hand and she would give us each a cake. She always smiled and stood there in her pretty dress all ruffled and clean, and she sure made a pretty picture. At night I slept in the cabin with my mother but all day I followed old missus wherever she went.
The slaves sang songs when the moon was bright, and the young slav danced and played games.
My father died and soon my mother was allowed to marry a slave named Joe, but we called him "That Man". When I was a very young girl my step father died and then I saw my first hant, or ghost. My step father was a hunter and owned a pack of big mouthed dogs. Soon after h died the dogs all went away. Then the hant began coming to our cabin. Mother cooked on the open fire in the big chimney and every night the cabin window would fly open and in would come my step father and his dogs. "Mammy, Mammy," I would call out, "That man is here again." He would go lift the lid from the dinner pot and eat; then he would feed t pack of hungry dogs. A horn would blow far away and the hunter and his dogs always left through the window. Next morning I would tell my moth "We will starve to death; I know because That Man and his dogs will always eat up all our grub." But Old Missus always gave us plenty to eat. "That Man" and his pack of dogs never stopped coming until after the war. They kept it up as long as my mother cooked on the open fire, and left the pot of food on the crane.
Aunti Katie said everything was happy and lovely at the Holloway home until the Civil War started, then some of the slaves enlisted to fight and Young Marse John went to the war. Old Missus and Young Missus never seemed happy again. Things went from worse to worse and soon the young marse was brought home in a coffin.
When he was buried out in the orchard, the orchard was full of soldiers because Young Captain Johnie was fetched home by his regiment. When he was let down into the earth, a volly of shots were fired by the soldiers. "What's dem men a shooting for?" I asked Old Missus, for I had stood clinging to her dress skirts all the time (enduring) the funeral, and she said: "They're a shooting the Devil, Katie." I went back to the house clapping my hands and yelling to the top of my voice, "Goody! Goody! The Devil is dead." A laugh went through the house, even Old Missus laughed, but she was never happy again.
"How did the Holloway slaves react to freedom?" was asked the old negress. "After the war was over, the slaves heard the old missus blow the farm horn for 'em to get to the house. When they got there she said, "You are all free men and women." Some soon went away but many stayed on the place. I never left until I was almost grown. I was called a young lady when I got to Evansville. The negroes always invited me to their picnics and parties. I went to a party on the New Burgh Road and while the party was going on, some negroes walked into the house. They had come from across the river from Kentucky, and when they got inside they commenced shooting pistols. The party broke up and when I left the house, I went into the barn yard and hid under the first thing I found. It was an old farm mule, used for ploughing, that somebody had hitched to a post. When the old mule would not stand still any longer, I started running down the road, and running and walking. I finally covered the road to Evansville." Aunt Katie said that Evansville was not as it is now, when she was a young lady. The court house was not located at Fourth Street, between Vine and Division Streets, but that the court house of that time stood at Main and Third streets, and was a two-story brick building which looked very handsome to her. She admired the heavy columns that supported the portico. She recalls that the building of the new court house caused much comment, and tells of other changes which have taken place in Evansville. She remembers when Ben Sawyer was hanged for killing his wife with a smoothing iron. She said that she knew Mrs. Sawyer very well. "We all called her Miss Lizzie and she was a good woman. Ben Sawyer was hanged on Main Street and a great crowd had assembled from different parts of Indiana to see him strung up. I'se got such a long remembrance. That's what is the matter wif me," declares the old woman.
When Katie Holloway went to parties among the negro youths and maidens, she recalls playing a game called "Rock Candy." She said the girls would stand in two lines, facing each other. The gentlemen would stand at the foot of the two lines of maidens. The girls would place their hands on each others' shoulders, while facing each other, they would keep time to the rhythm of the song singing: "A poor man he sold me, and a rich man he bought me and sent me down to New Orleans, to learn how to rock candy. Rock candy, two and two, Rock candy, two and two. Rock candy, two and two. For it's no harm to rock candy."
The song continued until the entire number of young gentlemen had had the opportunity to rock candy with the line of girls. The game was popular with both white and negro youths, Aunt Katie declares. "The preachers and church-going people hated for us to 'Rock Candy'. They called it dancing, but that only made us more determined to play it. We often saw lights off in the woods, near the river. We called them Jack-O-My-Lanterns, and always tried how fast we could run home, when we saw them. I was always afraid to even try."
"Evansville has been a pleasant place to live in, and I am certainly glad to call it home," declares she.
"I am glad I have had so many years of freedom although I can not recall a single unkindness shown to any slave of Old Marse and Old Mistus Holloway. Everybody was happy at the Holloway home."
Russell, Elizabeth 1015 N. La Fountain St. Kokomo, Indiana (B. H. Stonecipher Howard County, Indiana)
