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"I'se half Indian and I look it too, and if I wo' gold rings in my ears and nose I would look just like my mammy did 'cause she was full blooded Indian. I don' know what kind, but she was big and tall and had black hair, she could sit on it and it was as cou'se as a mule's tail. She carried a tom-hawk and eve'y one stepped to one side when they met her on the turn-pike. She wus from Giles County, Tennessee. Giles County, Hear Me: And her name was 'Mirar-Lu Ellen'. My father's name was Spencer Johnson, don't guess I seed much ob him 'cause mammy and him wasn't married.
"We stayed on, for Mars Pinter, (Mr. Pointer), from the time I 'member 'till the war closed, and we wus free; and you had better never let Mars hear you call us slaves. He'd not stand for it; hear me: We didn't farm, 'xactly; Mars Pinter owned the iron works and most of his people worked in there. Best I 'member we did raise our eats and that wus all 'cause the nearest trading post wus Nashville, Tennessee., and that wus a long way, them days.
"I had nine brothers and sisters, and they wus: Monroe Henderson; he wus the House servent, Jefferson, Ida, Felia, Laura, Izora, and I don' 'member the other two; guess they died when they wus babies, but all we was named the same names as Mers Pinter kids; and we played with them, hear me: we played with them.
"Then when I wus big 'nuf I wus put to cardin' wool end cotton. We wusn't paid no money for our work we didn' need none; we had ever'thin' we needed, and planty of good stuff to eat, and good warm cloths to ware.
"Them 'nigger' boys wus so proud to 'long to Mars Pinter that they would hreak up white rocks and scatter them on the turn-pike, and make nice, white shiny mike for Misses. When the carriage was ordered out for a drive, first mammy walk out with a white cloth, rub it over the carriage--huh; better not find a speck of dirt on the carriage.
"Mammy allus taught all her white and dark children, when interin' the presence of elders, to make your' obedience', (bow), and then, sit quite.
"Men, them days wore long hair too, but sometime they cut it off, if it got too long and hot. They would turn a milk crock down over their haid and even it off some.
"We didn' know nothin' much about the war, we didn' want to leave Marse, and that wus all the difference it made us. I do 'member 'Ol' Jeff Davis, come to 'Marse' and say: 'Gib me them niggers' and I will carry them down to Fort Pillow and hide them in the cave untill this is over'; then 'Marse' run them off, and said: 'better not put any of my people in a cave, they worked for me and made all my money: I gwine to do right by these people.'
"Where we lived we never heard tell of a 'form school, never needed nothin' lake that; didn't know what one wus.
"One thing I does' member well, and would like to know if anyone else was there and 'members it. I went with my 'Misse Pinter' to sae them hang John Brown, he was a 'Whig'; they brought him from the Culpepper County Court House, in Virginia, and hung him to a beech-wood tree, at Harper's Ferry; on the bank of the James River. Now they sing 'Hung him to a sour-apple tree', but that ain't right. I saw it and I know.
"I said a while ago we wusn't paid no money, but I did know what it wus 'cause 'Marse' never put lock or key on his sellar-door, and he kept food and his money in small barrels down there and we could play wif it and never once did anyone try and take any of it.
"I learned to iron too, and there wus two women stood there ironing every day, they sho' could make them purty lace 'broidery underskirts stand alone.
"My mammy was in full charge of the house, and all the 'Marse' children, and when they pass her, she say: 'Lif yo' dress, then if'n she see little spot dirt or wrinkle, make dem take off all de cloths and change. Dan she say 'take off you shoe, smell their feet, Huh: she call 'lisa, bring that foot tub', then she would wash and dry their feet and put on clean stockings. Mammy wus clean as a new pin.
"When I got any size to notice I wus dum-confounded to hear my mammy talk up to the white boys comin' to court 'Missie Pinter's' girls. Mammy meet them at de door and say: 'What you want?' They say: 'I come to call on Mis-----! She say, what you got makes you think got right to call on my finendaughter? What you own? Can you hire her work done? Do you think my daughter is gwin' to marry any' por' white trash', and have to work hard all her life? Then if'n he couldn' give a good account for himsef, mammy would swing her tom-hawk and yell: 'Be-gone, don' come back'. 'Nother thing a young may had better not come courtin' in his shirt sleeve, better have on his coat or mammy would 'back' in he haid.
"Then after the war wus over, and we wus free, it wusn't hard to find work. I wus allus honest and religious, 'longed to the Southern Babtist Church. I got work among the rich white people and traveled with them. Then I worked as laundress in the U.S. Marine Hospital, in St. Louis, for seven years; when George Washington was President. I worked on the 'Chas. P. Shoto' steamboat as chamber-maid, and made lots of trips to Florida. I was maid for Mrs. Busch, in St. Louis, and they wus powerful rich, they made that beer up there.
"Richard says, he wus bawn May 8, 1845, on the corner of Beal and Main Streets, Kemphis, Tenn. And I wus bawn May 8, 1835, in Giles County, Tenn. We neither one had much bad treatment but we is glad slavery is over."
Reference: Richard and Drucilla martin (A.& B.) (colored (Robinson Street, New "World, Poplar Bluff, Missouri
Called on and talked to Richard and Drucilla Martin, old time negroes, who were slaves. They talked fluently, really enjoying talking about the 'good days' as they put it, as they say their master was good to them.
Richard is rather short and wears a heard, which is snow white, He claims to se something. better than minety years old, he says about ninety-four or five, and Drucilla is ten years older than Richard.
About four or five years ago their home which they owned was destroyed by fire, and having no insurance, they have since been living in a poor substitute for a house made of pieces of tin, wood, and old boxes, cuilt under the branches of a tree.
Richard was in a hurry to go to town and see if their old age pension checks had come get, and invited us to come back some other time.
Drucilla said she was the slave of John Fointer. Her mother who was part Indian wore a ring in her nose and carried a tomahawk, had ten children, and mothered the ten children of her master's wife. Drucilla does not remember much about her father, as he was the slave of another family.
Although Drucilla does not have any education, she can quote verse after verse from the bible. She told some gruesome stories of how some of the masters treated their slaves. She said there never was a book printed thatreally told how some, or in fact the majority of the slaves were beaten and abused. To most masters they were not any more than stock. She said some of the young girls were beaten until, they would d. die. Some of the little colored babies that were born out in the field or on the road were left to starve or be eaten up by the hogs.
Drucilla said some times their master would rent them out to other white men to work them if he didn't have anything for them to do. Some masters would but their feed out in troughs for them just as they were feedin cattle. some would give them cotton seed to eat. She saidthey would go hose and cry and tell their master how they were treated and their master would tell then they wouldn't have to go work for any one that did them lise that.
In 1965 when the slaves were freed, Drucilla said she felt all out in the world as if she did not have a place to go and their master was afraid to let them stay with him even though they begged to stay, as it was then against the law. She was sant to S. Louis to do servant mor., For a white family, that was very weslthy, and she stayed with them for twent years. Drucilla has been married twice, and is the mother of ten children, but knows of only one caughter, or rather, she was the last one she has heard from out of the three that she thinks are still living, and that was fifty years ago.
The aged old couple are going to receive $8.00 apiece per month old age ension, and a check for $30.00 back pay. When worker asked Drucilla what she was going to do with her pension money, she said she was going to build a little house, "As Mammy is tired living in that shack".
When we got up to leave, the old Negro mammy ran out and fell down and kissed our feet. There were two workers stumbling along trying to get down the rocky path that leaves the little shack, with their eyes full of tears, and the muscles of their throats tightened, until they could only wave back, as the feeble voice was heard to ring out over mill, "Honey chiles come back to see mammy some more, and she'll give yo some thin out of her garden."
Richard Martin was a slave in Memphis, Tennessee. Drucilla Martin a slave in Giles County, Tennessee.
