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N. C. District No. 2 Worker Mary A. Nicks No. Words 397 |
Subject MARGARET THORNTON Person Interviewed MargaretThornton Editor G. L. Andrews" |
"I wus borned an' raised on de plantation of Jake Thornton of Earnett County. My mammy, Lula, my pappy, Frank, an' my brother an' sisters an' me all wus dere slaves. De man I finally marries, Tom, am also a slave on de plantation.
"I wus jist five years ole when de Yankees come, jist a few of dem to our settlement. I doa. know de number of de slaves, but I does 'member dat dey herded us tergether an' make us sing a heap of son s an' dance, den dey clap dere han's an' dey sez dat we is good. One black boy won't dance, he sez, so dey puts him barefooted on a hot piece of tin an' believe me he did dance.
"I know dat my white folks hated de Yankees like pizen but dey had ter put up wid dere sass jist de same. Dey also had to put up wid de stealin' of dere property what dey had made dere slaves work an' make. De white folks didn't loose dere temper much do', an' dey avoids de Yankees. Now when dey went protrudin' in de house dat am a different matter entirely.
"I wus brung up ter nurse an' I'se did my share of dat, too honey, let me tell you. I has nursed 'bout two thousand babies I reckins. I has nursed gran'maws an' den dere gran' chiles. I reckin dat I has closed as many eyes as de nex' one.
"Atter de war we stayed on, case Marse wus good ter us an' 'cided dat we ain't got nowhar ter go. I stayed on till I wus thirteen or fourteen an'd en me an' Tom married. He had a job at a sawmill near Dunn, so dar we went ter live in a now shanty.
"Tom never did want me ter work hard while he wus able ter work, but I nursed babise off an' on all'de time he lived When he wus in his death sickness he uster cry case I had ter take in washin'. Since he's daid I nurses mostly, but sometimes I ain't able ter do nothin'. I hopes ter git my pension pretfy soon an' dat'll help a heap when I'm laid up, not able ter turn my han' at nothin'."
LE
Tillie
N. C. District II Subject Tillie, Daughter of a Worker Mrs. W. N. Harriss Slave No. Words 550 Interviewed Tillie, Caretaker, Edited Mrs. W. N. Harriss Cornwallis Headouarters, corner Third and Market Sts, Wilmington."
"La, Miss Fannie, what you mean askin' me what I knows about slavery! Why I was bawn yeah's after freedom!" With a sweeping, upward wave of a slender, shriveled brown arm to indicate the wide lapse of time between her advent and the passing of those long ago days. The frail, little body might have been any age between sixty and a hundred; but feminine vanity rose in excited protest against the implication of age suggested by the question.
Tillie is one of the landmarks of Wilmington. She was one of the servants in the house of which she is now caretaker, at the time of the owner's death, and the heirs have kept her on allowing her to live in the old slave quarters in the back garden. She sits in the sun on the coping of the brick wall, or across the street on the low wall of the grounds around St. James Church. Children and their nurses gather there on the lawn, and Tillie holds forth at length on any topic from religion and polities to the outting or losing of teeth. She makes the bold statement that she can tell you something about everybody in Wilmington.
That is "eve'body we knows." There is a general uneasiness that perhaps she can. Little escapes the large, keen, brown eyes, and the ears are perpetually cooked.
After several conversations in passing, memory was coaxed to the time when as a very young child she remembered incidents of slave times which she had heard from her mother.
"My mother belonged to the Bellamys, an' lived on their plantation across the river in Brunswick. It was the begges' place anywhere hereabouts. I was raised on it too. Of co'se it was in the country, but it was so big we was a town all to ourselves.
"Did any of the colored people leave after freedom? Of co'se they did'n'. Were'nt no place to go to. None of us was 'customed to anybody but rich folks, an' of co'se their money was gone. I've heard Mis' Bellamy tell how her child'en made enough out of potatoes to buy their clo'es right on that plantation. So we all stayed right there. My mother brought us all up right there on the plot she'd been livin' on all the time. When I come along we had plenty to eat. She had a whole pa'col of us, and we always had plenty of collards, an' po'k an' corn bread. Plenty of fish.
"O, yes, stuff was sold. I can remember timber bein' out, an' our folks got some wages to buy clo'es. We did'n have no school, but we had a church. Soon as I was big enough I came to Wilmin'ton to work. I never has lived with none but the bes'. My mother always said 'Tillie, always tie to the bes' white folks. Them that has inflooence, 'cause if you gits into trouble they can git you out'. I've stuck to that. I've never hed any traffic wid any but the blue bloods, an' now look at me. I'm not able to work, but I got a home an' plenty to eat. An' I ain't on no relief, an' Tillie can sho' hold her head up."
