|
|
"My gran'mother," said Mrs. Anna Smith, 103, of Bishop Street, "was bo'n on de estate of Gin'ral Hopkins. I
disremember if any town in Kaintucky was named for him or not.""No, I doan know my mother's maiden name. I do know dat her pappy, my gran'pappy, was William King. He wassma'ter than most slaves. He was bo'n on a plantation in No'th Ca'lina and de white folks dere had a powe'ful lot o'money. He was de master's man -- yo' mought call it valet - and he used to travel with de master whereve' he went.
"'Fo' my pappy was ma'ied, he slept in a cabin with a lot of other slaves, He was jes' a field hand on de plantation of
Judge Toll, in Kaintucky."Fo' a long time we didn't have no cabin. When my pappy built one there was three of us chillun. We - all lived in atent made of quilts hung over a frame of rails and poles cut an' trimmed from trees.
"Yes ssuh, I 'members de cabin. It was made o' logs my pappy cut. Dey was chinked with mud an' straw and derewas a fireplace on one end. De chimbly was made o' sticks straight up an' down an' plastered together with mud."My mammy was a large woman. She must 'a' weighed 250 pounds.
"No, I doan think either my mammy or pappy was ever sold."When de Civil War was over, de slaves was free. De white folks gave my people ten acres of land to work for deirown.
"Dey stayed dere a while and den dey moved."My mammy died when she was 117 years old and she was buried at Rose Creek, Kentucky."My pappy died a long time before dat. He was visitin' me an' one mornin' he was takin' a walk along de railroad
tracks and he dropped daid. De doctor said it was heart failure. We found him in de mownin'."My mammy and pappy was good Baptists."I is too."Samuel Sutton North Lane Lebanon, Ohio (Miriam Logan, Interviewing Walter Richardson, Revising Ex-Slave
Interview District # 3 Harry Graff)
