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I was born in Shreveport, La. in 1848. My father's name was Jim Shine and mother's name was Jessie Shine. I was
their only child.
I married Joe Shine who was raised on the farm where I was raised and he went by Maser's name 3 or 4 years after
he was freed.
We had 11 children, 8 of them are still living. I can't tell how many grandchildren, but a large bunch anyway,
something over 40 I know.
My man died long time ago as he was not a very stout negro. The government gives me a small pension and I cooks
some here in Madisonville.
(Davis, B. E., Madisonville, Texas, Dist. #8, 01 February 1938, (No))
Shine, Polly
I was born in Shreveport, La. in 1848. My father's name was Jim Shine and mother's name was Jessie Shine. I was
their only child, as they were put together or married when they was in their middle life, therefore, all the homelife I
spend with my father and mother when they was not too tired to know I was on the place was lonely.
Well we had pretty good southern quarters as they were called in them days by the people. Our quarters were made
out of logs there on the south side of a hill. They used mud to chuck the cracks and we had plenty of hides so we
made us rawhide strings and stretched these on the inside of our quarters. It was covered with boards that my old
slave father got out by hand with a wooden mold and a long piece of iron trimmed them down to fit by hand with a
rock and sand. Of course, that was slow but that was the only way we had to make our roofs over our heads. He also
cut out the boards the same way that went on Maser's home. Our bed was just a grass pile in one corner of our
quarters. Maser let us have a few seed picked from cotton to mix with this grass we had, as we used hides altogether
for cover during cold weather. We did not have what you would call real bad weather there in the south so we kept
pretty warm and comfortable in our quarters during all kinds of weather, in those good old days.
I'se heard my people talk about my grandparents but I'se don't remembers ever seeing them or anything told me
about them.
Well I has done all kinds of work for a youngster during slavery time. Chopped cotton, hoed corn, milked cows,
cooked and washed dishes as Mistress used me lots to help her. I was a young negro and Maser just let me put my
time in helping Mistress.
No I never did earn any money during slavery, but my Mistress gave me a nickel or dime once and awhile and I
spent it when I could go to town with Mistress for candy and little things like that. It was very seldom she ever gave
me a nickel or dime but when she did I was the richest and happiest negro you ever saw. We had plenty to eat all the
time as Maser had cornbread gathered fresh from the field and grated by hand, mixed with water and salt. That was
all we put in it and we baked it on a big flat iron skillet over some coals there on the open fireplace. Then we had
plenty of fish, rabbits and some possums to eat. We always cooked possum with lots of sweet potatoes all around
him, boy! could we eat, yes sir, that is a real dish. The slaves did not have a garden of their own but Maser always
had a large garden and he let the slaves have what he wanted them to have. Of course the slaves had to work it,
Maser or Mistress never did work it, they would see though that we worked it like they wanted it worked.
Well we wore royal shirts or dresses in hot weather. In cold weather we had leather coats to put on - no shoes did
we see until long time after freedom. On Sunday we just had plain white royal dress, but they had to be clean. I just
had one plain cotton dress that was homespun - no shoes or hose did I have. We had good clothes during slavery
time. Well we never have had anything to eat or wear either since freedom. Times has been too hard for the poor
uneducated negro race.
Well, Maser he was a jolly good man but strict. Mistress was a plum angel and their 3 children they was plum good.
They were real good to their black people. Yes Maser he would whip the negro if he had to but not beat them up
like some Masers would. His name was Joe Shine. Maser was good to his negroes long as he lived. Lots of white
people called him grandpa because they all thought so much of him. He was the boss of all that went on there where
he lived and was the leader in his church, but it was different from the kind of churches we have now. Well they
lived in a big plank 2 story house. Yes he had just plain doors made out of them planks and he had windows and
shutters. All around the house they had plenty of shade trees and great large plank fence built higher then your head
all around it. Us negroes use to climb around on it and jump off to try and pass the time away when Maser did not
have us at work. He worked us nearly all the time unless it was raining or too wet to work on the farm.
Maser had about 100 acres in his plantation and about 35 or 40 slaves. He planted it all in cotton, corn and sugar
cane. He made syrup out of the sugar cane. Maser woke us every morning about 4 o'clock with a big bell so'es we
could get our morning work done, eat and be in the field at daylight or before and be ready to work. Well, no he
never had no overseer, he done all that himself and he worked us till plum dark every day, we just quit long enough
to eat our dinner at noon then right back to work. That is we worked from sun to sun as we called it then. He would
sure tend to the negro if he was lazy, contrary or stubborn. I'se seen him whip some of the slaves terrible but he had
some real mean slaves. If he was not with them they were all time into some kind of trouble, if it were not anything
but doing something to the rest of the slaves after they would go to their quarters when the days work was done.
Otherwise Maser was real good to the slaves, but they must mind him and take off their hats in presence of white
people.
Yes, I have seen slaves sold and auctioned off. They made us wash and clean up real good first, then grease our
hands and feet also our legs up to our knees and greased our neck, face and ears good so we would look real fat and
slick. Then they would trot us out to and fro before our buyers and let them look us over real good. They felt of our
legs, arms and so on before they would offer a price for us. We would be awful sad because we did not know what
kind of Maser we were going to have, did'nt know but what he would be real mean to us or would take us plum out
of the state where we never would see or hear of our people any more. But I am going to tell you child, that they did
not let us know very much about our people, or that is they took us away from our parents when we was real young
so that when they got ready to trade us we would not put on too much demonstration or holler and take on so much.
Of course, when they traded us we took on more or less anyway because we never knew what was going to become
of us after our Maser traded us to another Maser and he carried us to another country, then we had to get use to the
way of our new Maser and the other slaves, as they all had different ways and rules to go by.
Sometimes when they traded us they would put the woman to bed with this negro man and then the other to find out
which one would be suited together the best, of course that never suited us much but we had to do just like our
Masers made us, as we could not do any other way. If we refused they would whip or be so mean to us and we had
to do just what our Masers wanted us to do, no back-firing on our part.
Well the way we traveled as slaves was just about like you have seen people drive cattle to market. Our Maser
would put us in the road ahead of them and they would be on horses behind us as we traveled and they would
follow and we had to travel pert, no laggin on behind if we did, he always had whip that he would tap us up with,
boy! when he hit us across the legs we could step real lively and I don't mean maybe either. In these days we did not
have trucks to travel in or for our Masers to haul us in and if there was a very large bunch of us negroes to be
moved from one place to another, we had to hit it on foot.
Yes, I have seen a few slaves in chains because they would be so unruly that their Maser would have to put them in
chains. We had one slaves there on our plantation that Maser could not do anything with in the way of keeping him
at home. When night come - he had him a girl that lived over on another plantation joining ours and that negro
would go over there when Maser told him to go to bed in his quarters, and just as soon as Maser got to bed he
would get up and slip off over to see his girl and he would not come back to his quarters until just before daylight,
then he would not be any account at all that day. So Maser he tried ever way to get along with that negro without
putting him in chains, he whipped him and the patterrollers they got hold of him several times but that did not do
any good so he finely got him some chains and put around that negroes legs and then he would get him a pole and
hop around on, he would get over there some way to see his girl. They got to where they could get them chains off
that negro, and Maser he would not be out done so he fixed that negro a shed and bed close to a tree there on the
plantation and chained his hands and feet to that tree so he could not slip off to see his girl. Of course that fixed the
negro slave so he could not travel at night to see his girl, but still that did not do any good but Maser finely did put a
stop to the negro man running around at night, then his girl started. She would come over there to his shed and bed
and they would lay around there, talk and go on all night, so that negro he would lose so much sleep that he still was
not any account. Still they could not out do Maser. He put that negro up for sale and not one that lived there close
by would not offer to buy him as they knew how he was, but there was a man that came in there from another state
offered to buy him from Maser and he sold him, and when that negro found out that his Maser had sold him he
began to beg him not to. He promised Maser if he would not sell him and take him away from his girl and would let
him go to see his girl and would let him got to see his girl once a week, he would stay at home and be a real good
negro, as him and this girl had one child by now. But Maser would not listen to that negro as he done had too much
trouble with him already and let the man have him. The man told him he could not go see any girl there where he
was carrying him as there was not any girls there for him to slip off to see. That like to have killed that negro but it
did not do any good.
No sir, the white people would not try to learn us how to read or write as they said the dam negro was too thick
headed and hard to learn anything but work, and further more, they said we were not worth trying to learn how to
read and write, all the negro was fit for was hard work.
Yes sir, we went to church regular, that was Maser he made us go every time they had church but that was not very
often, once about every 3 months. We went to the white folks church there on the plantation. In the summertime
they would start what they called a camp meeting and it would last all the summer and every body would get happy
and shout both black and white, that is one time they would let the negro talk about his or her religion. It seemed
like that would go well with our Maser as that helped us negroes to go to church and the more we tried to please our
Maser the better they were to us. There was not any of us slaves that could read the Bible so we begged Maser to
read that Book to us every time we could and he would. He always taught us to tell the truth any and all places that
we might be caught in. Well I don't remember exactly what preacher I thought the most of as we had several
preachers that was good to the slaves. Well, you knows that song that goes like this, is hard to beat, "On the Stormy
Banks of Jordan."
When a slave died he was just drug down there to a hole in the ground and covered over with dirt, but if some of the
white folks died it was terrible the way the slaves took on as well as the white folks. They would go get the preacher
and everybody there would lay down their work and go do all they could, I guess son that was right as that would be
the last thing they could do for them here. You know everyone then had religion but that is all gone now, as the
people have quit trying to help one another, they have got too selfish for that. About all there are at a burying now is
the people they have hired to bury their dead, they do not care anything about one another any more. Things now of
course are different from what they use to be as we are living now in a fast age.
Well no I never saw or heard of a slave trying to leave his southern Maser until after the war started between the
states, then they were a few that tried to run off and get under the protection of the northern army but they did not
get very far, as they had to have a pass before they could travel or someone would be sure and ask them for their
pass and if they could not show a pass from their Mistress it would be just too bad for that negro. The one that ask
him for a pass would be more than likely to give that negro a beating of his life and bring him home or send him
back to her, and when they got there with that slave he would not be able to run off again for some time, as he
would be whipped in an inch of his life. One or two that did try to get under protection of the northern soldiers were
shot by the southern armies, as they could not take time to carry these slaves back to their Masers and that put fear
in the ones that were at their homes and they would not try to run off as they would be afraid that they would be
killed or beat nearly to death.
The only way they could go from one plantation to another was, they would have to have a pass from their Maser or
Mistress if they did'nt, it would be just too bad for the patterrollers were pretty bad on the negroes all time anyway,
without them getting out and making the patterrollers worse, as Maser would give them a pass for the asking and so
there was not any use for us to get in trouble by slipping off when we did'nt have a pass from one plantation to
another.
The slave had to be very careful what they did as they were able to talk and understand what their Masers told them
to do. We could not do like stock, as you have to fence against them, but by a whip.
Well when we went to our quarters after the days work was done there on the plantation we usually were so tired
that we just fell in at the door right on the ground especially in the summertime, that was where we sleep all that
night unless the patterrollers come and made us go to bed right.
Yes sir, son, Maser always gave us Saturday evenings to wash, clean and get ready for negro dance that night and
for work the next week. Boy! did we have good time Saturday night, yes sir, plenty of good old negro music and
negro dancing. That is one time that Maser never refused us unless we had been real mean the week before, then he
would chain us to be sure that we did not have any fun on that time when all slaves called it slave holiday, and we
all knew that he would not let us go if we were contrary, and that time was all the negro lived for as that was the
only time that we ever got to be together and could do as we pleased there at that negro dance.
Well yes on Sundays when they was not church to go to we lay around and slept as we would be up all night
Saturday night dancing and making merry. Sometime in the summer after we slept all the morning we would go to
the creek and swim all the evening, as that was about all the past time that the slaves had to enjoy themselves. We
did not have cars or picture shows to go to then like we do now, all our entertainments were different from what we
have now and then times were real dull to the negro as he had very little liberty and could not go when he wanted to
because as you know, our Maser would not let us go ever time we wanted to.
We had the greatest fun ever on Christmas, as our Maser he would give us negroes great large present a piece and
then he would call us all in and give us a pass for all that week except what time Mistress used us helping her cook
and wash dishes, also helping dip and roll them candles to go on that cake that was so good. Day before Christmas
all the young slave boys would park there at the front to take care of all the comers' mules, horses and to receive all
the pennies that were throwed their way because them boys that had their best girl would have to show off before
their girls and they would be real generous especially on these times. That night the young folks they would give big
dance, shoot off fireworks and have real good time and lots of them would ask for their girls there before that ole
big open fire, while the rest would be dancing. They would be up bright and early the next morning to see what ole
Santa Claus had put in their stocking. Ole Santa Claus he would never miss anyone both black and white. Then they
would be a wedding or two there among the white boys and girls. Then for that real Christmas dinner, the most
happiest time of the year, but after this was over work time again and it would be a year before all that took place
again there on the plantation.
Well Maser would let us negroes have corn-shucking there once and awhile as a get together for the slaves. He
would invite all slaves for miles around as we shucked the corn, shelled and sacked it, that is the way Maser sold his
corn. He would get plenty of corn shelled as we put what we shelled in a different sack, and the one that shucked
and shelled the most corn he would give him some kind of present, and that would make the negro work that much
harder to win that present as well as talk and have a good time laughing and taking on.
As for other holidays we did not know anything about except Saturday, Sunday and Christmas.
When we were young, about all the games we played was with the white children and that was - "Wolf over the
River, Dropping the Rag behind each other and Hide and Go Seek".
I have seen lots of wild animals, and heard our hogs holler and by the time we could get out there they would be
three or four of them with their throats cut from ear to ear. That was in the days what we called panthers. Then you
could not sleep with your doors open at night unless you had a good bunch of dogs. Them panthers would come
right on in your house and kill you or your baby at night while you would be asleep. This country was full of wild
animals in them days and it was dangerous for us at night, or in daytime either.
Well, son, I never saw a ghost in my life unless you would call seeing one at night when I was asleep. One night I
thought that the angels had me and was carrying me to Heaven. It looked like when we get nearly there they just
dropped me and let me fall. When I fell I thought I landed right in the devils hands, by this time I was awake and
could still hear his voice saying, "I will take lots better care of you than that to let you fall". Child! that sure did
scare me and I jumped right out of bed and begins to run away from there just as fast as I could go until that old
scary thing turned me loose. It looked like he would never let me go cause he just kept following me wherever I
went.
When we got sick we had the best of care. Maser would get us a negro mama and she doctored us from herbs she
got out of the woods for cough and colds. She used turpentine gathered from pine trees, honey and onions made into
a syrup mixed together. Then she used red oak, cami weed and Jerusalem weeds for fever, chills and malaria. If we
did not get better in a hurry Maser would get the white Doctor. Of course, us negroes soon learned to play sick lots
of times to get out of work and Maser would let us off until we got better, because if we got worse and died he
would loose some money if he let a slave die. If Maser caught on to us making out like we were sick he would sure
give us a hard punishment, but we would be very careful not to let him catch us. We knew that old black mama
would not tell on us, and if we thought that Maser was going to get the white Dr. we got better right away. It was
very seldom that Maser ever caught up with us.
Well, that war was awful between the States as it took all the young men off and butchered them up real good to
send home. Of course, Maser never went but he done his part as he was all time sending something to the Army
such as socks, shirts, trousers that his wife and their neighbors made for the soldiers. We never did see any of the
fighting, but they kept us scared all the time as they would tell us the Yankees were coming and what they would do
to the women, but they never did get there in that part of our state. When it was finally over Maser told us we was
free and could do or go where we wanted to. We were happy and sad both cause we knew that we were going to
have to live and began crying, cause we did not have a place to go and nothing to live on and didn't know what was
going to become of us after he freed us. We all loved Maser and he was a real good man to us. After we asked him
if he was going to let us stay there, we thought he was not, so we begins to cry cause we had no one to go to for
help or work of any kind. After 3 or 4 days Maser decided what he could do with us and comes out one morning to
our quarters and cleared up his throat. Child! we knew right away Maser had decided for us to stay, so he says: "Do
you negroes want to stay here with me", and we said Yes Sir, Maser. He said, well I still have the quarters, land,
teams, and tools to farm with and if you want to stay I will let you have so much land each on the place and we can
work through and through and I will furnish your groceries, clothes, etc., and when the crop is made you can pay
me for what I let you have out of your half of the crop. That is exactly what we did, we stayed there with him
several years. Then the negroes drifted away one by one to other plantations and no others came to take their places.
I married Joe Shine who was raised on the farm where I was raised, For 3 or 4 years's he went by Maser's name after
he was free. When we got married we walked 15 miles side by side to Shreveport and got a preacher to marry us.
Then we walked back to a big dance and had plenty to eat. Every negro in all that country was there and Maser gave
us about 12 hens and that was all the presents that we got. We had 11 children - 8 of them are still living, and
farming here in this County. The other 3 are over in Louisiana somewhere - if they are not dead. I have not heard of
them in about 12 years. I can't tell you how many grandchildren I have, a large bunch though, something over 40,
and if they keeps growing I don't know how many I will have before I die.
My man he done dead, he died long time ago, he just could not stay here as he was not a very stout negro noway.
Son don't you come back here you ask too many questions for the old negro.
Well son, I don't know exactly what I did expect from freedom, different from what we got I can tell you. Yes I
expected some land and mules. They could have given us part of Maser's land, but did we get it - no, instead of
giving us anything they turned us out like a bunch of wild beast to starve or do the best we could and that is what
we like to have done too. Things were a lot worse then than they are now. No sir, our owners did not give us any
money or any plantation divided. I tell you child they did not give us nothing. We were forced to stay on as servants
yes and no - but here is why we had to stay with our people or we could not get work to do. We had to stay with our
Masers where we could get work as no other man would hire us. After the war we done just what we could do or
what our Maser told us to do that was all farm work, such as, cutting wood and clearing land and our wages were
very low - from 15 to 30 cents per day. You know son that people could hardly live on 15 cents a day there. The
reconstruction period has been hell on the negro race, but we suffered it through somehow. If we had another time
like that to go through believes I would hang myself so'es I would not suffer again.
Well yes sir, there was the KKK and the patterrollers to make us negroes do just like they wanted us to do. If we got
out and asked another white man other than our Maser for jobs, or if we fussed about our wages or tried to better
ourselves the KKK were there to see that we done just like our Maser told us. If we went hunting or fishing when
the KKK thought we ought to be at work, it was just too bad for us. They would have on masks or sheets over their
faces and then they would take the negro out in the woods and stretch us across a log and hit us one hundred licks
with that cat-o-nine tails. Believes me, the negro that had received one of these whippings would never want to get
another one. That one would be a plenty for him for awhile.
No sir son, my man he never did vote or try to vote because them KKK and patterrollers were there to tell him what
he could do. Then too, he never did know how to vote as he could not read or write. He was working for a man one
time that wanted him to vote but he finally talked that white man into letting him off, so he did not try to vote. But
now the negro, that is the younger race has become able to read and write and knows more about the ways of the
world and I do believes they ought to be allowed more privileges in voting because now we have to shoulder the
same load that the poor white man has in the way of paying taxes and sending our boys to fight for their country.
Then like things are now, we have not any say so in who is elected to office and we cannot vote them out of office,
so they do us just about like they want to here in Texas. All the help the poor negro gets comes from our Federal
Government.
We came to Texas nearly 40 years ago and all we have done between 1864 and 1938 is to farm - why we have worn
out nearly every farm here in Madison county trying to make a living for us and our children. Yes farm work was all
we knew to do, we could not do any other kind of work, but long after my man went to his resting place the
government gives me a small pension; then I cooks some for a doctor here in Madisonville to help this old negro
along.
Well what do I think of our young negroes, why they are just wonderful, they can read and write, hold most any
kind of job they want to and today we have some of the best educated race of people that are in the world. Of course
times are hard here and they have a hard time feeding and clothing their families that makes them do lots of things
that otherwise they would not do. If we could give them real good times and give the poor old negro a chance he
would come on out of what they are now, as our race of people at present are on a stand still but look out son when
times get good again you will see the negro race forced on out to the front again to where they will be one of the
most outstanding race of people that we have in this old sinful world.
(7-3-37)
