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Sol & Liza Walton, an aged Negro couple of Marshall, were both born the same year as slaves. Sol was born in
Mobile, Alabama, in 1849, as a slave of Sam Lampkin; refugeed to Mississippi in 1855 and to Mooringsport, La. in
1860. He remained with his father on the Lampkin Place until 1873, working on the halves. The next three years he
was employed as a farm hand, and from 1876 until 1922 he was employed in the T. & P. Shops in Marshall. Liza
was born near Scottsville, Texas in 1848, as a slave of Jimmie D. Scott. She was a house girl in the Scott home from
an early age until her marriage to Sol Walton in 1873. Sol and Liza now live alone in the eastern suburbs of
Marshall. Since Sol's retirement from the shops in 1922, he has supported himself by odd jobs about town, and
receives some help by a son in the CCC Camp.
"I was knocking 'round as a good sized chap way back yonder in Buckanan's and Henry Clay's time. I was bo'n in
1849, in Mobile, Alabama, and belonged to Sam Lampkin. I don't know where my father come from to the
Lampkins, but he was sold to them and we allus kept the name of his first Master, Walton. My mother was an
Alabamian. Their names was Riley and Martha Walton. I had four brothers and four sisters .... Robert, Jim, Richard,
Alex, Anna,
Dora, Isabella, and Bettie. I couldn't tell nothing 'bout my grandpeople cause I never seed them.
My Master was Sam Lampkin, and my Mistress was named Mary. They had three girls and one boy ... George,
Minnie, Fannie and Mack. My first home was in Alabama, but the Lampkins refugeed us to Mississippi when I was
'bout six years old. They lived in a big frame house on Salt Water Creek. We lived in a log "qua'ters", slep on rough
rail beds and had plenty to eat ... peas, cushaws, pumpkins, rice and other truck we raised on the place. We got
plenty of fish out of Salt Water Creek. The first work I done in slavery was toting (carrying) water and dinner to the
fiel' hands. They put the dinner in gourd buckets. We hadn't heard of tin buckets then.
Master allus blowed a horn at four o'clock and you'd better be ready to gwye (go). The hands worked from sun to
sun, and if the overseer see them slacking up on their work he stormed out at them, cussed (cursed) them and
sometimes whacked them with a bull whip. I'se seed Niggers whipped till their shirt stuck to their back till it took
salt water to get it loose. I seed my mother whipped for shouting at the white fo'ks meeting. Old Master stripped her
clothes down to her waist and whipped her with a bull whip. Heaps of them was whipped just cause they could be
whipped. Some of the owners half fed their hands and then whipped them for begging for grub. After our fo'ks
come in from the fiel' they et supper and some of them went down to Salt Water Creek and catch fish and crabs.
After we come to Louisiana, they had to spin at night. I'se heard the spinning wheel running at night just like it was
day. Sometime they give us Friday after dinner off to wash clothes for Sunday. We took Christmas day. Master allus
give the Niggers a little present of some kind. Mostly it was something to wear that he was going to have to get for
them anyhow. The white fo'ks celebrated Christmas with a big dinner and singing old time Christmas songs. They
had a time. My Master never had but one white overseer. He got kilt (killed) fighting. The hands was burning logs
and trash and the overseer knocked an old man down and made some of the other Niggers hold him while he
bull-whipped him. The old man got up and picked up a stick and knocked him in the head and then took a ax and
cut off his hands and feet. Master said he didn't ever want another white overseer, and made my cousin "overlooker"
after that.
I'se seen Niggers by the droves chained and driv' like cows and horses. Speculators used to come through the
country and steal chil'ren from the big road. My wife's brother had one stole that way and never seed him again.
There warn't no jails for Niggers in slavery time. They was for hoss (horse) thieves and murderers, but the Niggers
is sho making good use of the jails now.
We had churches 'round in the country, but not on our place during slavery time. They read the Bible lots to the
colored people. The fo'ks had their own prayer meetings on our place. That was 'bout the biggest pleasure they had.
We used to slip off and go to dances and parties, but the "Pattyrollers" come and run us home with hounds. The
white and black chil'ren played together on our place. There was 'bout sixty of us in all. We used to go down to the
wash hole 'bout middle of the afternoon and stay till night. The old colored fo'ks told us ghost stories they got from
the white fo'ks, and we believed them too. I never seed "ghostes" but once. That was after I was married and come
to Harrison County. Me and some more men was walking down the Shreveport road. We looked down the road and
saw a big house that was all lit up and there was fiddling and dancing going on inside. When we got close to the
house all music stopped and it was so quiet you could hear a pin drap, and the lights went out. When we got on
passed it a piece it lit up and the fiddling and dancing started again. I warn't scared, but we didn't hang 'round to see
what caused it to do that way.
Heaps of the colored fo'ks on our place could read and write. They learned it themselves. The white fo'ks didn't
learn it to them. All they learned them was to work hard. The owners allus took good care of us when we was sick.
Master had a white doctor. Old wimmen on the place made lots of the medicine we took.
There was "Bone Set", "Willow Tea", "Shuck Tea" and "Cottonseed Tea" for chills and fever, and "Jerusalem Oak"
for worms.
My Master left Mississippi for Texas 'bout the time the war got going, with his family and 'bout sixty slaves. We
had been on the road three weeks when a gang of Yankees come on us one day at dinner. The Niggers scattered like
birds. 'Bout half of them never come back. The rest of us come on and settled about seven miles southwest of
Mooringsport, La. I went round with young Master Mack when they was drilling the soldiers in Mississippi 'fore we
left for Louisiana. They had a big drill ground on Master's place and the whole field was full of soldiers. My young
Master went on to the war after we got to this country, and stayed till they turned them loose. He come home several
times while he was in the war, but they didn't talk the war 'mong the colored fo'ks. Heap of the Niggers thought the
war was to free the Niggers. Two of my brothers, Richard and Robert, went to the war from Mississippi to take care
of their Masters, but they made soldiers of them 'fore they got back.
Nothing happened on our place the day they said we was free, 'cept some of them didn't stay ten minutes. Master
called all the hands up and told them they was free and if they stayed he give them the third and fourth. The slaves
warn't promised anything and didn't get anything. My mother and father stayed on with the Lampkins for most
twenty years after Emancipation, working on the halves. I left my fo'ks in '73 and come to Texas. I went to work on
Jimmie D. Scotts place, about eight miles east of Marshall, for $10.00 a month. That's where I met Liza Montecue,
who is my wife. She was bo'n right there on the Scotts Place the same year I was bo'n. Her fo'ks come from North
Carolina. We moved to Marshall in '76, and I got a job in the Railroad Shops and worked there from '76 till the big
strike in 1922. Things was pretty bad during the strike. They had rangers and soldiers to keep down the fighting and
trouble. The railroad brought workers in here in box cars, and they cooked and et in the shops. I didn't belong to the
strike, but the strikers wouldn't let me work. They met the colored laborers at the gate and told us we couldn't be
helpers for them what took their jobs. I got $1.25 a day till the World War started, and $1.50 during the War. After
the strikers run me off my job, I never could get back on, and had to make a living at anything I could find to do till
my boy got in the CCC Camp. I'se been married 64 years and raised eight chil'ren. Three of them is still living, here
in Marshall. They work at anything they can find to make a dollar.
I don't know 'bout the Niggers not being 'lowed to vote. I'se voted till I got tired of voting when colored people went
to the polls and it didn't seem to do no good. I suppose they ain't lost nothing by not being 'lowed to vote.
(Mrs. Ada Davis, P.W., McLennan County, Texas, District No. 8, (No))
