|
|
Lucy Chambers, an aged Negress of Harrison County, was born about 1851, near Crockett, in Houston County,
Texas, a slave of Charley Butler. Her parents originally belonged to Hugh Perry, but were separated before Lucy's
birth by a sale of her mother and baby brother, who were carried to Houston County. Her parents were later reunited
by the purchase of her father and mother by Henry Hargrove, of Harrison County. Lucy remained with the Butlers
until 1865, when she was brought to her parents at Jefferson. She has been married twice and reared three children.
After the death of her husband, Lucy earned her own living as a house woman until about two years ago. She now
lives with relatives near Karnack, Texas, on State Hwy. #43.
I was bo'n out West in Houston County, Texas near Crocket, Texas and belonged to Charley Butler. I don't know
zactly (exactly) how old I is, but I was big enough to chase cows out of the field when the first war started, eight or
nine years old, I guess.
My mother and father, Jim and Isabella Pearson, was bo'n in Georgia and fotched (brought) to Texas by old man
William Blocker. He sold them to the Hugh Perry folks here in Harrison County, and their first child, Gill, was bo'n
the year after they come to
Texas. When Gill was just a nussing baby, the Perrys sold my mother and him to old man Charley Butler, and he
took them out west in Houston County. My father stayed here and was sold to the Henry Hargrove fo'ks and stayed
with them till we was freed. I had three brothers: Gill, Levi and Wes, and four sisters: Edna, Julia, Mariah, and
Martha. Gill is the oldest chile and I is next to him. Me, Gill and Mariah and Levi was all bo'n under slavery, but me
and Gill is the only ones living Y knows of.
My father was carriage driver for the Hargroves and was one of their best respected darkies. They give him a good
hoss and saddle and let him come to Houston County to see his fo'ks. He say that Master Henry Hargrove was a
heap site better owner than the Perrys or Butlers. Master Henry didn't go in for that Pattyroller business and when
my daddy come to Houston County to see us he give him a special writ' (permit) in case the Pattyrollers cotched
(caught) him.
The biggest po'tion of the Butler's place was in woods. He lived in a two-story log house with a po'ch in Houston
County. My Mistress was named Sarah and she had three girls and two boys. They had just two or three families of
darkies that lived on the place. My Master run a store and didn't do much farming. Old Mistress Sarah would have
treated the darkies right if she hadn't had too mean a man. He sometime worked a whole drove of Niggers, but most
of them was clearing land. It was them timber hands that cotched (caught) the devil. The overseer sho' believed in
making them step. The woods was full of Niggers what run away from the overseer. I'se heard the hounds blating on
the trail of Niggers in the woods and heard the whip cracking when they cotched them.
The farm hands lived in log houses what had just one room. We slep on rough plank beds what had two legs. They
bored two big auger holes in the logs and fastened one side of the bed to the wall. Most of the mattresses was grass
cause they fed the shucks and hay to the stock. My mother worked in the field and in the house too. We allus fared
better than the other darkies, cause we stayed in the house with the white fo'ks. We slep in a attic room upstairs. I
didn't catch much whipping cause I warn't big enough to do nothing but tote (carry) water and run calves in slavery
time. I'se seed ole Mistress warm my brother, Gill, up lots. He was houseboy and Mistress say he was the
meddlesomest Nigger she ever saw. He allus run errands for Mistress, when she wanted something from one of the
neighbors. She made him ride a mule cause there was lots of bears and wolves about. If he was gone too long, he
sho' cotched a thrashing when he got home.
They had lots of parties round on jining places, but Butler's black fo'ks didn't go to them. Old man Charley told
them, "You Niggers ain't lost nothing at them parties."
I never knowed any owners larning (learning) their black fo'ks to read and write. "Darkies was made to work", was
Mistress's saying. My young Mistress Edna give me my A B C's, but the white fo'ks didn't know it. She slipped up
to our room and told me stories 'bout "ghostes'
and fairies when I was little.
I 'members seeing soldiers warking past our house during the war and that's 'bout all I knows 'bout it, 'cept didn't
none of the Butler's gwye (go) to it. Master Butler was killed 'fore the war closed. He cotched a neighbors boy
behind the counter in his store and accused him of stealing, and slapped his face. The boy told his daddy that old
man Charley Butler beat him and cussed him. The boy's daddy laid for Butler and shot him. After Butler was killed,
my mother, and Gill and Levi come to the Hargroves place in Harrison County, where my father was. Me and
Mariah and Wes stayed on with Mistress Sarah for a year and lived with my Uncle Tom Ward. The Hargroves freed
my fo'ks a year after surrender and they went to Jefferson. Tom Ward took us to them at Jefferson in wagons, and I
lived with them till I married.
I 'members the Ku Klux coming to our house when we lived on the Hugh Perry place. They was after my father and
some more men, but they heard them coming and hid out in the woods. They looked like the "ghostes" Mistress
Edna used to tell me 'bout in white robes. Some of the wimmen got under the bed when they come round the house.
This young race of Niggers is moving so fast I can't keep up with them. They laugh at me when I tells them 'bout the
"Pattyrollers". One of my nieces say, "I'd like to see one of them try to Pattyroller me". They don't know a Nigger
didn't have no chance in slavery time.
