Person Interviewed: Emmaline Heard Location: 239 Cain Street On December 3 and 4, 1936, Mrs. Emmaline Heard was interviewed at her home, 239 Cain Street. The writer had visited Mrs. Heard previously, and it was at her own request that another visit was made. This visit was supposed to be one to obtain information and […]
Interviewer: Adella S. Dixon Person Interviewed: Berry Clay Location: Macon, Georgia Age: 89 Telfair County was the home of some colored people who never were slaves, but hired their services for wages just as the race does today. Berry Clay, half Indian, half white, was the son of Fitema Bob Britt, a full blood Indian,
Person Interviewed: Andrew Simms Location: Sapulpa, Oklahoma Age: 80 My parents come over on a slave ship from Africa about twenty year before I was born on the William Driver plantation down in Florida. My folks didn’t know each other in Africa but my old Mammy told me she was captured by Negro slave hunters
Interviewer: Martin D. Richardson Person Interviewed: Ambrose Douglass Location: Brooksville, Florida Age: 92 In 1861, when he was 16 years old, Ambrose Hilliard Douglass was given a sound beating by his North Carolina master because he attempted to refuse the mate that had been given to him–with the instructions to produce a healthy boy-child by
Interviewer: Pearl Randolph Person Interviewed: Frank Berry Location: Jacksonville, Florida Age: 78 Frank Berry, living at 1614 west Twenty-Second street, Jacksonville, Florida, claims to be a grandson of Osceola, last fighting chief of the Seminole tribe. Born in 1858 of a mother who was part of the human chattel belonging to one of the Hearnses
Person Interviewed: Rev. Eli Boyd Location: Dade County, Florida Dade County, Florida, Folklore Ex-Slaves Reverend Eli Boyd was born May 29, 1864, four miles from Somerville, South Carolina on John Murray’s plantation. It was a large plantation with perhaps one hundred slaves and their families. As he was only a tiny baby when freedom came,
Interviewer: Alfred Farrell Person Interviewed: Titus Bynes Location: Titusville, Florida Age: 90 Occupation: Carpenter Titus B. [TR: Titus I. above] Bynes, affectionately known as “Daddy Bynes”, is reminiscent of Harriet Beecher Stowe’s immortal “Uncle Tom” and Joel Chandler Harris’ inimitable ‘Uncle Remus’ with his white beard and hair surrounding a smiling black face. He was
Interviewer: Martin Richardson Person Interviewed: Lindsey Moore Location: Palatka, Florida Age: 87 Occupation: Blacksmith, leather-tanner, ex-marble shooting champion, weaving-and-spinning An Ex-Slave Who Was Resourceful In a little blacksmith shop at 1114 Madison Street, Palatka, is a busy little horse-shoer who was born in slavery eighty-seven years ago. “Lindsey Moore”, blacksmith, leather-tanner ex-marble shooting champion and
Interviewer: L. Rebecca Baker Person Interviewed: “Prophet” John Henry Kemp Location: Daytona Beach, Florida Age: 80 A long grey beard, a pair of piercing owl-like eyes and large bare feet, mark “Prophet” Kemp among the citizenry of Daytona Beach, Florida. The “Prophet”, christened John Henry–as nearly as he can remember–is an 80 year old ex-slave
Person Interviewed: Annie Gail Location: Dade County, Florida Annie Gail, 1661 NW 6th Court, Miami, Florida, was four years old when “peace came.” “I was borned on Faggott’s place near Greenville, Alabama. My mother, she worked for Faggott. He wuz her bossman. When she’d go out to de fiel’s, I ‘member I used to watch
Person Interviewed: Millie Sampson Location: Dade County, Florida Millie Sampson, 182 W. 14th St. Miami, Florida, was born in Manning, S.C. only three years ‘bfo’ Peace”. “My mother and father were born on the same plantation and I di’n’t have nothin’ to do ‘sept play with the white children and have plenty to eat. My
Interviewer: Pearl Randolph Person Interviewed: Acie Thomas Location: Jacksonville, Florida Age: 79 Mr. Thomas was at home today. There are many days when one might pass and repass the shabby lean-to that is his home without seeing any signs of life. That is because he spends much of his time foraging about the streets of
Person Interviewed: Frank Bates Location: Dade County, Florida Frank Bates, 367 N.W. 10th Street, Miami, Florida was born on Hugh Lee Bates’ farm in Alabama in the country not very far from Mulberry Beat. “My mother and father lived on the same plantation, but I was too little to do more than tote water to
Person Interviewed: Annie Trip Location: Dade County, Florida “My name’s Annie Trip. How my name’s Trip, I married a Trip, but I was borned in Georgia in the country not so very far from Thomasville. I’m sure you must ha’ heard of Thomasville, Georgia. Well, that’s where I was borned, on Captain Hamlin’s plantation. “Captain
Person Interviewed: Jessie Rowell Location: Dade County, Florida Jessie Rowell, 331 NW 19th St., Miami, Florida was born in Mississippi, between Fossburg and Heidelberg, on the Gaddis plantation. “My grandmother worked in the house, but my mother worked in the field hoeing or picking cotton or whatever there was to do. I was too little
Person Interviewed: David Lee Location: Dade County, Florida David Lee, 1006 NW 1st Court, Miami, Fla. is proud of his “missus” and the training he received on the plantation. “Ah can’t tell y’ ‘zackkly mah age, but ah knows dat when Freedom was declared, ah was big ‘nough ter drive a haws an’ buggy’, for
Person Interviewed: Hattie Thomas Location: Dade County, Florida Hattie Thomas was six years old when peace was declared. She was ‘borned’ near Custer, Ga. on Bob Morris’ plantation. At the tender age of five, she can remember of helping to care for the other children, some of whom were her own brothers and children, for
Person Interviewed: Fannie McCay Location: Dade County, Florida Age: 73 Fannie McCay, 1720 NW 3rd Court, Miami, Florida was born on a plantation while her father and mother were slaves; she claims her age is 73 years which would make her too young to remember “mancipation” but nevertheless she was slave property of her master
Person Interviewed: Priscilla Mitchell Location: Dade County, Florida Priscilla Mitchell, 1614 NW 5th Ave., was born in Macon County, Alabama, March 17, 1858. “Y’ see, ah wuz oney 7 years old when ah wuz ‘mancipated. I can ‘member pickin’ cotton, but I didn’t work so hard, ah wuz too young. “I wuz my Massy’s pet.
Interviewer: Martin Richardson Person Interviewed: Arnold Gragston Location: Eatonville, Florida Age: 97 (Verbatim interview with Arnold Gragston, 97-year old ex-slave whose early life was spent helping slaves to freedom across the Ohio River, while he, himself, remained in bondage. As he put it, he guessed he could be called a ‘conductor’ on the underground railway,
