Slave Narrative

Slave Narrative of Robert Howard

Interviewer: Anna Pritchett Person Interviewed: Robert Howard Location: Indiana Place of Birth: Clara County, Kentucky Date of Birth: 1852 Place of Residence: 1840 Boulevard Place Federal Writers’ Project of the W.P.A. District #6 Marion County Anna Pritchett 1200 Kentucky Avenue FOLKLORE ROBERT HOWARD-EX-SLAVE 1840 Boulevard Place Robert Howard, an ex-slave, was born in 1852, in Clara County, Kentucky. His master, Chelton Howard, was very kind to him. The mother, with her five children, lived on the Howard farm in peace and harmony. His father, Beverly Howard, was owned by Bill Anderson, who kept a saloon on the river front. Beverly was … Read more

Hopkins Co., Ky

HOPKINS CO. (M. Hanberry) [TR: also spelled Hanbery.] In this county practically no one owned more than one or two slaves as this was never a county of large plantations and large homes. These slaves were well housed, in cabins, well clothed and well fed, not overworked and seldom sold, were in closer touch with the “white folks” and therefore more intelligent than farther south where slaves lived in quarters and seldom came in contact with their masters or the masters’ families. When a gentleman wished a slave he usually went to Hopkinsville and bought slaves there. Occasionally one slave … Read more

Negro Folk Songs

Negro Folk Songs: (Contributed by William Warfield, Col.) These songs more commonly called plantation melodies, originated with the negroes of the South during the days of slavery. They habe been somewhat collected and written about. These songs have for the Negro the same value that the folk songs of any people have for that people. In the days of slavery they furnished an outlet for aching hearts and anguished souls. Today they help to foster race pride and to remind the race of the “rock from which it was hewn”. Some of these folk songs represented the lighter side of … Read more

Superstitions of Negro Race

Superstitions of the Negro Race: In interviewing the different negroes in this community I have not found a single negro that could admit if I asked the direct question that they are the least bit superstitious. The following story happened in my experience with this race about ten years ago. Fifteen years ago I purchased a farm from the estate of a gentleman that had committed suicide. It seems as though the gentleman took his gun and told the family that he was going to the tobacco barn to shoot rats. This barn was located a short distance from the … Read more

Montgomery Co., Ky

MONTGOMERY CO. (Gladys Robertson) In this community most of the slaves were kept on farms and each family was given a well constructed log house. They were fed by provisions given them by their white masters and they were plentiful. They were clothed by their masters. These clothes were made by the colored women under the direction and supervision of their mistress, the white woman cut the clothes for both men and women, and the colored women did the sewing of the garments. The men did the manual labor on the farm and the women the domestic. Each white woman … Read more

Casey Co., Ky

CASEY CO. (R.L. Nesbitt) While slavery existed in Casey Co., as in other counties of the State, before the Civil War, there are no negroes living the the county today who were born into slavery; and very few white people who can remember customs, incidents, or stories of the old slavery days. It is known that the first slaves in the county were those brought here from Virginia by the early white settlers of the county; and that until they were given their freedom, the slaves were well cared for and kindly treated. They lived in comfortable cabins on the … Read more

Clark Co., Ky

CLARK CO. (Mayme Nunnelley) The first records of Slaves in Clark County was given by a descendant of one of the members of the little band of resolute Revolutionary soldiers who had been comrades and mess mates throughout the long bloody war. These fifteen families, some from Virginia and others from Maryland, started westward in the early spring of 1783 for Kentucky. They bought with them some horses, a few cattle, thirty or forty slaves and a few necessary household articles. After many hardships and trials, borne heroically by both men and women, they halted on the banks of the … Read more

Knox Co., Ky

KNOX CO. (Stewart Carey) Some slaves were owned in Knox Co., most of them being in Barbourville where they served as house-servants. The negro men worked around the house and garden, while the women were cooks and maids. The slaves usually lived in small one-room houses at the rear of their masters home, and were generally well fed and clothed. There was some trading of slaves among the Barbourville and Knox County owners, and few were sold at Public Auction. These public sales were held on Courthouse Square, and some few slaves were bought and sold by “Negro Traders” who … Read more

Recreations of Slaves

Recreations of slaves: The following is an old fashion ballad that was sung during the period of slavery and which was very common throughout the Purchase Region: “Jeff Davis rode a big white horse, but Lincoln rode a mule-Jeff Davis was a fine, smart man, and Lincoln was a fool. Jeff Davis had a fine white; Lincoln only had a mule-Jeff Davis was a wonderful man and Lincoln was a fool”. Ring dancing was largely practiced during the slavery period. Especially was this participated in throughout the Purchase Region. This was a rather primative kind of dancing and was performed … Read more

Boyd County, Kentucky

BOYD CO. (Carl F. Hall) The Commonwealth of Kentucky, having for a northern boundary the Ohio River-the dividing line between the northern free states and the southern slave states has always been regarded as a southern state. As in the other states of the old south, slavery was an institution until the Thirteenth Ammendment to the Constitution of the United States gave the negro freedom in 1865. Kentucky did not, as other southern states, secede from the Union, but attempted to be neutral during the Civil War. The people, however, were divided in their allegience, furnishing recruits for both the … Read more

The Missing Man

The Missing Man: “In 1860 Mr. Jess Stevens owned a negro slave, and his wife. Jess Williams, who lived in the north end of the county, bought the old slave, but did not buy his wife. “One day one of Jess William’s boys went to Edward Stevens and an argument followed, causing Mr. Stevens to shoot him in the arm. Later Jess Williams took the old negro and went to the field where Edward Stevens and the boy were planting corn. They hid behind a tree and the negro was given the gun and was told to shoot when Stevens … Read more

Slave Narrative of Susan Dale Sanders

Interviewer: Byer York Person Interviewed: Susan Dale Sanders Location: Louisville, Kentucky Place of Birth: Spencer County KY Place of Residence: #1 Dupree Alley, Louisville, Kentucky The following is a story of Mrs. Susan Dale Sanders, #1 Dupree Alley, between Breckinridge and Lampton Sts., Louisville, an old Negro Slave mammy, and of her life, as she related it. “I lived near Taylorsville, Kentucky, in Spencer County, nearly all my life, ‘cept the last fo’ or five yea’s I’se been livin’ here. I was bo’n there in a log cabin, it was made of logs, and it was chinked with clay and … Read more

Slave Narrative of Annie B. Boyd

Interviewer: Mamie Hanberry Person Interviewed: Annie B. Boyd Location: Hopkinsville, Kentucky Place of Birth: Christian County, KY Date of Birth: August 22, 1851 Place of Residence: Hopkinsville, Kentucky Annie B. Boyd: [TR: Interviewer’s name also spelled also spelled Hanbery.] Annie B. Boyd, born August 22nd 1851, resides at corner of Liberty and First Street, Hopkinsville, Kentucky. Born a slave belonging to Charles Cammack near Gordonsville, Kentucky in Christian County. “My mother and me war put on de block in front of de Courthouse in Hopkinsville and sold to Mr. Newt. Catlett and we brung $500.00. Marse Catlett lived on the … Read more

Slave Narrative of Rev. John R. Cox

Interviewer: Carl F. Hall Person Interviewed: Rev. John R. Cox Date of Interview: December 23, 1936 Location: Catlettsburg, Kentucky Date of Birth: 1852 It is probable that slave labor was more expensive to the white masters than free labor would have been. Beside having cost quite a sum a two-year old negro child brought about $1,500 in the slave market, an adult negro, sound and strong, cost from $5,000 up to as high as $25,000, or more. The master had to furnish the servant his living. The free employee is paid only while working; when sick, disabled or when too … Read more

Slave Narrative of Mary Wooldridge

Interviewer: Mamie Hanberry Person Interviewed: Mary Wooldridge Location: Hopkinsville, Kentucky Place of Birth: Washington County, Kentucky, Age: (about) 103 Place of Residence: Clarksville, Pike R.R. #1, Hopkinsville, Kentucky “Mary and her twin sister were slaves born in Washington County, Kentucky, near Lexington, belonging to Bob Eaglin. When Mary was about fourteen years old she and her sister was brought to the Lexington slave market and sold and a Mr. Lewis Burns of the same County purchased her. Mary doesn’t know what became of her sister. Five or six years later she was again put on the block and sold to … Read more

Slave Narrative of Mrs. Heyburn

Interviewer: Ruby Garten Person Interviewed: Mrs. Heyburn Location: Union County, Kentucky (These two stories were told by Mrs. Heyburn as she remembered them from her grandmother). “When the War was going on between the States and the Confederate soldiers had gone south, the Yankee soldiers came through. There was a little negro slave boy living on the farm and he had heard quite a bit about the Yankees, so one day they happened to pass through where he could see them and he rushed into the house and said, “Miss Lulu, I saw a Yankee, and he was a man.” … Read more

Slave Narrative of Cora Torian

Interviewer: Mamie Hanberry Person Interviewed: Cora Torian Location: Hopkinsville, Kentucky Place of Birth: Christian County KY Age: 71 Place of Residence: 217 W. 2nd St., Hopkinsville, KY Story of Cora Torian: (217 W. 2nd St., Hopkinsville, Ky.-Age 71.) Bell Childress, Cora’s Mother, was a slave of Andrew Owen. He purchased Belle Childress in the Purchase and brought her to Christian County. Cora was born in Christian County on Mr. Owen’s farm and considered herself three years old at the end of the Civil War. She told me as follows: “I has dreamed of fish and dat is a sure sign … Read more

Slave Narrative of Ann Gudgel

Interviewer: Mildred Roberts Person Interviewed: Ann Gudgel Location: Anderson County, Kentucky COMBINED INTERVIEWS: Customs: By Counties Slavery: Local History and Dialect ANDERSON CO. (Mildred Roberts) Story of Ann Gudgel (age unknown): “I doesn’t know how old I am, but I was a little girl when dat man Lincum freed us niggahs. My mammy neber tole us our age, but I knows I’se plenty old, cause I feels like it. “When I was a liddle girl all of us was owned by Master Ball. When Lincum freed us neggahs, we went on and libbed with Master Ball till us chilluns was … Read more

Slave Narrative of Wes Woods

Interviewer: Eliza Ison Person Interviewed: Wes Woods Location: Duncantown, Kentucky Place of Birth: Garrard County, KY Date of Birth: May 21, 1864 Interview with Ex-Slave Uncle Wes Woods: My first visit to Uncle Wes Wood, and his wife Aunt Lizzie Wood, found them in their own comfortable little home in Duncantown, a nice urban section of the town, where most of the inhabitants are of the better class of colored people. A small yard with a picket fence and gate surround the yard, which had tall hollyhocks, rearing their heads high above the fence. A knock on the front door … Read more

Slave Narrative of Edd Shirley

Interviewer: Lenneth Jones Person Interviewed: Edd Shirley Location: Kentucky Age: 97 Occupation:  Janitor Monroe County. Folklore. (Lenneth Jones-242) [HW: Essay] Uncle Edd Shirley (97): Janitor at Tompkinsville Drug Co. and Hospital, Tompkinsville, Ky. [TR: Information moved from bottom of page.] Slaves: I am 97 years old and am still working as janitor and support my family. My father was a white man and my mother was a colored lady. I was owned three different times, or rather was sold to three different families. I was first owned by the Waldens; then I was sold to a man by the name of … Read more