Charlie H Hunter
From:
North Carolina
N. C. District: No. 2 [320124]
Worker: T. Pat Matthews
No. Words: 645
Subject: CHARLIE H. HUNTER
Story Teller: C. H. Hunter
Editor: Geo. L. Andrews
[TR: Date Stamp "AUG 4 1937"]
CHARLIE H. HUNTER, 80 years old,
2213 Barker Street
West Raleigh
My full name is Charlie H. Hunter. I wus borned an' reared in Wake
County, N. C., born May, 1857. My mother wus Rosa Hunter an' my father
wus named Jones. I never saw my father. We belonged to a family named
Jones first, an' then we wus sold to a slave owner seven miles Northwest
by the name Joe Hayes an' a terrible man he wus. He would get mad 'bout
most anything, take my mother, chain her down to a log and whup her
unmercifully while I, a little boy, could do nothing but stan' there an'
cry, an' see her whupped. We had fairly good food an' common clothing.
We had good sleeping places. My mother wus sold to a man named Smith. I
married first Annie Hayes who lived sixteen months.
No prayer meetings wus allowed on de plantations an' no books of any
kind. I can read an' write, learned in a school taught by Northern folks
after the surrender, Mr. an' Mrs. Graves who taught in Raleigh in the
rear of the African Methodist Episcopal church. The school house wus
owned by the church. We played no games in slavery times. I saw slaves
sold on the block once in Raleigh.
I wus to be sold but the surrender stopped it. When the Yankees come
they asked me where wus my marster. I told them I didn't know. Marster
told me not to tell where he wus. He had gone off into the woods to hide
his silver. In a few minutes the ground wus covered with Yankees. The
Yankees stole my pen knife. I thought a lot of it. Knives wus scarce and
hard to get. I cried about they taking it. They got my marster's
carriage horses, two fine gray horses. His wife had lost a brother, who
had been in the army but died at home. He wus buried in the yard. The
Yankees thought the grave wus a place where valuables wus buried and
they had to get a guard to keep them from diggin' him up. They would
shoot hogs, cut the hams and shoulders off, stick them on their
bayonetts, throw them over the'r shoulders an' go on.
We called our houses shanties in slavery time. I never saw any
patterollers. I don't remember how many slaves on the plantation wus
taken to Richmond an' sold. My mother looked after us when we wus sick.
I had four brothers an' no sisters. They are all dead. I did house work
an' errands in slavery time. I have seen one gang of Ku Klux. They wus
under arrest at Raleigh in Governor Holden's time. I don't remember the
overseer.
We moved to Raleigh at the surrender. Marster give us a old mule when we
left him, an' I rode him into Raleigh. We rented a house on Wilmington
Street, an' lived on hard tack the Yankees give us 'til we could git
work.
Mother went to cooking for the white folks, but I worked for Mr. Jeff
Fisher. I held a job thirty-five years driving a laundry truck for L. R.
Wyatt. The laundry wus on the corner of Jones an' Salisbury Street.
I married Cenoro Freeman. We lived together fifty-six years. She wus a
good devoted wife. We wus married Dec. 9, 1878. She died in May
1934. [HW: bracket] Booker T. Washington wus a good man. I have seen him.
Abraham Lincoln wus one of my best friends. He set me free. The Lawd is
my best friend. I don't know much 'bout Jefferson Davis. Jim Young an'
myself wus pals.
My object in joining the church wus to help myself an' others to live a
decent life, a life for good to humanity an' for God.
Next:
Elbert Hunter
Previous:
Alex Huggins
