Charlotte Raines
From:
Georgia
[HW: Dist. 1
Ex-Slave #91]
SUBJECT: CHARLOTTE RAINES--OGLETHORPE CO.
DISTRICT: W.P.A. NO. 1
RESEARCH WORKER: JOHN N. BOOTH
DATE: JANUARY 18, 1937
[Date Stamp: JAN 26 1937]
[Date Stamp: MAY 8 1937]
Aunt Charlotte Raines, well up in the seventies at the time of her death
some years ago, was an excellent example of the type of negro developed
by the economic system of the old South.
When I could first remember, Charlotte was supreme ruler of the kitchen
of my home. Thin to emaciation and stooped almost to the point of having
a hump on her back she was yet wiry and active. Her gnarled old hands
could turn out prodigous amounts of work when she chose to extend
herself.
Her voice was low and musical and she seldom raised it above the
ordinary tone of conversation; yet when she spoke other colored people
hastened to obey her and even the whites took careful note of what she
said. Her head was always bound in a snow-white turban. She wore calico
or gingham print dresses and white aprons and these garments always
appeared to be freshly laundered.
Charlotte seldom spoke unless spoken to and she would never tell very
much about her early life. She had been trained as personal maid to one
of her ex-master's daughters. This family, (that of Swepson H. Cox) was
one of the most cultured and refined that Lexington, in Oglethorpe
County, could boast.
Aunt Charlotte never spoke of her life under the old regime but she had
supreme contempt for "no count niggers that didn't hav' no white Folks".
She was thrifty and frugal. Having a large family, most of her small
earnings was spent on them. However, she early taught her children to
scratch for themselves. Two of her daughters died after they had each
brought several children into the world. Charlotte thought they were
being neglected by their fathers and proceeded to take them "to raise
myse'f". These grand children were the apple of her eye and she did much
more for them than she had done for her own children.
The old woman had many queer ways. Typical of her eccentricities was her
iron clad refusal to touch one bite of food in our house. If she wished
a dish she was preparing tasted to see that it contained the proper
amount of each ingredient she would call some member of the family,
usually my grandmother, and ask that he or she sample the food.
Paradoxically, she had no compunctions about the amount of food she
carried home for herself and her family.
Strange as it may seem, Charlotte was an incorrigible rogue. My mother
and my grandmother both say that they have seen her pull up her skirts
and drop things into a flour sack which she always wore tied round her
waist just for this purpose. I myself have seen this sack so full that
it would bump against her knee. She did not confine her thefts to food
only. She would also take personal belongings. Another servant in the
household once found one of Aunt Charlotte's granddaughters using a
compact that she had stolen from her young mistress. The servant took
the trinket away from the girl and returned it to the owner but nothing
was ever said to Aunt Charlotte although every one knew she had stolen
it.
One year when the cherry crop was exceptionally heavy, grandmother had
Charlotte make up a huge batch of cherry preserves in an iron pot. While
Charlotte was out of the kitchen for a moment she went in to have a look
at the preserves and found that about half of them had been taken out. A
careful but hurried search located the missing portion hidden in another
container behind the stove. Grandmother never said a word but simply put
the amount that had been taken out back in the pot.
Charlotte never permitted anyone to take liberties with her except Uncle
Daniel, the "man of all work" and another ex-slave. Daniel would josh
her about some "beau" or about her over-fondness for her grandchildren.
She would take just so much of this and then with a quiet "g'long with
you", she would send him on about his business. Once when he pressed her
a bit too far she hurled a butcher knife at him.
Charlotte was not a superstitious soul. She did not even believe that
the near-by screech of an owl was an omen of death. However, she did
have some fearful and wonderful folk remedies.
When you got a bee sting Charlotte made Daniel spit tobacco juice on it.
She always gave a piece of fat meat to babies because this would make
them healthy all their lives. Her favorite remedy was to put a pan of
cold water under the bed to stop "night sweats."
In her last years failing eye-sight and general ill health forced her to
give up her active life. Almost a complete shut-in, she had a window cut
on the north side of her room so she could "set and see whut went on up
at Mis' Molly's" (her name for my grandmother).
She was the perfect hostess and whenever any member of our family went
to see how she did during those latter days she always served locust
beer and cookies. Once when I took her a bunch of violets she gave me an
old coin that she had carried on her person for years. Mother didn't
want me to take it because Charlotte's husband had given it to her and
she set great store by it. However, the old woman insisted that I be
allowed to keep the token arguing it would not be of use to her much
longer anyway.
She died about a month later and in accordance with her instructions her
funeral was conducted like "white folk's buryin'", that is without the
night being filled with wailing and minus the usual harangue at the
church. Even in death Charlotte still thought silence golden.
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Fanny Randolph
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