John Davenport
From:
South Carolina
Project 1885-1
Folklore
Spartanburg, Dist. 4
Nov. 30, 1937
Edited by:
Elmer Turnage
STORIES FROM EX-SLAVES
(John Davenport)
"My family belonged in slavery time to old Marse Pierce Lake who was de
Clerk of Court in town, or de Probate Judge. He lived at de old Campbell
Havird House and I lived dar wid him. My mother belonged to dis Lake
family and she was named Martha Lake. I don't know who my father was,
but I was told he was a white man.
"We slaves had good enough quarters to live in, and dey give us plenty
to eat. De house I live in now is fair, but it has a bad roof. It is my
wife's chillun's place. My wife had it and left it to dem. She was Ellen
Gallman, a widow when I married her. Only my blind daughter now live wid
me. I was married five times and had eighteen chilluns by three wives.
Each of my wives died befo' I married agin. I didn't separate from any.
My mother's father lived wid Marse Lake. He and his wife come from
Virginia.
"I was a boy in slavery and worked and piddled round de house. Sometimes
I had to work de corn or in de garden. We had plenty to eat. As de old
saying is, 'We lived at home and boarded at de same place.' We raised
everything we had to eat, vegetables, hogs, cows and de like. Marster
had a big garden, but he didn't let his slaves have any garden of deir
own. We made all our clothes, homespun. My mother used to spin at night
and work out all day; lots of niggers had to do dat.
"Marse Lake was good to his niggers, but he had to whip dem sometimes,
when dey was mean. He had six or eight slaves, some on de upper place
and some on de home place. We got up at daylight and worked all day,
except for dinner lunch, till it was sundown.
"We never worked at night in de fields. Sometimes Marse would have
corn-shuckings and de neighbors would come in and help catch up wid
shucking de corn; den dey would have something to eat. De young folks
would come, too, and help, and dey would dance and frolic.
"I didn't learn to read and write. Marse never said anything about it.
My sister learned when some of de white women school teachers boarded at
Marse Lake's house. De teachers learn't my sister when she was de maid
of de house, and she could read and write good. Didn't have a school or
church on de plantation. Atter de war, some of de niggers started a
brush arbor. Befo' de war, some of us niggers had to come to town wid de
white folks and go to deir church and set in de gallery.
"De patrollers was sometimes mean. If dey catch'd a nigger away from
home widout a pass dey sho whipped him, but dey never got any of us. Dey
come to our house once, but didn't git anybody.
"We had to work all day Saturdays, but not Sundays. Sometimes de fellows
would slip off and hunt or fish a little on Sunday. Women would do
washing on Saturday nights, or other nights. We had three days holiday
when Christmas come, and we had plenty good things to eat, but we had to
cook it ourselves. De marster would give de chillun little pieces of
candy.
"Chillun had games like marbles and anti-over. Dey played anti-over by a
crowd gitting on each side of de house and throwing a ball from one side
to de other. Whoever got de ball would run around on de other side and
hit somebody wid it; den he was out of de game. We never believed much
in ghosts or spooks. I never saw any.
"Some of de folks had remedies for curing, like making hot tea from a
weed called 'bone-set'. Dat weed grows wild in de woods. It was good
for chills and fever. De tea is awful bitter. Little bags of asafetida
was used to hang around de little chillun's necks to ward off fever or
diptheria.
"We used to call de cows on de plantation like dis: 'co-winch,
co-winch'. We called de mules like dis: 'co, co', and de hogs and pigs,
'pig-oo, pig-oo'. We had dogs on de place, too, to hunt wid.
"When freedom come, de marster told us we could go away or stay on. Most
of us stayed on wid him. Soon atter dis, he got mad at me one day and
told me to git off de place. I come to town and stayed about two weeks,
piddling around to git along. I found out whar my mother was--she had
been sold and sent away. She was in Saluda (Old Town). I went to her and
stayed two weeks; den she come to Newberry and rented a little cabin on
Beaver Dam Creek, near Silver Street.
"I remember hearing about de Yankees. When dey come through here dey
camped in town to keep order and peace. I remember de Ku Klux, too, how
some of 'em killed niggers. I voted in town on de Republican ticket. I
am still a Republican. None of my friends held office, but I remember
some of dem. Old Lee Nance was one, and he was killed by a white man.
"Since de war, de niggers have worked mostly on farms, renting and
wage-hands. Some of dem have bought little places. Some moved to town
and do carpenter work, and others jes' piddle around.
"Some of de dances de niggers had was, 'Jump Jim Crow'; one nigger would
jump up and down while tripping and dancing in de same spot. Some times
he say, 'Every time I jump, I jump Jim Crow.' We had what was called a
'Juber' game. He would dance a jig and sing, 'Juber this, Juber that,
Juber killed a yellow cat'.
"I never thought much about Abraham Lincoln nor Jefferson Davis. Only
seed de pictures of dem. Reckon dey was all right. Don't know nothing
about Booker Washington, neither.
"I was 25 years old when I joined de church. I joined because I thought
I ought to, people preaching Christ and him crucified; and I thought I
ought to do right. Think everybody ought to join de church and be
religious.
"What I think of de present generation is hard to say. Dey is not like
de old people was. De old generation of chilluns could be depended on,
but de present niggers can't be.
"No, de slaves never expected anything when de war was over, dem in de
neighborhood didn't. Some say something about gitting 40 acres of land
and a mule, but we never expected it. None ever got anything, not even
money from de old marsters or anybody."
Source: John N. Davenport (N, 89), Newberry, S. C. RFD
Interviewer: G. L. Summer, Newberry, S. C. (11/3/37)
Next:
Moses Davenport
Previous:
Lucy Daniels
