Will Glass
From:
More Arkansas
Interviewer: Samuel S. Taylor
Person interviewed: Will Glass
715 W. Eighth Street, Little Rock, Arkansas
Age: 50
Occupation: All phases of paving work
[HW: [Bit Dog's Foot Off]]
"My grandfather was named Joe Glass. His master was named Glass. I
forget the first name. My grandfather on my mother's side was named
Smith. His old master was named Smith. The grandfather Joe was born in
Alabama. Grandfather Smith was born in North Carolina."
Whippings
"There were good masters and mean masters. Both of my old grandfathers
had good masters. I had an uncle, Anderson Fields, who had a tough
master. He was so tough that Uncle Anderson had to run away. They'd whip
him and do around, and he would run away. Then they would get the dogs
after him and they would run him until he would climb a tree to get away
from them. They would come and surround the tree and make him come down
and they would whip him till the blood ran, and sometimes they would
make the dogs bite him and he couldn't do nothing about it. One time he
bit a dog's foot off. They asked him why he did that and he said the dog
bit him and he bit him back. They whipped him again. They would take him
home at night and put what they called the ball and chain on him and
some of the others they called unruly to keep them from running away.
"They didn't whip my grandfathers. Just one time they whipped
Grandfather Joe. That was because he wouldn't give his consent for them
to whip his wife. He wouldn't stand for it and they strapped him. He
told them to strap him and leave her be. He was a good worker and they
didn't want to kill him, so they strapped him and let her be like he
said."
Picnics
"Both of my grandfathers said their masters used to give picnics. They
would have a certain day and they would give them all a good time and
let them enjoy themselves. They would kill a cow or some kids and hogs
and have a barbecue. They kept that up after freedom. Every nineteenth
of June, they would throw a big picnic until I got big enough to see and
know for myself. But their masters gave them theirs in slavery times.
They gave it to them once a year and it was on the nineteenth of June
then.
"Grandfather Joe said when he wanted to marry Jennie, she was under her
old master, the man that Anderson worked under. Old man Glass found that
Grandfather Joe was slipping off to old man Field's to see Grandma
Jennie, who was on Field's place, and old man Fields went over and told
Glass that he would either have to sell Glass to him or buy Jennie from
him. Old man Glass bought Jennie and Grandfather Joe got her.
"After old man Glass bought Jennie, he held up a broom and they would
have to jump over it backwards and then old man Glass pronounced them
man and wife.
"Grandfather Joe died when I was a boy ten years old. Grandfather Smith
died in 1921. He was eighty years old when he died. Grandfather Joe was
seventy-two years old when he died. He died somewhere along in 1898."
Whitecaps
"I heard them speak of the Ku Klux often. But they didn't call them Ku
Klux; they called them whitecaps. The whitecaps used to go around at
night and get hold of colored people that had been living disorderly
and carry them out and whip them. I never heard them say that they
whipped anybody for voting. If they did, it wasn't done in our
neighborhood."
Worship
"Uncle Anderson said that old man Fields didn't allow them to sing and
pray and hold meetings, and they had to slip off and slip aside and hide
around to pray. They knew what to do. People used to stick their heads
under washpots to sing and pray. Some of them went out into the brush
arbors where they could pray and shout without being disturbed.
"Grandfather Joe and Grandfather Smith both said that they had seen
slaves have that trouble. Of course, it never happened on the
plantations where they were brought up. Uncle Anderson said that they
would sometimes go off and get under the washpot and sing and pray the
best they could. When they prayed under the pot, they would make a
little hole and set the pot over it. Then they would stick their heads
under the pot and say and sing what they wanted."
Slave Sales
"Grandfather Joe and Grandfather Smith used to say that when a child was
born if it was a child that was fine blooded they would put it on the
block and sell it away from its parents while it was little. Both of my
grandfathers were sold away from their parents when they were small
kids. They never knew who their parents were.
"When my oldest auntie was born, my mother said she was sold about two
years before freedom. Aunt Emma was only two years old then when she was
sold. Mother never met her until she was married and had a family. They
would sell the children slaves of that sort at auction, and let them go
to the highest bidder."
Opinions
"My grandfather brought me up strictly. I don't know what they thought
about the young people of their day, but I know what I think. I will
tell you. At first I searched myself. Kids in the time I came along had
to go by a certain rule. They had to go by it.
"We don't see to our children doing right as our parents saw to our
doing. It would be good if we could get ourselves together and bring
these young people back where they belong. What ruined the young folks
is our lack of discipline. We send them to school but that is all, and
that is not enough. We ought to take it on ourselves to see that they
are learning as they ought to learn and what they ought to learn.
"I belong to Bethel A. M. E. Church. I married about 1919, November 16.
I have just one kid and two grand kids."
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Frank William Glenn
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J N Gillespie
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