Joe High
From:
North Carolina
District: No. 2 [320158]
Worker: T. Pat Matthews
No. Words: 1554
Subject: Joe High
Person Interviewed: Joe High
Editor: Daisy Bailey Waitt
[TR: Date Stamp "JUN 1 1937"]
[HW: interesting first & last paragraph glad slavery ended but loved
Missus]
JOE HIGH
[HW:--80 years]
Joe High interviewed May 18, 1937 has long been one of the best
independent gardners in Raleigh, working variously by the hour or day.
My name is Joe High. I lives at 527 So. Haywood. St. Raleigh, N. C. Now
dere is one thing I want to know, is dis thing goin' to cost me
anything. Hold on a minute, and le' me see. I want to be square, and I
must be square. Now le' me see, le' me see sumpin'. Sometimes folks come
here and dey writes and writes; den dey asts me, is you goin' to pay dis
now? What will it cost? Well, if it costs nothin' I'll gib you what I
knows.
Let me git my Bible. I wants to be on de square, because I got to leave
here some of dese days. Dis is a record from de slave books. I've been
tryin' to git my direct age for 35 years. My cousin got my age. I wuz
born April 10, 1857. My mother's name wuz Sarah High. Put down when she
wuz born, Oct. 24, 1824. This is from the old slave books. We both
belonged to Green High, the young master. The old master, I nebber seed
him; but I saw old missus, Mis' Laney High. The old master died before I
wuz born. We lived two miles north uv Zebulon. You know where Zebulon is
in Wake County? I had two brothers, one brother named Taylor High,
'nother named Ruffin High. My sister died mighty young. She come here
wrong; she died. I' member seeing my uncle take her to the grave yard. I
don't know whe're there's enny rec'ord o' her or not.
My work in slavery times wuz ridin' behin' my Missus, Clara Griffin, who
wuz my old missus' sister's daughter. She came to be our missus. When
she went visiting I rode behind her. I also looked atter de garden, kept
chickens out uv de garden, and minded de table, fanned flies off de
table. They were good to us. Dey whupped us sometime. I wuz not old
enough to do no fiel' work.
One time I slep' late. It wuz in the fall uv the year. The other
chilluns had lef' when I got up. I went out to look for 'em. When I
crossed the tater patch I seen the ground cracked and I dug in to see
what cracked it. I found a tater and kept diggin' till I dug it up. I
carried it to the house. They had a white woman for a cook that year. I
carried the tater and showed it to her. She took me and the tater and
told me to come on. We went from the kitchen to the great house and she
showed the tater to the old missus sayin', 'Look here missus, Joe has
been stealin' taters. Here is the tater he stole'. Old missus said, 'Joe
belongs to me, the tater belongs to me, take it back and cook it for
him. When the cook cooked the tater she asked me for half uv it. I gave
it to her. If I had known den lak I knows now, she wuz tryin' to git me
to git a whoppin' I wouldn't 'er give her none uv dat tater.
There were some frame houses, an part log houses, we called 'em the
darkey houses. The master's house wuz called 'the great house'. We had
very good places to sleep and plenty to eat. I got plenty uv potlicker,
peas, and pumpkins. All us little darkies et out uv one bowl. We used
mussel shells, got on the branch, for spoons. Dey must not er had no
spoons or sumpin. The pea fowls roosted on de great house evey night. I
didn't know whut money nor matches wuz neither.
I 'member seein' Henry High, my first cousin, ketch a pike once, but I
never done no fishin' or huntin'. I 'member seein' the grown folks start
off possum huntin' at night, but I did not go.
I wore wooden bottom shoes and I wore only a shirt. I went in my shirt
tail until I wuz a great big boy, many years atter slavery. There were
50 or more slaves on the plantation. Old women wove cloth on looms. We
made syrup, cane syrup, with a cane mill. We carried our corn to
Foster's Mill down on Little River to have it ground. It wuz called
Little River den; I don't know whut it is called in dis day.
There wuz a block in de yard, where missus got up on her horse. There
were two steps to it. Slaves were sold from this block. I 'member seein'
them sold from this block. George High wuz one, but they got him back.
Dey did not teach us anything about books; dey did not teach us anything
about readin' and writin'. I went to church at the Eppsby Church near
Buffalo, not far from Wakefield. We sat in a corner to ourselves.
My brother Taylor ran away. Young master sent him word to come on back
home; he won't goin' to whup him, and he come back. Yes, he come back.
We played the games uv marbles, blind fold, jumpin', and racin', and
jumpin' the rope. The doctor looked atter us when we were sick,
sometimes, but it wuz mostly done by old women. Dey got erbs and dey gib
us wormfuge. Dey worked us out. I wuz not old enough to pay much
attention to de doctor's name.
I 'members one day my young master, Green High, and me wuz standin' in
de front yard when two men come down the avenue from de main road to the
house. Dey wanted to know how fer it wuz to Green High's. Master told
'em it wuz about 2 miles away and gave 'em the direction. Dey were
Yankees. Dey got on their horses and left. Dey didn't know dey wuz
talking to Green High then. When dey left, master left. I didn't see
him no more in a long time. Soon next day the yard wuz full uv Yankee
soldiers. I 'members how de buttons on dere uniforms shined. Dey got
corn, meat, chickens, and eveything they wanted. Day didn't burn the
house.
Old man Bert Doub or Domb kept nigger hounds. When a nigger run away he
would ketch him for de master. De master would send atter him and his
dogs when a nigger run away. I 'member one overseer, a Negro, Hamp High
and another Coff High. Nobody told me nothin' about being free and I
knowed nothin' 'bout whut it meant.
I married Rosetta Hinton. She belonged to the Hintons during slavery.
She is dead; she's been dead fourteen years. We were married at her
mother's home; the river plantation belonging to the Hintons. I wuz
married by a preacher at this home. Atter the wedding we had good things
to eat and we played games. All stayed there that night and next day we
went back to whar I wuz workin' on de Gen. Cox's farm. I wuz workin'
dere. We had 6 chillun. Two died at birth. All are dead except one in
Durham named Tommie High and one in New York City. Tommie High works in
a wheat mill. Eddie High is a cashermiser, (calciminer) works on walls.
I thought slavery wuz right. I felt that this wuz the way things had to
go, the way they were fixed to go. I wuz satisfied. The white folks
treated me all right. My young missus loved me and I loved her. She
whupped me sometimes. I think just for fun sometimes, when I wuz ridin'
behind her, she would tell me to put my arms around her and hold to her
apron strings. One day she wuz sittin' on the side saddle; I wuz sittin'
behind her. She wud try to git old Dave, the horse she wuz a ridin to
walk; she would say, 'Ho Dave', den I wud kick de horse in de side and
she wud keep walkin' on. She asked me, 'Joe, why does Dave not want to
stop?'
I saw a lot of Yankees, I wuz afraid of 'em. They called us Johnnie,
Susie, and tole us they wouldn't hurt us.
I think Abraham Lincoln is all right, I guess, the way he saw it. I
think he was like I wuz as a boy from what I read, and understand; he
wuz like me jest the way he saw things. I liked the rules, and ways o'
my old master and missus, while the Yankees and Abraham Lincoln gave me
more rest.
How did I learn to read? Atter de war I studies. I wonts ter read de
hymms an' songs. I jis picks up de readin' myself.
It's quare to me, I cannot remember one word my mother ever said to me,
not nary a word she said can I remember. I remember she brought me hot
potlicker and bread down to the house of mornings when I wuz small; but
I'se been tryin to 'member some words she spoke to me an' I cain't.
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Susan High
Previous:
Chaney Hews
