Adora Rienshaw
From:
North Carolina
N.C. District: No. 2
Worker: Mary A. Hicks
No. Words: 453
Subject: Ex-Slave Stories
Person Interviewed: Adora Rienshaw
Editor: Daisy Bailey Waitt
[TR: Date stamp: JUN 1 (unclear) 1937]
EX-SLAVE STORIES
An interview with Adora Rienshaw, 92, of 431 South Bloodworth Street,
Raleigh.
"I wuz borned at Beulah, down hyar whar Garner am now, an' my parents
wuz Cameron an' Sally Perry. When I wuz a month old we moved ter
Raleigh.
"We wuz called 'Ole Issues', case we wuz mixed wid de whites. My pappy
wuz borned free, case his mammy wuz a white 'oman an' his pappy wuz a
coal-black nigger man. Hit happened in Mississippi, do' I doan know her
name 'cept dat she wuz a Perry.
"She wuz de wife of grandfather's marster an' dey said dat he wuz mean
ter her. Grandfather wuz her coachman an' he often seed her cry, an'
he'd talk ter her an' try ter comfort her in her troubles, an' dat's de
way dat she come ter fall in love wid him.
"One day, he said, she axed him ter stop de carriage an' come back dar
an' talk ter her. When he wuz back dar wid her she starts ter cry an'
she puts her purtty gold haid on his shoulder, an' she tells him dat he
am her only friend, an' dat her husban' won't eben let her have a
chile.
"Hit goes on lak dis till her husban' fin's out dat she am gwine ter
have de baby. Dey says dat he beats her awful an' when pappy wuz borned
he jist about went crazy. Anyhow pappy wuz bound out till he wuz
twenty-one an' den he wuz free, case no person wid ary a drap of white
blood can be a slave.
"When he wuz free he comed ter Raleigh an' from de fust I can remember
he wuz a blacksmith an' his shop wuz on Wolcot's Corner. Dar wuz jist
three of us chilluns, Charlie, Narcissus, an' me an' dat wuz a onusual
small family.
"Before de war Judge Bantin's wife teached us niggers on de sly, an'
atter de war wuz over de Yankees started Hayes's school. I ain't had so
much schoolin' but I teached de little ones fer seberal years.
"De Southern soldiers burned de depot, which wuz between Cabarrus an'
Davie Streets den, an' dat wuz ter keep de Yankees from gittin' de
supplies. Wheeler's Cavalry wuz de meanest troops what wuz.
"De Yankees ain't got much in Raleigh, case de Confederates has done
got it all an' gone. Why fer a long time dar de way we got our salt wuz
by boilin' de dirt from de smoke house floor where de meat has hung an'
dripped.
"I'm glad slavery is ober, eben do' I ain't neber been no slave. But I
tell yo' it's bad ter be a 'Ole Issue.'"
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Celina Robinson
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Simuel Riddick
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