Alex Huggins
From:
North Carolina
N. C. District: No. 2 [320195]
Worker: Mrs. Edith S. Hibbs
and Mrs. W. N. Harriss
No. Words: 795
Subject: Alex Huggins' Story
Interviewed: Alex Huggins,
920 Dawson St, Wilmington, N. C.
Edited: Mrs. W. N. Harriss
[TR: No Date Stamp]
STORY OF ALEX HUGGINS, EX-SLAVE
920 Dawson Street, Wilmington, N. C.
I was born in New Bern on July 9, 1850. My father and mother belonged to
Mr. L. B. Huggins. My father was a carpenter and ship builder an' the
first things I remember was down on Myrtle Grove Sound, where Mr.
Huggins had a place. I was a sort of bad boy an' liked to roam 'round.
When I was about twelve years old I ran away. It was in 1863 when the
war was goin' on.
Nobody was bein' mean to me. No, I was'nt bein' whipped. Don't you know
all that story 'bout slaves bein' whipped is all Bunk, (with scornful
emphasis). What pusson with any sense is goin' to take his horse or his
cow an' beat it up. It's prope'ty. We was prope'ty. Val'able prope'ty.
No, indeed, Mr. Luke give the bes' of attention to his colored people,
an' Mis' Huggins was like a mother to my mother. Twa'nt anythin' wrong
about home that made me run away. I'd heard so much talk 'bout freedom I
reckon I jus' wanted to try it, an' I thought I had to get away from
home to have it.
Well, I coaxed two other boys to go with me, an' a grown man he got the
boat an' we slipped off to the beach an' put out to sea. Yes'm, we sho'
was after adventure. But, we did'n get very far out from sho', an' I saw
the lan' get dimmer an' dimmer, when I got skeered, an' then I got
seasick, an' we was havin' more kinds of adventure than we wanted, an'
then we saw some ships. There was two of 'em, an' they took us on board.
They was the North Star an' the Eastern Star of the Aspinwal Line, a
mail an' freighter runnin' between Aspinwal near the Isthmus of Panama
and New York. We used to put in off Charleston.
Then, in 1864 I joined the Union Navy. Went on board our convoy, the
Nereus. We convoyed to keep the Alabama, a Confederate privateer, away.
The Commander of the Nereus asked me how's I like to be his cabin boy.
So I was 2nd class cabin boy an' waited on the Captain. He was Five
Stripe Commander J. C. Howell. He was Commander of the whole fleet off
Fort Fisher. When the Captain wanted somethin' good to eat he used to
send me ashore for provisions. He liked me. He was an old man. He didn't
take much stock in fun, but he was a real man. I was young an' was'nt
serious. I jus' wanted a good time. I don't know much about the war, but
I do know two men of our boat was killed on shore while we was at Fort
Fisher.
After the battle of Fort Fisher, we was on our way to Aspinwal. Layin'
off one day at Navassa Island, the Mast Head reported a strange sail.
'Where away?' 'Just ahead'. 'She seems to be a three mast steamer!'
'Which way headed?' We decided it was the Alabama going to St. Nicholas
Mole, West Indies.
Our Captain called the officers together an' held a meetin'. Says he:
'We'll go under one bell (slow). Lieutenant will go ashore an' get some
information.' When we got there she had a coal schooner alongside taking
on coal. Our Captain prepared to capture her when she came out. But she
did'n come out 'til night. She dodged. Good thing too. She'd a knocked
hells pete out o' us. She was close to the water and could have fought
us so much better than we could her. We didn't want to fight 'cause we
knowed enough to jest natu'ally be skeered. She was a one decker man o'
war. We was a two decker with six guns on berth deck, an' five guns on
spar deck. I never saw her after that, but I heard she was contacted by
the Kearsage which sunk her off some island.
I stayed in the navy eighteen months. Was discharged at the Brooklyn
Navy Yard. Admiral Porter was Admiral of the U. S. Navy at that time.
I stayed in New York five or six years, then I cane home to my mother. I
was in the crude drug business in Wilmington for twenty years.
Yes'm I went to church and Sunday school when I was a child, when they
could ketch me. Whilst I was in New York I went to church regular.
I married after awhile. My wife died about ten years ago. We had one
son. I b'lieve he's in Baltimore, but I ain't heard from him in a long
time. He don't keer nothin' about me. Of co'se I'm comfortable. I gits
my pension, $75 a month. I give $10 of it to my nephew who's a cripple.
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Charlie H Hunter
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Eustace Hodges
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