Alexander Scaife
From:
South Carolina
=Project 1885-1=
=FOLKLORE=
=Spartanburg, Dist. 4=
=Sept. 9, 1937=
=Edited by:=
=Elmer Turnage=
=STORIES OF EX-SLAVES=
"Marster Charner Scaife a-laying on his bed of death is 'bout de first
thing dat stuck in my mind. I felt sorry fer everybody den. Miss Mary
Rice Scaife, his wife, was mean. She died a year atter. Never felt sad
nor glad den; never felt no ways out of de regular way, den.
"Overseers I recollects was, Mr. Sam Hughes, Mr. Tom Baldwin, and Mr.
Whitfield Davis. Mr. Baldwin was de best to me. He had a still-house out
in a field whar liquor was made. I tote it fer him. We made good corn
liquor. Once a week I brung a gallon to de big house to Marster. Once I
got happy off'n it, and when I got dar lots of it was gone. He had me
whipped. Dat de last time I ever got happy off'n Marster's jug.
"When I was a shaver I carried water to de rooms and polished shoes fer
all de white folks in de house. Sot de freshly polished shoes at de door
of de bed-room. Get a nickle fer dat and dance fer joy over it. Two big
gals cleaned de rooms up and I helped carry out things and take up ashes
and fetch wood and build fires early every day. Marster's house had five
bedrooms and a setting room. De kitchen and dining-room was in de back
yard. A covered passage kept dem from getting wet when dey went to de
dining-room. Marster said he had rather get cold going to eat dan to
have de food get cold while it was being fetched to him. So he had de
kitchen and dining-room jined, but most folks had de dining-room in de
big house.
"It took a week to take de cotton boat from Chester to Columbia. Six
slaves handled de flat-boat. Dere was six, as I said, de boatman, two
oarsmen, two steermen and an extra man. De steermen was just behind de
boatman. Dey steered wid long poles on de way up de river and paddled
down de river. De two oarsmen was behind dem. Dey used to pole, too,
going up, and paddling going down. Seventy-five or eighty bales was
carried at a time. Dey weighed around three hundred pounds apiece. In
Columbia, de wharfs was on de Congree banks. Fer de cotton, we got all
kinds of supplies to carry home. De boat was loaded wid sugar and coffee
coming back. On Broad River we passed by Woods Ferry, Fish Dam Ferry,
Hendersons Ferry and Hendersons Island and some others, but dat is all I
recollect. We unloaded at our own ferry, called Scaife Ferry.
"I split rails fer fences. On Christmas we had coffee, sugar and biscuit
fer breakfast."
Source: Alexander Scaife (82), Box 104, Pacolet, S.C.
Interviewer: Caldwell Sims, Union, S.C.
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Eliza Scantling
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Emoline Satterwhite
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