Anderson And Minerva Edwards
From:
Texas
ANDERSON AND MINERVA EDWARDS, a Negro Baptist preacher and his
wife, were slaves on adjoining plantations in Rusk County, Texas.
Anderson was born March 12, 1844, a slave of Major Matt Gaud, and
Minerva was born February 2, 1850, a slave of Major Flannigan. As a
boy Andrew would get a pass to visit his father, who belonged to
Major Flannigan, and there he met Minerva. They worked for their
masters until three years after the war, then moved to Harrison
County, married and reared sixteen children. Andrew and Minerva
live in a small but comfortable farmhouse two miles north of
Marshall. Minerva's memory is poor, and she added little to
Anderson's story.
"My father was Sandy Flannigan and he had run off from his first master
in Maryland, on the east shore, and come to Texas, and here a slave
buyer picked him up and sold chances on him. If they could find his
Maryland master he'd have to go back to him and if they couldn't the
chances was good. Wash Edwards in Panola County bought the chance on
him, but he run off from him, too, and come to Major Flannigan's in Rusk
County. Fin'ly Major Flannigan had to pay a good lot to get clear title
to him.
"My mammy was named Minerva and her master was Major Gaud, and I was
born there on his plantation in 1866. You can ask that tax man at
Marshall 'bout my age, 'cause he's fix my 'xemption papers since I'm
sixty. I had seven brothers and two sisters. There was Frank, Joe, Sandy
and Gene, Preston and William and Sarah and Delilah, and they all lived
to be old folks and the younges' jus' died last year. Folks was more
healthy when I growed up and I'm 93 now and ain't dead; fact is, I feels
right pert mos' the time.
"My missy named Mary and she and Massa Matt lived in a hewed log house
what am still standin' out there near Henderson. Our quarters was 'cross
the road and set all in a row. Massa own three fam'lies of slaves and
lots of hosses and sheep and cows and my father herded for him till he
was freed. The government run a big tan yard there on Major Gaud's place
and one my uncles was shoemaker. Jus' 'bout time of war, I was piddlin'
'round the tannery and a government man say to me, 'Boy, I'll give you
$1,000 for a drink of water,' and he did, but it was 'federate money
that got kilt, so it done me no good.
"Mammy was a weaver and made all the clothes and massa give us plenty to
eat; fact, he treated us kind-a like he own boys. Course he whipped us
when we had to have it, but not like I seed darkies whipped on other
place. The other niggers called us Major Gaud's free niggers and we
could hear 'em moanin' and cryin' round 'bout, when they was puttin' it
on 'em.
"I worked in the field from one year end to t'other and when we come in
at dusk we had to eat and be in bed by nine. Massa give us mos' anything
he had to eat, 'cept biscuits. That ash cake wasn't sich bad eatin' and
it was cooked by puttin' cornmeal batter in shucks and bakin' in the
ashes.
"We didn't work in the field Sunday but they have so much stock to tend
it kep' us busy. Missy was 'ligious and allus took us to church when she
could. When we prayed by ourse'ves we daren't let the white folks know
it and we turned a wash pot down to the ground to cotch the voice. We
prayed a lot to be free and the Lord done heered us. We didn't have no
song books and the Lord done give us our songs and when we sing them at
night it jus' whispering to nobody hear us. One went like this:
"'my knee bones am aching,
my body's rackin' with pain,
i 'lieve i'm a chile of god,
and this ain't my home,
'cause heaven's my aim.'
"Massa Gaud give big corn shuckin's and cotton pickin's and the women
cook up big dinners and massa give us some whiskey, and lots of times we
shucked all night. On Saturday nights we'd sing and dance and we made
our own instruments, which was gourd fiddles and quill flutes. Gen'rally
Christmas was like any other day, but I got Santa Claus twict in
slavery, 'cause massa give me a sack of molasses candy once and some
biscuits once and that was a whole lot to me then.
"The Vinsons and Frys what lived next to massa sold slaves and I seed
'em sold and chained together and druv off in herds by a white man on a
hoss. They'd sell babies 'way from the mammy and the Lord never did
'tend sich as that.
"I 'lieve in that hant business yet. I seed one when I was a boy, right
after mammy die. I woke up and seed it come in the door, and it had a
body and legs and tail and a face like a man and it walked to the
fireplace and lifted the lid off a skillet of 'taters what sot there and
came to my bed and raised up the cover and crawled in and I hollers so
loud it wakes everybody. I tell 'em I seed a ghost and they say I crazy,
but I guess I knows a hant when I sees one. Minerva there can tell you
'bout that haunted house we lived in near Marshall jus' after we's
married." (Minerva says, 'Deed, I can,' and here is her story:)
"The nex' year after Anderson and me marries we moves to a place that
had 'longed to white folks and the man was real mean and choked his
wife to death and he lef' the country and we moved in. We heered
peculiar noises by night and the niggers 'round there done told us it
was hanted but I didn't 'lieve 'em, but I do now. One night we seed the
woman what died come all 'round with a light in the hand and the
neighbors said that candle light the house all over and it look like it
on fire. She come ev'ry night and we left our crop and moved 'way from
there and ain't gone back yit to gather that crop. 'Fore we moved in
that place been empty since the woman die, 'cause nobody live there. One
night Charlie Williams, what lives in Marshall, and runs a store out by
the T. & P. Hospital git drunk and goes out there to sleep and while he
sleepin' that same woman come in and nigh choked him to death. Ain't
nobody ever live in that house since we is there."
Anderson then resumed his story: "I 'member when war starts and massa's
boy, George it was, saddles up ole Bob, his pony, and lef'. He stays six
months and when he rid up massa say, 'How's the war, George?' and massa
George say, 'It's Hell. Me and Bob has been runnin' Yankees ever since
us lef'.' 'Fore war massa didn't never say much 'bout slavery but when
he heered us free he cusses and say, 'Gawd never did 'tend to free
niggers,' and he cussed till he died. But he didn't tell us we's free
till a whole year after we was, but one day a bunch of Yankee soldiers
come ridin' up and massa and missy hid out. The soldiers walked into the
kitchen and mammy was churnin' and one of them kicks the churn over and
say, 'Git out, you's jus' as free as I is.' Then they ramsacked the
place and breaks out all the window lights and when they leaves it look
like a storm done hit that house. Massa come back from hidin' and that
when he starts on a cussin' spree what lasts as long as he lives.
"'bout four year after that war pappy took me to Harrison County and
I've lived here ever, since and Minerva's pappy moves from the Flannigan
place to a jinin' farm 'bout that time and sev'ral years later we was
married. It was at her house and she had a blue serge suit and I wore a
cutaway Prince Albert suit and they was 'bout 200 folks at our weddin'.
The nex' day they give us an infair and a big dinner. We raises sixteen
chillen to be growed and six of the boys is still livin' and workin' in
Marshall.
"I been preachin' the Gospel and farmin' since slavery time. I jined the
church mos' 83 year ago when I was Major Gaud's slave and they baptises
me in the spring branch clost to where I finds the Lord. When I starts
preachin' I couldn't read or write and had to preach what massa told me
and he say tell them niggers iffen they obeys the massa they goes to
Heaven but I knowed there's something better for them, but daren't tell
them 'cept on the sly. That I done lots. I tells 'em iffen they
keeps prayin' the Lord will set 'em free. But
since them days I's done studied some and I preached all over Panola and
Harrison County and I started the Edward's Chapel over there in Marshall
and pastored it till a few year ago. It's named for me.
"I don't preach much now, 'cause I can't hold out to walk far and I got
no other way to go. We has a $14.00 pension and lives on that and what
we can raise on the farm.
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Ann J Edwards
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