Auntie Thomas Johns
From:
Texas
AUNTIE THOMAS JOHNS, 508 Knopp St., Cleburne, Texas, was born in
Burleson Co., Texas, in 1864. She was only two when her mother was
freed, so knows nothing of slavery except stories her mother told
her, or that she heard her husband, Thomas Johns, tell.
"I was two years old when my mama was set free. Her owner was Major
Odom. He was good to his niggers, my mama said. She tol' me 'bout
slavery times. She said other white folks roun' there called Major
Odom's niggers, 'Odom's damn free niggers,' 'cause he was so easy on
'em.
"He was never married, but he had a nigger woman, Aunt Phyllis she was
called, that he had some children by. She was half white. I remember her
and him and five of their sons. The ones I knowed was nearly all white,
but Aunt Phyllis had one boy that was nigger black. His daddy was a
nigger man. When she was drunk or mad she'd say she thought more of her
black chile than all the others. Major Odom treated their children jus'
like he treated the other niggers. He never whipped none of his niggers.
When his and Aunt Phyllis'es sons was grown they went to live in the
quarters, which was what the place the niggers lived was called.
"One of Major Odom's niggers was whipped by a man named Steve Owens. He
got to goin' to see a nigger woman Owens owned, and one night they beat
him up bad. Major Odom put on his gun for Owens, and they carried guns
for each other till they died, but they never did have a shootin'.
"Colonel Sims had a farm joinin' Major Odom's farm, and his niggers was
treated mean. He had a overseer, J.B. Mullinax, I 'member him, and he
was big and tough. He whipped a nigger man to death. He would come out
of a mornin' and give a long, keen yell, and say, 'I'm J.B. Mullinax,
just back from a week in Hell, where I got two new eyes, one named Snap
and Jack, and t'other Take Hold. I'm goin' to whip two or three niggers
to death today.' He lived a long time, but long 'fore he died his eyes
turned backward in his head. I seen 'em thataway. He wouldn' give his
niggers much to eat and he'd make 'em work all day, and just give 'em
boiled peas with just water and no salt and cornbread. They'd eat their
lunch right out in the hot sun and then go right back to work. Mama said
she could hear them niggers bein' whipped at night and yellin', 'Pray,
marster, pray,' beggin' him not to beat 'em.
"Other niggers would run away and come to Major Odom's place and ask his
niggers for sumpin' to eat. My mama would get word to bring 'em food and
she'd start out to where they was hidin' and she'd hear the hounds, and
the runaway niggers would have to go on without gettin' nothin' to eat.
"My husban's tol' me about slavery times in Alabama. He said they would
make the niggers work hard all day pickin' cotton and then take it to
the gin and gin away into the night, maybe all night. They'd give a
nigger on Sunday a peck of meal and three pounds of meat and no salt nor
nothin' else, and if you et that up 'fore the week was out, you jus'
done without anything to eat till the end of the week.
"My husban' said a family named Gullendin was mighty hard on their
niggers. He said ole Missus Gullendin, she'd take a needle and stick it
through one of the nigger women's lower lips and pin it to the bosom of
her dress, and the woman would go 'round all day with her head drew down
thataway and slobberin'. There was knots on the nigger's lip where the
needle had been stuck in it.
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