Barney Stone
From:
Indiana
Robert C. Irvin
Noblesville, Ind.
District #2
EX-SLAVE, LIFE STORY OF
BARNEY STONE, FORMER SLAVE, HAMILTON CO.
This is the life story of Barney Stone, a highly respected colored
gentleman of Noblesville, Hamilton County seat. Mr. Stone is near
nintey-one years old, is in sound physical condition and still has a
remarkable memory. He was a slave in the state of Kentucky for more than
sixteen years and a soldier in the Union army for nearly two years. He
educated himself and taught school to colored children four years
following the Civil War. He studied in 1868, and has been a preacher in
the Colored Baptist Faith for sixty nine years, having been instrumental
in the building of seven churches in that time. Mr. Stone joined the K.
of P. Lodge, the I.O.O.F. and Masonic Lodge and is still a member of the
latter.
This fine old colored man has always worked hard for the uplift and
advancement of the colored race and has accomplished much in this effort
in the States of Tennessee, Kentucky and Indiana. He, together with his
preaching of the gospel, and his lecturing, has followed farming. He now
has a field of sweet corn and a fine, large garden, which he plowed,
planted and tended himself and not a weed can be found in either. He is
the only ex-slave now living in Hamilton County, the others all
deceased, and is one of three living members of Hamilton county G.A.R.
the other two members being white.
Mr. Stone has given to the writer "My Life's Story", which he desires to
call it, and in this story he pictures to the reader, "sixteen years of
hell as a slave on a plantation," a story which will convince the reader
that, even though much blood was shed in our Civil War, the war was a
Godsend to the American Nation. This story is told just as given by Mr.
Stone.
MY LIFE'S STORY
"My name is Barney Stone, I was born in slavery, May 17, 1847, in
Spencer County, Kentucky. I was a slave on the plantation of Lemuel
Stone (all slaves bore the last name of their master) for nearly
seventeen years and was considered a leader among the young slaves on
our plantation. My Mammy was mother to ten children, all slaves, and my
Pappy, Buck Grant, was a buck slave on the plantation of John Grant, his
Mastah; my pappy was used much as a male cow is used on the stock farm
and was hired out to other plantation owners for that purpose and was
regarded as a valuable slave. His Mastah permitted him to visit my
mother each week-end on our plantation.
My Mastah was a hard man when he was angry, drinking or not feeling
well, then at times he was kind to us. I was compelled to pick cotton
and do other work when I was a very small boy. Mastah would never sell
me because I was regarded as the best young slave on the plantation.
Different from many other slaves, I was kept on the plantation from the
day I was born until the day I ran away.
Slaves were sold in two ways, sometimes at private sale to a man who
went about the Southland buying slaves until he has many in his
possession, then he would have a big auction sale and would re-sell them
to the highest bidder, much in the same manner as our live-stock are
sold now in auction sales. Professional slave buyers in those days were
called "nigger buyers". He came to the plantation with a doctor. He
would point out two or three slaves which looked good to him and which
could be spared by the owner, and would have the doctor examine the
slave's heart. If the doctor pronounced the slave as sound, then the
nigger buyer would make an offer to the owner and if the amount was
satisfactory, the slave was sold. Some large plantation owners, having a
large number of slaves, would hold a public auction and dispose of some
of them, then he would attend another sale and buy new slaves, this was
done sometimes to get better slaves and sometimes to make money on the
sale of them.
Many times, as I have said before, our treatment on our plantation was
horrible. When I was just a small boy, I witnessed my sister sold and
taken away. One day one of horses came into the barn and Mastah noticed
that she was caripped. He flew into a rage and thought I had hurt the
horse, either that, or that I knew who did it. I told him that I did not
do it and he demanded that I tell him who did it, if I didn't. I did not
know and when I told him so, he secured a whip tied me to a post and
whipped me until I was covered with blood. I begged him, "Mastah,
Mastah, please don't whip me, I do not know who did it." He then took
out his pocket knife and I would have been killed if Missus (his dear
wife) had not make him quit. She untied me and cared for me.
Many has been the time, I have seen my mammy beaten mercilessly and for
no good reason. One day, not long before the out-break of the Civil
War, a nigger buyer came and I witnessed my dear Mammy and my one year
old baby brother, sold. I seen er taken away, never to see her again
until I found her twenty-seven years later at Clarksburg, Tennessee. My
baby brother was with her, but I did not know him until Mammy told me
who he was, he had grown into a large man. That was a happy meeting.
After those experiences of "sixteen long years in hell, as a slave", I
was very bitter against the white man, until after I ran away and joined
the Union army.
At the out-break of the Civil War and when the Northern army was
marching into the Southland, hundreds of male slaves were shot down by
the Rebels, rather than see them join with the Yankees. One day when I
learned that the Northern troops were very close to our plantation, I
ran away and hid in a culvert, but was found and I would have been shot
had the Yankee troops not scattered them and that saved me. I joined
that Union army and served one year, eight months and twenty-two days,
and fought with them in the battle of Fort Wagnor, and also in the
battle of Milikin's Bend. When I went into the army, I could not read or
write. The white soldiers took an interest in me and taught me to write
and read, and when the war was over I could write a very good letter. I
taught what little I knew to colored children after the War.
I studied day and night for the next three years at the home of a
lawyer, educating myself and in 1868, I started preaching the gospel of
Jesus Christ and have continued to do so for sixty-nine years. In that
time I have been instrumental in the building of seven churches in
Kentucky, Tennessee and Indiana. I did this good work through
gratefulness to God for my deliverance and my salvation. During my life,
I have joined the K. of P. Lodge, and I.O.O.F and Masonic Lodge. I have
preached for the up-life and advancement of the colored races. I have
accomplished much good in this life and have raised a family of eight
children. I love and am loyal to my country and have received great
compensation from my government for my services. I am in good health and
still able to work, and I am thankful to my God and my country."
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