Bob Young
From:
South Carolina
=Project 1885-1=
=Folklore=
=Spartanburg, Dist. 4=
=Feb. 4, 1938=
=Edited by:=
=Elmer Turnage=
=STORIES FROM EX-SLAVES=
"March 15, 1862 is de date I allus takes when folks axes how old is you.
Dat's de best, to follow one date, den no argument don't follow.
"Some see'd it powerful hard in slavery, others never see'd it so bad.
Dat 'pends on you a lot, den it 'pends on dem dat you stays wid. It
still like dat everywhar dat I is been, but I ain't been no further dan
Spartanburg gwine north, and to Lyles's Ford gwine south.
"From a wee bitty baby dey teach me to serve. Befo' you serves God you
is got to know how to serve man. De Bible speaks of us as servants of de
Lawd. Niggers can serve him better dan white folks, kaise dat is all dey
does if dey stays whar dey belongs. Young folks and chillun being raised
up real biggity like dey is now, dey can't serve nothing, kaise if you
can't serve your earthly father, how is you gwine to serve your Heavenly
Father?
"De big plantation and house whar Mr. Jimmie Jeter's sons stay is whar I
first see'd earthly light. Dat place still look fine, and it look fine
den, too. When I was 8 years old I started out in de field, afo' dat I
did jes' what all little nigger boys did, nothing but eat and sleep and
play and have a big time wid de little white boys. Lots of my playmates,
both white and black, done gone on now. Some done gone to de bad place
and some done gone to Heaven, jes' ain't no use talking, dat's sho nuff
de truth.
"War was raging all 'round Charleston and Columbia when I come in dis
world so dey says, Yankees camped in half mile of Santuc. I is heard
dat everybody was scared. Has even heard dat I cried when dem Yankees
come, but all I knows is jes' what I heard. Folks hears lots and dey
tells it, and dat's jes' what I is doing now--jes' telling what dey told
me when I got big. If folks didn't never tell nothing no worse, it
wouldn't make no difference, but often dey takes devilish notions and
tells dat what injures, if anybody believes dem.
"Aunt Phyllis Jeter 'low when dem Yankees got to Santuc, she was a
weaving jes' as hard as she could for her white folks. She say dat she
started to run, but dem Yankees come in de house and throw'd away her
yarn and took her and tied her to a tree. When she hollered, dey whipped
her. She say dat dey was drunk, but dey never burn't up nothing in de
house. Dey went on singing, and she got me to playing and got up de yarn
from de dirt in de yard and cleaned it. De Yankees never bothered us no
mo', and dey never stayed in Santuc long.
"Once when I was a big boy I got drunk and pa whipped me so hard I never
got drunk no mo' till I was married, and den I jumped on my old lady for
fun and she hit me wid a bed slat. Dat knocked me sober and I 'cided de
best thing for me to do was let liquor go to de devil. When I was young
I allus walked to Union. Dat ain't but ten miles down de railroad. Den I
used to walk all over Santuc and down to Herbert in Fish Dam. Now I is
drapped most all my walking. De chilluns travels fast in automobiles,
but I jes' as lieve walk to Union as to ride in dem things. Wrecks kills
you off so quick dat you does not have time to repent.
"Walking never has hurt nobody, and I buys leather and tacks it on my
own shoes, and in dat way it don't cost me nothing much. Folks goes so
fast in dem automobiles, and half de time dey ain't in no hurry kaise
dey ain't gwine to nothing no way. I gits on my shoe in de winter and I
walks. When I wants to drap in for a chaw at some friend's house, I
does. I sets dar till I gits rested and warm and I goes on. If dey eats,
I does too, and when I gits to Union my chillun is done out and gone.
Jes' de same, I reaches home at night befo' dem.
"Dey has tales to tell about gitting out of gas, and when I axes whar
dey been, dey jes' as apt to say Spartanburg as any whars. As long as
dey has a quarter dey is allus gwine to ride and come home broke. If you
fools wid automobiles, you is gwine to spend lots of time in jail. I
ain't never been in jail and I thinks it is a disgrace. My chillun says
dat I is 'old timey' and don't know nothing 'bout living. Jes' de same,
I likes slow moving, and takes mine out in walking and gits home at dark
or soon atter.
"Dese fast ways don't bother me. Dey makes sassy chilluns. Sassy
chilluns dat can't serve deir pa need not think dat dey can ride to de
Promise Land in narry automobile dat dey is ever seed. Gwine round in
fast circles and never gitting nowhars seems to satisfy dem, so I don't
know what is gwine to become of dem."
Source: Bob Young (75) Jonesville, S.C.
Interviewer: Caldwell Sims, Union, S.C. 11/10/37
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John H Jackson
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Uncle Bill Young
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