Caroline Bevis
From:
South Carolina
Project 1885-1
FOLKLORE
Spartanburg, Dist. 4
July 26, 1937
Edited by:
Elmer Turnage
SLAVERY REMINISCENCES
"I was raised in the wood across the road about 200 yards from here. I
was very mischievous. My parents were honest and were Christians. I
loved them very much. My father was William Bevis, who died at the age
of eighty. Miss Zelia Hames of Pea Ridge was my mother. My parents are
buried at Bethlehem Methodist Church. I was brought up in Methodism and
I do not know anything else. I had two brothers and four sisters. My
twin sister died last April 1937. She was Fannie Holcombe. I was in bed
with pneumonia at the time of her death and of course I could not go to
the funeral. For a month, I was unconscious.
"When I was a little girl I played 'Andy-over' with a ball, in the
moonlight. Later I went to parties and dances. Calico, chambric and
gingham were the materials which our party dresses were made of.
"My grandmother, Mrs. Phoebe Bevis used to tell Revolutionary stories
and sing songs that were sung during that period. Grandmother knew some
Tories. She always told me that old Nat Gist was a Tory ... that is the
way he got rich.
"Hampton was elected governor the morning my mother died. Father went in
his carriage to Jonesville to vote for Hampton. We all thought that
Hampton was fine.
"When I was a school girl I used the blue back speller. My sweetheart's
name was Ben Harris. We went to Bethlehem to school. Jeff and Bill
Harris were our teachers. I was thirteen. We went together for six
years. The Confederate War commenced. He was very handsome. He had black
eyes and black hair. I had seven curls on one side of my head and seven
on the other. He was twenty-four when he joined the 'Boys of Sixteen'.
"He wanted to marry me then, but father would not let us marry. He
kissed me good bye and went off to Virginia. He was a picket and was
killed while on duty at Mars Hill. Bill Harris was in a tent nearby and
heard the shot. He brought Ben home. I went to the funeral. I have never
been much in-love since then.
"I hardly ever feel sad. I did not feel especially sad during the war. I
made socks, gloves and sweaters for the Confederate soldiers and also
knitted for the World War soldiers. During the war, there were three
looms and three shuttles in our house.
"I went often to the muster grounds at Kelton to see the soldiers drill
and to flirt my curls at them. Pa always went with me to the muster
field. Once he invited four recruits to dine with us. We had a delicious
supper. That was before the Confederacy was paralyzed. Two darkies
waited on our table that night, Dorcas and Charlotte. A fire burned in
our big fireplace and a lamp hung over the table. After supper was over,
we all sat around the fire in its flickering light.
"My next lover was Jess Holt and he was drowned in the Mississippi
River. He was a carpenter and was building a warf on the river. He fell
in and was drowned in a whirlpool."
Source: Miss Caroline Bevis (W. 96), County Home, Union, S. C.
Interviewer: Caldwell Sims, Union, S. C. (7/13/37)
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Anne Bell
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