Doc Daniel Dowdy
From:
Oklahoma
Oklahoma Writers' Project
Ex-Slaves
[Date stamp: AUG 13 1937]
DOC DANIEL DOWDY
Age 81 yrs.
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
I was born June 6, 1856 in Madison County, Georgia. Father was named
Joe Dowdy and mother was named Mary Dowdy. There was 9 of us boys,
George, Smith, Lewis, Henry, William, myself, Newt, James and Jeff.
There was one girl and she was my twin, and her name was Sarah. My
mother and father come from Richmond, Va., to Georgia. Father lived on
one side of the river and my mother on the other side. My father would
come over ever week to visit us. Noah Meadows bought my father and
Elizabeth Davis, daughter of the old master took my mother. They
married in Noah Meadows' house.
My mother was the cook in the Big House. They'd give us pot likker
with bread crumbs in it. Sometimes meat, jest sometimes, very seldom.
I liked black-eyed peas and still do till now. We lived in
weatherboard house. Our parents had corded-up beds with ropes and us
chillun slept on the floor for most part or in a hole bored in a log.
Our house had one window jest big enough to stick your head out of,
and one door, and this one door faced the Big House which was your
master's house. This was so that you couldn't git out 'less somebody
seen you.
My job was picking up chips and keeping the calves and cows separate
so that the calves wouldn't suck the cows dry. Mostly, we had Saturday
afternoons off to wash. I was show boy doing [HW: during] the war, me
and my sister, 'cause we was twins. My mother couldn't be bought
'cause she done had 9 boys for one farm and neither my father, 'cause
he was the father of 'em. I was religious and didn't play much, but I
sho' did like to listen to preachings. I did used to play marbles
sometimes.
We jest wore shirts and nothing else both winter and summer. They was
a little heavier in winter and that's all. No shoes ever. I had none
till after I was set free. I guess I was almost 12 years old then.
The overseer on our place was a large tall, black man. We had plenty
poor white neighbors. They was one of our biggest troubles. They'd
allus look in our window and door all the time.
I saw slaves sold. I can see that old block now. My cousin Eliza was a
pretty girl, really good looking. Her master was her father. When the
girls in the big house had beaux coming to see 'em, they'd ask, "Who
is that pretty gal?" So they decided to git rid of her right away. The
day they sold her will allus be remembered. They stripped her to be
bid off and looked at. I wasn't allowed to stand in the crowd. I was
laying down under a fig brush. The man that bought Eliza was from New
York. The Negroes had made up nuff money to buy her off theyself, but
they wouldn't let that happen. There was a man bidding for her who was
a Swedeland. He allus bid for the good looking cullud gals and bought
'em for his own use. He ask the man from New York, "Whut you gonna do
with her when you git 'er?" The man from New York said, "None of your
damn business, but you ain't got money nuff to buy 'er." When the man
from New York had done bought her, he said, "Eliza, you are free from
now on." She left and went to New York with him. Mama and Eliza both
cried when she was being showed off, and master told 'em to shet up
before he knocked they brains out.
Iffen you didn't do nothing wrong, they whipped you now and then
anyhow. I called a boy Johnny once and he took me 'hind the garden and
poured it on me and made me call him master. It was from then on I
started to fear the white man. I come to think of him as a bear.
Sometimes fellows would be a little late making it in and they got
whipped with a cow-hide. The same man whut whipped me to make me call
him master, well, he whipped my mamma. He tied her to a tree and beat
her unmerciful and cut her tender parts. I don't know why he tied her
to that tree.
The first time you was caught trying to read or write, you was whipped
with a cow-hide, the next time with a cat-o-nine tails and the third
time they cut the first jint offen your forefinger. They was very
severe. You most allus got 30 and 9 lashes.
They carried news from one plantation by whut they call relay. Iffen
you was caught, they whipped you till you said, "Oh, pray Master!" One
day a man gitting whipped was saying "Oh pray master, Lord have
mercy!" They'd say "Keep whipping that nigger Goddamn him." He was
whipped till he said, "Oh pray Master, I gotta nuff." Then they said,
"Let him up now, 'cause he's praying to the right man."
My father was the preacher and an educated man. You know the sermon
they give him to preach?--Servant, Obey Your Master. Our favorite
baptizing hymn was On Jordan's Stormy Bank I Stand. My favorite song
is Nobody Knows the Trouble I've Seen.
Oh, them patrollers! They had a chief and he git'em together and iffen
they caught you without a pass and sometimes with a pass, they'd beat
you. But iffen you had a pass, they had to answer to the law. One old
master had two slaves, brothers, on his place. They was both
preachers. Mitchell was a hardshell Baptist and Andrew was a
Missionary Baptist. One day the patroller chief was rambling thoo' the
place and found some letters writ to Mitchell and Andrew. He went to
the master and said, "Did you know you had some niggers that could
read and write?" Master said, "No, but I might have, who do you
'spect?" The patroller answered, "Mitchell and Andrew." The old master
said, "I never knowed Andrew to tell me a lie 'bout nothing!"
Mitchell was called first and asked could he read and write. He was
scared stiff. He said, "Naw-sir." Andrew was called and asked. He
said, "Yes-sir." He was asked iffen Mitchell could. He said, "Sho',
better'n me." The master told John Arnold, the patroller chief, not to
bother 'em. He gloried in they spunk. When the old master died, he
left all of his niggers a home apiece. We had Ku Klux Klans till the
government sent Federal officers out and put a stop to their ravaging
and sent 'em to Sing Sing.
Doing the war my father was carpenter. His young master come to him
'cause he was a preacher and asked him must he go to the front and my
father told him not to go 'cause he wouldn't make it. He went on jest
the same and when he come back my father had to tote him in the house
'cause he had one leg tore off. The Yankees come thoo', ramshacked
houses, leave poor horses and take fat ones and turn the poor ones in
the corn they left. They took everthing they could. They cussed
niggers who dodged 'em for being fools and make 'em show 'em
everything they knowed whar was.
Our old master was mighty old and him and the women folks cried when
we was freed. He told us we was free as he was.
I come to Oklahoma in 1906. I come out of that riot in 1906. Some
fellow knocked up a colored woman or something and we waded right in
and believe me we made Atlanta a fit place to live in. It is one of
the best cities in America.
I married Miss Emmaline Witt. I carried her to the preacher one of the
coldest nights I ever rid. I have three chillun and don't know how
many grandchillun. My chillun is one a nurse, one in Arizona for his
health and the other doing first one thing and another.
I think Abraham Lincoln was the greatest human being ever been on
earth 'cepting the Apostle Paul. Who any better'n a man who liberated
4,000,000 Negroes? Some said he wasn't a Christian, but he told some
friends once, "I'm going to leave you and may never see you again (and
he didn't) so I'm going to take the Divine Spirit with me and leave it
with you."
Jeff Davis was as bloody as he could be. I don't lak him a'tall. But
you know good things come from enemies. I don't even admire George
Washington. White men from the south that will help the Negro is far
and few between. Booker T. Washington was a great man. He made some
blunders and mistakes, but he was a great man. He is the father of
industrial education and you know that sho' is a great thing.
The white folks was ignorant. You know the better you prepare yourself
the better you act. Iffen they had put some sense in our heads 'stead
of sticks on our heads, we'ud been better off and more benefit to 'em.
I had something from within that made me fear God and taught me how to
pray. People say God don't hear sinners pray, but he do. Everybody
ought to be Christians so not to be lost.
I work in real estate and can do a lot of work. I don't use no
crutches and no cane and walk all the time, never hardly ride. I come
in at 1 and 2 o'clock a. m. and get up between 8 and 9 a. m. 'cept
Sundays, I get up at 7 or 8 a. m. so I can be ready to go to Sunday
School. I cook for my own self all the time too. I am a Baptist and a
member of Tabernacle Baptist Church. I am a trustee in my church too.
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