Ellen Campbell
From:
Georgia
FOUR SLAVES INTERVIEWED
by
MAUDE BARRAGAN, EDITH BELL LOVE, RUBY LORRAINE RADFORD
ELLEN CAMPBELL, 1030 Brayton Street, Augusta, Ga., Born 1846.
Ellen Campbell lives in a little house in a garden behind a picket
fence. Ellen is a sprightly, erect, black woman ninety years old. Beady
little eyes sparkled behind her glasses as she talked to us. Her manner
is alert, her mind is very keen and her memory of the old days very
clear. Though the temperature was in the high nineties she wore two
waists, and her clothes were clean and neatly patched. There was no
headcloth covering the fuzzy grey wool that was braided into innumerable
plaits.
She invited us into her tiny cabin. The little porch had recently been
repaired, while the many flowers about the yard and porch gave evidence
of constant and loving care to this place which had been bought for her
long ago by a grandson who drove a "hack." When she took us into the
crowded, but clean room, she showed us proudly the portrait of this big
grandson, now dead. All the walls were thickly covered with framed
pictures of different members of her family, most of whom are now dead.
In their midst was a large picture of Abraham Lincoln.
"Dere's all my chillun. I had fo' daughter and three 'grands', but all
gone now but one niece. I deeded de place to her. She live out north
now, but she send back de money fer de taxes and insurance and to pay de
firemens."
Then she proudly pointed out a framed picture of herself when she was
young.
"Why Auntie, you were certainly nice looking then."
Her chest expanded and her manner became more sprightly as she said, "I
wus de pebble on de beach den!"
"And I suppose you remember about slavery days?"
"Yes ma'm, I'm ninety years old--I wus a grown 'oman when freedom come.
I 'longed to Mr. William Eve. De plantachun was right back here--all dis
land was fields den, slap down to Bolzes'."
"So you remember a lot about those times?"
She laughed delightedly. "Yas'm. I 'longed to Miss Eva Eve. My missus
married Colonel Jones. He got a boy by her and de boy died."
"You mean Colonel Jones, the one who wrote books?"
"Yas'm. He a lawyer, too, down to de Cote House. My missus was Mrs.
Carpenter's mother, but she didn't brought her here."
"You mean she was her step-mother?"
"Yas'm, dat it. I go to see dem folks on de hill sometime. Dey good to
me, allus put somepen in mah hands."
"What kind of work did you do on the plantation?"
"When I wus 'bout ten years old dey started me totin' water--you know
ca'in water to de hands in de field. 'Bout two years later I got my
first field job, 'tending sheep. When I wus fifteen my old Missus gib me
to Miss Eva--you know she de one marry Colonel Jones. My young missus
wus fixin' to git married, but she couldn't on account de war, so she
brought me to town and rented me out to a lady runnin' a boarding house.
De rent was paid to my missus. One day I wus takin' a tray from de
out-door kitchen to de house when I stumbled and dropped it. De food
spill all over de ground. De lady got so mad she picked up a butcher
knife and chop me in de haid. I went runnin' till I come to de place
where my white folks live. Miss Eva took me and wash de blood out mah
head and put medicine on it, and she wrote a note to de lady and she
say, 'Ellen is my slave, give to me by my mother. I wouldn't had dis
happen to her no more dan to me. She won't come back dere no more.'"
"Were you ever sold during slavery times, Aunt Ellen?"
"No'm. I wa'nt sold, but I knows dem whut wus. Jedge Robinson he kept de
nigger trade office over in Hamburg."
"Oh yes, I remember the old brick building."
"Yas'm, dat it. Well, all de colored people whut gonner be sold was kept
dere. Den dey brung 'em over to de market and put 'em up fer sale.
Anybody fixin' to buy 'em, 'zamines 'em to see if dey all right. Looks
at de teef to tell 'bout de age."
"And was your master good to you, Auntie?"
"I'll say dis fer Mr. William Eve--he de bes' white man anywhere round
here on any dese plantachuns. Dey all own slaves. My boss would feed 'em
well. He wus killin' hogs stidy fum Jinury to March. He had two
smoke-houses. Dere wus four cows. At night de folks on one side de row
o' cabins go wid de piggins fer milk, and in de mawnin's dose on de
odder side go fer de piggins o' milk."
"And did you have plenty of other things to eat?"
"Law, yas'm. Rations wus given out to de slaves; meal, meat and jugs o'
syrup. Dey give us white flour at Christmas. Every slave family had de
gyrden patch, and chickens. Marster buy eggs and chickens fum us at
market prices."
"Did the overseers ever whip the slaves or treat them cruelly?"
"Sometimes dey whup 'em--make 'em strip off dey shirt and whup 'em on de
bare skin. My boss had a white overseer and two colored men dey call
drivers. If dey didn't done right dey dus whup you and turn you loose."
"Did the Eves have a house on the plantation, too?"
"No'm, dey live in town, and he come back and fo'th every day. It warn't
but three miles. De road run right fru de plantachun, and everybody
drive fru it had to pay toll. Dat toll gate wus on de D'Laigle
plantachun. Dey built a house fer Miss Kitty Bowles down by de double
gate where dey had to pay de toll. Dat road where de Savannah Road is."
When asked about war times on the plantation Ellen recalled that when
the Northern troops were around Waynesboro orders were sent to all the
masters of the nearby plantations to send ten of their best men to build
breastworks to hold back the northern advance.
"Do you remember anything about the good times or weddings on the
plantation?"
She laughed delightedly. "Yas'm. When anybody gwine be married dey tell
de boss and he have a cake fix. Den when Sunday come, atter dey be
married, she put on de white dress she be married in and dey go up to
town so de boss see de young couple."
"Den sometimes on Sadday night we have a big frolic. De nigger frum
Hammond's place and Phinizy place, Eve place, Clayton place, D'Laigle
place all git togedder fer big dance and frolic. A lot o' de young white
sports used to come dere and push de nigger bucks aside and dance wid de
wenches."
"What happened, Auntie, if a slave from one plantation wanted to marry a
slave from another?"
She laughed significantly. "Plenty. Old Mr. Miller had a man name Jolly
and he wanner marry a woman off anudder plantachun, but Jolly's Marster
wanna buy de woman to come to de plantachun. He say, 'Whut's fair fer de
goose is fair fer de gander.' When dey couldn't come to no 'greement de
man he run away to de woods. Den dey sot de bloodhounds on 'im. Dey let
down de rail fence so de hounds could git fru. Dey sarch de woods and de
swamps fer Jolly but dey neber find him.
"De slaves dey know whar he is, and de woman she visit him. He had a den
down dere and plenty o' grub dey take 'im, but de white folks neber find
him. Five hundred dollars wus what Miller put out for whomsover git
him."
"And you say the woman went to visit him?"
"Yes, Ma'm. De woman would go dere in de woods wid him. Finally one
night when he was outer de swamp he had to lie hidin' in de ditch all
night, cross from de nigger hospital. Den somebody crep' up and shot
him, but he didn't die den. Dey cay'ed his [TR: sic] crost to de
hospital and he die three days later."
"What about church? Did you go to church in those days?"
"Yas'm, we used to go to town. But de padderolas wus ridin' in dem days,
and you couldn't go off de plantachun widout a pass. So my boss he build
a brick church on de plantachuhn, and de D'Laigles build a church on
dere's."
"What happened if they caught you off without a pass?"
"If you had no pass dey ca'y you to de Cote House, and your marster
hadder come git you out."
"Do you remember anything about the Yankees coming to this part of the
country?"
At this her manner became quite sprightly, as she replied, "Yas'm, I
seen 'em comin' down de street. Every one had er canteen on he side, a
blanket on his shoulder, caps cocked on one side de haid. De cavalry had
boots on and spurros on de boots. First dey sot de niggers free on Dead
River, den dey come on here to sot us free. Dey march straight up Broad
Street to de Planters' Hotel, den dey camped on Dead River, den dey
camped on de river. Dey stayed here six months till dey sot dis place
free. When dey campin' on de river bank we go down dere and wash dey
clo'es fer a good price. Dey had hard tack to eat. Dey gib us de hard
tack and tell us to soak it in Water, and fry it in de meat gravy. I
ain't taste nothing so good since. Dey say, 'Dis hard tack whut we
hadder lib on while we fightin' to sot you free."
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Rachel Sullivan
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Aunt Adeline
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