Emeline Moore
From:
North Carolina
N.C. District: II
Worker: Mrs. W.N. Harriss
No. Words: 396
Subject: Emeline Moore, Ex-slave.
Interviewed: Emeline Moore.
707 Hanover Street, Wilmington, N.C.
Edited: Mrs. W.N. Harriss
EMELINE MOORE, EX-SLAVE
707 Hanover Street, Wilmington, N.C.
"I don' exac'ly know how ole I is, but dey say I mus' be eighty. No
mam, I ain' got nothin' in no fam'ly Bible. Where'd I git a fam'ly
Bible? My mammy (with a chuckle) had too many chillun to look after to
be puttin' 'em down in no Bible, she did'n have time, an' she did'n
have no learnin' nohow. But I reckon I is eighty because I 'members so
much I's jes' about forgotten it all.
"My folks belonged to Colonel Taylor. He an' Mis' Kitty lived in that
big place on Market Street where the soldiers lives now, (The W.L.I.
Armory) but we was on the plantation across the river mos' of the time.
"Of co'se I was born in slavery, but I don' remember nothin' much
excep' feedin' chickens. An' up on Market Street Mis' Kitty had
chickens an' things, an' a cow. The house had more lan' around it than
it got now. I do remember when they thought eve'ybody 'roun' here was
goin' to die an' I got skeered. No'm t'want no war it was the yaller
fever. We was kept on the plantation but we knowed folks jes died an'
died an' died. We thought t'would'nt be nobody left. I don't remember
nothin' about Lincoln travelin' aroun'. I always heard he was President
of the Lunited States, an' lived in Washington, an' gave us freedom,
an' got shot. Of co'se I knows all about Booker Washington, a lot of
our folks went to his school, an' he been here in Wilmington. I'd know
a lot about slave times only I was so little. I have heard my mammy say
she had a heap easier time in slavery than after she was turn' loose
with a pa'cel of chilluns to feed. I married as soon as I could an'
that's how I got this house. But I can't work, an' I disremembers so
much. The Welfare gives me regerlar pay, an' now an' then my friends
give me a nickel or a dime.
"I lives alone now, until I can git a decent 'ooman to live with me. I
tells you Missus these womens an' young girls today are sumpin else.
After you had 'em aroun' awhile you wish you never knowed 'em.
"Sometimes when I jes sets alone an rocks I wonder if my mammy didn't
have it lots easier than I does."
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Fannie Moore
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Pastsy Mitchner
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