Emily Mays
From:
Georgia
[HW: DIST. 6
Ex-slave #77]
Alberta Minor
Re-search Worker
EMILY MAYS
East Solomon Street,
Griffin, Georgia
Interviewed
[Date Stamp: MAY 8 1937]
Emily was born in 1861 on the Billy Stevens plantation in Upson County.
Her mother, Betsy Wych, was born at Hawkinsville, Georgia, and sold to
Mr. Billy Stevens. The father, Peter Wych, was born in West Virginia. A
free man, he was part Indian and when driving a team of oxen into
Virginia for lime, got into the slave territory, was overtaken by a
"speculator" and brought to Georgia where he was sold to the Wyches of
Macon. He cooked for them at their Hotel, "The Brown House" for a number
of years, then was sold "on the block" to Mr. Stevens of Upson County.
Betsy was sold at this same auction. Betsy and Peter were married by
"jumping the broomstick" after Mr. Stevens bought them. They had sixteen
children, of which Emily is the next to the last. She was always a
"puny", delicate child and her mother died when she was about seven
years old. She heard people tell her father that she "wasn't intented to
be raised" 'cause she was so little and her mother was "acomin' to get
her soon." Hearing this kind of remarks often had a depressing effect
upon the child, and she "watched the clouds" all the time expecting her
mother and was "bathed in tears" most of the time.
After the war, Peter rented a "patch" from Mr. Kit Parker and the whole
family worked in the fields except Emily. She was not big enough so they
let her work in the "big house" until Mrs. Parker's death. She helped
"'tend" the daughter's babies, washed and ironed table napkins and
waited on them "generally" for which she can't remember any "pay", but
they fed and clothed her.
Her older sister learned to weave when she was a slave, and helped sew
for the soldiers; so after freedom she continued making cloth and sewing
for the family while the others worked in the fields. [Buttons were made
from dried gourds.] They lived well, raising more on their patch than
they could possibly use and selling the surplus. For coffee they split
and dried sweet potatoes, ground and parched them.
The only education Emily received was at the "Sugar Hill" Sunday School.
They were too busy in the spring for social gatherings, but after the
crops were harvested, they would have "corn shuckings" where the Negroes
gathered from neighboring farms and in three or four days time would
finish at one place then move on to the next farm. It was quite a social
gathering and the farm fed all the guests with the best they had.
The Prayer Meetings and "singings" were other pleasant diversions from
the daily toil.
After Mrs. Parker's death Emily worked in her father's fields until she
was married to Aaron Mays, then she came to Griffin where she has lived
ever since. She is 75 years old and has cooked for "White folks" until
she was just too old to "see good", so she now lives with her daughter.
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