Frank Freeman
From:
North Carolina
N. C. District: No. 2 [320247]
Worker: T. Pat Matthews
No. Words: 815
Subject: FRANK FREEMAN
Story Teller: Frank Freeman
Editor: Daisy Bailey Waitt
[TR: No Date Stamp]
FRANK FREEMAN
216 Tappers Lane
I was born near Rolesville in Wake County Christmas Eve, 24 of December
1857. I am 76 years old. My name is Frank Freeman and my wife's name is
Mary Freeman. She is 78 years old. We live at 216 Tuppers Lane, Raleigh,
Wake County, North Carolina. I belonged to ole man Jim Wiggins jus' this
side o' Roseville, fourteen miles from Raleigh. The great house is
standin' there now, and a family by the name o' Gill, a colored man's
family, lives there. The place is owned by ole man Jim Wiggins's
grandson, whose name is O. B. Wiggins. My wife belonged to the Terrells
before the surrender. I married after the war. I was forty years ole
when I was married.
Old man Jim Wiggins was good to his niggers, and when the slave
children were taken off by his children they treated us good. Missus
dressed mother up in her clothes and let her go to church. We had good,
well cooked food, good clothes, and good places to sleep. Some of the
chimneys which were once attached to the slave houses are standing on
the plantation. The home plantation in Wake County was 3000 acres.
Marster also owned three and a quarter plantations in Franklin County.
He kept about ten men at home and would not let his slave boys work
until they were 18 years old, except tend to horses and do light jobs
around the house. He had slaves on all his plantations but they were
under colored overseers who were slaves themselves. Marster had three
boys and five girls, eight children of his own.
One of the girls was Siddie Wiggins. When she married Alfred Holland,
and they went to Smithfield to live she took me with her, when I was two
years old. She thought so much o' me mother was willing to let me go.
Mother loved Miss Siddie, and it was agreeable in the family. I stayed
right on with her after the surrender three years until 1868. My father
decided to take me home then and went after me.
They never taught us books of any kind. I was about 8 years old when I
began to study books. When I was 21 Christmas Eve 1880, father told me I
was my own man and that was all he had to give me.
I had decided many years before to save all my nickles. I kept them in
a bag. I did not drink, chew, smoke or use tobacco in any way during
this time. When he told me I was free I counted up my money and found I
had $47.75. I had never up to this tasted liquor or tobacco. I don't
know anything about it yet. I have never used it. With that money I
entered Shaw University. I worked eight hours a week in order to help
pay my way.
Later I went into public service, teaching four months a year in the
public schools. My salary was $25.00 per month. I kept going to school
at Shaw until I could get a first grade teacher's certificate. I never
graduated. I taught in the public schools for 43 years. I would be
teaching now, but I have high blood pressure.
I was at Master Hollands at Smithfield when the Yankees came through.
They went into my Marster's store and began breaking up things and
taking what they wanted. They were dressed in blue and I did not know
who they were. I asked and someone told me they were the Yankees.
My father was named Burton, and my mother was named Queen Anne. Father
was a Freeman and mother was a Wiggins.
There were no churches on the plantation. My father told me a story
about his young master, Joe Freeman and my father's brother Soloman.
Marster got Soloman to help whip him. My father went in to see young
Missus and told her about it, and let her know he was going away. He had
got the cradle blade and said he would kill either of them if they
bothered him. Father had so much Indian blood in him that he would
fight. He ran away and stayed four years and passed for a free nigger.
He stayed in the Bancomb Settlement in Johnson County. When he came home
before the war ended, Old Marster said, 'Soloman why didn't you stay?'
father said, 'I have been off long enough'. Marster said 'Go to work',
and there was no more to it. Father helped build the breastworks in the
Eastern part of the State down at Ft. Fisher. He worked on the forts at
New Bern too.
I think Abraham Lincoln worked hard for our freedom. He was a great
man. I think Mr. Roosevelt is a good man and is doing all he can for the
good of all.
LE
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Addy Gill
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Georgianna Foster
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