George Brooks
From:
Georgia
[HW: Dist. 6
Ex. Slv. #11]
GEORGE BROOKS, EX-SLAVE
Date of birth: Year unknown (See below)
Place of birth: In Muscogee County, near Columbus, Georgia
Present Residence: 502 East 8th Street, Columbus, Georgia
Interviewed: August 4, 1936
[MAY 8 1937]
This old darky, probably the oldest ex-slave in West Georgia, claims to
be 112 years of age. His colored friends are also of the opinion that he
is fully that old or older--but, since none of his former (two) owners'
people can be located, and no records concerning his birth can be found,
his definite age cannot be positively established.
"Uncle" George claims to have worked in the fields, "some", the year the
"stars fell"--1833.
His original owner was Mr. Henry Williams--to whom he was greatly
attached. As a young man, he was--for a number of years--Mr. Williams'
personal body-servant. After Mr. Williams' death--during the 1850's,
"Uncle" George was sold to a white man--whose name he doesn't
remember--of Dadeville, Alabama, with whom he subsequently spent five
months in the Confederate service.
One of "Uncle" George's stories is to the effect that he once left a
chore he was doing for his second "Marster's" wife, "stepped" to a
nearby well to get a drink of water and, impelled by some strange,
irresistible "power", "jes kep on walkin 'til he run slap-dab inter de
Yankees", who corraled him and kept him for three months.
Still another story he tells is that of his being sold after freedom!
According to his version of this incident, he was sold along with two
bales of cotton in the fall of 1865--either the cotton being sold and he
"thrown in" with it, or vice versa--he doesn't know which, but he does
know that he and the cotton were "sold" together! And very soon after
this transaction occurred, the seller was clapped in jail! Then,
"somebody" (he doesn't remember who) gave him some money, put him on a
stage-coach at night and "shipped" him to Columbus, where he learned
that he was a free man and has since remained.
"Uncle" George has been married once and is the father of several
children. His wife, however, died fifty-odd years ago and he knows
nothing of the whereabouts of his children--doesn't even know whether or
not any of them are living, having lost "all track o'all kin fokes too
long ago to tawk about."
Unfortunately, "Uncle" George's mind is clouded and his memory badly
impaired, otherwise his life story would perhaps be quite interesting.
For more than twenty years, he has been supported and cared for by kind
hearted members of his race, who say that they intend to continue "to
look after the old man 'til he passes on."
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Easter Brown
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