Harriet Miller
From:
Georgia
District Two
EX-SLAVE INTERVIEW
AUNT HARRIET MILLER
Toccoa, Georgia
(Stephens County)
Written By:
Mrs. Annie Lee Newton
Research Worker
Federal Writers' Project
Athens, Georgia
Edited By:
John N. Booth
Asst. District Supervisor
Federal Writers' Project
Athens, Georgia
July 15, 1937
Aunt Harriet Miller, a chipper and spry Indian Half-breed, thinks she is
about 100 years old. It is remarkable that one so old should possess so
much energy and animation. She is tall and spare, with wrinkled face,
bright eyes, a kindly expression, and she wears her iron grey hair wound
in a knob in the manner of a past generation. Aunt Harriet was neatly
dressed as she had just returned from a trip to Cornelia to see some of
her folks. She did not appear at all tired from the trip, and seemed
glad to discuss the old days.
"My father," said Aunt Harriet, "was a Cherokee Indian named Green
Norris, and my mother was a white woman named Betsy Richards. You see, I
am mixed. My mother give me to Mr. George Naves when I was three years
old. He lived in de mountains of South Carolina, just across de river.
He didn't own his home. He was overseer for de Jarretts, old man Kennedy
Jarrett. Honey, people was just like dey is now, some good and some bad.
Mr. Naves was a good man. Dese here Jarretts was good to deir slaves but
de ----s was mean to deirs. My whitefolks tried to send me to school but
de whitefolks wouldn't receive me in deir school on account of I was
mixed, and dere warn't no colored school a t'all, nowhere. Some of de
white ladies taught deir slaves. Yes'm, some of 'em did. Now, Miss
Sallie Jarrett, dat was Mrs. Bob Jarrett's daughter, used to teach 'em
some.
"Slaves had half a day off on Saturday. Dey had frolics at night,
quiltings, dances, corn-shuckings, and played de fiddle. Dey stayed in
de quarters Sunday or went to church. Dey belonged to de same church wid
de whitefolks. I belonged to Old Liberty Baptist Church. De back seats
was whar de slaves set. Dey belonged to de same church just like de
whitefolks, but I wasn't with 'em much." As a child, Aunt Harriet
associated with white people, and played with white children, but when
she grew up, had to turn to negroes for companionship.
"If slaves stayed in deir places dey warn't never whipped or put in
chains. When company come I knowed to get out doors. I went on to my
work. I was treated all right. I don't remember getting but three
whippings in my life. Old Mistis had brown sugar, a barrel of sugar
setting in de dinin' room. She'd go off and she'd come back and ask me
'bout de sugar. She'd get after me 'bout it and I'd say I hadn't took
it, and den when she turned my dress back and whipped me I couldn't
hardly set down. She whipped me twice 'bout the sugar and den she let me
alone. 'Twasn't de sugar she whipped me 'bout, but she was trying to get
me to tell de truth. Yes'm, dat was de best lesson dat ever I learned,
to tell de truth, like David.
"I had a large fambly. Lets see, I had ten chillun, two of 'em dead, and
I believes 'bout 40 grand-chillun. I could count 'em. Last time I was
counting de great-grandchillun dere was 37 but some have come in since
den. Maggie has 11 chillun. Maggie's husband is a farmer and dey lives
near Eastonallee. Lizzie, her husband is dead and she lives wid a
daughter in Chicago, has 5 chillun. Den Media has two. Her husband,
Hillary Campbell, works for de Govemint, in Washington. Lieutenant has
six; he farms. Robert has six; Robert is a regular old farmer and Sunday
School teacher. Davey has four, den Luther has seven, and dat leaves
Jim, my baby boy. He railroads and I lives wid him. Jim is 37. He ain't
got no chillun. My husband, Judge Miller, been dead 37 years. He's
buried at Tugalo. Dis old lady been swinging on a limb a long time and
she going to swing off from here some time. I'm near about a hundred and
I won't be here long, but when I go, I wants to go in peace wid
everybody.
"I don't know. I'd be 'feard to say dere ain't nothing in voo-doo. Some
puts a dime in de shoe to keep de voo-doo away, and some carries a
buckeye in de pocket to keep off cramp and colic. Dey say a bone dey
finds in de jawbone of a hog will make chillun teethe easy. When de
slaves got sick, de whitefolks looked after 'em. De medicines for
sickness was nearly all yerbs. Dey give boneset for colds, made tea out
of it, and acheing joints. Butterfly root and slippery elm bark was to
cool fever. Willow ashes is good for a corn, poke root for rheumatism,
and a syrup made of mullein, honey, and alum for colds. Dey use barks
from dogwood, wild cherry, and clack haws, for one thing and another.
I'll tell you what's good for pizen-oak, powdered alum and sweet cream.
Beat it if it's lump alum, and put it in sweet cream, not milk, it has
to be cream. Dere's lots of other remedies and things, but I'm getting
so sap-skulled and I'm so old I can't remember. Yes'm, I've got mighty
trifling 'bout my remembrance.
"Once some Indians camped on de river bottoms for three or four years,
and we'd go down; me, and Anne, and Genia, nearly every Saturday, to
hear 'em preach. We couldn't understand it. Dey didn't have no racket or
nothing like colored folks. Dey would sing, and it sounded all right. We
couldn't understand it, but dey enjoyed it. Dey worked and had crops.
Dey had ponies, pretty ponies. Nobody never did bother 'em. Dey made
baskets out of canes, de beautifulest baskets, and dey colored 'em wid
dyes, natchel dyes.
"Indian woman wore long dresses and beads. Deir hair was plaited and
hanging down de back, and deir babyes was tied on a blanket on de back.
Mens wore just breeches and feathers in deir hats. I wish you could have
seen 'em a cooking. Dey would take corn dough, and den dey'd boil birds,
make sort of long, not round dumplings, and drop 'em in a pot of hot
soup. We thought dat was terrible, putting dat in de pot wid de birds.
Dey had blow-guns and dey'd slip around, and first thing dey'd blow, and
down come a bird. Dey'd kill a squirrel and ketch fish wid deir blow
guns. Dem guns was made out of canes 'bout eight feet long, burned out
at de j'ints for de barrel. Dey put in a arrow what had thistles on one
end to make it go through quick and de other end sharp.
"Yes honey, I believes in hants. I was going 'long, at nine o'clock one
night 'bout the Denham fill and I heard a chain a rattling 'long de
cross-ties. I couldn't see a thing and dat chain just a rattling as
plain as if it was on dis floor. Back, since the war, dere was a
railroad gang working 'long by dis fill, and de boss, Captain Wing,
whipped a convict. It killed him, and de boss throwed him in de fill. I
couldn't see a thing, and dat chain was just rattling right agai' de
fill where dat convict had been buried. I believes de Lord took keer of
me dat night and I hope he keeps on doing so."
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Mollie Mitchell
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Liza Mention
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