Ike Thomas
From:
Georgia
[HW: Dist-2
Ex Slave #105]
Alberta Minor
Re-search Worker
FOLKLORE
EX-SLAVE--IKE THOMAS
Heidt Bridges Farm near Rio Georgia
Interviewed
September 4, 1936
[Date Stamp: MAY 8 1937]
[TR: This interview contained many handwritten edits; where text was
transposed or meaning was significantly changed, it has been noted.]
Ike Thomas was born near Monticello in Jasper County on the Thomas
plantation. His mother and father were sold when he was a little boy,
and "Missus" Thomas, in picking her house boy, took Ike to raise for a
carriage boy. She picked her little niggers by the way they wore their
hats. If they set them on the back of their heads, they grew up to be
"high-minded", but if they pulled them over their eyes, they'd grow up
to be "sneaky and steal".
Mrs. Thomas let him sleep on a trundle bed pulled out at night and put
under her bed in the day and fed him under the table. She'd put a piece
of meat in a biscuit and hand it down to him and warned him if they had
company not to holler when he was thru so he'd touch her on the knee but
his mouth was so big and he'd eat so fast that he "jes kep' on teching
her on the knee."
During the war, when they got word the Yankees were coming, Mrs. Thomas
would hide her "little niggers" sometimes in the wardrobe back of her
clothes, sometimes between the mattresses, or sometimes in the cane
brakes. After the Yankees left, she'd ring a bell and they would know
they could come out of hiding. (When they first heard the slaves were
free, they didn't believe it so they just stayed on with their "white
folks".) [HW: Transpose to page 3.]
If the negroes were mean or ran away, they would be chased by hounds and
brought back for punishment.
When still a young man, Ike ran away with a negro couple coming in a
buggy to Blanton Mill near Griffin and worked for Mr. William Blanton
until he died. After he had been here a while, he got married. His
wife's people had the wedding supper and party. He was a fiddler so had
to fiddle most all night then the next day his "white folks" gave him
the food for the wedding dinner that he had at his own house.
Ike says every seven [HW: 7] years the locusts come and its sure to be
a short crop that "God sends all sorts of cusses" (curses) sometimes
its the worms that eat the cotton or the corn or the bugs that eat the
wheat. He doesn't believe in "hants" or "conjurin'". It seems Sid
Scott was a "mean nigger", [HW: and] everyone was afraid of [HW: him].
He was cut in two by the saw mill and after his funeral whenever
anyone pass his house at night that could hear his "hant" going
"rat-a-tat-tat-bang, bang, bang" like feet running.
One night when Ike was coming home from "fiddlin'" at a white folks
party, he had to pass Scott's house. Now they kept the cotton seed in
half of the house and the other half was empty. When Ike got close, he
made a racket and sure enough the noise started. "The moon was about an
hour up" and he saw these funny white things run out from under the
house and scatter. It scared him at first but he looked and looked and
saw they were sheep that [HW: having] found a hole into the cotton seed
would go in at night to eat.
Before the war the negroes had a big celebration on the 4th of July, a
big barbecue, ball game, wrestling matches, lots of music and singing.
They had to have a pass from their Masters to attend and pay to get in.
The "patta-roll" came by to see your pass and if you didn't have one,
they'd whip you and send you home. [HW: When the Negroes first heard
that they were free, they didn't believe it so they just stayed on with
their white folks.]
After he came to Blanton's, the Negroes could come and go as they
pleased for they were free. Ike has been a member of several "Societies"
but something has always happened to the President and Secretary or they
ran off with the money so now he just has a sick and accident policy.
Ike will be 94 years old next month. His hair is white, his eyes blurred
with age, but he's quite active tho' he does walk with a stick.
Next:
Jane Mickens
Previous:
Cordelia Thomas
