Jacob Branch
From:
Texas
JACOB BRANCH, about 86, was a slave of the Van Loos family, in
Louisiana, who sold him when a baby to Elisha Stevenson, of Double
Bayou, Texas. Jacob helps his son, Enrichs, farm, and is unusually
agile for his age. They live in the Double Bayou settlement, near
Beaumont, Texas.
"I's bought and fotched here to Double Bayou when I's jes' three year
old. I and my half-brother, Eleck, he de baby, was both born in
Louisiana on de Van Loos place, but I go by de name of Branch, 'cause my
daddy name Branch. My mama name Renee. Dey split up us family and Elisha
Stevenson buy my mama and de two chillen. I ain't never see my daddy no
more and don't 'member him at all.
"Old 'Lisha Stevenson he a great one for to raise pigs. He sell sometime
500 hawgs at one time. He take he dogs and drive dem hawgs 'cross de
Neches River all by hisself, to sell dem. Dat how he git money to buy de
niggers, sellin' hawgs and cowhides.
"Old massa he sho' a good old man, but de old missy, she a tornado! Her
name Miss 'Liza. She could be terrible mean. But sometime she take her
old morrel--dat a sack make for to carry things in--and go out and come
back with plenty joints of sugar cane. She take a knife and sit on de
gallary and peel dat cane and give a joint to every one de li'l chillen.
"Mama, she work up in de big house, doin' cookin' and washin'. Old massa
go buy a cullud man name Uncle Charley Fenner. He a good old cullud man.
Massa brung him to de quarters and say, 'Renee, here you husband,' and
den he turn to Uncle and say, 'Charley, dis you woman.' Den dey
consider marry. Dat de way dey marry den, by de massa's word. Uncle
Charley, he good step-pa to us.
"De white folks have de good house with a brick chimney. Us quarters de
good, snug li'l house with flue and oven. Dey didn't bother to have much
furn'chure, 'cause us in dere only to sleep. Us have homemake bench and
'Georgia Hoss' bed with hay mattress. All us cookin' and eatin' done in
de kitchen de big house. Us have plenty to eat, too. De smokehouse allus
full white 'taters and cracklin's hangin' on de wall. Us git dem mos'
any time us want, jes' so long us didn't waste nothin'. Dey have big jar
with buttermilk and 'low us drink all us want.
"Old lady 'Liza, she have three women to spin when she git ready make de
clothes for everybody. Dey spin and weave and make all us clothes. Us
all wear shirt tail till us 'bout twelve or fourteen, boys and gals,
too. You couldn't tell us apart.
"Us chillen start to work soon's us could toddle. First us gather
firewood. Iffen it freezin' or hot us have to go to toughen us up. When
us git li'l bigger us tend de cattle and feed hosses and hawgs. By time
us good sprouts us pickin' cotton and pullin' cane. Us ain't never idle.
Sometime us git far out in de field and lay down in de corn row and nap.
But, Lawdy, iffen dey cotch you, dey sho' wore you out! Sunday de
onliest rest day and den de white folks 'low us play.
"Massa never whup Uncle Charley, 'cause he good nigger and work hard. It
make missy mad and one time when massa gone she go down in de field.
Uncle Charley hoein' corn jes' like massa done told him, jes' singin'
and happy. Old missy she say, 'Nigger, I's sho gwineter whup you.' He
say, 'What for you whup me. I doin' every bit what old massa done tell
me.' But missy think he gittin' it too good, 'cause he ain't never been
whupped. She clumb over de fence and start down de row with de cowhide.
Uncle Charley, he ain't even raise he voice, but he cut de las' weed
outen dat corn and commence to wave he hoe in de air, and he say,
'Missy, I ain't 'vise you come any step closeter.' Dat sho' make her
mad, but she 'fraid to do nothin'.
"One time she have 'nother nigger name Charlie. Massa go on de trip and
she tell dis Charley iffen he ain't finish grindin' all de cornmeal by
Monday she gwineter give him a t'ousand lashes. He try, but he ain't
able make dat much meal, so come Monday he runned off in de bayou. Dat
night come de big freeze and he down dere with water up to he knees and
when massa come home and go git him, he so froze he couldn't walk. Dey
brung him in de kitchen and old missy cuss him out. Soon's he thaw out,
he done die right dere on de spot.
"My pore mama! Every washday old missy give her de beatin'. She couldn't
keep de flies from speckin' de clothes overnight. Old missy git up soon
in de mornin', 'fore mama have time git dem specks off. She snort and
say, 'Renee, I's gwineter teach you how to wash.' Den she beat mama with
de cowhide. Look like she cut my mama in two. Many's de time I edges up
and tries take some dem licks off my mama.
"Slavery, one to 'nother, was purty rough. Every plantation have to
answer for itself.
"I used to know lots of songs, but I don't know many now. Spiritual
songs, dey comes through visions. Dat's why cullud folks can make dem
better dan white folks. I knowed one song what start out--
"'De Jews done kill pore Jesus,
And bury him in de sepulchur;
De grave wouldn't hold him,
Dey place guards all 'round him,
But de angels move de stone,
De Jews done kill pore Jesus,
But de grave it wouldn't hold him.'
"Dey 'nother song what say--
"'Run, sinner, run,
Gawd is a-callin' you.
Run, sinner, run,
De fire'll overtake you.'
"When I 'bout ten dey sets me ginnin' cotton. Old massa he done make de
cotton with de hand crank. It built on a bench like. I gin de cotton by
turnin' dat crank. When I gits a lapful I puts it in de tow sack and dey
take it to Miss Susan to make de twine with it. I warm and damp de
cotton 'fore de fireplace 'fore I start ginnin' it.
"Dere school for de white chillen in Double Bayou and I used to go meet
de chillen comin' home and dey stop longside de way and teach me my ABC.
Dey done carry me as far as Baker in de book when old missy find it out
and make dem stop. De war comin' on den and us daren't even pick up a
piece of paper. De white folks didn't want us to larn to read for fear
us find out things.
"Us livin' down by de Welborn's den and I seed dem haul de logs out of
Pine Island to make dat Welborn house. Old man Hamshire and old man
Remington builded dat Welborn house. It 'cross de bayou, left hand side
Smith's ferry. Dat house still standin' in parts.
"One mornin' Eleck and me git up at crack of dawn to milk. All at once
come a shock what shake de earth. De big fish jump clean out de bay and
turtles and alligators run out dere ponds. Dey plumb ruint Galveston!
Us runned in de house and all de dishes and things done jump out de
shelf. Dat de first bombardment of Galveston. De sojers put powder under
people's houses and blowin' up Galveston.
"Young massa Shake Stevenson he vol'teer and git kilt somewheres in
Virginny. Young massa Tucker Stevenson, he ain't 'lieve in war and he
say he never gwine fight. He hide in de woods so de conscrip' men can't
find him. Old man LaCour come 'round and say he have orders for find
Tucker and bring him in dead or 'live. But 'cause he old massa's friend,
he say, 'Why don't you buy de boy's services off?' So old massa take de
boat, 'Catrig,' us calls it, and loads it with corn and sich and us pole
it down to Galveston. De people need dat food so much, dat load supplies
done buy off Massa Tucker from fightin'.
"After war starts lots of slaves runned off to git to de Yankees. All
dem in dis part heads for de Rio Grande river. De Mexicans rig up
flat-boats out in de middle de river, tied to stakes with rope. When de
cullud people gits to de rope dey can pull deyself 'cross de rest de way
on dem boats. De white folks rid de 'Merican side dat river all de time,
but plenty slaves git through, anyway.
"I wait on lots of sojers. I have to get smartweed and bile it in salt
water to bath dem in. Dat help de rheumatism. Dem sojers have rheumatism
so bad for standin' day and night in de water.
"Us sho' in good health dem days. Iffen a cullud man weak dey move de
muscles in he arms, bleed him and give him plenty bacon and cornbread,
and he git so strong he could lift a log. Dey didn't go in for cuttin',
like dey do now. Dey git herbs out de woods, blue mass and quinine and
calomel. I think people jes' die under pills, now. Old lady Field she
make medicine with snakeroot and larkspur and marshroot and redroot.
"After war am over Massa Tucker brung de freedom papers and read dem. He
say us all am free as Hell. Old man Charley so happy he jes' roll on de
floor like a hoss and kick he heels. De nex' mornin' mama start do
somethin' and missy cuss her out. I runned to missy and say, 'Us free as
de bird.' She sho' whup me for dat, but no more, 'cause she so mean us
all leave.
"Dat funny. Old man LaFour, what de head de patterrollers and so mean,
he de first to help us niggers after freedom. He loan us he ox team and
pay Uncle Charley a dollar de day for work and a dollar every time my
mama wash for he wife.
"Old massa and missy split up. She so bad she ain't give him no better
show dan she done us. Old massa gittin' some peaches one day and she
come after him with de buggy whip. He git on he hoss and say, 'Liz,
you's gittin' broad as de beef. You too big for me.' She so mad she spit
fire. Lightenin' done kill her, she upstairs and de big streak hits her.
It knock her under de bed.
"De first freedom work I done am pullin' up potato hills at two bits a
hunnerd. 'Bout two bits de most us could make in one day. I work two
days to buy mama de turkey hen for Christmas. Anything mama want I think
she got to have. I's growed 'fore I gits much as four bits a day. I's
done earn as much as $1.50 in my time, though.
"When I's 25 year old I marries Betty Baker but she dead now. De Rev.
Patterson he marry us. Us has four chillen livin'. Turah and Renee, dat
my gals, and Enrichs and Milton, dat my boys. Milton work in Houston and
Enrich help me farm. I's a Mason 30 year. De lodge split up now, but it
answer.
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William Branch
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Wes Brady
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