John Ellis
From:
Texas
JOHN ELLIS, was born June 26, 1852, a slave of the Ellis family in
Johnson County near Cleburne, Texas. He remained with his white
folks and was paid by the month for his labor for one year after
freedom, when his master died and his mistress returned to
Mississippi. He worked as a laborer for many years around Cleburne,
coming to San Angelo, Texas in 1928. He now lives alone and is very
active for his age.
John relates:
"My father and mother, John and Fannie Ellis, were sold in Springfield,
Missouri, to my marster, Parson Ellis, and taken away from all their
people and brought to Johnson County, Texas.
"My marster, he was a preacher and a good man. None of de slaves ever
have better white folks den we did.
"We had good beds and good food and dey teaches us to read and write
too. De buffalo and de antelope and de deer was mos' as thick as de
cattle now, and we was sent out after dem, so we would always have
plenty of fresh meat. We had hogs and cattle too. Any of dem what was
not marked was just as much ours as iffen we had raised dem, 'cause de
range was all free.
"Some of de fish we would catch out of dat Brazos River would be so big
dey would pull us in but finally we would manage to gits dem out. De
rabbits and de 'possum was plentiful too and wid de big garden what our
marster had for us all, we sho' had good to eat.
"I's done all kinds of work what it takes to run a fa'm. My boss he had
only fourteen slaves and what was called a small fa'm, compared wid de
big plantations. After our days work was done we would set up at night
and pick de seed out of de cotton so dey could spin it into thread. Den
we goes out and gits different kinds of bark and boils it to git dye for
de thread 'fore it was spinned into cloth. De chillun jes' have long
shirts and slips made out of dis home spun and we makes our shoes out of
rawhide, and Lawdy! Dey was so hard we would have to warm dem by de fire
and grease dem wid tallow to ever wear dem 'tall.
"We had good log huts and our boss had a bigger log house. We never did
work long into de night and long 'fore day like I hear tell some did. We
didn' have none of dem drivers and when we done anything very bad old
marster he whoop us a little but we never got hurt.
"I didn' see no slaves sold. Dat was done, I hear, but not so much in
Texas. I never did see no jails nor chains nor nothin' like dat either,
but I hears 'bout dem.
"We never worked Sat'days and de colored went to church wid de whites
and jine de church too, but dey never baptized dem so far as I knows.
"We had lots to eat and big times on Christmas, mos' as big as when de
white folks gits married. Umph, um! One of de gi'ls got married once and
she had such a long train on dat weddin' gown 'til me and my sister, we
have to walks along behind her and carry dat thing, all of us a-walkin'
on a strip of nice cloth from de carriage to de church. We sho' have de
cakes and all dem good eats at dem weddin' suppers.
"I nev'r hear tell of many colored weddin's. We jes' jumps over de broom
an' de bride she has to jump over it backwards and iffen she couldn'
jump it backwards she couldn't git married. Dat was sho' funny, seein'
dem colored gi'ls a tryin' to jump dat broom.
"Our boss, he tells us 'bout bein' free and he say he hire us by de
month and we stays dere a year and he dies, den ole miss she go back to
Mississippi and we jes' scatter 'round, some a workin' here and some a
workin' yonder, mos' times for our victuals and clothes. I couldn' tell
much difference myself 'cause I had good people to live wid and when it
was dat way de whites and de colored was better off de way I sees it
den dey is now, some of dem.
"I seem jes' punyin' away, de doctors don' know jes' what's wrong wid me
but I never was use to doctors anyway, jes' some red root tea or sage
weed and sheep waste tea for de measles am all de doctoring we gits when
we was slaves and dat done jes' as well.
"My wife she been dead all dese years an' I jes' lives here alone.
"Chillun? No mam, I never had no chillun 'fore I was married an' I only
had twelve after I was married; yes mam, jes' nine boys and three girls,
but I prefers to live here by myself, 'cause I gits along alright."
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