Laura Cornish
From:
Texas
LAURA CORNISH was born on the plantation of Isaiah Day, near
Dayton, Texas. She "reckons I's 'bout twelve or maybe thirteen
years old when all de cullud folks was made free." Laura's memory
is poor, but she made an effort to recall slave days. She lives at
2915 Nance St., Houston, Texas.
"Lawd have mercy 'pon me, when you calls me Aunt Laura it seems jes'
like you must be some of my white folks, 'cause dat what dey calls me. I
mean Papa Day's chillen and dere younguns, when dey comes to see me. But
it been de long time since any of dem come to see old Aunt Laura, and I
reckon dey most all gone now.
"You know where Dayton is at? Well, dat's where Papa Day's plantation
was at and where I's borned. I don't know when dat am, 'zactly, but when
all de cullud folks was made free, I reckons I's 'bout twelve or
thirteen years old.
"Mama's name was Maria Dunlap and daddy's name was Saul. Mamma was de
seamstress and don't do nothin' but weave cloth on de spinnin' wheel and
make clothes. Daddy from Lake Providence, I heared him say, but I don't
know where at dat is. He do all de carpenter work. I has five sisters
and two brothers, but dey heaps older dan me and I don't know much 'bout
dem.
"We 'longs to Papa Day, his name Isaiah, but us all call him Papa Day,
'cause he won't 'low none he cullud folks to call him master. He say us
is born free as he is, only de other white folks won't tell us so, and
our souls is jes' as white, and de reason us am darker on de outside is
'cause us is sunburnt. I don't reckon dere am anybody as good to dere
cullud folks as he was.
"Miss Martha, he wife, was mighty good, too. Does any us chillen git
hurt or scratched, she fix us up and give us a hug. I knows dey has two
boys and a gal, and dey comes to see me long time after I's free and
brings dere own chillen. But my mem'ry am sort of foggy-like and I can't
'member dere names now.
"De only work Papa Day 'lows us chillen do am pick de boles close to de
ground, and dat mostly fun, and us ride to de house on de wagon what
takes de pickin' at night. Papa Day don't make he cullud folks work
Saturdays and Sundays and dey can visit round on other plantations, and
he say nobody better bother us none, either.
"One time us chillen playin' out in de woods and seed two old men what
look like wild men, sho' 'nough. Dey has long hair all over de face and
dere shirts all bloody. Us run and tell Papa Day and he makes us take
him dere and he goes in de briar patch where dem men hidin'. Dey takes
him round de knees and begs him do he not tell dere massa where dey at,
'cause dey maybe git kilt. Dey say dey am old Lodge and Baldo and dey
run 'way 'cause dere massa whips dem, 'cause dey so old dey can't work
good no more. Papa Day has tears comin' in he eyes. Dey can't hardly
walk, so he sends dem to de house and has Aunt Mandy, de cook, fix up
somethin' to eat quick. I never seed sech eatin', dey so hongry. He puts
dem in a house and tells us not to say nothin'. Den he rides off on he
hoss and goes to dere massa and tells him 'bout it, and jes' dares him
to come git dem. He pays de man some money and Lodge and Baldo stays
with Papa Day and I guess day thunk dey in Heaven.
"One mornin' Papa Day calls all us to de house and reads de freedom
papers and say, 'De gov'ment don't need to tell you you is free, 'cause
you been free all you days. If you wants to stay you can and if you
wants to go, you can. But if you go, lots of white folks ain't gwine
treat you like I does.'
"For de longest time, maybe two years, dey wasn't none of Papa Day's
cullud folks what left, but den first one fam'ly den 'nother gits some
land to make a crop on, and den daddy gits some land and us leaves, too.
Maybe he gits de land from Papa Day, 'cause it an't far from his
plantation. Us sho' work hard on dat place, but I heared mama say lots
of times she wishes we stay on Papa Day's place.
"I 'member one year us don't make no crop hardly and daddy say he gwine
git out 'fore us starves to death, and he moves to Houston. He gits a
job doin' carpenter work and hires me out for de housegirl. But mama
dies and daddy takes sick and dies, too. Lawd have mercy, dat sho' de
hard time for me when I loses my mama and daddy, and I has to go to
Dayton and stay with my sister, Rachel. Both my husbands what I marries
done been dead a long time now, and de only child I ever had died when
he jes' a baby. Now I's jes' alone, sittin' and waitin' for de Lawd to
call me."
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John Crawford
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Valmar Cormier
