Lindsey Moore
From:
Florida
FEDERAL WRITERS' PROJECT
American Guide, (Negro Unit)
Martin Richardson, Field Worker
Palatka, Florida
January 13, 1937
LINDSEY MOORE
AN EX-SLAVE WHO WAS RESOURCEFUL
In a little blacksmith shop at 1114 Madison Street, Palatka, is a busy
little horse-shoer who was born in slavery eighty-seven years ago.
Lindsey Moore, blacksmith, leather-tanner ex-marble shooting champion
and a number of other things, represents one of the most resourceful
former slaves yet found in the state.
Moore was born in 1850 on the plantation of John B. Overtree, in
Forsythe County, Georgia. He was one of the six children of Eliza Moore;
all of them remained the property of Overtree until freed.
On the Overtree plantation the slave children were allowed considerable
time for play until their tenth or twelfth years; Lindsey took full
advantage of this opportunity and became very skillful at
marble-shooting. It was here that he first learned to utilize his
talents profitably. 'Massa Overtree' discovered the ability of Lindsey
and another urchin to shoot marbles, and began taking them into town to
compete with the little slaves of other owners. There would be betting
on the winners.
Mr. Overtree won some money in this manner, Lindsey and his companion
being consistent winners. But Lindsey saw possibilities other than the
glory of his victories in this new game; with pennies that some of the
spectators tossed him he began making small wagers of his own with his
competitors, and soon had amassed quite a small pile of silver for those
days.
Although shoes were unheard-of in Lindsey's youth, he used to watch
carefully whenever a cow was skinned and its hide tanned to make shoes
for the women and the 'folks in the big house'. Through his attention to
the tanning operations he learned everything about tanning except one
solution that he could not discover. It was not until years later that
he learned that the jealously-guarded ingredient was plain salt and
water. By the time he had learned it, however, he had so mastered the
tanning operations that he at once added it to his sources of
livelihood.
Lindsey escaped much of the farm work on the Overtree place by learning
to skillfully assist the women who made cloth out of the cotton from the
fields. He grew very fast at cleaning 'rods', clearing the looms and
other operations; when, at thirteen, it became time for him to pick
cotton he had become so fast at helping with spinning and weighing the
cotton that others had picked that he almost entirely escaped the
picking himself.
Soap-making was another of the plantation arts that Lindsey mastered
early. His ability to save every possible ounce of grease from the meats
he cooked added many choice bits of pork to his otherwise meatless fare;
he was able to spend many hours in the shade pouring water over oak
ashes that other young slaves were passing picking cotton or hoeing
potatoes in the burning sun.
Lindsey's first knowledge of the approach of freedom came when he heard
a loud brass band coming down the road toward the plantation playing a
strange, lively tune while a number of soldiers in blue uniforms marched
behind. He ran to the front gate and was ordered to take charge of the
horse of one of the officers in such an abrupt tone until he 'begin to
shaking in my bare feet! There followed much talk between the officers
and Lindsey's mistress, with the soldiers finally going into encampment
a short distance away from the plantation.
The soldiers took command of the spring that was used for a water supply
for the plantation, giving Lindsey another opportunity to make money. He
would be sent from the plantation to the spring for water, and on the
way back would pass through the camp of the soldiers. These would be
happy to pay a few pennies for a cup of water rather than take the long
hike to the Spring themselves; Lindsey would empty bucket after bucket
before finally returning to the plantation. Out of his profits he bought
his first pair of shoes--though nearly a grown man.
The soldiers finally departed, with all but five of the Overtree slaves
joyously trooping behind them. Before leaving, however, they tore up the
railroad and its station, burning the ties and heating the rails until
red then twisting them around tree-trunks. Wheat fields were trampled by
their horses, and devastation left on all sides.
Lindsey and his mother were among those who stayed at the plantation.
When freedom became general his father began farming on a tract that was
later turned over to Lindsey. Lindsey operated the farm for a while, but
later desired to learn horseshoeing, and apprenticed himself to a
blacksmith. At the end of three years he had become so proficient that
his former master rewarded him with a five-dollar bonus for shoeing one
horse.
Possessing now the trades of blacksmithing, tanning and
weaving-and-spinning, Lindsey was tempted to follow some of his former
associates to the North, but was discouraged from doing so by a few who
returned, complaining bitterly about the unaccustomed cold and the
difficulty of making a living. He moved South instead and settled in the
area around Palatka.
He is still in the section, being recognized as an excellent blacksmith
despite his more than four-score years.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Interview with subject, Lindsey Moore, 1114 Madison Street, Palatka,
Fla.
Next:
Mack Mullen
Previous:
Christine Mitchell
Informational
