Mamie Riley
From:
South Carolina
=Project#-1655=
=Phoebe Faucette=
=Hampton County=
=Approx. 416 words=
=MAMIE RILEY=
=Ex-Slave=
"Aunt Mamie's" hair is entirely white. She lives in a neat duplex brick
house with one of her husband's relatives, a younger woman who is a cook
for a well established family in Estill, S.C. When questioned about the
times before the war, she replied:
"Yes'm, I kin tell you 'bout slav'ry time, 'cause I is one myself. I
don' remember how old I is. But I remember when de Yankees come through
I bin 'bout so high. (She put her hand out about 3-1/2 feet from the
floor.) We lived on Mr. Henry Solomons' place--a big place. Mr. Henry
Solomons had a plenty of people--three rows of house, or four.
"When de Yankees come through Mr. Solomons' place I wuz right dere. We
wuz at our house in de street. I see it all. My ma tell me to run; but I
ain't think they'd hurt me. I see 'em come down de street--all of 'em on
horses. Oo--h, dey wuz a heap of 'em! I couldn't count 'em. My daddy run
to de woods--he an' de other men. Dey ran right to de graveyard. Too
mucha bush been dere. You couldn't see 'em. Stay in de woods three days.
"Dey went to my daddy's house an' take all. My daddy ran. My mother an'
my older sister wuz dere. My ma grab a quilt off de bed an' cover
herself all over wid it--head an' all. And set in a chair dere by de
fire. She tell us to git in de bed--but I ain't git in. And she yell out
when she hear 'em comin': 'Dere's de fever in heah!' Six of 'em come to
de door; but dey say dey ain't goin' in--dey'll catch de fever. Den some
more come along. Dey say dey gwine in. Dey ain't gwine to take no fever.
Fill two sack of 'tatoes. White man ask to search all trunk. Dey take
two of me Ma's good dresses out. Say to wrap 'tatoes in. I start to
cryin' den, an' dey say, 'Well, git us some sacks den.' I knowed where
some sacks wuz. I git 'em de sacks. Dey do 'em right. Dey bid 'em
goodbye, an' ax 'em where de man wuz. Dey give me 'leven or twelve
dollars. I wuz little an' ain't know. My mother never give it to me.
"I stay right on dere after freedom, until after I married."
Source: Mamie Riley, Negro about 80 years old, Estill, S.C.
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Martha Richardson
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