Maria Cleland
From:
South Carolina
Project 1885-1
FOLKLORE
Spartanburg Dist. 4
May 24, 1937
Edited by:
Elmer Turnage
STORIES FROM EX-SLAVES
"I was born near old Bush River Baptist Church, in Newberry County, S.
C. I was the slave of John Satterwhite. My mother lived with them. I was
a small girl when the war was on. My brother went to war with Marse
Satterwhite. When de Ku Klux and paddrollers traveled around in that
section, they made Mr. Satterwhite hold the niggers when they was
whipped, but he most all the time let them loose, exclaiming, 'they got
loose'--he did not want many of them whipped.
"My mother had a kitchen way off from the house, wid a wide fireplace
where she cooked victuals. There was holes in back of de chimney with
iron rods sticking out of them to hold de pans, pots, kettles or
boilers.
"People there did not believe much in ghosts. They were not much
superstitious, but one time some of the negroes thought they heard the
benches in Bush River Baptist Church turn over when nobody was in the
church.
"Negroes most always shouted at their religious meetings. Before de
negroes had their own church meetings, the slaves went to the white
folks' Bush River Baptist church and set up in the gallery. I moved to
Newberry when I was young, after I got married."
Source: Maria Cleland, Newberry, S. C. (80 years old).
Interviewer: G. L. Summer, Newberry, S. C. (5/17/37)
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