Martha Cunningham
From:
Oklahoma
Oklahoma Writers' Project
Ex-Slaves
MARTHA CUNNINGHAM
(white) Age 81 yrs.
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
My father's name was A. J. Brown, and my mother's name was Hattie
Brown. I was born in the East, in Saveer County, Tennessee. I had
twelve sisters and brothers, all are dead but two. W. S. Brown lives
at 327 W. California, and Maudie Reynolds, my sister lives at
Minrovie, California.
We lived in different kinds of houses just like we do now. Some was of
log, some frame and some rock. I remember when we didn't have stoves
to cook on, no lamps, and not even any candles until I was about six
years old. We would take a rag and sop it in lard to make lights.
All of our furniture was home made, but it was nice. We had just
plenty of every thing. It wasn't like it is in these days where you
have to pick and scrape for something to eat.
My grandfather and grandmother gave my mother and father two slaves,
an old woman and man, when they married. My grandfather owned a large
plantation, and had a large number of slaves, and my father and mother
owned several farms at different places. Our mother and father treated
our slaves good. They ate what we ate, and they stayed with us a long
time after the War. I remember though all of the slave owners weren't
good to their slaves. I have seen 'em take those young fine looking
negroes, put them in a pen when they got ready to whip them, strip
them and lay them face down, and beat them until white whelps arose on
their bodies. Yes, some of them was treated awful mean.
I saw mothers sold from their babies, and babies sold from their
mothers. They would strip them, put them on the auction block and sell
them--bid them off just like you would cattle. Some would sell for
lots of money.
They wouldn't take the slaves to church. I don't remember when the
negroes had their first schools, but it was a long time after the War.
Why, I remember when they'd have those big corn shuckings, flax
pullings, and quilting parties. They would sow acres after acres of
flax, then they would meet at some house or plantation and pull flax
until they had finished, then give a big party. There'd be the same
thing at the next plantation and so on until they'd all in that
neighborhood get their crops gathered. I remember they'd have all
kinds of good eats--pies, cakes, chicken, fish, fresh pork,
beef,--just plenty of good eats.
I went over the battlefield at Knoxville, Tennessee, two or three
hours after the Yankees and the Rebels had a battle. It was about a
mile from our house, and I walked over hundreds of dead men lying on
the ground. Some were fatally wounded, and we carried about six or
seven to our house. I saw the doctor pick the bullets out of their
flesh.
When the Yankees came they treated the slave owners awful mean. They
drew a gun on my mother, made her walk for several miles one real cold
night and take them up on the top of a mountain and show them where a
still was. They would make her cook for 'em. They took every thing we
had. I was about twelve years old at that time.
I stayed there with my mother until after my father died, then we
moved to Alabama. I was about 22 years old. I married a man named
Kelley. He and my brothers were railroad graders. We traveled all over
Texas.
I made the Run. Came here in '89 with my mother, husband and eight
children. My husband and brothers graded the streets for the townsite
of Oklahoma City and platted it off.
When we made the Run, we just stood on the property until it was
surveyed, then we'd pay $1.00, and the lot was ours. I camped on the
corner of Robinson and Pottawatomie Streets and Robinson and
Chickasaw. I owned the Northwest corner. I later sold both lots.
I am a Christian, Baptist mostly, I guess, and I believe in the Great
Beyond. I don't think you have to go to church all the time to be
saved, but you have to be right with the Man up yonder before you can
be saved.
I am a Republican, and it makes my blood boil whenever I hear a negro
say he is a democrat. They should all be Republicans.
I have been married twice. I married William Cunningham here in 1922.
He is dead; in fact, both my husbands are dead, so I don't see much
need of talking about them.
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William Curtis
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George Conrad
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