Martha Richardson
From:
South Carolina
=Project #1655=
=Stiles M. Scruggs=
=Columbia, S.C.=
=THE POT OF GOLD.=
Martha Richardson, who tells this story, lives at 924 Senate Street,
Columbia, S.C. Her father was an Indian and her mother a mulatto. She
was born in Columbia in 1860 and was five years old, when General W.T.
Sherman's Federal troops captured and burned the city in 1865.
"When I gits big 'nough to pick up chips for de cook stove, we was
livin' in de rear of Daniel Gardner's home, on Main Street, and my mammy
was workin' as one of de cooks at de Columbia Hotel. De hotel was run by
Master Lowrance, where de Lorick & Lowrance store is now.
"My daddy, like de general run of Indians, love to hunt but de game not
bring much cash in. My mammy often give him some change (money) and he
not work much but he always good to mammy and she love him and not fuss
at him, much. I soon learn dat if it had not been for mammy, we wouldn't
a had much to eat and wear. We go 'long lak dat for a good while and my
mammy have friends 'nough dat she seldom had to ask for a job.
"De game was so scarce dat my daddy sometimes make a little money a
showin' people how to make Indian medicine, dat was good for many
complaints, how to cover deir houses, and how to kill deir hogs,
'cordin' to de moon. He tell us many times 'bout de great Catawba
Indians, who make all deir own medicines and kill bears and dress in
deir skins, after feastin' on deir flesh. He was a good talker.
"You know, I sees so much 'skimpin', to make ends meet at home, as we go
'long dis way, dat I has never married. My mammy tell me: 'Honey, you a
pretty child. You grow up and marry a fine, lovin' man lak your daddy,
and be happy.' I kinda smile but I thinks a lot. If my daddy had worked
and saved lak my mammy, we would be 'way head of what we is, and my
brudders say so, too. But we fond of our daddy, he so good lookin' and
all.
"What de most 'citin' thing I ever see? Well, I think de Red Shirt
campaign was. You never see so much talkin', fightin', and fussin' as
dat. You know de Yankees was still here and they not 'fraid, and de
Hampton folks was not 'fraid, so it was a case of knock down and drag
out most of de time, it seem to me. Long at de end, dere was two
governors; one was in de Wallace House and one in de Capitol. Men went
'bout town wid deir guns.
"Mammy keep busy cookin', nussin', and washin', and us chillun help. You
know I had two brudders older than me and a little baby brudder 'bout a
year old, when my mammy rent a small farm from Master Greenfield, down
at de end of Calhoun Street, near de Broad River. We plant cotton. I was
then eleven years old and my brudder was twelve and thirteen. My mammy
help us plant it befo' she go to work at de hotel.
"She was home washin', one day, when my brudders and me was choppin'
cotton. We chop 'til 'bout eleven o'clock dat mornin' and we say: 'When
we gits out de rows to de big oak tree we'll sit down and rest.' We
chillun lak each other and we joke and work fast 'til we comes to de end
of de rows and in de shade of de big oak. Then we sets down, dat is, my
oldest brudder and me, 'cause my young brudder was a little behind us in
his choppin'. As he near de finish, his hoe hit somethin' hard and it
ring. Ha rake de dirt 'way and keep diggin', light lak.
"What you doin', brudder?' I say. He say: 'Tryin' to find out what dis
is. It seem to be a pot lid.' Then we jump up and go to him and all of
us grabble dirt 'way and sho' 'nough it was a pot lid and it was on a
pot. We digs it out, thinkin' it would be a good thing to take home. It
was so heavy, it take us all to lift it out.
"It was no sooner out than we takes off de lid and we is sho' s'prised
at what we see. Big silver dollars lay all over de top. We takes two of
them and drops them together and they ring just lak we hear them ring on
de counters. Then we grabble in de pot for more. De silver went down
'bout two inches deep. Twenty dollar gold pieces run down 'bout four
inches or so and de whole bottom was full of big bundles of twenty
dollar greenbacks.
"We walks up to de house feelin' pretty big and my oldest brudder was
singin':
'Hawk and buzzard went to law,
Hawk come back wid a broken jaw.'
"Mammy say widout lookin' at us: 'What you all comin' to dinner so soon
for?' Then she looked up and see de pot and say: 'Land sakes, what you
all got?' Then we puts de big pot down in de middle of de floor and
takes off de lid, and mammy say: 'Oh! Let's see what we has!' She begin
to empty de pot and to count de money. She tell us to watch de door and
see dat nobody got in, 'cause she not at home!
"She say de money 'mount to $5,700, and she swear us not to say nothin'
'bout findin' it. She would see what she could find out 'bout it. Weeks
after dat, she tell us a big white friend tell her he hear a friend of
his buried some money and went to war widout tellin' anybody where it
was. Maybe he was killed and dat all we ever hear.
"My mammy kept it and we all work on just de same and she buy these two
lots on Senate Street. She build de two-story house here at 924, where
you sittin' now, and de cottage nex' door. She always had rent money
comin' in ever since. By and by she die, after my Indian pappy go 'way
and never come back. Then all de chillun die, 'ceptin' me.
"I am so happy dat I is able to spend my old days in a sort of ease,
after strugglin' most of my young life and gittin' no learnin' at
school, dat I sometimes sing my mammy's old song, runnin' somethin' lak
dis:
'Possum up de simmon tree
Sparrow on de ground
'Possum throw de 'simmons down
Sparrow shake them 'round'."
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Mamie Riley
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Phillip Rice
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