Mary Gladdy
From:
Georgia Narratives, Part 2
MARY GLADDY,
EX-SLAVE
Place of birth: On the Holt plantation, in Muscogee
County, near Columbus, Georgia.
Date of birth: About 1853.
Present residence: In rear of 806-1/2 - 6th Avenue, Columbus,
Georgia.
Interviewed: July 30, 1936.
Her story: "I was a small girl when the Civil War broke out, but I
remember it distinctly. I also remember the whisperings among the
slaves--their talking of the possibility of freedom.
"My father was a very large, powerful man. During his master's absence,
in '63 or '64, a colored foreman on the Hines Holt place once undertook
to whip him; but my father wouldn't allow him to do it. This foreman
then went off and got five big buck Negroes to help him whip father, but
all six of them couldn't 'out-man' my daddy! Then this foreman shot my
daddy with a shot-gun, inflicting wounds from which he never fully
recovered.
"In '65, another Negro foreman whipped one of my little brothers. This
foreman was named Warren. His whipping my brother made me mad and when,
a few days later, I saw some men on horseback whom I took to be Yankees,
I ran to them and told them about Warren--a common Negro slave--whipping
my brother. And they said, 'well, we will see Warren about that.' But
Warren heard them and took to his heels! Yes, sir, he flew from home,
and he didn't come back for a week! Yes, sir, I sholy scared that Negro
nearly to death!
"My father's father was a very black, little, full-blooded, African
Negro who could speak only broken English. He had a son named Adam, a
brother of my father, living at Lochapoka, Ala. In 1867, after freedom,
this granpa of mine, who was then living in Macon, Georgia, got mad with
his wife, picked up his feather bed and toted it all the way from Macon
to Lochapoka! Said he was done with grandma and was going to live with
Adam. A few weeks later, however, he came back through Columbus, still
toting his feather bed, returning to grandma in Macon. I reckon he
changed his mind. I don't believe he was over five feet high and we
could hardly understand his talk.
"Since freedom, I have lived in Mississippi and other places, but most
of my life has been spent right in and around Columbus. I have had one
husband and no children. I became a widow about 35 years ago, and I have
since remained one because I find that I can serve God better when I am
not bothered with a Negro man."
Mary Gladdy claims to have never attended school or been privately
taught in her life. And she can't write or even form the letters of the
alphabet, but she gave her interviewer a very convincing demonstration
of her ability to read. When asked how she mastered the art of reading,
she replied: "The Lord revealed it to me."
For more than thirty years, the Lord has been revealing his work, and
many other things, to Mary Gladdy. For more than twenty years, she has
been experiencing "visitations of the spirit". These do not occur with
any degree of regularity, but they do always occur in "the dead hours of
the night" after she has retired, and impel her to rise and write in an
unknown hand. These strange writings of her's now cover eight pages of
letter paper and bear a marked resemblance to crude shorthand notes.
Off-hand, she can "cipher" (interpret or translate) about half of these
strange writings; the other half, however, she can make neither heads
nor tails of except when the spirit is upon her. When the spirit eases
off, she again becomes totally ignorant of the significance of that
mysterious half of her spirit-directed writings.
"Aunt" Mary appears to be very well posted on a number of subjects. She
is unusually familiar with the Bible, and quotes scripture freely and
correctly. She also uses beautiful language, totally void of slang and
Negro jargon, "big" words and labored expressions.
She is a seventh Day Adventist; is not a psychic, but is a rather
mysterious personage. She lives alone, and ekes out a living by taking
in washing. She is of the opinion that "we are now living in the last
days"; that, as she interprets the "signs", the "end of time" is drawing
close. Her conversion to Christianity was the result of a hair-raising
experience with a ghost--about forty years ago, and she has never--from
that day to this--fallen from grace for as "long as a minute".
To know "Aunt" Mary is to be impressed with her utter sincerity and, to
like her. She is very proud of one of her grandmothers, Edie Dennis,
who lived to be 110 years old, and concerning whom a reprint from the
Atlanta Constitution of November 10, 1900, is appended. Her story of
Chuck, and the words of two spirituals and one slave canticle which
"Aunt" Mary sang for her interviewer, are also appended.
Next:
Edie Dennis Has
Previous:
Leah Garrett
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