Morris Sheppard
From:
Oklahoma
Oklahoma Writers' Project
Ex-Slaves
MORRIS SHEPPARD
Age 85 yrs.
Fort Gibson, Okla.
Old Master tell me I was borned in November 1852, at de old home place
about five miles east of Webber's Falls, mebbe kind of northeast, not
far from de east bank of de Illinois River.
Master's name was Joe Sheppard, and he was a Cherokee Indian. Tall and
slim and handsome. He had black eyes and mustache but his hair was
iron gray, and everybody liked him because he was so good-natured and
kind.
I don't remember old Mistress' name. My mammy was a Crossland negro
before she come to belong to Master Joe and marry my pappy, and I
think she come wid old Mistress and belong to her. Old Mistress was
small and mighty pretty too, and she was only half Cherokee. She
inherit about half a dozen slaves, and say dey was her own and old
Master can't sell one unless she give him leave to do it.
Dey only had two families of slaves wid about twenty in all, and dey
only worked about fifty acres, so we sure did work every foot of it
good. We git three or four crops of different things out of dat farm
every year, and something growing on dat place winter and summer.
Pappy's name was Caesar Sheppard and Mammy's name was Easter. Dey was
both raised 'round Webber's Falls somewhere. I had two brothers, Silas
and George, dat belong to Mr. George Holt in Webber's Falls town. I
got a pass and went to see dem sometimes, and dey was both treated
mighty fine.
The Big House was a double log wid a big hall and a stone chimney but
no porches, wid two rooms at each end, one top side of de other. I
thought it was mighty big and fine.
Us slaves lived in log cabins dat only had one room and no windows so
we kept de doors open most of de time. We had home-made wooden beds
wid rope springs, and de little ones slept on trundle beds dat was
home made too.
At night dem trundles was jest all over de floor, and in de morning we
shove dem back under de big beds to git dem out'n de way. No nails in
none of dem nor in de chairs and tables. Nails cost big money and old
Master's blacksmith wouldn't make none 'cepting a few for old Master
now and den, so we used wooden dowels to put things together.
They was so many of us for dat little field we never did have to work
hard. Up at five o'clock and back in sometimes about de middle of de
evening, long before sundown, unless they was a crop to git in before
it rain or something like dat.
When crop was laid by de slaves jest work 'round at dis and dat and
keep tol'able busy. I never did have much of a job, jest tending de
calves mostly. We had about twenty calves and I would take dem out and
graze 'em while some grown-up negro was grazing de cows so as to keep
de cows milk. I had me a good blaze-faced horse for dat.
One time old Master and another man come and took some calves off and
Pappy say old Master taking dem off to sell. I didn't know what "sell"
meant and I ast Pappy, "Is he going to bring 'em back when he git
through selling them?" I never did see no money neither, until time of
de War or a little before.
Master Joe was sure a good provider, and we always had plenty of corn
pone, sow belly and greens, sweet potatoes, cow peas and cane
molasses. We even had brown sugar and cane molasses most of de time
before de War. Sometimes coffee, too.
De clothes wasn't no worry neither. Everything we had was made by my
folks. My aunt done de carding and spinning and my mammy done de
weaving and cutting and sewing, and my pappy could make cowhide shoes
wid wooden pegs. Dey was for bad winter only.
Old Master bought de cotton in Ft. Smith because he didn't raise no
cotton, but he had a few sheep and we had wool-mix for winter.
Everything was stripedy 'cause Mammy like to make it fancy. She dye
wid copperas and walnut and wild indigo and things like dat and make
pretty cloth. I wore a stripedy shirt till I was about eleven years
old, and den one day while we was down in de Choctaw Country old
Mistress see me and nearly fall off'n her horse! She holler, "Easter,
you go right now and make dat big buck of a boy some britches!"
We never put on de shoes until about late November when de frost begin
to hit regular and split our feet up, and den when it git good and
cold and de crop all gathered in anyways, they is nothing to do
'cepting hog killing and a lot of wood chopping, and you don't git
cold doing dem two things.
De hog killing mean we gits lots of spare-ribs and chitlings, and
somebody always git sick eating too much of dat fresh pork. I always
pick a whole passel of muskatines for old Master and he make up sour
wine, and dat helps out when we git the bowel complaint from eating
dat fresh pork.
If somebody bad sick he git de doctor right quick, and he don't let no
negroes mess around wid no poultices and teas and sech things like
cupping-horns neither!
Us Cherokee slaves seen lots of green corn shootings and de like of
dat, but we never had no games of our own. We was too tired when we
come in to play any games. We had to have a pass to go any place to
have singing or praying, and den they was always a bunch of patrollers
around to watch everything we done. Dey would come up in a bunch of
about nine men on horses, and look at all our passes, and if a negro
didn't have no pass dey wore him out good and made him go home. Dey
didn't let us have much enjoyment.
Right after de War de Cherokees that had been wid the South kind of
pestered the freedmen some, but I was so small dey never bothered me;
jest de grown ones. Old Master and Mistress kept on asking me did de
night riders persecute me any but dey never did. Dey told me some of
dem was bad on negroes but I never did see none of dem night riding
like some said dey did.
Old Master had some kind of business in Fort Smith, I think, 'cause he
used to ride in to dat town 'bout every day on his horse. He would
start at de crack of daylight and not git home till way after dark.
When he get home he call my uncle in and ask about what we done all
day and tell him what we better do de next day. My uncle Joe was de
slave boss and he tell us what de Master say do.
When dat Civil War come along I was a pretty big boy and I 'remember
it good as anybody. Uncle Joe tell us all to lay low and work hard and
nobody bother us, and he would look after us. He sure stood good with
de Cherokee neighbors we had, and dey all liked him. There was Mr. Jim
Collins, and Mr. Bell, and Mr. Dave Franklin, and Mr. Jim Sutton and
Mr. Blackburn that lived around close to us and dey all had slaves.
Dey was all wid the South, but dey was a lot of dem Pin Indians all up
on de Illinois River and dey was wid de North and dey taken it out on
de slave owners a lot before de War and during it too.
Dey would come in de night and hamstring de horses and maybe set fire
to de barn, and two of 'em named Joab Scarrel and Tom Starr killed my
pappy one night just before de War broke out.
I don't know what dey done it for, only to be mean, and I guess they
was drunk.
Them Pins was after Master all de time for a while at de first of de
War, and he was afraid to ride into Fort Smith much. Dey come to de
house one time when he was gone to Fort Smith and us children told dem
he was at Honey Springs, but they knowed better and when he got home
he said somebody shot at him and bushwhacked him all the way from
Wilson's Rock to dem Wildhorse Mountains, but he run his horse like de
devil was setting on his tail and dey never did hit him. He never seen
them neither. We told him 'bout de Pins coming for him and he just
laughed.
When de War come old Master seen he was going into trouble and he sold
off most of de slaves. In de second year of de War he sold my mammy
and my aunt dat was Uncle Joe's wife and my two brothers and my little
sister. Mammy went to a mean old man named Peper Goodman and he took
her off down de river, and pretty soon Mistress tell me she died
'cause she can't stand de rough treatment.
When Mammy went old Mistress took me to de Big House to help her, and
she was kind to me like I was part of her own family. I never forget
when they sold off some more negroes at de same time, too, and put dem
all in a pen for de trader to come and look at.
He never come until the next day, so dey had to sleep in dat pen in a
pile like hogs.
It wasn't my Master done dat. He done already sold 'em to a man and it
was dat man was waiting for de trader. It made my Master mad, but dey
didn't belong to him no more and he couldn't say nothing.
The man put dem on a block and sold 'em to a man dat had come in on a
steamboat, and he took dem off on it when de freshet come down and de
boat could go back to Fort Smith. It was tied up at de dock at
Webber's Falls about a week and we went down and talked to my aunt and
brothers and sister. De brothers was Sam and Eli. Old Mistress cried
jest like any of de rest of us when de boat pull out with dem on it.
Pretty soon all de young Cherokee menfolks all gone off to de War, and
de Pins was riding 'round all de time, and it aint safe to be in dat
part around Webber's Falls, so old Master take us all to Fort Smith
where they was a lot of Confederate soldiers.
We camp at dat place a while and old Mistress stay in de town wid some
kinfolks. Den old Master get three wagons and ox teams and take us all
way down on Red River in de Choctaw Nation.
We went by Webber's Falls and filled de wagons. We left de furniture
and only took grub and tools and bedding and clothes, 'cause they
wasn't very big wagons and was only single-yoke.
We went on a place in de Red River bottoms close to Shawneetown and
not far from de place where all de wagons crossed over to go into
Texas. We was at dat place two years and made two little crops.
One night a runaway negro come across from Texas and he had de blood
hounds after him. His britches was all muddy and tore where de hounds
had cut him up in de legs when he clumb a tree in de bottoms. He come
to our house and Mistress said for us negroes to give him something to
eat and we did.
Then up come de man from Texas with de hounds and wid him was young
Mr. Joe Vann and my uncle that belong to young Joe. Dey called young
Mr. Joe "Little Joe Vann" even after he was grown on account of when
he was a little boy before his pappy was killed. His pappy was old
Captain "Rich Joe" Vann, and he been dead ever since long before de
War. My uncle belong to old Captain Joe nearly all his life.
Mistress try to get de man to tell her who de negro belong to so she
can buy him, but de man say he can't sell him and he take him on back
to Texas wid a chain around his two ankles. Dat was one poor negro dat
never got away to de North, and I was sorry for him 'cause I know he
must have had a mean master, but none of us Sheppard negroes, I mean
the grown ones, tried to git away.
I never seen any fighting in de War, but I seen soldiers in de South
army doing a lot of blacksmithing 'long side de road one day. Dey was
fixing wagons and shoeing horses.
After de War was over, old Master tell me I am free but he will look
out after me 'cause I am just a little negro and I aint got no sense.
I know he is right, too.
Well, I go ahead and make me a crop of corn all by myself and then I
don't know what to do wid it. I was afraid I would get cheated out of
it 'cause I can't figure and read, so I tell old Master about it and
he bought it off'n me.
We never had no school in slavery and it was agin the law for anybody
to even show a negro de letters and figures, so no Cherokee slave
could read.
We all come back to de old place and find de negro cabins and barns
burned down and de fences all gone and de field in crab grass and
cockleburrs. But de Big House aint hurt 'cepting it need a new roof.
De furniture is all gone, and some said de soldiers burned it up for
firewood. Some officers stayed in de house for a while and tore
everything up or took it off.
Master give me over to de National Freedmen's Bureau and I was bound
out to a Cherokee woman name Lizzie McGee. Then one day one of my
uncles named Wash Sheppard come and tried to git me to go live wid
him. He say he wanted to git de family all together agin.
He had run off after he was sold and joined de North army and
discharged at Fort Scott in Kansas, and he said lots of freedmen was
living close to each other up by Coffeyville in de Coo-ee-scoo-ee
District.
I wouldn't go, so he sent Isaac and Joe Vann dat had been two of old
Captain Joe's negroes to talk to me. Isaac had been Young Joe's
driver, and he told me all about how rich Master Joe was and how he
would look after us negroes. Dey kept after me 'bout a year, but I
didn't go anyways.
But later on I got a freedman's allotment up in dat part close to
Coffeyville, and I lived in Coffeyville a while but I didn't like it
in Kansas.
I lost my land trying to live honest and pay my debts. I raised eleven
children just on de sweat of my hands and none of dem ever tasted
anything dat was stole.
When I left Mrs. McGee's I worked about three years for Mr. Sterling
Scott and Mr. Roddy Reese. Mr. Reese had a big flock of peafowls dat
had belonged to Mr. Scott and I had to take care of dem.
Whitefolks, I would have to tromp seven miles to Mr. Scott's house two
or three times a week to bring back some old peafowl dat had got out
and gone back to de old place!
Poor old Master and Mistress only lived a few years after de War.
Master went plumb blind after he move back to Webber's Falls and so he
move up on de Illinois River 'bout three miles from de Arkansas, and
there old Mistress take de white swelling and die and den he die
pretty soon. I went to see dem lots of times and they was always glad
to see me.
I would stay around about a week and help 'em, and dey would try to
git me to take something but I never would. Dey didn't have much and
couldn't make anymore and dem so old. Old Mistress had inherited some
property from her pappy and dey had de slave money and when dey turned
everything into good money after de War dat stuff only come to about
six thousand dollars in good money, she told me. Dat just about lasted
'em through until dey died, I reckon.
By and by I married Nancy Hildebrand what lived on Greenleaf Creek,
'bout four miles northwest of Gore. She had belonged to Joe Hildebrand
and he was kin to old Steve Hildebrand dat owned de mill on Flint
Creek up in de Going Snake District. She was raised up at dat mill,
but she was borned in Tennessee before dey come out to de Nation. Her
master was white but he had married into de Nation and so she got a
freedmen's allotment too. She had some land close to Catoosa and some
down on Greenleaf Creek.
We was married at my home in Coffeyville, and she bore me eleven
children and then went on to her reward. A long time ago I came to
live wid my daughter Emma here at dis place, but my wife just died
last year. She was eighty three.
I reckon I wasn't cut out on de church pattern, but I raised my
children right. We never had no church in slavery, and no schooling,
and you had better not be caught wid a book in your hand even, so I
never did go to church hardly any.
Wife belong to de church and all de children too, and I think all
should look after saving their souls so as to drive de nail in, and
den go about de earth spreading kindness and hoeing de row clean so as
to clinch dat nail and make dem safe for Glory.
Of course I hear about Abraham Lincoln and he was a great man, but I
was told mostly by my children when dey come home from school about
him. I always think of my old Master as de one dat freed me, and
anyways Abraham Lincoln and none of his North people didn't look after
me and buy my crop right after I was free like old Master did. Dat was
de time dat was de hardest and everything was dark and confusion.
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