Moses Jeffries
From:
Arkansas
FOLKLORE SUBJECTS
Name of Interviewer: S. S. Taylor
Subject: [HW: Moses Jeffries]
Story--Information (If not enough space on this page add page.)
This information given by: Moses E. Jeffries
Place of Residence: 1110 Izard Street, Little Rock, Arkansas
Occupation: Plasterer
Age: 81 [TR: Age: 75 on 4th page of form.]
[TR: Personal information moved from bottom of form.]
"I was born in 1856. My age was kept with the cattle. As a rule, you
know, slaves were chattels. There was a fire and the Bible in which
the ages were kept was lost. The man who owned me couldn't remember
what month I was born in. Out of thirteen children, my mother could
only remember the age of one. I had twelve brothers and sisters--Bob
Lacy, William Henry, Cain Cecil, Jessie, Charles, Harvey, Johnnie,
Anna, Rose, Hannah, Lucy, and Thomas. I am the only one living now. My
parents were both slaves. My father has been dead about fifty-nine
years and my mother about sixty or sixty-one years. She died before I
married and I have been married fifty years. I have them in my Bible.
I remember when Lincoln was elected president and they said there was
going to be war. I remember when they had [HW: a] slave market in New
Orleans. I was living betweeen [TR: between] Pine Bluff and New
Orleans (living in Arkansas) and saw the slaves chained together as
they were brought through my place and located somewhere on some of
the big farms or plantations.
I never saw any of the fighting but I did see some of the Confederate
armies when they were retreating near the end of the war. I was just
about ten years old at the time and was in Marshall, Texas.
The man that owned me said to the old people that they were free,
that they didn't belong to him any more, that Abraham Lincoln had set
them free. Of course, I didn't know what freedom was. They brought the
news to them one evening, and them niggers danced nearly all night.
I remember also seeing a runaway slave. We saw the slaves first, and
the dogs came behind chasing them. They passed through our field about
half an hour ahead of the hounds, but the dogs would be trailing them.
The hunters didn't bother to stop and question us because they knew
the hounds were on the trail. I have known slaves to run away and stay
three years at a time. Master would whip them and they would run away.
They wouldn't have no place to go or stay so they would come back
after a while. Then they would be punished again. They wouldn't punish
them much, however, because they might run off again.
MARRIAGE
If I went on a plantation and saw a girl I wanted to marry, I would
ask my master to buy her for me. It wouldn't matter if she were
somebody else's wife; she would become mine. The master would pay for
her and bring her home and say, "John, there's your wife. That is all
the marriage there would be. Yellow women used to be a novelty then.
You wouldn't see one-tenth as many then as now. In some cases,
however, a man would retain his wife even after she had been sold
away from him and would have permission to visit her from time to
time.
INHERITANCE OF SLAVES
If a man died, he often stated in his will which slaves should go to
each child he had. Some men had more than a hundred slaves and they
divided them up just as you would cattle. Some times there were
certain slaves that certain children liked, and they were granted
those slaves.
WHAT THE FREEDMEN RECEIVED
Nothing was given to my parents at freedom. None of the niggers got
anything. They didn't give them anything. The slaves were hired and
allowed to work the farms on shares. That is where the system of share
cropping came from. I was hired for fifty dollars a year, but was paid
only five. The boss said he owed me fourteen dollars but five was all
I got. I went down town and bought some candy. It was the first time I
had had that much money.
I couldn't do anything about the pay. They didn't give me any land.
They hired me to work around the house and I ate what the boss ate.
But the general run of slaves got pickled pork, molasses, cornmeal and
sometimes flour (about once a week for Sunday). The food came out of
the share of the share cropper.
You can tell what they did by what they do now. It (share cropping)
hasn't changed a particle since. About Christmas was the time they
usually settled up. Nobody was forced to remain as a servant. I know
one thing,--Negroes did not go to jail and penitentiary like they do
now.
KU KLUX KLAN
The Ku Klux Klan to the best of my knowledge went into action about
the time shortly after the war when the amendments to the Constitution
gave the Negroes the right to vote. I have seen them at night dressed
up in their uniform. They would visit every Negro's house in the
comunity [TR: community]. Some they would take out and whip, some they
would scare to death. They would ask for a drink of water and they had
some way of drinking a whole bucketful to impress the Negroes that
they were supernatural. Negroes were very superstitious then. Colonel
Patterson who was a Republican and a colonel or general of the
militia, white and colored, under the governorship of Powell Clayton,
stopped the operation of the Klan in this state. After his work, they
ceased terrorizing the people.
POLITICAL OFFICIALS
Many an ex-slave was elected sheriff, county clerk, probate clerk,
Pinchback[A] was elected governor in Louisiana. The first Negro
congressman was from Mississippi and a Methodist preacher Hiram
Revells[B]. We had a Nigger superintendent of schools of the state of
Arkansas, J. C. Corbin[C]--I don't remember just when, but it was in
the early seventies. He was also president of the state school in Pine
Bluff--organized it.
SUFFRAGE
The ex-slave voted like fire directly after the war. That was about
all that did vote then. If the Niggers hadn't voted they never would
have been able to elect Negroes to office.
I was elected Alderman once in Little Rock under the administration of
Mayer Kemer. We had Nigger coroner, Chief of Police, Police Judge,
Policemen. Ike Gillam's father was coroner. Sam Garrett was Chief of
Police; Judge M. W. Gibbs was Police Judge. He was also a receiver of
public lands. So was J. E. Bush, who founded the Mosaics [HW: (Modern
Mosaic Templars of America)]. James W. Thompson, Bryant Luster, Marion
H. Henderson, Acy L. Richardson, Childress' father-in-law, were all
aldermen. James P. Noyer Jones was County Clerk of Chicot County, S.
H. Holland, a teacher of mine, a little black nigger about five feet
high, as black as ink, but well educated was sheriff of Desha County.
Augusta had a Negro who was sheriff. A Negro used to hold good offices
in this state.
I charge the change to Grant. The Baxter-Brooks matter caused it.
Baxter was a Southern Republican from the Northeastern part of the
state, Batesville, a Southern man who took sides with the North in the
war. Brooks was a Methodist preacher from the North somewheres. When
Grant recognized the Baxter faction whom the old ex-slaveholders
supported because he was a Southerner and sided with Baxter against
Brooks, it put the present Democratic party in power, and they passed
the Grandfather law barring Negroes from voting.
Negroes were intimidated by the Ku Klux. They were counted out. Ballot
boxes were burned and ballots were destroyed. Finally, Negroes got
discouraged and quit trying to vote."
[Footnote A: [HW: P. B. S. Pinchback, elected Lieutenant-Governor of
La. Held office 43 days.]]
[Footnote B: [HW: Hiram Revells, elected to fill the unexpired term of
Jefferson Davis.]]
[Footnote C: [HW: J. C. Corbin appointed state superintendent of
public instruction in 1873--served until the end of 1875.]]
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