Sabe Rutledge
From:
South Carolina
=Project 1655=
=Genevieve W. Chandler=
=Georgetown County, S.C.=
=FOLKLORE=
=UNCLE SABE RUTLEDGE=
=(EX-SLAVE STORY)=
"They call him Rogerick Rutledge for shortness. My Grandpa REAL name
Jim. First time I big enough to realect (recollect) him he have on no
pants but something built kinder like overall and have a apron. Apron
button up here where my overall buckle and can be let down. All been dye
with indigo. Have weave shirt--dye with blue indigo boil with myrtle
seed. Myrtle seed must-a-did put the color in. Old brogan shoe on he
foot. Old beaver hat on he head. Top of crown wear out and I member he
have paste-board cover over with cloth and sew in he hat crown. My
Grandmother wear these here gingham cloth call gingham twill.
"Now the chillun! I member I was a big boy grown when I get my first
pants. All boy chillun wear a shirt----long down to knee and lower. Have
belt round the middle--just like you belt to hold 'em. Chillun have not
a shoe! Not a shoe for chillun on us plantation to the Old Ark. First
shoe I have, Pa get a cow hide and tan it. And a man name Stalvey make
my first pair of shoes. I was way near bout grown. Make the sole out the
thickness of the cow hide. Short quarter. No eye--just make the hole.
Last! Yes man! Yes man! Yes man! Keep 'em grease! Them shoe never wear
out!
"We raise all we get to eat. Hominy, cornbread, peas, potatoes, rice.
Morest we plant this here yellow corn. I cry many a day bout that yellow
corn! We say, 'Pa, this here yellow corn make hominy look like he got
egg cook in 'em; red corn look like hominy cook in red molasses!'
"But yellow corn stronger feed! Stronger feed! And Pa know 'em.
"Sunday come go to church in that same blue shirt! Little old pole
church--(gone now)--call 'Dick Green Bay Church'. (Named for a local
character.) When we go to church before freedom, Mudder and them have to
have the ticket.
"Old man John Tilghman at the Ark Plantation have no overseer--have
'Driver'. Most folks on Waccamaw have overseer and 'Driver'. My Pa been
the Ark 'Driver.'
"Old man Zachariah Duncan been the preacher. That the same man build the
first 'Heaven Gate' church after freedom. He got drift lumber on the
river and on the beach. Flat 'em--make a raft and float 'em over to the
hill and the man haul 'em to 'Heaven Gate' with ox. Yes. 'Heaven Gate'
built outer pick up lumber.
"Before freedom Parson Glennie--he was 'Piscopal--he would come give us
a service once a month on the plantation--so mother said.
"Patches of indigo all through the woods. You know cow eat indigo. Us
have too much ox! Have to haul rail all the time keep up the old fence.
Woods full up with cow. Cattle loose--free. When you want beef have to
hunt for 'em like we hunts deer now. I member some ox I helped broke.
Pete, Bill, Jim, David. Faby was a brown. David kinder mouse color. We
always have the old ox in the lead going to haul rail. Hitch the young
steer on behind. Sometimes they 'give up' and the old ox pull 'em by the
neck! Break ox all the time. Fun for us boys--breaking ox. So much of
rail to haul!
"(You can't tell me bout this pension? Look like to me somebody trying
to smother something. Letters come. Cards come. My name on outside
alright. Tell me to put my name on cards and hand 'em out to my friends.
Say send twenty-five cents. Next time say 'Send thirty-five cents'. He
cool off then and another man--Mr. Pope come in. Got two letter from him
and he tell me be still till I hear from him again. J.E. Pope. Last
blank I got from Mr. Pope he say not to look for more than thirty or
thirty-two dollars a month. Say there ain't going to be no two hundred a
month.)
"How come I know all these Buh Rabbit story, Mudder spin you know. Have
the great oak log, iron fire dog. Have we chillun to sit by the
fireplace put the light-wood under--blaze up. We four chillun have to
pick seed out the cotton. Work till ten o'clock at night and rise early!
Mudder and Father tell you story to keep you eye open! Pick out cotton
seed be we job every night in winter time--'cept Sunday! When we grow
bigger, Mudder make one card. One would spin and then Mudder go to
knitting. Night time picking these cotton seed out; day time in winter
getting wood!
"Fall----harvest peanut, peas, 'tater!
"I member all them Buh Rabbit story! Mudder tell 'em and we laugh and
wake up! They was one bout Buh Rabbit and Buh Patridge. You know Buh
Patridge the onliest one get the best of Buh Rabbit!
"Buh Rabbit bet Buh Patridge (Buh Rabbit think he so sharp you know!) He
bet Buh Patridge if he fly off down the road a piece and lit Buh Rabbit
can find 'em.--Buh Patridge bet him he can't! So Buh Patridge take off
and fly down the road a piece and lit--like a Patridge will do--lit and
turn up on he back and rake the leaves over him and kiver (cover) his
body all 'cept he two foots sticking up like stick!
"Now Buh Rabbit come! He hunt and he hunt and he hunt! Couldn't find 'em
and he get so hot he take off he coat and hang it on Buh Patridge foots!
"He go on hunting and after while he call out,
"'Well I can't find Buh Patridge! Can't find Buh Patridge!'
"And Buh Patridge sing out,
"'Well, Buh Rabbit, here I is! You hang you coat on my feet!'
"Buh Rabbit have to pay the bet! (I don't member what the bet was). So
Buh Patridge was the onliest one I ever hear bout could get the best of
Buh Rabbit!
"When Father and Mudder tell them story we chillun noddin'! Some cackle
out and all jump up and go back to picking out cotton seed!
"There is another one bout Buh Bear. They goes out my head. I'll think
them Buh Rabbit up fore you come back Missus!"
And Uncle Sabe, who was sitting on the 'LOOK OUT' at the Floral Beach
Fishery, continued to let his eyes play all over the sea like
searchlights, ready to wave the black flag and march down toward the
fishery holding it aloft keeping himself in a line with the fish if fish
were sighted. Since way before what he called 'the big war' he and his
people have eaten mullet and rice for the three fall months. His home
was visited before Uncle Sabe was located and children and
grand-children, wife, sister and neighbors were found seated and
standing all over the kitchen floor and piazza floor and steps----each
one with a generous tin plate of rice and fresh, brown, hot 'spot'----a
fish not so valuable in summer but choice in fall and winter. Two hounds
and a large cat worked around among the feasters for their well chewed
bones.
SOURCE: Uncle Sabe Rutledge, The Ridge, Burgess, S.C., (Horry County)
Born first year of the Civil War.
(He owns his house and land,----some twenty-five acres under
cultivation. This is located on what appears to be a 'height of land'
lying between the Waccamaw and the Atlantic. Locally it is known as 'The
Sand Ridge'.)
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Henry Ryan
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Genevieve W Chandler
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