Tina Johnson
From:
North Carolina
N.C. District: No. 2
Worker: Mary A. Hicks
No. Words: 346
Subject: TINA JOHNSON
Story teller: Tina Johnson
Editor: Daisy Bailey Waitt
TINA JOHNSON
Ex-Slave Story
An interview with Tina Johnson 85, S. Bloodworth Street, Raleigh.
"I wuz bawned in Richmon', Georgia 'round eighty-five years ago. My
mammy wuz named Cass an' my father, dat is my step-father wuz named
John Curtis. I got de name of Johnson frum Gen'l Johnson, I doan know
who my real daddy wuz.
"My mammy belonged ter a Mis' Berry who wuz pretty good ter her, but we
ain't had nothin' but de coarsest food an' clothes. I had one brother
name Dennis an' me an' him wucked wid de others in de cotton patch.
"We had done moved nigh Augusta when Sherman come, an' Sherman's sister
wuz a-livin' in Augusta. Dat's de reason dat Sherman missed us, case he
ain't wantin' ter 'sturb his sister none.
"I ain't seed nary a Yankee, but fer two days an' nights I hyard de
guns roarin' an' felt de earth shakin' lak a earthquake wuz hittin' it.
De air wuz dark an' de clouds hunged low, de whole earth seemed ter be
full of powder an' yo' nostrils seemed lak dey would bust wid de sting
of it.
"Atter de surrender we stayed on an' went through de Ku Klux scare. I
know dat de Ku Kluxes went ter a nigger dance one night an' whupped all
of de dancers. Ole Marster Berry wuz mad, case he ain't sont fer' em at
all an' he doan want dem.
"Seberal year's atter de war mammy married John Curtis in de Baptist
church at Augusta, an' me an' Dennis seed de ceremony. I pulled a good
one on a white feller 'bout dat onct. He axed me if I knowed dat my
pappy an' mammy wuz married 'fore I wuz borned. I sez ter him dat I
wonder if he knows whar his mammy an' pappy wuz married when he wuz
borned.
"We comed ter Raleigh 'fore things wuz settled atter de war, an' I
watches de niggers livin' on kush, co'nbread, 'lasses an' what dey can
beg an' steal frum de white folkses. Dem days shore wuz bad."
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Bob Jones
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Isaac Johnson
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