Viney Baker
From:
North Carolina
N. C. District: No. 2 [320182]
Worker: Mary A. Hicks
No. Words: 339
Subject: VINEY BAKER
Story Teller: Viney Baker
Editor: Daisy Bailey Waitt
[TR: No Date Stamp]
VINEY BAKER
Ex-Slave Story
An interview with Viney Baker 78 of S. Harrington Street, Raleigh.
My mammy wuz Hannah Murry an' so fur as I know I ain't got no father,
do' I reckon dat he wuz de plantation stock nigger. I wuz borned in
Virginia as yo' mought say ter my marster Mr. S. L. Allen.
We moved when I wuz little ter Durham County whar we fared bad. We
ain't had nothin' much ter eat an' ter w'ar. He had a hundert slaves an'
I reckon five hundert acres o' lan'. He made us wuck hard, de little
ones included.
One night I lay down on de straw mattress wid my mammy, an' de nex'
mo'nin' I woked up an' she wuz gone. When I axed 'bout her I fin's dat a
speculator comed dar de night before an' wanted ter buy a 'oman. Dey had
come an' got my mammy widout wakin' me up. I has always been glad
somehow dat I wuz asleep.
Dey uster tie me ter a tree an' beat me till de blood run down my back,
I doan 'member nothin' dat I done, I jist 'members de whuppin's. Some
of de rest wuz beat wuser dan I wuz too, an' I uster scream dat I wuz
sho' dyin'.
Yes'um I seed de Yankees go by, but dey ain't bodder us none, case dey
knows dat 'hind eber' bush jist about a Confederate soldier pints a gun.
I warn't glad at de surrender, case I doan understand hit, an' de
Allen's keeps me right on, an' whups me wuser den dan eber.
I reckon I wuz twelve years old when my mammy come ter de house an'
axes Mis' Allen ter let me go spen' de week en' wid her. Mis' Allen
can't say no, case Mammy mought go ter de carpet baggers so she lets me
go fer de week-en'. Mammy laughs Sunday when I says somethin' 'bout
goin' back. Naw, I stayed on wid my mammy, an' I ain't seed Mis' Allen
no mo'.
AC
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Charlie Barbour
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Lizzie Baker
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