William H Harrison
From:
More Arkansas
Interviewer: Miss Irene Robertson
Person interviewed: William H. Harrison
Forrest City, Arkansas
Age: Over 100
"I was born March 4, 1832 in Richmond, Virginia. Master Anderson
Harrison was a cousin to Benjamin Harrison, the twenty-third President
of the United States. Master Anderson Harrison was my owner. I was a
personal attendant of his young son and when I reached manhood I was the
carriage boy. I did all the driving on all the trips the young people of
the family took. My memories of slave days was my easiest days. Slavery
was pleasant for me. My owner's wife was named Ann. The son was Gummel
L. Harrison. I went with him to war. I was his servant in the
battle-field till we fought at Gettysburg and Manassas Gap. Then I was
captured at Bulls Gap and brought to Knoxville, Tennessee and made a
soldier. I was in the War three and one half years. They had us going to
school. They had Yankee teachers in the army. All the schooling I ever
got. I was mustered out at Chattanooga, Tennessee.
"My parents was Julia Ann Hodge and Cairo Hodge. I don't know my
mother's last owners. When I was about eight years old I was sold to Ben
Cowen. When I was thirteen years old I was sold to Master Anderson
Harrison. My brothers Sam and Washington never were sold. Me and Sam
Hodge, my brother, was in the War together. We struck up and knowed one
another. A man bought mama that lived at Selma, Alabama. I never seen
her ag'in to know her. After I was mustered out I went to Birmingham
where she was drove and sold in search of her. I heard she was taken to
Selma. I went there. I give out hunting for her. It was about dusk. I
saw a woman standing in the door. I asked her to tell me where I could
stay. She said, 'You can stay here tonight.' I went in, hung my overcoat
up. I started to the saloon. I met her husband with a basket on his arm
coming home. I told him who I was. We went to get a drink. I offered him
sherry but he took whiskey. I got a pint of brandy, two apples, two
oranges, for his wife and two little boys. I spent two nights there and
two and a half days there, with my own mother but neither of us knew it
then.
"Fourteen years later Wash wrote to me giving me the address. I told him
about this and he said it was mama. He told her about it. She jumped up
and shouted and fell dead. I never seen her but that one time after I
was sold the first time. I was about eight years old then. She had
eighteen of us boys and one girl, Diana, and then the half-brothers I
seen at Selma. I had eleven brothers took off in a drove at one time and
sold. They was older than I was. I don't know what become of them. I
never seen my papa after I was sold. Diana died in Knoxville, Tennessee
after freedom. I seen better times in slavery than I've ever seen since
but I don't believe in slave traffic--that being sold.
"I was with my young master till my capture. That was my part in
freedom. I was forced to fight by the Yankees then in the Union army. I
was with General Grant when Lee surrendered at Appomattox. That was
freedom. After the War I come to Arkansas and settled at Madison. My
hardships started. I got married the first thing.
"This is how good my owners was to me. He sent me to Hendersonville,
North Carolina (Henderson?) to learn to fiddle. I was so afraid of the
old colored teacher I learned in a month about all he could play. I
played for parties in eight states in slavery. All up in the North. They
trained children to dance then. I took Martha Jane, Easter Ann, Jane
Daniel, my young mistresses and their mother's sisters, Emma and Laura,
to parties and dances all time. We went to Ashville, North Carolina to a
big party. While they was having fine victuals after the dance they sent
me out a plate of turnip greens and turnips, fat meat and corn bread. I
took it and set it down. When Miss Martha Jane got in sight I took her
to our carriage. She said, 'Empty it to the dogs,' and give me one
dollar fifty cents and told me to go to town and buy my supper. I was
treated same as kin folks. I et and drunk same as they had to use. After
freedom I fixed up twice to move back to my young master. Once he sent
me three hundred fifty dollars to move on. Betty fell off the porch and
broke her thigh. That ended my hopes of going back. Betty was my first
wife. I had seven children by her and one by my second wife and this
wife ain't had none. She's been married twice though.
"I got one boy in Virginia seventy-three years old and one boy
sixty-eight years old. My boys are scattered. One lives here. I don't
hear from them now.
"After the War I come to Madison. It was a thriving little river town
surrounded on all sides by wilderness. There were thousands of Indians
camped in the neighboring woods. There was nothing but wooded hills
where Forrest City now stands.
"When General Nathan Bedford Forrest built the cut between Forrest City
and Madison for the road, I was his cook and the first fireman to make
the run through the cut. I used to drive a stagecoach over the Old
Military Road through Pine Tree on the stage run from Memphis to Little
Rock.
"Game was the nicest thing the country afforded. I killed bear and other
wild game on sites where Marianna, Wynn, and Jonesboro now stand. Where
this house now is was a lake then. (West part of town on north side of
the railroad track.) They caught fish in it then.
"When I heard Benjamin Harrison had been elected President of the United
States, I asked Mr. George Lewis to write to him for me. I was working
for him then. I handled freight at the depot for him. He was dubious of
me knowing such a person but wrote it to please me. A few weeks a reply
come to our letter and a ticket.
"I got my fiddle and went and visited two weeks. I et at the same table
with the President. I slept in the White House. We et out of skillets
together when I was a little boy and drunk out of the same cups. Me and
him and Gummel raised up together. I played for the President and his
Cabinet.
"Twice more I went and it cost me nothing. I played for big balls. My
young master sent me my gold name plate. (It is heart shaped with his
name, birth and birthplace--ed.) I been wearing it on my watch chain a
long time. It is my charm. Mr. Lewis was so glad when I got my letter
and ticket. He was good to me.
"I have voted. I voted a Republican ticket because it hope the party out
that freed my race. Some white men told me they burnt up a lot of our
votes. I never seen it done. I can't see to fool with voting.
"The colored folks are seeing a worse time now than in slavery times.
There is two sides to it. The Bible say they get weaker and wiser. I did
read before I got blind. I get a Federal pension of one hundred dollars
a month. I'm thankful for it."
Interviewer's Comment
He has trouble talking. One lung is affected. He is deaf. He is blind.
He said he was wounded caused his lung trouble. Seems to me old age. He
isn't very feeble in the house. Their house was clean and he and his
wife, also born in slavery, looked clean.
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Laura Hart
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William Harris
