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Reading Room:  SLAVERY  |
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CabinCreek-Kentucky
True Blue Farmgirl
8529 Posts
Frannie
Green County
Kentucky
USA
8529 Posts |
 Posted - May 19 2007 : 8:58:09 PM
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oh my gosh .. i got so many great books on 'slavery' while visiting tennessee, mississippi, arkansas and new orleans on our 'boat float' .. i think my favorite is actual interviews with former slaves in their olde age (interviewed in the 1930's as part of a WPA program.
i do so love to read!
True Friends, Frannie
CABIN CREEK FARM
KENTUCKY
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RachelLeigh
True Blue Farmgirl
635 Posts
Rachel
Rainier
WA
USA
635 Posts |
Posted - May 19 2007 : 10:03:34 PM
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This is a topic we're very passionate about. My husband is African-American and therefore a descendant of slaves. My father is researching his family tree right now and we're trying to see how far back we can take it. We have his family narrowed down to one of two slave owners in Marion County, KY so we just have to figure out WHO actually owned his ancestors. Then we're going to go locate the old farm/plantation and see what is still there. My father finds it highly important that my hubby's family tree be known as ours is...it's just harder for families who are descended from slaves.
check out my blog: http://catholiccountrygirl.wordpress.com |
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willowtreecreek
True Blue Farmgirl
4813 Posts
Julie
Russell
AR
USA
4813 Posts |
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KYgurlsrbest
True Blue Farmgirl
4853 Posts
Jonni
Elsmere
Kentucky
USA
4853 Posts |
Posted - May 25 2007 : 06:53:42 AM
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**Bump**
Rachael....I just read your post with great interest. Have you and your husband been to Cincinnati, to the Freedom Center? I think it would be VERY worth your while to visit their geneology department. Apparently they have historians and experts on hand everyday to assist you, and from what I understand, a lot of these searches cross so frequently that someone may have already found the "missing" bits of your husbands family tree. The museum is about slavery, and the african american experience since the reconstruction. It's HUGE, so I would dedicate a solid long weekend to take it all in, but I really think that you might have some luck here.
Here is the link: http://www.freedomcenter.org/
"In the spring, at the end of the day, you should smell like dirt." Margaret Atwood
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KYgurlsrbest
True Blue Farmgirl
4853 Posts
Jonni
Elsmere
Kentucky
USA
4853 Posts |
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sewgirlie
True Blue Farmgirl
1894 Posts
Sheryl-lyn
Calverton
NY
USA
1894 Posts |
Posted - Jun 02 2007 : 6:31:14 PM
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| Regarding the issue of slavery and tracing family history, the miniseries ROOTS is available again. It's the 30th anniversary of the show!! Can you believe it? I am showing parts of it to my students now. It will be a shame if this generation misses out on that. We discussed how hard it is for African-Americans to trace their roots because of slavery and how every black person we meet is somehow connected to slavery if they are here in America. That is just amazing to them. My black (they prefer to be called black) friends have done some family history and it is hard, but exciting once they start narrowing it down. |
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RachelLeigh
True Blue Farmgirl
635 Posts
Rachel
Rainier
WA
USA
635 Posts |
Posted - Jun 02 2007 : 7:41:09 PM
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My husband ran out and bought "Roots" as soon as it came out on DVD. His mother said that when he was little (he was born in 1971) he used to run around the house telling everyone his name was Kunta Kinte after he saw the miniseries. He doesn't remember that - LOL! He has said, in no uncertain terms, that our children will watch Roots so that they can understand. It's important to me that they understand their black heritage of ancestors being brought over from Africa and mistreated as well as their white heritage - poor folks from Germany and England coming here for a better life.
And thanks for the info on the Freedom Center. I realllly want to go there now! Between that and the Museum Center in Cincy, it would certainly have to be a long weekend. I bet we would find it very useful!
check out my blog: http://catholiccountrygirl.wordpress.com |
Edited by - RachelLeigh on Jun 02 2007 7:41:39 PM |
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CabinCreek-Kentucky
True Blue Farmgirl
8529 Posts
Frannie
Green County
Kentucky
USA
8529 Posts |
Posted - Jun 02 2007 : 10:05:51 PM
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i got several at a 'plantation' bookstore .. i'll bring them upstairs next time i come and give you the titles and author. xo
True Friends, Frannie
CABIN CREEK FARM
KENTUCKY
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CabinCreek-Kentucky
True Blue Farmgirl
8529 Posts
Frannie
Green County
Kentucky
USA
8529 Posts |
Posted - Jun 02 2007 : 10:07:55 PM
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Rachel .. did you know that my very own town of Greensburg, Kentucky has one of the best 'geneology' research centers in our own little library .. in the country .. so i am told. I believe this is because just about everyone who came through the 'cumberland gap' came through Green County (which was much larger back then).
True Friends, Frannie
CABIN CREEK FARM
KENTUCKY
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CabinCreek-Kentucky
True Blue Farmgirl
8529 Posts
Frannie
Green County
Kentucky
USA
8529 Posts |
Posted - Jun 02 2007 : 10:12:48 PM
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for that fact .. i was told that the area i live in was owned by a man named 'warren' (last name) and that he had slaves .. and that on his deathbed (before the civil war, i am told) he freed them.
i wanted to change the name of Cabin Creek Farm to FREEDOM VALLEY FARM .. but my husband liked Cabin Creek ... (when we first lived here there was an elderly couple that lived at the 'beginning' of our little road coming back to cabin creek (which is at the END of the road before the forest). her maiden name was Warren .. but i have not found out whether her ancestors took it from their owners .. but i'm thinking they probably did since Mr. Warren owned all this land years ago. (They were both in very poor health and died within a few weeks of each other about a year ago).
I actually wrote of the 'burning of their photos and letters' and possessions by the bank who their home defaulted to .. in one of my articles in Mercantile Gatherings magazine. I wanted to 'jump in the fire' to retrieve them .. but .. i would have ended up 'toast'.
True Friends, Frannie
CABIN CREEK FARM
KENTUCKY
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CabinCreek-Kentucky
True Blue Farmgirl
8529 Posts
Frannie
Green County
Kentucky
USA
8529 Posts |
Posted - Jun 03 2007 : 04:49:09 AM
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found some of those books/booklets ... i think i got all of these at Oak Alley Plantation in Baton Rouge .. their web-site addy is: www.OakAlleyPlantation.com
True Friends, Frannie
CABIN CREEK FARM
KENTUCKY
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CabinCreek-Kentucky
True Blue Farmgirl
8529 Posts
Frannie
Green County
Kentucky
USA
8529 Posts |
Posted - Jun 03 2007 : 04:53:56 AM
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This is just a little booklet entitled SLAVERY at Oak Alley Plantation .. it is a list of the slaves at Oak Alley fropm Records Taken From Inventory of J.T. Roman's Estate - April 1848 at St. James Parish Courthouse.
It lists the names, ages, and 'definition' .. and their 'estimated worth'.
The categories are HOUSE SLAVES (of which their were 20 including children)
and FIELD SLAVES (93 including children)
The slaves were given the following definitions at Oak Alley:
Africa Negro/Negress - Born in Africa (Old World).
American Negro/Negress - Born in America (New World).
Creole Negro/Negress - Born in the West Indies (New World) of African (Old World) parents.
Mulatto - From the Spanish and Portuguese word Mulato, meaning mixed breed. Child of Negro and Caucasian parents. Mulattress refers to a female of mixed heritage.
It is AMAZING sometimes to read 'history' from today's viewpoints!!!!
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True Friends, Frannie
CABIN CREEK FARM
KENTUCKY
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CabinCreek-Kentucky
True Blue Farmgirl
8529 Posts
Frannie
Green County
Kentucky
USA
8529 Posts |
Posted - Jun 03 2007 : 04:57:49 AM
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Some of the wonderful names listed for the Oak Alley Plantation Slaves:
Deterville
Meanna
Fogon
Rosine
Martine
Hyacinthe
Leandre
Avril
Paris
Pret-a-boire (ready-to)drink)
Mandrin
Do
Mohamet
Mercury
Argus
Gognon
Bacchus
Lovelace
Prince
Ellick
Lazarre
Adonis
Codjo
Onufre
Tobi
Adeline
Froisine
Felonise
Thalie
Cesar
Zephyrin
Cybelle
Kitty
Bertheline
Servilie
Augustine
Desire
(of course, being from Louisiana ..many names had a 'french' twist.
Some of the more common names we are more familiar with today are:
Simon
Anna
Rose
Mary
Therese
Jack
Toni
John
Isaac
Cary
William
Madison
Anthony
Daniel
Billy
Joe
Louis
Joseph
Albert
No last names are listed.
True Friends, Frannie
CABIN CREEK FARM
KENTUCKY
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CabinCreek-Kentucky
True Blue Farmgirl
8529 Posts
Frannie
Green County
Kentucky
USA
8529 Posts |
Posted - Jun 03 2007 : 05:00:55 AM
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Another book from Oak Alley: BEFORE FREEDOM .. WHEN I JUST CAN REMEMBER .. edited by Belinda Hurmence
During the 1930's, the Federal Writers' Project undertook the task of locating former slaves and recording their oral histories. The more than ten thousand pages of interviews with over two thousand former slaves were filed int he Library of Congres, where they were known to scholars and historians but few others.
Twenty-seven narratives of 284 former South Carolina slaves were chosen for this book.
The result is a moving, eloquent, and often surprising firsthand account of the last years of slavery and first years of freedonm. The former slaves describe the clothes they wore, the food they ate, the houses they lived in, the work they did, and the treatment they received. They give their impressions of the Yankee soldiers, the Klan, their masters, and their newfound freedom.
True Friends, Frannie
CABIN CREEK FARM
KENTUCKY
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CabinCreek-Kentucky
True Blue Farmgirl
8529 Posts
Frannie
Green County
Kentucky
USA
8529 Posts |
Posted - Jun 03 2007 : 05:13:28 AM
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By the way, it was interesting to me to note that the interviews chosen for this particular book .. )and remember these were elderly people at the time of their interview and the era was the 1930's -- ight after the Big Depression) .. well, i was extremely surprized to read that some of the slaves remembered their years in bondage in a gentle way .. but i realize it was a different and often diffcult time for everyone .. and especially for a lifestyle of new freedom after such a long time in bondage.
BUT MOST CERTAINLY NOT ALL RMEMBERANCES WERE 'GENTLE'!!!!!
a few quotes that show these viewpoints:
Hester Hunter .. 85 years old. "Oh, the people, they is awful worser than what they used to be. I know by my coming on that they awful worser. The little tots about here these days know things the older people used to be the only ones that know about. I does worry about it so much. Sometimes, child, I goes along just a-whistling. "Lord, I wish I had went before I had so much to grieve over."
Jake McLeod - age 83. "The McLeods, they was good people. Believe in plenty work, eat and wear all the time, but work us very reasonable. The overseer, he blow horn for us to go to work at sunrise. Give us task to do, and if you didn't do it, they put the little things to you. That was a leather lash or some kind of a whip. Didn't have no whipping post in our neighborhood.
AMAZING that 'putting a leather lash' can be uttered in the same paragraph as "they was good people". I guess they had seen and heard of horrors greater than this.
A atheme heard over and over is the fear of being caught by the 'patrollers' if they were caught off the plantation without permission.
True Friends, Frannie
CABIN CREEK FARM
KENTUCKY
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CabinCreek-Kentucky
True Blue Farmgirl
8529 Posts
Frannie
Green County
Kentucky
USA
8529 Posts |
Posted - Jun 03 2007 : 05:15:36 AM
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Adeline Jackson .. age 88. "I was much happier them days than now. Maybe it won't be so bad when I gets my old age pension."
GOOD GRIEF .. SHE IS ALREADY 88!!! WHEN was she due her 'old age' pension?
True Friends, Frannie
CABIN CREEK FARM
KENTUCKY
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CabinCreek-Kentucky
True Blue Farmgirl
8529 Posts
Frannie
Green County
Kentucky
USA
8529 Posts |
Posted - Jun 03 2007 : 05:18:13 AM
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Adele Frost .. age 93. "Funersls was at night, and when ready to go to the graveyard, everybody would light a lightwood knot as torch while everybody sing. This is one of the songs we used to sing:
Going to carry this body
To the graveyard,
Graveyard, don't you know me?
To lay this body down.
The Yankees take three nights to march through. I was afraid of them and climbed into a tree. One call me down and say, "I am your firiend." He give me a piece of money and I wasn't afraid no more.
After the way, I still work as a maid for Mr. Mitchell."
True Friends, Frannie
CABIN CREEK FARM
KENTUCKY
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CabinCreek-Kentucky
True Blue Farmgirl
8529 Posts
Frannie
Green County
Kentucky
USA
8529 Posts |
Posted - Jun 03 2007 : 05:21:54 AM
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I was also very surprized to read that almost every former slave, still .. more than 60 years later .. still referred to themselves and their people with the "N" word that is totally unacceptable today.
How many of us who live on farms today must have had their earth tilled by the sweat and blood of these amazing humans!
True Friends, Frannie
CABIN CREEK FARM
KENTUCKY
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CabinCreek-Kentucky
True Blue Farmgirl
8529 Posts
Frannie
Green County
Kentucky
USA
8529 Posts |
Posted - Jun 03 2007 : 05:27:00 AM
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Milton Marshall .. age 82. (Milton also refers to his people with the "N" word .. but i will just change it to 'we').
"(We) didn't have a chuch on the plantation but was made to go to the white folks' church and set in back of the church. They had to get a pass to go to church same as any other place, or the patrollers would catch 'em and beat 'em.
After the war was over, (we) built brush arobr for to hold meetings in. I sure remember the old brush arbor and the glorious times then, and how (we) used to sing and pray and shout. I am a Baptist and we baptized in the creek after we dammed it up to hold water deep enough. I remember one old Baptist song, it went:
Down to the water I be baptized,
for my Svior die;
Down to the water,
the River of Jordan,
Where my Savior baptized.
I never did think slavery was right. I was just a chap then and never thought much about it till long since it was over.
True Friends, Frannie
CABIN CREEK FARM
KENTUCKY
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CabinCreek-Kentucky
True Blue Farmgirl
8529 Posts
Frannie
Green County
Kentucky
USA
8529 Posts |
Posted - Jun 03 2007 : 05:30:15 AM
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Amy Perry = age 82. "The first year after Freedom, I gone to school on Mr. John Townsend place, down to Rockville. After peace declared, the colored people lived on cornmeal mush and salt water int he week, and mush and vinegar for Sunday. Mind you, that for Sunday! I don't see how we live, yet we is."
True Friends, Frannie
CABIN CREEK FARM
KENTUCKY
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CabinCreek-Kentucky
True Blue Farmgirl
8529 Posts
Frannie
Green County
Kentucky
USA
8529 Posts |
Posted - Jun 03 2007 : 05:32:40 AM
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"Some people say they can see ghost, but you can't see ghost and live. I don't believe in 'um, no ghost, and no conjure, though my Uncle Cotton Judson and my Aunt Massie both believe in them. Uncle Cotton could do most as much as the devil he-self; he could most fly, but I never believe in 'um, no matter what he can do.
As long as old people live, they going to tell the young ones about ghost and thing. They going to pass it on. And wheey they die, they going to leave that foolishness right here."
(I especially loved this passage.)
True Friends, Frannie
CABIN CREEK FARM
KENTUCKY
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CabinCreek-Kentucky
True Blue Farmgirl
8529 Posts
Frannie
Green County
Kentucky
USA
8529 Posts |
Posted - Jun 03 2007 : 05:35:21 AM
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"I don't remember Freedom, but I know when we signed the contract, the Yankees give us to understnd that we was free as our marster was. Couldn't write, just had to touch the pen. Ask us what name we wanted to go in."
True Friends, Frannie
CABIN CREEK FARM
KENTUCKY
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CabinCreek-Kentucky
True Blue Farmgirl
8529 Posts
Frannie
Green County
Kentucky
USA
8529 Posts |
Posted - Jun 03 2007 : 05:42:31 AM
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Violet Guntharpe . age 82. "Honey, us wasn't ready for the big change that come. Us had no education, no land, no mule, no cow, not a pig, not a chicken, to set up housekeeping. The birds had nests in the air, the foxes had holes in the ground, and the fishes had beds under the great falls, but us colored folks was left without any place to lay our heads.
The Yankees sure throwed us in the briar patch, but us not bred and born there like the rabbit. Us born in a good log house. The cows was down there in the canebreakes to give us milk; the hogs was fattening on hickory nuts, acorns, and shucked corn to give us meat and grease; the sheep with their wool and the cottonin the gin house was there to give us clothes. The horses and mules was there to help that corn and cotton, but when them Yankees come and take all that away, alal us had to thank athem for, was a hungry bell and Freedom. Something us had not more use for then, than I have today for one of them airplanes I hears flying around the sky, right now.
(WOULDN'T IT BE SO AMAZING TO 'TIME TRAVEL' .. BOTH TO THE PAST AND THE FUTURE. I WONDER HOW EACH GENERATION WOULD 'SEE' THE TIMES THEY DID NOT EXPERIENCE LIVING IN).
True Friends, Frannie
CABIN CREEK FARM
KENTUCKY
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CabinCreek-Kentucky
True Blue Farmgirl
8529 Posts
Frannie
Green County
Kentucky
USA
8529 Posts |
Posted - Jun 03 2007 : 05:44:48 AM
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I know that 'horror stories' were written about these times too .. and they are touched upon in this book from time to time .. they weave in and out. It is the 'mindset' that we all have at any given era .. and our prejudices in the times in which we live .. and our own personal beliefs that mold the stories we leave for future generations.
I would love to have the time to visit the Library of Congress and read each and every story told by each and every person.
True Friends, Frannie
CABIN CREEK FARM
KENTUCKY
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CabinCreek-Kentucky
True Blue Farmgirl
8529 Posts
Frannie
Green County
Kentucky
USA
8529 Posts |
Posted - Jun 03 2007 : 05:46:34 AM
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Another book i got was: PLANTATION ROW .. SLAVE CABIN COOKING .. THE ROOTS OF SOUL FOOD .. by Patricia B. Mitchell (she wrote several of these small 'pamphlets').
i love the quote on the back page: "The one in chains will soon be set free, and will not die ... nor will his bread be lacking ..." Isaiah 51:14.
True Friends, Frannie
CABIN CREEK FARM
KENTUCKY
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CabinCreek-Kentucky
True Blue Farmgirl
8529 Posts
Frannie
Green County
Kentucky
USA
8529 Posts |
Posted - Jun 03 2007 : 05:48:40 AM
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from the above book: BREAD PUDDING (one of my favorites!!)
"Scaled 2 cups stale bread crumbs with 1 quart milk. Cool. Add 1/3 cup sugar, 2 slightly beaten eggs, 1/2 teaspoon salt, 1/4 cup melted butter and 1 teaspoon vanilla. Turn into a buttered baking dish and bake in a slow oven until thick and delicately browned."
True Friends, Frannie
CABIN CREEK FARM
KENTUCKY
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Reading Room: SLAVERY |
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SLAVERY
