Knight, Emma
924 North Street
Hannibal, Missouri
Marion County, Missouri
Emma Knight, living at 924 North Street, Hannibal, Missouri, was born in slavery on the farm of Will and Emily Ely, near Florida, Monroe County. The following is her story as she told it:
"We lived on a Creek near Florida. We belonged to Will Ely. He had only five slaves, my father and mother and three of us girls. I was only eight or nine years old. The Ely's had eight children. There was Paula, Ann, Sarah, Becky, Emily, Lizzie, Will, Ike, and Frank. Lizzie was the oldest girl and I was to belong to her when she was married.
"The master of the house was better to us than his mistress. We didn't have to work very hard, because we was so young, I guess. We cut weeds along the fences, pulled weeds in the garden and helped the mistress with the hoeing. We had to feed the stock, sheep, hogs, and calves, because the young masters wouldn't do the work. In the evening we were made to knit a finger width and if we missed a stitch we would have to pull all the yarn out and do it over. The master's girls taught us to read and write. We didn't have hardly any clothes and most of the time they was just rags. We went barefoot until to got real cold. Our feet would crack open from the cold and bleed. We would sit down and bawl and cry because it hurt so. Mother made moccasins for our feet from old pants. Late in the fall master would go to Hannibal or Palmyra and bring us shoes and clothes. We got those things only once a year.
I had to wear the young master's overalls for underwear and linseys for a dress.
"My father was taken away. My mother said he was put up on a block and sold because master wanted money to buy something the the house. My mother told me she came from Virginia or down south some place. They brought her in a box car with lots of other colored people. There were several cars full, with men in one car, women in another, and the younger ones in another, and the babies in another with some of the women to care for them. they brought them to Palmyra and sold them. Master Ely bought my mothers. I don't know where my father came from.
"Mistress always told us that if we run away somebody would catch us and kill us. We were always scared when somebody strange came. The first we knew there was war was when some soldiers come through. We were sure scared then. Once a man came and we thought he was a patroller but he asked for something to eat. Mother took him to the mistress. She gave him something to eat wrapped in a paper and told him to get off the place.
"Some Union soldiers came and told us that we were free like they were and told us not to be afraid, they wouldn't hurt us. They told us the war was over.
"The master told mother not to go away, that if she stayed a while he would give her a couple hundred dollars. We stayed a while but never got any money.
"We came to Hannibal in an ox wagon. We put up at the barracks and then mother went to live with Hiram Titchner. He lived right where the post office is now. I hired out to Mrs. James across the street for my clothes and schooling. Mrs. James had two girls. One girl taught me not to be such a tomboy and not to be so rough. I tell you I was a bad girl when I was young. I could climb every tree on master's farm and my clothes was always in rags from being so rough. My mother used to whip me most every day with a broom stick and even hit me with chairs. I guess I was bad. If I had a dollar for every broom handle that was laid across my back I would have lots of money. i tell you we was raised tough them days.
"The young folks can't stand such raising these days. They couldn't go through what we went through. The young folks now just couldn't do it at all. We never were allowed on the street after nine o'clock. We sure run for home when the church bell rang on the hill at nine o'clock. Now-a-days the young folks stay out half the night and they steal and even kill each other over little things. I know it because I see them do those things. I 'spose their parents are a lot to blame.
"I was married when I was young, less then twenty I guess. I had one girl, but she is dead now. Her boy lives with me. I get a pension, seven dollars a month, for about a year now. This little old check belongs to me. I go to the Baptist Church over on Center Street when ever I can. We used to go to church over on the corner across from the post office. There is a big store there now."
Black, William 919 South Arch Street Hannibal, Missouri Marion County, Missouri William Black of 919 South Arch Street, Hannibal, Missouri, is one of the few
ex-slaves living in Marion County. He is now about eighty-five years old, and has
lived his entire life in Marion, Monroe, and Ralls Counties.
The following story is related by William Black:
"My mother and father came from Virginia. I don't know how old I am, but I have had one birthday and the rest aniversities. I think I am about eighty-five years old. I was born in slavery and when I was eight years old was bonded out to Mr. Sam Briggs of New London. Mr. Briggs was a good master and I had little to do. My duty was to take his children to school and go after them in the evening. In the mean time I just piddled around in de fields.
"In the evening when the work was all done we would sit around and play marbles and sing songs. We made our songs up as we went along. Sometimes there would be a corn shucking and that is when we had a good time, but we always shucked a lot of that corn.
"I did not go to school any and today I do not even have the sense of writing at all. Unless someone guides my hand I cannot make a mark. I wish I wasn't so old now so I could go to school and learn how to read and write.
"I remember one day when the master was gone, we darkies thought we would have a party. I guess the master knew we were going to have one, because that night, when we was all having a good time, my sister said to me, 'Bill, over there is old master Sam.' He had dressed up to look like us and see what we was up to. Master Sam didn't do anything to us that time because he had too good a time his-self.
"At the age of thirteen my sister was bonded out to some man who was awful mean, she was a bad girl too. After we were freed she told me all about her old master. She said., 'One Christmas my master was drunk and I went to wish him a merry Christmas and get some candy. He hit at me and I ducked and run around the house so fast that I burnt the grass around the house and I know that there ain't any grass growing there yet.'
"When we was freed our master did not give us anything, but some clothes and five dollars. He told us we could stay if we wanted to, but we was so glad to be free that we all left him. He was a good man though.
"Durin' de war we could not leave our master's house to go to the neighbors without a pass. If we didn't have a pass the paddyrollers would get us and kill us or take us away.
"After we was given our freedom we could vote, but some of us never did. To this day I have never voted. The government has been as good to us as they could. I get ten dollars a month and I think I should have more, but I know they are giving us all they can and some day they will give us ex-slaves more.
"I am glad that we have our churches and schools. We don't have any business being with the good white people. They are cultured and we are not, but some day we will be as good and they will be glad to have us around them more. Just because we are black is no sign that we aren't good niggers. "I don't like the way the younger generation is doin'. As my neighbors say, 'the devil is getting them and it won't be long before he will come and get them all.' When I was young we didn't act like they do now-a-days. We didn't get drunk and stay that way and kill each other. The good Lord is going to do something to all of them. Mark my word.
"I can't remember some of the songs we sung, but when we were freed we sang 'Master's Body is Moulding in the Gravel, and I know some of them are."
William Black lives by himself in a house owned by his daughter. He is unable to do any kind of manual labor and has not done any kind of work for about five years. He states that he is active in all religious affairs and attends church regularly. He is one of the few persons living in Marion County who raises tobacco. His garden plot, five feet by ten feet, is close to his house.
Mundy, Lewis
West Center Street
Hannibal, Missouri
Marion County, Missouri
Lewis Mundy, now living on West Center Street, Hannibal, Missouri, was born in slavery on the farm of John Wright, five miles north of La Belle, Lewis County, Missouri. He has lived there for over thirty years, and has a wide acquaintance among both white and colored people. The following is his story of his life:
"Mr. Wright had eleven slaves, my mother and ten of us children. Mr. Wright had eight children. My father was owned by Billy Graves, whose farm was joined to master's farm. I don't know where he came from, but mother was brought here by the Wrights from Virginia.
"Our master and mistress was good to us, but of course my mother had to whip me often. She used a whip made from twisted buckbrush twigs.
"I worked in the fields mostly. When I was small I rode one of the oxen and harrowed the fields. When I was about ten or eleven I plowed with oxen. I've plowed many times with a moldboard plow with an iron share on it.
"We never wanted for clothes very bad. We wore long shirts that reached to the knees until we was twelve or fourteen years old. Them wool sh4rts was warm. We had one pair of shoes a year. Many times I went after the cows barefoot when there was over a foot of snow on the ground. It didn't seem to hurt me. I was toughened to it.
"After we were freed mother stayed with master for about a year, then she moved over toward Newark and worked out till she got straightened out so she could keep house for herself. I stayed there for a while longer until I got work on a farm at fifty cents a day. After a while they paid me seventy-five cents a day. We didn't get anything from our master after the war. I remember the Bowans, though, give their slaves eighty acres of land.
"I remember there was a Ku Klux Klan in the county, but they never bothered me. I tended to my own business and never bothered nobody. I never was arrested in my life. 1 never give the policemen any trouble.
"I got married when I was about twenty and settled in Jetto in Knox County and worked on a farm. We had two children. One of them died years ago, and I am living here with my other daughter. After a while we moved to Palmyra. I worked around on farms until 1903, then we moved here to Hannibal. I worked in the Burlington Shops for seventeen years, till they told me I was too old to work anymore. I am now getting a pension now for over a year. It helps a lot.
"I have voted ever since I was old enough. They used to tell me how to vote. I always belonged to the Baptist Church and belong to the Helping Hand Baptist now. My mistress belonged to the old time Christian Church and I used to drive her to church with a bay mare she had.
"We used to sing, 'I Am Bound For The Promised Land', and 'Heart (Hark) From The Tombs Mournful Sound'. My mother used to sing, 'You All Ought To Have Been There' 'Roll Jordan, Roll', and 'Do, Lord, Do Remember
Me'. They don't sing them old songs anymore."Mankind! The young folks now days ain't like we used to be. Why, in Monticello they used to have a log jail, but now they got one made of stone and iron. They just can't hold 'em no more. I guess it's right that this world is growing weaker and wiser. But the young folks have a better chance. Look at the big fine schools they have now, they ought to get along better."