Slave Narratives: A Folk History of Slavery in the United States from Interviews with Former Slaves, Volume XI, North Carolina Narratives, Part 2United States. Work Projects Administration
History
Slave Narratives: A Folk History of Slavery in the United States from Interviews with Former Slaves, Volume XI, North Carolina Narratives, Part 2
United States. Work Projects Administration
African Americans -- North Carolina -- Biography; Enslaved persons -- North Carolina -- Biography; Enslaved persons -- North Carolina -- Social conditions; North Carolina -- History -- 1775-1865 -- Biography; Slave narratives -- North Carolina; Slavery -- North Carolina
"I don' exac'ly know how ole I is, but dey say I mus' be eighty. No
mam, I ain' got nothin' in no fam'ly Bible. Where'd I git a fam'ly
Bible? My mammy (with a chuckle) had too many chillun to look after to
be puttin' 'em down in no Bible, she did'n have time, an' she did'n
have no learnin' nohow. But I reckon I is eighty because I 'members so
much I's jes' about forgotten it all.
"My folks belonged to Colonel Taylor. He an' Mis' Kitty lived in that
big place on Market Street where the soldiers lives now, (The W.L.I.
Armory) but we was on the plantation across the river mos' of the time.
"Of co'se I was born in slavery, but I don' remember nothin' much
excep' feedin' chickens. An' up on Market Street Mis' Kitty had
chickens an' things, an' a cow. The house had more lan' around it than
it got now. I do remember when they thought eve'ybody 'roun' here was
goin' to die an' I got skeered. No'm t'want no war it was the yaller
fever. We was kept on the plantation but we knowed folks jes died an'
died an' died. We thought t'would'nt be nobody left. I don't remember
nothin' about Lincoln travelin' aroun'. I always heard he was President
of the Lunited States, an' lived in Washington, an' gave us freedom,
an' got shot. Of co'se I knows all about Booker Washington, a lot of
our folks went to his school, an' he been here in Wilmington. I'd know
a lot about slave times only I was so little. I have heard my mammy say
she had a heap easier time in slavery than after she was turn' loose
with a pa'cel of chilluns to feed. I married as soon as I could an'
that's how I got this house. But I can't work, an' I disremembers so
much. The Welfare gives me regerlar pay, an' now an' then my friends
give me a nickel or a dime.
"I lives alone now, until I can git a decent 'ooman to live with me. I
tells you Missus these womens an' young girls today are sumpin else.
After you had 'em aroun' awhile you wish you never knowed 'em.
"Sometimes when I jes sets alone an rocks I wonder if my mammy didn't
have it lots easier than I does."
N.C. District: Asheville
Worker: Marjorie Jones
No. Words: 2,300
Subject: Interview with Fannie Moore, Ex-slave.
Story teller: Fannie Moore
Editor: Marjorie Jones
Date: September 27, 1937
[TR: Cover page is in a format labeled "STATE EDITORIAL IDENTIFICATION
FORM".]
[Illustration: Fannie Moore]
Interviewer: Marjorie Jones,
Date: Sept. 21, 1937.
Interview With: Fannie Moore, Ex-slave,
151 Valley Street,
Asheville, N.C.
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