Slave Narratives: a Folk History of Slavery in the United States - From Interviews with Former Slaves - Ohio Narratives by Work Projects Administration
page 138 of 141 (97%)
page 138 of 141 (97%)
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Hunt's place and was owned by John Jefferson. Jefferson sold my father
after I was born but I do not know his last master's name. My father and mother were never married. They just had the permission of the two slave owners to live together and I became the property of my father's master, John Jefferson until I was sold. After the war my mother joined my father on his little farm and it was then I first learned he was my father. I was sold when I was 3 years old but I don't remember the name of the man that bought me. After the war my father got 100 acres and a team of mules to farm on shares, the master furnishing the food for the first year and at the end of the second year he had the privilege of buying the land at $1.00 per acre. When I was a boy I played with other slave children and sometimes with the master's children and what little education I have I got from them. No, I can't read or write but I can figure 'like the devil'. The plantation of John Jefferson was one of the biggest in the south, it had 2200 acres and he owned about 2000 slaves. I was too young to remember anything about the slave days although I do remember that I never saw a pair of shoes until I was old enough to work. My father was a cobbler and I used to have to whittle out shoe pegs for him and I had to walk sometimes six miles to get pine knots which we lit at night so my mother could see to work. |
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