From the WPA Slave
Narratives:
Cindy Anderson
CINDY ANDERSON, Charleston, is eighty-seven years old, an ex-slave who
formerly belonged to Hub Cain, Vaiden. Asked if she could remember events that
happened during the War between the States, she replied, "Yes, I'se a Reb time
nigger, but I can't remember nothin' bout de war cept that one time some mens
come by riding fine hosses; but they might not have been soldiers, I don't
know. My marster was Mr. Hub Cain, what lived close to Vaiden in Carroll
County. Ole Mr. Cain bought my father an' mother in North Carolina when dey
was little chillun, but after I was bawn he sold my father to a man named
Wright. It was nine years after Reb time befo' I ever seed my father ag'in.
'Bout all I remembers 'bout slave time was Miss Betsy Ann an' my mother
spinning wool or cotton an' makin' thread or cloth. Seems lak dats all dey
ever done. Miss Betsy Ann would weave an' my mother would spin thread, reel it
into hanks, then put it into shuttles; it took three shuttles full of thread
goin' at once to weave a piece of cloth, an' you worked the loom pedal with yo'
foot.
"When us niggers wanted to go somewheres on Sat'dy night or Sunday we had to
ask if we could go ot not. Then we'd git a writ piece of paper saying whose
place we could go to an' when to come back.
"I remember more about what happened when de slaves was freed dan anything
else; ole marster Cain was mad about it. He come stompin' aroun' cussin' an'
tol' us to git out. We didn' have nowheres to git to, but we had to go. We
didn' have nothin in de worl' but some homespun dresses Miss Betsy Ann had
made us. We went on a man's place by name of Mr. Causey, an' we moved in a
little chicken coop of a shed that didn' have no floo' but jes' a dirt floo'.
We had a mighty bad time. I don' see why they didn' let us alone cause us
niggers didn' know nothin' 'bout bein' free. I don' remember nothin' else; I
didn' try to recollect what took place dem days; I never thought I'd be asked
no such questions as dis, nohow."
Interviewer: Unknown
Transcribed by: Ann Allen Geoghegan
Mississippi Narratives
Prepared by
The Federal Writer’s Project of
The Works Progress Administration
For the State of Mississippi
