From the WPA Slave Narratives:
Riley Moore - Age 85
Foreword: Height 5 feet 6 inches, weight 145 pounds,
color black, and general physical condition bad: financial condition also bad.
Dependent on small grant from the State Board of Public Welfare.
I was born in Webster county near
Cadaretta. My papa was Wes Spencer from Virginia and my Mammy was Susie Moore
from North Carolina. My brothers and sisters was Ameline, Catherene, and John
but they all dead now.
I sho' does 'member Marsa Bennett
Moore an' Missus Maliza. Their chillun's was both boys: Penn an' Monroe was
their names.
Marsa had five or six grown slave
men to my knowing besides de women an' chillun. He had a big plantation but I
was so small an' ignorant I just don't know how many acres they was.
De white folks had nice roomy log
houses to live in an' corded beds to sleep on but niggers lived in little
shoddy log cabins an' slept on whatever he could get. He had to come out O' dat
bed at 4:00 O'clock no matter what he was sleepin' on. Went to de field by
daylight an' stayed 'till after dark. A nigger had just started picking cotton
good at sun down. If he picked 400 pounds today he better pick 400
tomorrow.
We had home made shoes called Red
Rippers, half 'nuff lowells clothes to wear an' half 'nuff to eat. Didn't know
what Christmas day was. Niggers been run to death ever since they been in de
world. It's a pity to. They the best laboring class in de world an' gets less
out of it.
I's seen a lot O' slaves run
away. Ole Marsa had nigger dogs. He run one nigger from Cadaretta slap into
Memphis, swam de river an' believe me he got him. I was a boy like den but dey
waked me up lots o' mornins' with de overseer whippin' 'em an' them hollerin':
Oh! pray sir.
Once ole Marsa held up de fence
for me to put my head between de rails so he could whip me but 'stead o' just
puttin my head through, I shot through just like a mink. He yelled: You little
son-of-a-bitch. I run a quarter of a mile to where my mammy was washin' an' he
never did bother me no more.
Back in slavery days if de white
folks catch you with a book dey beat de skin off you. They didn't want you to
know nothin'.
Talkin' 'bout war. I's heard de
old cannons shootin' lots o' times. This ole world stayed smoky from guns
shootin'. They was bad times back in them days.
I's seen de patrollers lots o'
times. De floors was covered with foot plank an' de patrollers would slip to de
door an' listen. If they was a man in there the door had to be opened up. Most
times de niggers be to sharp fo' em---dey jerk up a plank of 'de floo' an get
away.
When Sunday come they would
preach fo' de white folks at 11:00 o'clock an to de niggers in de evenin'. They
would take a text tellin' us niggers --- Don't steal, be good to Marsa an'
Missus an' don't don't run away. Dey ought to have been hung fo' preachin'
false doctorin'. They was no such thing in the Bible. Now if somebody started
preachin' false doctorin' they would sho take him up.
My mammy found out somehow that
de war was over an' we sho' left dat place. My! dat was Hell-on-earth. Marsa
didn't give us nothin when we left. We was glad to get off free. My mammy come
down near Alva an' hired to a Mr. Sam Parker to cook fo' him. He sho' was a
good man an' we stayed with him for four years. By then I was old 'nuff to
begin workin out fo' my self. Since this time I's been livin' round farming in
de community first one place an' den de other.
My first wife was Letha Oliver an
our chillun was William, Wesley, Fannie an' Lynn. My second wife was Henrietta
Dunn an our chillun was Susie, Hannah, an' Lillie. One lives in Oklahoma, one
in Inverness an the others close 'round here. All farm. I lives in de house
with Charlie Brown, a distant relative, who lives near Sweatman.
De Government furnishes me with a
little to live on now. Haven't been able to work in the last five years. Had
pneumonia that got my health.
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
