From the WPA Slave
Narratives:
Andrew Price
"I was one er Mr. Jerry Brown's niggers an' I was mar'ied right in Miss
Addie's backyard. Couldn't nobody 'cide which had the mos' niggers er the mos'
lan', Mr. Jerry Brown er Mr. Wade Hampton in Souf Ca'lina. But Mr. Jerry Brown
he had fifteen thousan' acres; it retch frum to six miles er Livingston to in
three miles er Gainesville an' hit was fo' miles across Sumter County,
Alabama. It 'cluded the Jack Tom place that Mr. Jerry Brown bought from Jack
Tom; he was er rich Injun chief. But where Mr. Jerry Brown lived hisself was
named the Lowden Plantation - I don't rightly know why. An' that's where I was
bornd. We dug Brown's Cut through Lime Hill but when the railroad come 'bout
eighty - well, 'bout eighty sumpen - they couldn't do nothin' 'bout it; they
had ter go roun' the hill; they couldn't go th'ough hit like we done with the
teams.
After the Surrender, my daddy went ter another farm ter work but we come back
home in two year an' I stayed there till I was eighteen an' then I runned off
frum my daddy an' come ter Mer-ree-dian an' worked on the section, made out
purdy well. My wife she come with me' we mar'ied in 1881. She had seben
chullen an' two uv um's still livin'. My fus wife died an' I mar'ied again an'
she had one child.
Mr. Jerry Brown he had er thousan' slaves but I don' know'm how I come ter be
name Price 'cep' Mr. Jerry Brown he had so many slaves he give um las' names
sorter in sections like he'd buy er man an' wife an' let um keep the name er
the man he bought um frum an' all they chullen an' gran' chullen ud keep the
same las' name.
I been er carpenter fer forty-three years. I been all over the State er
Mississippi buildin' steeples - an' pickin' cotton. I he'ped build the school
house in Hattiesburg an' the Baptist parsonage right here in Mer-ree-dian -
the wooden one what burned down long time ago - an' I he'ped build the
Masonic Temple buildin'; they used ter be a barroom on the corner, Mr.
Schuler-an'-Pool's barroom. I built the doom on the Russell house an' I went
plum ter Okolona to put a steeple on the church. Mighty few likes ter build
steeples. I rised frum the A.B.C's in the carpenter trade an' went ter the top
wages. You see this here scar on my chin an' my arm hit's kinder twisted? I
fell th'ough a roof fo' years ago an' pud-nigh broke my neck an' that keeps me
frum steady work now. Sometimes I covers a house though now.
You see them corn stalks an' them pole-beans? That's my garden; that's the
onliest way me an' my wife has to live now. The flowers in the front yard they
jes kinder takes care er theyse'fs but I haves ter cut the hedges ever week er
two. Looks puddy, though! The Buildin' an' Loan they 'bout ter take my house;
my daughter was payin' it out fer me - she lived in St. Louis - but she's dead
an' her husban' he mar'ied again. . . I'm kinder sick this mornin' an' I can't
have that picture took . . . Well'um, you jes gimme two bits an' hit'll be all
right. Thank yer ma'am!"
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
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"If you teach them where they come from, they won't need as much help finding where they are going!" Cordelia Carothers " Aunt Dee" Geoghegan (1894-1987)
Project Manager: Ann
Allen Geoghegan State Coordinator Assistant State Coordinators and
Transcriptionists: Ann Allen Geoghegan, Debbie Leftwich, and Rose Diamond and Linda Durr Rudd Banner designed by: Melissa McCoy-Bell Unknown worker photograph provided by L. Stephen Bell Photography, and family photo albums of Karen Schweikle, Lucy Gray and Jens Burkhart. Copyright © 2005-2008 by MSGenWeb Project. All rights reserved. |
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