MSGenWeb Library Slave Narrative Project - Henry Walton

From the WPA Slave Narratives:
Henry Walton Age 84

Foreword: Henry Walton, eighty-four years old, born November 24, 1852, says:

"When I was three or four years old my mother was whipped to death by the mistress with a cowhide whip. We lived on the Widow Wagner's Place. The young Master was good to us, but his mother was mean and had the overseers beat us. My father was inherited by Mrs. Susan Walton who later married Mr. Wagner and we all moved to Mr. Wagner's Place near Pontotoc. Two or three years before the War old Master Wagner died and soon after his death, the old Mistress married Mr. Hugh Miller. When the War came on, Mr. Miller went to the Army as a Captain and carried my papa as his servant. Capt. Miller was wounded, and before he died he gave my papa to Captain Clark, who was some kind of a secretary at the Capital to the President, Mr. Davis. On the day of the surrender, my papa carried the news of the surrender to Captain Clark, who told him to shut up and not say anything about it as President Davis would have him shot.

"After the surrender, Mrs. Miller went to court and had me bound over to her until I was twenty-one. When Papa and Captain Clark came home from the War, though this court order was nullified and I was free. I came to Potts Camp July 17, 1896, and have lived here ever since. The Yankees tried to burn the house and did run off all the stock and take all the vitals, and we had nothing much to eat.

Interviewer: Mrs. J. A. Donaldson
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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Unknown worker photograph provided by L. Stephen Bell Photography, and family photo albums of Karen Schweikle, Lucy Gray and Jens Burkhart.