To Be A Slave (1971) | Ruby Dee & Ossie Davis

to be a slave the African slave trade was already over her in years old when the Dutch ship landed 20 Africans at the Jamestown Colony in 1619 18 years after these first Africans came to the Jamestown Colony the first American built slave ship sailed from Marblehead Massachusetts its name was the desire the slave ship sailed to the west coast of Africa and there are the captains of the slave vessels what about their job of loading these ships with blocks to bring to America granny Judith said that in Africa they had very few pretty things and

that they had no red colors in cloth in fact they had no cloth at all some strangers with pale faces came one day and dropped a small piece of red flannel down on the ground all the black folks grabbed for it then a larger piece was dropped a little further on and on until the river was reached then a large piece was dropped in the river and on the other side they was led on each one trying to get a piece of it as it was dropped finally when the ship was reached they dropped large

pieces on the plank and up into the ship till they got as many blacks on board as they wanted then the gate was chained up and they could not get back that is the way granny Judith said they got her to America generally the slave trade was carried out in one of three ways the first and easiest was something to lie and wait until somebody came by and then capture him this method soon gave way to an alliance between white slave traders and black African tribal chiefs the African chief would make war on another tribe

for the purpose of capturing as many people as possible he would turn them over to the white slave traders and exchange for various items the chief wanted tobacco guns ammunition liquor this arrangement evolved into a more complicated one in which one African chief would align with another chief I would agree to sell some of his own tribesmen or others he had captured in a bottle he would be paid in goods for these soon to be slaves by the first African chief who in turn would sell them to a white slave trader Charles ball a slave

Don the early 19th century came into contact with many Africans who've been brought to America his own grandfather had come from Africa and as a child ball had heard many stories about Africa from him in his autobiography he recorded the story of one slave who was brought from Africa to America we were alarmed one morning just at the break of day by the horrible upper off caused by mingled shouts of men and blows given with heavy sticks upon large wooden drums the village was surrounded by enemies who attacked us with clubs long wooden Spears and

bows and arrows after fighting for more than an hour those who were not fortunate enough to run away were made prisoners it was not the object of our enemies to kill they wish to take us alive and sell us as slaves I was knocked down by a heavy blow of a club and when I recovered from the stupa that followed I found myself tied fast with the long rope I had brought from the desert once on board the ship the slaves were taken below the deck and chained together and what was called the slave galley

it was here that they were kept throughout the long voyage from Africa to America and it was here that millions died in the conditions on board the ship he the ship's doctor made the most of the room in which the men they had not so much room as a man in his coffin either in length or breadth it was impossible for them to turn or shift with any degree of ease he had often occasion to go from one side of their room to the other in which case he always took off his shoes but could

not avoid pinching them he has the marks on his feet with a bit and scratched him in every voyage when the ship was full they complained of heat and want of air confinement in this situation was so injuries that he has known them to go down apparently in good health at night and found dead in the morning on his last voyage he opened a stout man who so died she found the contents of the thorax and abdomen healthy and therefore concludes he died of suffocation in the night at the time we came into this ship

she was full of black people who were all confined in a dark and low place in irons the women were in irons as well as the men when they put us in irons to be sent to our place of confinement in the ship the men who fastened the irons on these mothers took the children out of their hands and threw them over the side of the ship into the water when this was done two of the women leaped overboard after the children the third was already confined by a chain to another woman and could not

get into the water but in struggle to disengage herself she broke her arm and died a few days after of a fever one of the two women who were in the river was carried down by the weight of her irons before she could be rescued but the other was taken up by some men in a boat and brought on board this woman threw herself overboard one night when we were at sea the weather was very hot whilst we lay in the river and many of us died every day but the number brought onboard greatly exceeded

those who died and at the end of two weeks the place in which we were confined was so full that no one could lie down and we were obliged to sit all the time for the room was not high enough for us to stand when our prison could hold no more the ship sailed down the river we had nothing to eat but yams which were thrown amongst us at random and of these we had scarcely enough to support life more than one-third of us died on the passage and when we arrived at Charleston I was

not able to stand it was more than a week after I left the ship before I could straighten my limbs I was bought by a trader with several others brought up the country and sold to my present master I have been here five years it is estimated that some 50 million people were taken from the continent during the years of the slave trade these 50 millions were of course the youngest the strongest those most capable of bringing great profit first to the slave trader and later to the slave owner slavery differed from country to country

but it was in the United States the system of slavery evolved that was more cruel in total than almost any other system of slavery devised by one group of men against another no other country where blacks were enslaved destroyed African culture to the extent that was destroyed here today that still exists in South America and the Caribbean islands African religions music and language which came over on the slave ships only fragments of Africa remain among the blacks of the United States to be enslaved to be owned by another person as a car house our table

is owned to live as a piece of property that could be sold a child's soul from its mother a wife from her husband to be considered not human but a thing that plowed the fields cut the wood cooked the food nursed another's child a thing whose sole function was determined by the one who owned you to be a slave to know despite the suffering and deprivation that you were human more human that he even said you were not human to no joy laughter sorrow and tears and yet to be considered only the equal of a

table to be a slave was to be a human being under conditions in which that humanity was denied they were not slaves there were people their condition was slavery they who were held as slaves looked upon themselves and the servitude in which they found themselves with the eyes and minds of human beings conscious of everything that happened to them conscious of all that went on around them yet slaves are often pictured as little more than dumb brute animals whose sole attributes were found and working singing and dancing they were like children and slavery was actually

a benefit to them this was the view of those who were not slaves those who were slaves different story now that slavery is over I don't want to be in there another slavery and it ever near another come up I wouldn't stay here one day I saw the phone the slapping for drinking at the dipper too long the picked up a shovel and slam him in the head and run back in slavery days they didn't do something and run they run before they did it because they knew that if they struck a white man there

wasn't gonna be a I wants to see him master again anyways I reckon maybe I'll just go up and ask him what he wants me to do and he'll tell me and if I don't know how he'll show me how and I try and do it to please it and when I get it done I want to hear him like he used it and say Charlie you ain't got no sense but you was a good boy this here ain't very good but it'll do I reckon get yourself a little piece of that brown sugar but

don't let no see you eating it if you do I'll whip your black behind that ain't the way it's gonna be in heaven by ring but I can't sit here and think of no way I'd better like to have it they whooped my father because he looked at a slave they killed and cried my master used to throw me in a buck and whip me he would put my hands together in time then he'd stripped me naked then would make me squat down then he would run a stick through behind my knees and in front

of my elbows my knees was up against my chest my hands was tied together just in front of my shins the stick between my arms and my knees held me in a squat that's what they call a buck you couldn't stand up and you couldn't get your feet out you couldn't do nothing but just squat then take what he put on you you couldn't move no edge oh just try to you just fall over on one side and have to stay there did you were turned over by him he would whip me on one side

the light was so unfulfilling I got a scar big as a place my old mistress hit me she took a bullwhip once bullwhip had a piece of iron in the handle of it and she got mad she was so mad she took the whoop and hit me over the head with the butt end of it and the blood flew they ran all down my back and did golf my heels I don't know how old I was when I found myself standing on the top and part of a high stump a lot of white folks walking

around looking at that little scared boy that wasn't me slave owners generally sold as slaves for several reasons quite often the slave owner would find himself in debt for personal or business reasons and to free himself from that he would sell some of his face sometimes the slave owner had an unmanageable slave on his plantation that is one who would fight back or run away these were not few and they were either killed or sold if they didn't escape first some slave owners were in the business of breeding slaves to be sold this was particularly

true in the state of Virginia an acknowledged slave reading the state even plantations were slave breeding was not the sole purpose for the plantations existence slave owners preferred women who could bear many children these children became his workforce for the next generation for the slaves selling was an occasion of deep sorrow particularly for a mother who then to stand by helpless as her children were carried away to an unknown place sometimes a mother would seek to cheat the auction my mother told me that he owned a woman who was the mother of seven children and

when our babies would get about a year or two of age he'd sell them and it would break our heart she never thought to keep him what our fourth baby was born was about two months old she just studied all the time about how she would have to give it up and one day she said I just decided I'm not gonna let old master sell this baby he just ain't gonna do it she got up and give it something out of a bottle and pretty soon it was dead I said to him for god sakes

have you bought my wife he said he had when I asked him what she had done he said she hadn't done nothing but that our master wanted money he drew out a pistol and said that if I went near that wagon on which she was he was shooting it I asked for leave to shake hands with it which he refused but said I might stand at a distance and talk with it my heart was so full that I could say very little I've never seen I heard from her from that day to this I loved

her as I loved my life never knew who masa done sold I remember one more nor white man rode up in a buggy and stopped by a gal named Lucy but was working in the yard he said come on get in his buggy I bought you this morning and she begged him to let her go tell her baby and her husband goodbye but he said no getting this buggy ain't got no time for crying and carrying on I started crying myself but I was so scared he was gonna take me to but a land whose

child it was went to Marx and told him he was a mean dirty trader Oh Massa was Sol but he never said nothing man says it then Henley what was next to the youngest of her seven children got sick and died and she seemed so much she went straight up to omars and shouted in his face praise God praise God my little child's gone to Jesus that's one child of mine you never gonna sell occasionally a slave owner would try to be gentle with a child before purchasing the child a few would attempt to make

friends that persuade the child to come with them this kind of concern however never alleviated the Charles pain of being separated from its family major Ellison bought me and carried me in a Mississippi I didn't want to go they examine you just like they do a horse they look at your teeth and pull your eyelids back and look at your eyes and and feel you just like you as a horse he's a merman said where's your mother I said I don't know where my mother is but I know her he said would you know your

mother if you saw I said yes I would know I I don't know where she is but I would know I they had done so Levin he said do you want us to buy you I said no I don't want you to buy me I want to stay here you think we'll be nice to you and give you plenty to eat I said no you won't have much to eat what do you have deep he said lots of peas and cottonseed and things like that but I said no I'd rather stay here cuz I get

plenty of pot lickin bread and butter milk and I don't want to go I got plenty I didn't know that that was not Steve he said well I have married your mistress and she wants me to buy you but I still said I don't want to go they had done sold my mother to mr. Armstrong Lynn so he kept talking to me and he said don't you want to see your sister I said yes but I don't want to go there this year they had sold her to Mississippi before that and I know what she

was there but I didn't want to go I went on back home next day the white woman whupped me and I said to myself I wish that old white man had bought me I didn't know he had bought me anyhow but soon they took my cotton dresses and put him in a box and they combed my hair and I heard him tell me that mr. Ellison had done come after me and he was in a buggy I wanted to ride in the buggy but I didn't want to go with him so when I saw him

I had a bucket of water on my head and I set it on the shelf and ran just as fast as I could for the woods they called me and aunt Bette said honey don't do that mr. Ellison done bought you and you must go with him tied my clothes up in a bundle and he had me sitting up in the buggy with him and we started to his house here I had to get down to open the gate and when I got back up I got behind in the little seat for service and he

told me to come back and get inside but I said I could ride behind up to the house and he let me stay there but he kept watching me he was scared I would run away because I had done run away that morning but I wasn't gonna run away because I wouldn't know which way to go after that that far away even more rare was the occasion when the auction block became a source of joy I saw slaves so I can see that block now my cousin Eliza was a pretty girl really good-looking her master

was a father when the girls in the big house had bows coming to see them they'd ask who is that pretty gal so they decided to get rid of her right away the day they sold her will always be remembered they stripped her to be bit off and looked at I wasn't allowed to stand in the crowd I was laying down under a big Bush the man that bought Eliza was from New York the Negroes had made up enough money to buy her off themselves but they wouldn't let that happen there was a man bidding

for her who was a big Swede Lander he always bid for the good-looking colored gals and bought him for his own use he asked a man from New York what you gonna do with it when you get it the man from New York said none of your damn business but you ain't got money enough to buy her when the man from New York had done bought her he said Eliza you are free from now own one sold to a trader the slaves were chained together and marched away sleeping in the woods and fuels at night

until they reach their destination some weeks later once there the slave trader arrested them for a few days gave them new clothing and sold them to new masters who would Marston the plantations these would be their homes until they were sold again escaped or died the slave awful was a familiar sight in many parts of the south my new master whose name I did not hear took me that same day across the Patuxent why I joined 51 other slaves whom he had bought in Maryland 32 of these were men and 19 were women the women

were men had tied together with a rope about the size of a bed Court which was tied like a halter on the neck of each but the men to whom I was the stoutest and strongest were very differently caparison a strong iron collar was closely fitted by means of a padlock Brown each of our necks a chain of iron about a hundred feet in length was passed through the hasp of each padlock accepted the two ends for the hasps of the padlocks passed through a link of the chain in addition to this we were handcuffed

in pairs with iron staples and bolts with a short chain about a foot long uniting the handcuffs and their wearers in pairs and this manner we were chained alternately by the right and left hand and the poor man to whom I was thus ironed wept like an infant from the blacksmith with his heavy hammer fastened the end of the bolts that kept the staples from slipping from our arms for my own part I felt indifferent to my fate it appeared to me that the worst had come and that no change of fortune could harm me

I was born in Georgia and Norcross and I'm 90 years old my father's name was Roger Stillson and my mother's name was Betty my sir early Stillson captures them in Africa and bring them to Georgia he got killed and my sister and me went to his son his son was a killer he got in trouble in Georgia and got him too good stepping horses and the covered wagon lynnie chains all his slaves on the necks and fastens the change to the horses and makes them walk all the way to Texas my mother and my sister

had to walk Emma was my sister somewhere on the road it went to snowing and Massa wouldn't let us wrap anything round our feet we had to sleep on the ground too and all that snow Massa have a great long whip plaited out a rawhide and when one of the slaves fall behind or give out he hit him with that whip it take the hide every time he hit a slave mother she give out on the way about the line of Texas her feet got raw and bleeding the legs swole plumb out of shape then

massa he just take out his gun and shot her then why she lay dying he kicks her to three times and say damn a can't stand nothing you know that man he wouldn't bury mother just leave a land where he shot at most plantation owners live modestly and some even poorly it is generally thought that all slave owners held hundreds of slaves the reality was quite different in 1860 there were three hundred and eighty four thousand eight hundred and eighty four slave owners in the south of that number less than $3,000 more them honored slaves

the overwhelming majority of slaveholders held less than twenty slaves the plantation was a world in itself it was composed of the slave owners house the big house as a slaves called that was slave row the line of little cabins which the slaves called home for lack of a better term situated near slave role was the house of the overseer scattered about the plantation with various barns and sheds were animals tools and the harvested crops were stored and surrounding everything were fields and woods beyond which somewhere was freedom Julian name so it's a polish point spent

two weeks at Mount Vernon in 1798 and wrote this description of conditions there we entered some Negros huts for their habitations cannot be called houses they are far more miserable in the poorest of the cottages of our peasants the husband and his wife sleep on a miserable bed the children on the floor a very poor chimney the little kitchen furniture stands amid this misery a tea kettle and cups a boy about fifteen was lying on the floor with an attack of dreadful convulsions the general had sent to Alexandria for a physician a small orchard with

vegetables was situated close to the hut five or six hens each with 10 or 15 chickens walked there that is the only pleasure allowed to Negroes they are not permitted to keep either ducks or geese or pigs they sell the chickens in Alexandria and buy with the money some furniture they receive a peck of Indian corn every week and half of it is for the children besides twenty hearings in a month they receive a cotton jacket and a pair of breeches yearly the general possesses 300 Negroes accepting women and children of which a pod belongs

to mrs. Washington from the time the Stars began to fade from the sky in the morning until they reappeared in the evening the slaves worked at cotton and had everything else which had to be done on the plantation each day ended as a previous one had each one began as the previous one hand and each day expended itself yes I can hear it now all overseer used to blow us out at sunrise on the conquer shell - dude had to get your breakfast before day because you got to be in the field when the Sun

gets to show in itself about the trees the day's work over in the field the baskets are toted in other words carried to the gin house where the cotton is weighed no matter how fatigued and weary he may be no matter how much he longs for sleep and rest a slave never approaches the gin house with his basket of cotton but with fear if it falls short and weighed if he has not performed the full task appointed him he knows that he must suffer and if he has exceeded it by 10 or 20 pounds in

all probability his master will measure the next day's tasks accordingly it was rather than a day passed by without one or more whippings this occurred at the time the cotton was weighed the delinquent whose weighted fallen short was taken out stripped major life on the ground face downward when he received a punishment proportion to his offense it is the literal unvarnished truth at the crack of the lash and the shrieking of the slaves can be heard from doubt of bedtime on Epps plantation any day almost during the entire period of the cotton pickin season the

number of lashes is graduated according to the nature of the case 25 a deemed a mere brush inflicted for instance when a dry leaf or a piece of bowl is found in the cotton or when her branch is broken in the field 50 is ordinary penalty following all delinquencies of the higher-grade 100 is called severe it is the punishment inflicted for the serious offense of standing idle in the field every night after work was over our slaves had to Jim cotton coach they had the gin machine but it never worked fast as those would pick

the cotton and was always breaking down see that for it wears a size 14 shoe I does and as I can recollect it was the same size in them days Wilson everybody had to Gen a shoe full of cotton at night before going to bed ol overseer would make the old women pack everybody shoot tight with cotton and they got to see that shoe fool I had such a big pile but the others used to finish a long time before me they all used to laugh at me and joke while there was Jenin cuz I

got such a lot to do I used to rap my feet up in rags nights so as to keep him from getting any bigger but it didn't help any yet once the slave that's the field each one must then attend to his respective chores one feeds the mules and other the swine another cuts the wood and so forth finally at a late hour they reached the quarters sleepy and overcome with a long day's toil then a fire must be kindled in the cabin the corn grown in the small hand mill and supper and dinner for

the next day in the field prepared all that has allowed them is corn and bacon which is given out at the corn crib and smokehouse every Sunday morning each one receives is his weekly allowance three and a half pounds of bacon and corn enough to make a peck of meal that's all no tea coffee sugar and with the exception of a very scanty sprinkling now man no salt when the corn is ground and fire is made the bacon is taken down from the nail on which it hangs a slice cut off and thrown upon the

coals to broil the majority of slaves have no knife much less afore they cut their bacon with the axe at the woodpile the cornmeal is mixed with water placed in the fire and baked when it's done brown the ashes are scraped off and being placed upon a chip which answers for a table the tenant of the slave Hut is ready to sit down upon the ground to supper by this time it is usually midnight the same fear of punishment with which they approach the gin house possesses them again on lying down to get a snatch

of rest it is the fear of over sleeping in the morning such an offense would certainly be attended to with not less than 20 lashes with a prayer that he may be on his feet and wide awake at the first sound of the horn he sinks to his slumbers nightly Humanity of slavery the majority were much like the northerner who visited a southern plantation and described being awakened by the overseers horn I soon hear the of the laborers passing along the Avenue all is soon again still is midnight I believe I'm the only one in

the house at the Bell disturbs yet I do not regret the few minutes loss of sleep it causes me it sounds so pleasantly in the half dreamy morning a negro has got no name my father was a ransom and he had a local named han Caen if you belong to mr. Jones and he sent you to mr. Johnson consequently you go by the name of your owner now where you get a name we are wearing the name of our master I was first a hail then my father was sold and then I was named Reid

without the name of his own the slaves ability to see himself apart from his owner was lessened he was never asked who he was he was asked whose are you the slave had no separate he was always mr. sawing souls another instrument used to control the minds of the slaves was religion no slave owner allowed his slaves to attend church by themselves fearing that they would use the opportunity to plan insurrection rather than thank God that they had such good masters so the slave owner either did the preaching himself or hire a white creature although

that rusted slave preacher the only preaching a slave owner approved of was that which would make the slave happy to be a slave this the way it go be nice to my son missus don't be mean be obedient and work hard that was all a sunday-school less than they taught us in Missouri and as far as I have any knowledge of slavery in the other states the religious teaching consists of teaching the slave that he must never strike a white man that God made him for a slave and that when quipped he must not find

fault for the Bible says he that knoweth his masters will and doeth it not shall be beaten with many stripes and slaveholders find such religion very profitable to them poor creatures you little consider when you are idle and neglectful of your masters business when you steal and waste and hurt any of their substance when you are saucy and impudent when you are telling them lies and deceiving them or when you prove stubborn and sullen and will not do the work you are said about without straps indexation you do not consider I say that what faults

you are guilty up towards your masters and mistresses are false done against God Himself who has set your masters and mistresses over you in his own stand and expects that you would do for them just as you would do for him your masters and mistresses are God's overseers and that if you are folded towards them God Himself will punish you severely for in the next world unless you repented it and strive to make amends by your faithfulness and diligence for the time to come few slaves found arguments of this time very convincing however from this

religion which was preached to them they took what they needed and abused they fashioned their own kind of Christianity which they turn to for strength and the constant times of need in the Old Testament story of the enslavement of the Hebrews by the Egyptians they found their own story and the figure of Jesus Christ they found someone who had suffered as they suffered someone who understood someone who offered them rest from the suffering they so transformed the religion of the slave owner that eventually they came to look down upon the white preachers and white religious

services uncle Silas was nearby two hundred I reckon too feeble to do no work but always got strength enough to hobble the church when the slave service gonna be old preacher was written Johnson get dressed of his name he was a preacher and the slaves were sitting there sleeping and Fanning themselves with oak branch it and uncle Silas got up in the front row to slay his buing holded Reverend Johnson is our slaves gonna be freeing him uncle Silas ask the preacher stop looking uncle sounds like he wanted to kill him cuz no one ain't

supposed to say nothing said Amen while he was preaching waited a minute he did looking hard enough for Silas standing there buddy didn't give no answer is God going free our slaves when you get to heaven uncle Silas yell white preacher pulled his handkerchief wiped his wet from his face Jesus says come unto me ye who are free from sin and I will give you salvation won't give us freedom loan with salvation as uncle Silas the Lord gives and the Lord takes away and he that is without sin is going to have life everlasting then

he went ahead preaching fast life la bete noire and uncle Silas but uncle Silas wouldn't sit down stood there the rest of the service he did and that was the last time he come to church uncle Silas died before another preaching time come round [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] rules are rules on again drownded don't know what my mother won't stand for this over I need a friend to have called spherules army got drowned Oh [Music] and and one of the great black religious songs the slaves took the story of Samson and with their genius for

going to the core of an experience they put these words in the Samson's mouth and express their deepest feelings if I had my way if I had my way now Charles ball pointed out but the slave who was born in America had quote borrowed all his ideas of present and future happiness from the opinions and intercourse of white people and of Christians in quote and some accepted these are ideas totally I thought as long as I stayed where the white folks was they would protect me from all harm even the stars and the elements stones

or whatnot Justina the white folks and I had nothing to worry about I thought white folks made the Stars the Sun and everything on earth I knowed nothing but to be driven and beat all the time I seen him take the bottom rail out of the rail fences and stick the head in the hole and then jam the ballast of the fence down on his neck and beat him to least if the slaves who mostly simplified those qualities of obedience submissiveness and dependence have come to be known as Uncle Tom's the name being taken from

the central character of Harriet Beecher Stowe's anti-slavery novel Uncle Tom's Cabin generally these Uncle Tom's were those slaves who had the most contact with the master and his family the house servants because of this constant contact the house servants were much more likely to be the model slaves enslaved almost dreamed of quite often a house servant was trained to his duties in childhood he was separated from the other slaves and from that time on he slept on a pallet on the floor of the owners bedroom or outside his door he was raised to believe that

to be a house servant was the greatest honor they could come to my master gave me better closed-in the little slaves of my age generally received he often told me that he intended to make me his way and that if I behaved well I should become his overseer in time these stations of waiter and overseer appeared to me the highest points of honor and greatness and the whole world and had not circumstances frustrated my Master's plans as well as my own views I should probably been living at this time in a cabin on the corner

of some tobacco plantation on many plantations how servants were hated by the slaves who worked in the fields these servants often took their masters interest so seriously that they acted as spies for them all servants were responsible for uncovering and revealing to slave owners innumerable planned slave insurrections they taught us to be against one another and no matter where you would go you would always find one that would paddle and have the white folk picking on you they would be trying to make it soft for themselves many house slaves however shared the attitudes of the

few hand they use their positions inside the great house to spy on the master was serving gal from mrs. used to have to stand behind at the table and reach it a soul for Sarah from anything else she called for omasum would spell out real fast anything he don't want me to know about one day Tomas was fit to be tied he was in such a bad mood was raving about the crops and the taxes and the trifling they got a feed go Selim I swear for Christ I'm gonna sell he said and then all

missus asked which ones he gonna sell and tell him quick to spelling then he spell out G a B E and R u F us of course I stood there without batting an eye making believe I didn't need him here but I was packing them letters up in my head all the time and soon as I finished dishes I rushed down to my father and Sam to him just like master Sam father said quiet like Gabe and Rufus and told me to go back to the house and say I ain't been out the next day

game Rufus was gone they had away massa nearly died got to cussing and raving so he took sick missus went to town and told a sheriff but they never could find those two things one of the more fascinating recorded stories of one who could be considered a good slave there's a story of Josiah Henson he was born a slave and grew up believing that while slavery was wrong as a slave he had a responsibility to do his best work during his early life he constantly courted his on his favor at fifteen years of age there

were few who could compete with me in work or sport I was as lively as a young buck and running over with animal spirits I could run faster wrestled better and jump higher than anybody about me and at an evening shakedown in our own of the neighbors kitchen my feet became absolutely invisible from the rate at which they moved all of this caused my mast and my fellow slaves to look upon me as a wonderfully smart fellow and prophesy the great things I should do when I became a man my vanity became vastly inflamed and

I fully coincided in their opinion Julius Caesar never aspired and plotted for the imperial crown more ambitiously than I did to out hold out reap out husk out dance out everything every competitor and from all I can learn he never enjoyed his triumph half as much one word of commendation from the petty despot who ruled over us would set me up for a month Henson eventually raised himself to be superintendent of the farm work and then overseer in actual fact he ran the entire plantation and his owner collected the profit yet Henson was proud of

himself and proud to be able to provide such valuable service to his own I retained the especial favor of my master who was not displeased either with saving the expense of a large salary for a white superintendent or with the superior crops I was able to raise for him I will deny that I used his property more freely than he would have done himself and supplying his people with better food but if I cheated him in this way and small matters it was unequivocally for his own benefit and more important ones and I accounted with

the strictest honesty for every dollar I received and the sale of property entrusted to me it was my duty to be faithful to him in the position in which he placed me and I can boldly declare before God and man that I was so I forgave him the cause of his blows and injuries he had inflicted on me and childhood and youth and was proud of the favour he now showed me and of the character and reputation I had earned by strenuous and persevering efforts despite him some skillful management of the plantation the owner dissipated

the profits and eventually found himself in the position where all the slaves were going to be auctioned off to pay his debts he came to him son and asked him to take all the slaves in Kentucky where he had a brother he would follow in a few months it was remarkable that a white slave owner would ask a black slave to be responsible for other slaves on a journey of a thousand miles it was even more remarkable that Hinson discharged the responsibility my heart was aroused in view of the importance of my responsibility and hard

and so I became identified with my Master's project a running off his Negros on passing along the Ohio sure we were repeatedly told by persons conversing with us that we were no longer slaves but freemen if we chose to be so at Cincinnati especially crowds of colored people gathered round us and insisted on our remaining with them they told us we were fools to think of going on in surrendering ourselves up to a new owner that now we could be our own masters and put ourselves out of all reach of pursuit I saw the people

under me getting much excited divided councils and signs of insubordination began to manifest themselves I began to to feel my own resolution giving way freedom had never been an object of my ambition though no other means of obtaining it had ever occurred to me but purchasing myself I had never dreamed of running away I had a sentiment of honor on the subject the duties of the slave to his master has appointed over him in the Lord I had ever heard urged by ministers and religious men it seemed like outright stealing strange as it may seem

I really felt it then and trancing as the idea was that the coast was clear for a run for freedom that I might liberate my companions might carry off my wife and children and someday own a house and land and be no longer despised and abused still my notions of right were against it I had promised my master to take his property to Kentucky and deposited with his brother Amos pride too came in to confirm me I had undertaken a great thing my vanity had been flatted all along the road by hearing myself praised I

thought it would be a feather in my cap to carry it through thoroughly and it often painted the scene in my imagination of the final surrender of my charge to master Amos and the immense admiration and respect with which he would regard me under the influence of these impressions and seeing that the eluamous of the crowd were producing a manifest effect I sternly assumed the captain and ordered the boat to be pushed off into the stream a shower of curses followed me from the shore but the Negroes under me accustomed to obey and alas to

degraded and ignorant of the advantages of Liberty to know what they were forfeiting offered no resistance to my command it should be added however then Hinson goes on to say quote my soul has been pierced with bitter anguish at the fault of having been thus instrumental consigning to the infernal bondage of slavery so many of my fellow beans in quote and most significantly quote I knew not that the title deed of the slave owner is robbery and outrage the field slaves were not exposed to the slave owners ideas as much as the Hoss servant they

had little contact with the slave owner and many of them lived and died without having once set foot inside the slave owners house their interests were simple to do as little work as possible and get as few good things as possible all this was never possible on a large scale they had various tricks which they use to make the slave on his life a little less than easy the most common was to appear to be the dumb stupid animal that he knew his owner thought he was it was to his advantage to appear ignorant and

the more ignorant he appeared to be the less work he would have to do in his sloppy work that he did would be accepted as all that he was capable of doing the field slave took advantage of his alleged inferiority the overseer is called a Trask ality more accurately it could be called sabotage it was deliberate on the part of the slaves for it was obvious to them that their lives had not changed if there was a good cotton crop or a bad one is they worked hard they remain slaves if they sabotage the plantation

work as much as possible they remain slaves and the latter was easier and more enjoyable even though the ladies returned from the fields exhausted at night they would often sneak off to the woods for church services singing and parties but they would sing and dance away the pain of the day and feel the ecstasy which comes from knowing that one of the human being not a workout I remember once when we was gonna have a meeting down in the woods near the river well they made me to look out boy and when the patter rollers

come down the lane past a church that you see they was expecting that the gonna hold a meeting that night well sir they tell me to step out from the woods and let him see me well I does and the patter rollers that was on horseback come a chasing after me just to gallop and down the lane to beat the band well I was just ahead of them and when they got almost up with me I just ducked into the woods course the patrollers couldn't stop so quick and kept on round the bend and then

there came a screaming and crying that made you think that hell done bust loose demo paddy rollers done red plum into a great line of grapevines that the slaves had stretched across the path and these vines tripped up the horses and throwed the old pattern rollers off into the bushes and something landed mighty hard cuz there was a lipping around and cussing and calling for the slaves to come and help them but them slaves got plenty cents after that hoe paddy rollers got wise and used to tie their horses and come creeping through the woods

on foot until they find where this meeting was going on then they would rush in and stock whippin and beaten the slaves unmerciful all this was done to keep it from serving God and do you know some of them Devils was mean and sinful enough to say if I catch you here serving God I'll beat you you ain't got no time to serve God now that was one song the slaves all knowed sometimes I wondered the white man didn't make that song up so as would keep inlet ahead Massa Fleming and kid how much be

tens but ol overseer was raised the devil obviously I always said it slave never would work after he done danced all night used to complain to mass and and he threatened not to let us dance if we didn't do our work but he never did stop us had to dance or do something work in the field all day and got to have some fun on Saturday nights Saturday nights we'd slip out of the quarters and go to the woods was old cabin about five miles of from the house and us would raise all the ruckus

then we wanted to used to dance old Janet down who was Janet was nobody but me I reckon that's what we gals used to say gonna set the floor with Jenny tonight sometimes you would say when missus was around going to see Jenny tonight and that means that's gonna have a dance but missus didn't know what we told man sometimes the boy said to I can't tell you what they mean anyhow we go to these dances every gal with her bow and such music had two fiddles two tangerines two banjos and two sets of bones

was boy named Joe that used to whistle to him devilish boys would get out of the middle of float and me Jenny and the devil right with him set a glass of water on my head and the boys would bet on it I had a great big wreath around my head and a big ribbon bow on each side and didn't waste a drop of water used to go over to the sanders place for dancing must have been 100 slaves over there and they always had the best dances most times for the dance they had Dennis

to play the banjo Dennis had a twisted arm and he couldn't do much work but he sure could pick that banjo well gals were put on a spare dresses if the head won and men would put a clean shirt on gals always tried to fix up for party and even if they ain't got nothing but a piece of ribbon to tie in the hair most times wear your shoes to the dance and then take them off demo hard she was make too much noise and hurt your feet couldn't oh no stepping in the field shoes

what kind of dances well there was no special name to him there was cutting the pigeon wings that was flipping your arms and legs and holding your neck stiff like a bird dude then there was going to the east and going to the West that was with partners and sometimes they got to kiss each other but they stand back in kiss without wrapping no arms round like the young folks do today and there was calling the figures and that meant that the Fiddler's would call the number and all the couples got to cut that number

said to flow that was well the couples would do that in turn they come up and bend over toward each other at the waist and the woman put our hands on our hips and the man rolled his eyes around and grin and they packed the flow what they feet just like they would put it in place used to do that best on dirt throw sort of feet would slap down hard against it sometimes they would set the floor alone either man or woman then they would set a glass of water on the head and see

how many kinds of steps they could make without spilling the water dancing on the spot was the same thing as set the flow almost just mean you got to stay in the circle the Fiddler's would take a charred corn cob and draw a circle on the floor then call one after the other up and dance in the circle if your feet touch to add us out that was just like a cakewalk cause sometimes they bake a cake and give it to the one that did the most steps on the spot no I never did win

no cake but I was pretty good at it just to say my right the biggest parties were held however at Christmas there were certain holidays that was celebrated on most plantations Good Friday Independence Day at the end of the cotton shopping season Christmas however was the biggest celebration discipline was eased considerably and the slaves were given two or three days off and sometimes they got the entire week between Christmas and New Year slave lived just for Christmas to come round started getting ready the first snowfall commenced to saving nuts and apples fixing up party clothes

stitching lace and bee it's from the big house generals celebrating time you see cuz husbands is coming home and Families is getting United again husbands hurry on home to see their new babies everybody happy must always sent a cake of whiskey down to the quarters bye old uncle Silas the house man Oh Joe would drink only can't along the way but there would be plenty for if that don't laugh Oh masters y'all gonna bring some more down himself true it was indeed that the fun and freedom of Christmas at which time my master relaxed his

front was generally followed up by a pretentious back action under which he drove and cursed worse than ever still the fun and freedom were faced facts we had had them and he could not help it wanna be more confident tool that this way is used to resist the spiritual brutality of slavery was music in Africa music is not an art form as much as it is a means of communication it was the same for the descendants of Africa quite often the words of a song are meaningless and are used only because of their tonal and

rhythmic value the music of Africa is highly improvisational and the song is now a song twice in the same way the slaves did not lose this improvisational ability when they fused their musical heritage with the Western music they found in America say I said they did sing sing about the cookin or about the milking and sing in the field mother was let off some days at noon to get ready for spinning that evening she had to portion out the cotton they was gonna spend and see that each got a fair share when mother was going

around counting the cards each it spun she would sing this song [Music] I'm a trouble that made the women all speed up so they could finish before dark catch him because there's gonna be mighty hard handing that cotton thread by phyllite through the songs they describe slavery as it was we raised the weak to give us the corn we baked the bread they give us the crust we sift meal they give us the skin and that's the way they take us in these Tim to pop to give us the liquor and say that's good enough

the big flies to honey one day Charlie saw old Massa coming home with a keg of whiskey on his mule couldn't close the plough a field om you slip and Massa come Tony at all Massa didn't know Charlie saw him and Charlie didn't say none but soon after a visitor came and massacred Charlie to the house to show off what he knew master said come here Charlie and singing some rhymes for mr. Hanson don't know no new ones my son Charlie answered come on you black rascal give me a rhyme for my company when he

ain't heard so Charlie said alright massa I give you a new one if you promise not to love me the Massa promise and then Charlie soon arrived he done made up in his head by massa well man I got mad as a hornet but he didn't what Charlie not that time anyway and don't you know us used to set the floor to that song mind you never would sing it when NASA was around but when he wasn't we'd swing all around the cabin singing about how old Massa fell off the mules back Charlie had a

bunch of verses Masekela slave you shall get full the slave owners did all that they knew to break the spirit of the black slaves they failed because of black resistance to their designs slavery did its best to make me wretched I feel no particular obligation to it but nature or the Blessed God of youth and joy was mightier than slavery along with memories of my Rica burns frosted feet weary toil under the Blazing Sun curses and blows their flock in others of jolly Christmas times dances before all masses door for the first drink of eggnog

extra meat at holiday times midnight visits to apple orchards broadening strait chickens and first-rate tricks to dodge work the God who makes the pump gamble in the kitten play and the birds sing in the fish leap was the author and me of many a light-hearted hour [Music] the slave owner lives in a fear that was almost as bad as the fears held by the slaves he had to live with the knowledge that at any moment his slaves might try to kill him he knew whether he admitted it to himself or not that if he had

been held with the slave he would have done anything to gain his freedom the inaudible Brett responds to any mention of a slave insurrection was to Institute even more force upon the slaves in 1831 a Virginia slave named nat turner led an insurrection in which more than 60 whites were killed federal militia was eventually called in to stop the rebellion and for a long time after slaves throughout the south lived through a reign of terror yet no matter how repressive slave owners became there will always say is who try to escape who knew little more

than that if they thought the North Star they would eventually reach a place for they would be free and they were always helped along their way by other slaves I heard a rap on my door I answered a hollering then someone whispered hush don't say nothing but let me in I let her in Lord that woman was all out of breath and of begging can I stay here tonight I told her she could so the woman doesn't sleep right then behind me in my bed all night I knew she had run away and I was

gonna do my part to help roll along I took a herd of horses and and talking in the woods dogs just a barking I peeped out the window and I saw white folks go by I didn't move I was so scared that was gonna come in the cabin and search for that poor woman next one and she stole out from there and I never seen another many thousands of slaves escaped those thousands more who could not did what they could with what they had just come to tell you Massa that I've labored for you for

forty years now and I don't earn my keep you can sell me lash me or kill me I ain't caring which but you can't make me work no mo the slave owner was shocked but after a pause he said alright I'm retiring you but for God's sakes don't say anything to the other I used to be awfully high temperate even when I was a boy in them days all the children was called lil mistress a little monster and apparent you to tell me that I shouldn't hit I'll fight them but everytime they crossed me I

jumped him I just couldn't help it one Saturday morning little Missy was sleeping late she did not have to go to school no Missy told me to go and make up a bed I went in and she didn't want to get up so that I could make the bed I told her them that it was late that who mrs. said for her to get up then she got mad jumped up in the bed and said you black dog get out of here I'll get up when I get ready with that she slapped me as hard

as she could right in my face I saw stars as soon as I got back to myself I swung at her and if she hadn't been so quick I would have almost killed him for I had it up with my fists and with all the force I had I was just about ready to jump up on the bed and choke the life out of it when old miss it happened in story the slaves fighting and murdering slave owners and overseers and self-defense or not uncommon Solomon Northup almost killed his owner after the latter had tried

to kill him with an axe and all those explanation for the murder that he almost committed was simple quote life is dear to every living thing the worm that crawled upon the ground will struggle for it at that moment it was dear to me enslaved and treated as I was in quote the north of decided against killing his master only because he would have been hanging for it this thought Ilan saved the life of many a white person in the South the slaves talked and planned insurrection and it was only the realization that insurrection would

not succeed that stopped most at atonium stage it should never be thought that if the large majority of slaves had had the weapons that whites possessed they would not have used them and used them effectively they were only held as failures because they did not have the necessary means to make themselves free they are deceived who flattered themselves that the ignorant and debased slave has no conception of the magnitude of his wrongs they are deceived who imagine that he arises from his knees with back lacerated and bleeding cherishing only a spirit of meekness and forgiveness

a day may come it will come if his prayer is heard a terrible day of vengeance when the master and his turn will cry in vain for mercy and almost immediately slaves in the upper southern states of Virginia Maryland and Delaware began leaving to join the northern army eventually blacks were employed as fighting troops in the Union Army and since so many of them had so recently escaped from slavery they fought fiercely and well throughout the Civil War freedom did not come to most of the slaves until the end of the war in 1865 the

Emancipation Proclamation of 1863 only applied to those areas of the south under Union control which was not much at that time the president of the Confederacy Jefferson Davis thought so little the Emancipation Proclamation that he issued his own Proclamation which stated that all black people in all northern states were to be considered slaves the slaves I ever knew nothing of illegal salties involved proclamations as soon as they heard a rumor that they would declare it free they didn't wait for further confirmation they freed themselves whether their owners liked it or not I was a young

gal about 10 years old and we don't heard that Lincoln gonna turn the free ole Miss's said it wasn't nothing to it then a Yankee soldier told someone in Williamsburg that Lincoln done signed emancipation was wintertime and mighty cold at night but everybody commenced getting ready to leave getting cared nothing about missus was going to the Union lines and all last night and danced and sang right out in the cold next morning at daybreak we all started out with blankets and clothes and pots and pans and chickens piled on our backs cause mrs. said we

couldn't take no horses and cars and there's a Sun come up over the trees the started to sing you be here [Music] you be here and I'll be gone I won't give you my place not for yours bye-bye don't read after me cause you be here I'll be gone girl used to tell this story everybody would listen and I expect I heard it a hundred times when I said she was hired out to the Randolph during the war and one day while she was weed and corn another slave me meet Oliver came up to her

and whispered Sara they tell me to master Lincoln done set all our slaves free grandma said is that so and she dropped a hoe and ran all the way to the fakirs place seven miles it was and run to old missus and looked at a real hard man she yell I'm free yes I'm free ain't got to work for you no mo you can't put me in your pocket now grandma says mrs. thack started booing and threw her apron over her face and running the house grandma knew it was true then the news that they

were free was the fulfillment of the dream they're taken to bed each night and risen with each morning how many times they tried to imagine what that moment would be like and now it come some found it hard to believe one day I was out milking the cows mr. Dave come down into the field and it had a paper in his hand listen to me Tom he said listen to what I read you and he read from a paper all about how I was free you can't tell how I felt you joking me I says

no I says he you free no says I it's a joke no says he it's a law that I got to read this paper to you now listen while I read it again but still I wouldn't believe it just go up to the house says he and ask mrs. Robinson she'll tell you so I went it's a joke I says to her did you ever know your master to tell you a lie she says no says I I hate well she says the war's over and you're free by that time I thought maybe she was

telling me what was right Miss Robinson says I can I go over to see the Smiths there was a colored family that lived nearby don't you understand says she you're free you don't have to ask me what you can do run along child and so I went and do you know why I wasn't going I wanted to find out if they was free too I just couldn't take it all in I couldn't believe we were all free alike was I happy you can take anything no matter how good you treat it it wants to be

free you can treat it good and feed it good and give it everything it seems to one but if you open the cage it's happy the news came on a third day and all the slaves been shouting and carrying on till everybody was tired out I remember the first Sunday of freedom we was all sitting around resting and trying to think what freedom meant and everybody was quiet and peaceful all at once old sister Carrie was nearby 100 started into talking ten no more selling today it ain't no more higher in the day day no

more pulling off shirts today is don't down freedom today stomp it down and when she says stomp it down all her slaves to commence to shout it was no more peace that Sunday everybody started into sing and shout once more first thing you know that I've made up music this is to carry stomp song and sang and shouted that saw all the rest of the day cha that was one glorious time mm here in my posse that when somebody come in holid you is free at last say he just dropped his hoe and said in

a queer voice thank God for that it made Oh miss an old Massa so sick they stopped eating a week Paul said old Massa no miss look like their stomachs and guts had a lawsuit and their navel was called in for a witness they were so sorry we was free shouting and clapping hands and singing chillin running all over the place beaten time and yelling everybody happy sho did some celebrating run to the kitchen and shout in the window mammy don't you cook no more yous free use free run to the henhouse and shout rooster

don't you crow no mo use free use free go to the Pigpen and tell the pig Oh Pig don't you grunt no no use free use free tell the cows Oh cow don't give no more milk use free use free and some smart aleck boys sneaked up under Miss Sarah Ann's wind and shouted ain't got the slave no mo wheeze free wheeze free the wall was over when the South surrendered to the northern automatics it was appropriate but there were blacks present to watch the official end of the war and slavery gently tip his hat

first then General Grant tip his generally got off his horse and he'll grant got off his generally got on a new uniform with gold braids and lots of buttons but Yellin grant got on an old blue coat that's so dirty it looked black they stood there talking about half an hour and then they shake hands and that's what was watching know that lead done give up then generally tips his hat and General Grant tipped isn't and generally rolled over to the rebel side gentle grant rolled over to our side and the wall was open but

with the end of the war there were of course those slave owners who said nothing to their slaves about the war being over or that they were free guess I was about 15 years old when Massa came back from the fight me and as ever never did say nothing about the war and I didn't even know if it's over or not but one day Master Bob his son was switching me in the woods playful like and he said why don't you strike me back miss it use free that's what the war was for to free

the I took that switch and beat him hard as I could across the head till it busted then I run across the fields to some colored folks about six miles away their name was Foreman and they was free Shona they told me that was right I've been free more than a year he never been back to that place freedom one day they had been awakened by the sound of the overseers horn the next day they were not one morning they had gone to the fields and before the Sun set they'd left their holes their pearls

their cotton socks lying in the furrows and they put the full meaning of it into one eloquent phrase which they sang over and over free at last free at last thank God Almighty I'm free at last free at last free at my thank God Almighty I'm free at last free at last free at last thank God my name's Fiat Lanza's the glorious feeling of freedom did not last long under slavery the physical needs of the slaves have been supplied however inadequately with freedom they suddenly found themselves in a position where they had to supply their

own needs all were willing and able to do so but to do so they required land of their own and farming equipment to get started to be really free it was necessary that they be able to make a living by themselves it was necessary that they not have to go to those who had formerly held them slaves and asked for jobs the Yankee soldiers give out news of freedom they were shouting around I just stood around to see what they was gonna do next didn't nobody give me nothing I didn't know what to do next

didn't nobody give me nothing I didn't know what to do everything going tents all gone no place to stay and nothing to eat that was a big freedom to us colored folks I got hungry and naked and cold many a time I had a good master and I thought he always treated me a heat better than that I wanted to go back but I had no way freedom turned into another kind of slavery for many slaves were forced to return to their former plantations and ask old Massa for John the former slave owners were happy

of course to see the ex ladies returned while the fields needed plowing and the crops plantain instead of paying the ex-slaves wages Harbor the former slave owners let them work on shares the plantation owner would provide them with cottonseed a house food tools once the crop was harvested he would take half plus enough props to cover the cost of the seed tools rec and food that he bet the xray have once the owner had deducted his share and the expenses incurred what was left was the ex-slaves share usually that was nothing then the next bad

thing happened to us poor after the war was this the white folks would pay to lie to the rest of the to get to farm and done for nothing he tell us to come on and go with me a man wants a gang of to do some work and me feel like money growing on trees well we had no money and used to none so we gladiate a good news we just opened one left and go with his lyin they carry us by the droves to different parts of Alabama Arkansas and Missouri after we got

to these places they put us all to work all right on the great big farms we all lighten and work like old horses thinking how we making money and gonna get some of it but we never did get a cent we never did get out of debt we always get through with fine big crops and oh the white man more than when we started the crop and got this day to pay the debt it was awful all over was like that the former slave trader and Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest became the head of it

and it became one of the main instruments to keep blacks from possessing their field after scarlet folks were considered free and turn loose the ku klux broke out some colored people started to farming and gathered old stock if they got so they made good money and had a good farm the ku klux would come in murderer the government builded school houses and the ku klux went to work and burn them down he goes to the jails and take colored men out knock their brains out break their necks and throw them in the river that was

a colored man they'd taken his name was Jim Freeman they taken him and destroyed his stuff and him because he was making some money hung him on a tree in his front yard right in front of his cabin political power returned to the former slave-owners almost immediately state legislators began passing laws restricting the movements and activities of blocks these laws were little different from the laws that were on the books during slavery itself but instead of calling it slavery it was called segregation it was inevitable from the moment the North refused to ensure the freedom

of blacks which had been one with four years of bloody fighting to snakes full of poison one lying with his head pointing north the other with his head pointing south their names were slavery and freedom the snake called slavery lay with his head pointed south and the snake called freedom lay with his head pointed north both bit the and they was both bad epilogue and some of the interviews conducted by the federal writers project in the 1930s some ex-slaves expressed attitudes and feelings which if anyone had bothered to listen once more gave the large the

stereotype of the happy slave of the slave freed by the Emancipation Proclamation and accepted as a man equal to any other the Yankees help free us so they say but they let us be put back in slavery again when I think of slavery it makes me mad I do not believe in giving you my story because with all the promises that have been made the Negro is still in a bad way in the United States no matter in what party lives it's all the same now you may be alright there are a few white men

who are but the pressure is such from your white friends that you will be compelled to talk against us and give us the cold shoulder when you around them even if your heart is right towards us you are going around to get a story of slavery conditions and the persecutions of Negroes before the Civil War and the economic conditions concerning them since that war you should have known before this late date all about that are you going to help us no you're only helping yourself you say that my story may be put into a book

that you're from the federal writers project well the Negro will not get anything out of it no matter where you're from Harriet Beecher Stowe wrote Uncle Tom's Cabin I didn't like her book and I hate her no matter where you're from I don't want you to write my story because the white folks have been and are now and always will be against the Negro I was sitting here thinking the other night about the talk of them kind of white folks going to him Lord God they turn him alongside out and have the angels working to

make them something they could take away from them