Wake Wednesday - Slave Narratives in the Wake Treasures Journal Archive

A selection of the slave narratives relevant to Wake County were transcribed as noted below. The Wake Treasures Journal Archives are currently free to all to view. 

Note that historical materials often include viewpoints, language, norms, and values of the original creators that may be harmful to our sensibilities today. There is language here that some may wish to skip. The words of the original speakers were preserved as originally expressed.*

SLAVE NARRATIVES – A FOLK HISTORY OF SLAVERY IN THE US, FROM INTERVIEWS WITH FORMER SLAVES Transcribed by Jerry J. Lewis NORTH CAROLINA NARRATIVES, Pt. 1, Vol. 14, NC District #2. This can be found in the North Carolina State Library. This was a project of the Works Progress Administration in 1937.

These narratives were can be found in Vol 8.2 (starting p. 57) and Vol 9.1 (starting p.59)

The narratives include accounts from former enslaved persons who lived in Raleigh at the time of the WPA survey. Many were enslaved in Wake County, but the transcripts also include accounts from those found living in Wake County but formerly enslaved in the surrounding counties. 

The narratives vary in content but often include the names of family members, enslavers, names and/or location of their enslavement. Details are often included of  the living conditions both during enslavement and after. 

The body of work was written in African American Vernacular English (Southern Black dialect of the nineteenth century) preserving the informant's own words and speech patterns and was transcribed as such. 

These accounts are often difficult to read due of the subject matter. Despite the discomfort, these works are valuable to those who endeavor to traced their ancestors back past the 1870 Census and gain details about family, enslavers and location of plantations.

Here are some partial examples of the interviews included. (The full texts of the below and others can be found in the journals linked above) :

#320013, Pg. 52–JANE LEE, 81* years old, Selma, NC (*typo in Journal has her age listed as 21)

“I wus borned de slave of Marse Henry McCULLERS down here at Clayton on de Wake an’ Johnston line. My daddy wus named Addison an’ my mammy wus named Caroline. Daddy ’longed to Mr. John ELLINGTON who also lived near Clayton. I doan know de number of Mr. ELLINGTON’s slaves, but I know dat Marse Henry had six or seben.

“Marse Henry ain’t had no oberseer ner no patterollers nother. He managed his business hisself an’ ain’t needed nobody. He whupped dem when dey needed hit but dat ain’t often, not dat he ain’t put de whuppin’ on dem what did need hit.

“I ’members de Yankees comin’ good as iffen hit wus yesterday. Dey comed wid a big noise, chasin’ our white folks what wus in de army clean away. Dey chase dem to Raleigh an’ den dey kotch 'em, but dey ain’t had much time, ter do us any damage case dey wus too busy atter de Rebs. ...

#320219, Pg. 73–HENRIETTA McCULLERS, 531 E. Davie Street, Raleigh, NC, 87 years old. 

“...Yo’ ax me iffen Mis’ Betsy wus good ter us? She wus so good dat I loved her all her life an’ now dat she’s daid I loves her in her grave. “We et de same rations what she et an’ we slept in de same kind o’ bed she slept in. I knows dat sometimes she’d have company an’ she’d do a heap o’ extra fixin’, but she ain’t neber fix better fer de company dan fer us. 

“She’d let us have a co’n shuckin’ onct a year, an’ of course, we had a heap of prayer meetin’s an’ a few socials. She ain’t wanted her niggers ter dance case she am such a good Christian, but she let us have candy pullin’s an’ sich. ...

“Iffin de wuck wus pushin’ we wucked from sunup till dark an’ Mis’ Betsy wucked too. Man, she wus a wuckin’ woman, an’ she made us wuck too; but I loves her better dan I does my own chilluns now, en’ dat’s one reason dat I wants ter go ter heaben. All my life when I done a bad thin I think 'bout Mis’ Betsy’s teachin’s an’ I repents. ...

#320248, Pg. 156–ANN PARKER, of the Wake County Home, Wake County, NC

“I reckon dat I is a hundert an’ three or a hundert an’ four years old. I wuz a 'oman grown at de end o’ de war. 

“I ain’t had no daddy case queens doan marry an’ my mammy, Junny, wuz a queen in Africa. Dey kidnaps her an’ steals her 'way from her throne an’ fetches her hyar ter Wake County in slavery. 

“We 'longed ter Mr. Abner PARKER who lived near Raleigh an’ he had maybe a hundert slaves an’ a whole heap of lan’, I ain’t neber laked him much, case we had ter wuck hard an’ we ain’t got much ter eat. He ain’t 'lowed us no fun, but we did have some, spite o’ him. 

“Daughter, did I tell yo’ 'bout my mammy bein’ a queen. Yes, she wuz a queeen, an’ when she tol’ dem niggers dat she wuz dey bowed down ter her. She tol’ dem not ter tell hit an’ dey doan tell, but when dey is out of sight of de white folkses dey bows down ter her an’ does what she says. 

“A few days 'fore de surrender mammy, who am also a witch, says ter dem dat she sees hit in de coffee grounds dat dey am gwine ter be free so all o’ us packs up an’ gits out.

#320176, Pg. 270-JOHN SMITH, a negro in the Wake County Home, Raleigh, NC. Interviewed by T. Pat MATTHEWS, May 10, 1937. 

..."I seed millions of Yankees, jist like bees. When de war close I went wid’ em. I did not work enny for a year. I wuz so glad when de war ended, and dey tole me I wuz free I did not know what to do. I went wid  de Yankees, dey wuz kind to us. Dey said dey wuz shore glad to see us. Dey gib us jist what dey wanted us to hab. 

“During de war, I had corn bread wid one piece of meat a day. De meal wuz not sifted. De white folks had sifters made of horse hair but de slaves didn’t have no sifters. When I carried a dress off to have it made on Sunday for Mist’ss during de war, when she could not make it herself, she gimmie a biskit. We called Sunday, Blue Monday. She gimme de biskit fur workin’ on Sunday. Den I got a biskit fur going atter de dress. I got about two biskits a year when de war wuz going on. I wuz workin’ to keep de soldiers fed, dey got de biskits.

#320168, Pg. 377-TOM WILCOX, of Method. May 19, 1937 

"I wuz borned on March 18th, 1856 durin’ de biggest snow dat eber hit Eastern Carolina’ dey says dat hit wuz up ter de roof. De place whar I wuz borned wuz in Warren County; jist acrost de Halifax County line. My mammy’s marster wuz Mr. B. Osco HARRIS an’ his wife wuz named Martha. 

“My mammy’s name wuz Alice an’ my pappie’s name wuz Camelin. I had three brothers, Little Berry, Cornelius, James an’ C. J. Dar wuz four gals, Anne, Pattie, Pennie, an’ Mary Frances. 

“De white folks wuz good ter us an’ we loved ’em but we wanted ter be free, case de Lawd done make us all free. 

“My missus wuz a religious woman an’ I can’t tell yo’ de number uv times she has beat me case I done some kind uv wuck on a Sunday. We went ter church ever Sunday an’ we wusn’t ’lowed ter cuss an’ sich things. 

“I wuz nine when de war commence. Durin’ de war an’ I wuz workin’ in de fiel’, long wid de fifty or sixty other slaves. Dar wuzn’t nary a Yankee track made in our section, an’ we ain’t knowed much ’bout de war. 

“As I done tell yo’ onct we wuz fed an’ clothed good an’ we lived fer each other, but my pappy belonged ter one man an’ my mammy ter another one an’ so we wanted ter be all together. Atter de war we stayed on till ’69, den we come ter Ralegih. Most uv de wimmens an’ chilluns wuz sent by de train, but me an’ pappy an’ Berry, we walked all de way by Louisburg, an’ driv’ pappy’s thirteen heads of cattle.

“In 1871 we buyed ten acres uv lan’ at Method fer three dollars a’ acre an’ moved out hyar. 

* A special thank you to my advisors on handling this sensitive issue - Esther Moore and Barbara McGeachy

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