BIO:  Willis Woodson, Slave - Smith County, TX

Submitted by East Texas Genealogical Society
P. O. Box 6967, Tyler, TX 75711

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BORN IN SLAVERY:  SLAVE NARRATIVE FROM THE FEDERAL WRITERS' PROJECT,
1936-1938

Copied from the National Archives web page

No. 420255
EX-SLAVE STORIES (Texas)

WILLIS WOODSON does not know his age, but looks very aged.  He was 
born in Whiterock, but he does not know its locations, except that it 
was somewhere east of the Mississippi river.  Willis now lives in 
Tyler, Texas

"I'm borned at a place called Whiterock, but don't rightly 'member no
other name, but it was a long, long way from here, though.  I was
the prop'ty of Marse Richards, but he sold me and my maw and a lot
of darkies to Marse Ike Isom.  Maw said Marse Ike done pay $500 for 
me, cheap 'cause I's purty little and couldn't do much work.

"Marse Isom moved to Texas and everybody helped load de wagons, and
we starts real early in a a cold mornin'.  De old womens and little
chillens rode in de wagons, but de men walked.  We traveled real
slow, though, and it wasn't no worse'n plowin' all day.  One Marse
Isom's sons rid behind on a big, white hoss, and seed none of the
darkies runned off.  At night we fixes a supper and goes to bed and 
all de niggers is chained together and slept on straw beds.  The
white men tooked turns guardin' dem with guns.

"We gits to de new farm, long ways from where we lives befo', and
starts clearin'land.  When we gits settled, Old Miss picks me to be 
nuss to her chillen.  Maw didn't work in de field.  She say she done
been hurt when she got a whippin' when she ain't growed, and her back 
ain't good no more.  Old Miss say, 'Eva, you come in de kitchen and 
make some chittlin's, and iffen you cooks good, you can work in my 
kitchen."  Maw, she make dem chitlin's and dey's damn good, so she
gits to cook den.

"Marse and Old Miss lives in de big house, with boards outside, 
'steadin' logs.  It have big rooms, lots of dem, and a big fireplace
all 'cross de side one room.  Me and 'nother boy has to bring in 
logs to build de fire, him totin' one end and me totin' one end.
I stays in de house, so I gits good clothes and shoes, too.  Some
des niggers didn't have hardly no clothes, though.

"De mostest fun I ever got was when Marse Isom 'lows me to be
footman.  He gets me a uniform, most like a sojer's, 'captin'
mine am red with black stripes down de pants.  I 'member it jist
like yesterday, de first time I puts it on.  Marse give a 
cel'bration at he house and de doorman am sick, so I has to be it.
He give me dat suit and say to hurry put it on.  Then he make me 
come to de front door and let him in over and over, so as to get de 
hang of it.  He told me to take his hat and cane and put dem up,
and to say, 'Thank you,' and 'Dis way, please,' and not to say no 
more to nobody, and I didn't.  After dat night I opens de door
lots of times, but mostest I wears dat suit when I takes de white
folks to church, while day listens to preachin' and I holds de
hosses.

"I never did see no niggers whipped, but I done see dat whip hangin'
in de barn.  It a big, long thing, lots bigger'n a horsewhip, and
I know it must have been used, 'cause it all wore out at one end.

"All de fun we has am huntin' and fishin'.  We can go any night
if we gits a permit from Marse Isom.  Sometimes at night, he lets
all de big niggers git together 'hind de cabins and make a big
bonfire.  Den we sings all de songs we knows, til nine o'clock,
den marse rings de bell, to cut out all de noise.

"Just' befo' dat war am over, some soldiers marches through de
farm and kilt all de cows and stock and burns de barn, Marse beg
dem not to burn the house, so dey didn't.  Some dem niggers quits
when dey freed, without no supper, but not dis nigger!  I stays
sev'ral years, den gits a job snakin' logs in a sawmill.  Den I
marries and has seven chillen and I stays with first one, den
'nother.  I helps dem all I can.  I been patchin' up some fishin'
tackle today.