S. B. Adams

I was born in Gatesville, Coryell County, Texas on June 5, 1858. My parents was William and Easter Adams . Dere home was in South Karoliney. Dey come to Texas just a-fore I was born. I have allus lived in an' 'round Gatesville. A-fore we was freed, my parents was under George F. Adams , his home was in South Karoliney too. He brung my fambly to Texas wid him. My father an' mother was treated farily well, but dere was some slaves dat was beat. We worked on a farm, raised cattle an' mos' ebery thing needed 'bout de place. De goods fer our close was made at home. De ole spinnin' wheel an' loom was used to make de goods for clothin' an' de close was made by de women with dere fingers, mos'ly at night by candle light, some made clothes by a brush fire light. Fort Gates was four miles Southeast of Gatesville is where de soldiers was. It was moved whar it is now an' called Gatesville, dis was 'bout 1854. I growed up wid de town an' 'member many things dat make up de history of Gatesville. Mr. Adams ' home was de head quarters for de soldiers. I 'member some of de generals. Dey was: Major D. Arnold , Cap'in McLennan , Cap'in Bob Roberts , Gen'ral McAdoo and Major Erath , I also knowed Gen'ral Lee . No'm I nebber did make no money. We jus' had our livin' give to us, for workin' on de farm, by our marster and didn' need no money. We didn' go no where to spend it. He was good to us when we was sick, of we was bad sick he allus had the same doctor wid us he had wid his own folks. Ef we was not bad sick wid somethin' catchin' we took a little blue mass. Sometimes we took bitters, which was made out of a lot of herbs, it was a good spring tonic, kept us from havin' de spring fever. We nebber did go to no baptisin's or hear no preachers, jus us had meetins in de quarters kinda secret like. Didn' nobody learn me to read an' write. I didn' know no games, jus' played 'round 'bout de place like all de chilluns on de plantation, some time wid de white chillun. We played wid marbles some. Sunday was 'bout de onles time de mothers could clean up de chillun an' pick de lice from dere haids, my dey was bad, sometimes de mos' et us up. We could go see de slaves on odder plantations sometim's ef we got a pass from de boss. Ef you tried to go wid out a pass an' de patroller caught you, he would give you a whippen' an' a good'un too. Some de slaves run 'way, most of dem was caught an' brought back an' dey got a good whippen. My marster was pretty good didn' whip us lessen we done somethin' we knowed not to do. I don't know how many acres in Marster Adams ' plantation. It was a pretty big'un an' he raised mos' eberything. We allus had plenty of milk an' bread an' veg'tables to eat. Once in a while we killed a rabbit or a possum, in de woods, when we did we took dem to our quarters an' cooked dem. We caught fish when we went fishin' but we didn' go much. I 'member my mother cookin' cakes for de soldiers an' when she burnt a batch we chilluns allus got dem an' we would stan' 'round an' worry her so she would burn dem 'cause dat was de onlyest time we ebber had cakes. I know lots 'bout de History of Gatesville 'cause I be mos' de time since befo' de war.