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Texas Slave Narrative
Jacob Aldrich
Jacob Aldrich
, born January 10, 1860 in Terrebonne Parish, La., was the slave and grandson of Michelle Thibedoux
. He lived in Terrebonne and St. Mary's Parishes until the Mississippi River flood of 1928, when he came to Beaumont. He now lives at Helbig, a suburban community. He was rather well-dressed, his hat, clothing and shoes being in good condition, and indicating that they had been taken care of. His face was
brown. Deep furrows run from the corners of his mouth, extending along the sides of his nose. "Yessir, I was born in slavery, in 1860. January de tenth. I was born in Terrebonne Parish over in Louisiana 'bout twelve miles below Houma, but I lives in Helbig now. But I ain't been dere more than nine year.
"My father's name was Alfred Aldrich
, and my mother was name Isabella
. I had five brothers and one sister."De marster's name was Michelle Thibedoux
. Dat was de same as Mitchell Thibedoux
, and some of de people called him dat. He was my Gran'pa too, my mother's father. You know in dem times de women had to do what dere masters told 'em to do. If dey didn't dey pick on 'em and whip 'em. If she do what he want he stop picking on 'em and whipping 'em. Old Marster was bad 'bout dat, and his sons
was bad too. "Marster would come 'round to de cabins in de quarters. Sometime he go in one and tell de man to go outside and wait 'til he do what he want to do. Her husband had to do it and he couldn't do nothing 'bout it. Marster was tough 'bout dat. He had chil- len by his own chillen. Some of de
marsters sell dere own chil- len. "Marster was mean. He hardly ever whip 'em over dere clothes. He whip 'em on de bare skin. He make de women throw dere dress up over dere head, and make de men undress.
"He didn't give us anything much to eat, and you better not steal. If you did he beat you. He give 'em a peck of meal a week. Each family git de same whether it was a big family or a little one. He give you corn meal. Sometime dey grind up oats and dey give you dat meal. Sometimes he give 'em pork.
"My daddy was a plow hand. Mother, she work in de field with a hoe. Marster used to work 'em from 'kin to can't'. If he ax you if you could you better not say 'yes'. If you say 'yes' he say, 'come here. I git you warm.' Den he beat you. He git your back hot for you. He work de niggers right along. It
take a very severe rain to bring you out de field. "Dey didn't 'low you to go 'way from your plantation. If you go off, any 'peck' what find you catch you and whip you and carry you back. Most of dem peoples 'round dere was Creoles. Dey wasn't Frenchmen. A Frenchman is somebody what was born in France.
Some years ago dey was teaching dat in de schools. Dey make 'em cut it out. Dey say dat dey oughtn't to be learning dat foreign talk, dat it warn't right. Dey didn't have no business transacting in dat language. "Marster live in a one-story plank house. He used to live by de S.P. Track at Shriever, but
he got in debt. So he sold out and move to a smaller place. Dat was twelve year before freedom. Look to me like a man fix like he was with plenty of slaves to make his own living oughtn't have to let his place git away from him. But he gamble a lot. When he lost dat place he git de place down by Houma. Dat
was a big place. I guess dere was twelve or fifteen hundred acres, swamp and all, but lot of it warn't cleared up. "Sometime Marster punish his slaves like dis. He had two heavy plank with a hole for your neck and two little holes for your wrists. Dey had a iron strap at de end to lock it down. Dey have
another for your feet. Dey give you twenty-five licks and clamp you in it. Next morning dey give you twenty-five more and tell you to git your breakfast and git to work. Dey whip you with a half-inch bull whip. When dey git through with you, you need a doctor. How you 'spect anybody to rest in dat thing? Dey
too sore to work. I seen dat thing since free time. Sometime dey put salt and pepper on your back after dey whip you. "Marster didn't look after de place hisself. He put his son to be overseer. He was all de time fooling with gals. He had as many mulatto chillens as his daddy had. He was my uncle.
He didn't want de slave boys to have anything to do with do gals. If he see a boy talking to a gal he call him and tell him be better not let him catch him talking to dat gal no more. if he did he gwinter beat him. If any man had told me dat, dey'd had to bang me. If a white man want to talk to a white gal, I
ain't not nothing to say. And if he want to talk to a cullud gal I ain't got nothing to say, but he better not tell me I can't talk to a cullud gal, 'cause if he do I gwinter knock him down. He got no business doing dat, and if a nigger knock down a white man in dam days dey hang de nigger. Dat's de way de
law was made. It warn't so in some other places. In Virginny where my pa come from dey couldn't hang a nigger. But dey hang him in Louisiana where I was raise. "When a slave man want to marry he have to see de Marster. He tell him 'yes'. and tell de gal to go with de man and dat was de way dey marry on
Marster's place. Next morning her Marster ax her if her husband touch her. If he didn't, or she wouldn't let him, dat one git fifty lashes. Olf Marster fool with dem but dey mustn't kick. "I never was 'rested. and I never 'rested nobody. I could have 'rested a man one time. One time a man took my
gun,-went into my house and took it out. I could have had him 'rested but I didn't. It wouldn't done nobody no good. It wouldn't got my gun back for me. "The slaves had plank houses 'bout thirty-six foot. It had a 'vision (division) in the middle, and one family live in each end. Dey had wooden shutter
for window and door. Dey take planks and make bunks to sleep on like in a camp. The mattress was jis' old crocus sack with hay in it. Marster give 'em a sheet and quilt. If dey hustle 'round maybe dey git another quilt. Dey had a box for a table or maybe a rough shack table like what dey have in camps. Dey
was benches for 'em to sit on. He give 'em a cheap tin plate and knife and fork. "I stay in de quarters and play 'round. Dere was 'bout twenty slaves, chillen and all. Dey had a special house for de chillen, and a old woman to take care of 'em. Lots of time dey put clabber in a trough and give de chillen
a tin spoon and dey all crowd 'round de trough and eat it. "All de light dey had at night was candles. I b'lieve dey make 'em on de place. In de cold weather dey put on a chunk of wood. When dey go to bed dey kiver it with ashes so dey have fire in de morning. I seen 'em bring a chunk of fire from one
house to another in de evening so dey have fire in de morning. Dey put on a big back log sometime. Sometime if a piece of wood break in two in de night dey git up and put de ends together and kiver it up with ashes. "De slaves clothes was made out of bed ticking. Dat was better bed ticking den what dey
has now. Now if you wash bed tick it split on you, but den it last a long time. Marster bought his cloth. Dey didn't have a loom on de place to weave it. De chillen wore shirts dat come down most to dere feet. Some was jis' 'bout ready to go in de fields and go to work, but dey wore de same kind of clothes.
When dey went to work dey give 'em pants. "Marster kept three wimmin in de house for him. He sent all de way to Baltimore and bought a light one for him. She carry de keys up in de house where he live. Old Missus ain't say nothing 'tall 'bout it. Warn't no use, 'cause he a hard man. "My pa run off
one time when Marster first move to Houma. He send pa to git some hogs what got out. He tell him he better not come back 'thout dem hogs. Dat was in February. He didn't git catch 'til September. He went to Algiers or some of dem places 'round New Orleans. De way he git catch was dis,-one Sunday dere was a
crowd of 'em gambling. Dey raise a fuss and git put in jail. De owners of de other niggers come and git dere niggers out but dere warn't nobody to git pa out. After while a man come 'round what knowed pa. He went back and told Marster. Marster say he didn't want him, he sell him. De man ax how much he want
for pa, and Marster say $1500.00. De man say dat too much so pa have to come back. Marster beat him and put him to work. He say pa owed him sixty cords of wood for de time he was off and made him work every Sunday 'til he got dat sixty cords cut. "De usual price for a common laborer in de field was eight
or nine hundred dollars. Wimmen brought two hundred and fifty to three hundred dollars. But trained slaves was worth lots more. Lots of time a marster send a slave off to work in a blacksmith shop or some other kind of shop jis' to learn a trade, den when he come back he be de mechanic for de plantation. Dey
train up wimmen dat way to sew and cook and sich like. "Old Marster was a Cath'lic. Some of de slave babies was christen in de Cath'lic Chu'ch but I warn't. My parents didn't b'lieve in it. I was baptise after freedom. I's Baptist now. I used to be a deacon. "I don't 'member nothing 'bout
soldiers. Young Marster hide out and didn't go to de war. He stay 'round with de cullud folks in de cabins and sich. He had a fine education but he rough. He had seven chillen by cullud wimmen. De white folks look down on him but dey 'fraid of him.
"In slavery times he had a uncle what was a lawyer. He tell young Marster to take boxing lessons, and he done it. It took a mighty good man to handle him. "He had a good, a fine education but it was too nice for him. One time he got a good job keeping books, and another time a man want to pay him
fifty dollars a month jis' to teach his chilluns music, but he wouldn't do neither. You know education without brains ain't worth nothing. You got to have brains. You kin cultivate 'em but you can't cultivate a empty head. "Old Marster die before freedom come. Officers come from Houma and told us we
free. Dey had what dey call Military Law. Dey had a man to see after de plantation. Dey call him de Provo' Marshal. He see if de chillen was took proper care of. If a little child ought to be nurse four times a day and he ma warn't coming in from de field but three time he tell her, "you have to come in
and give dis baby he nourishment". He tell 'em how to do other things dey s'posed to do. Sometime dere mammies come in from de field and find dem chillen laying on de ground 'sleep, dey so wore out from crying for something to eat dat dey go to sleep. "De Klu Klux dey use to range at night. I never
hear of 'em killing anybody, but many cullud man git beat 'most to death. My pa come from Virginny. He say dey call 'em patter-rollers dere.
"I used to go to de Cath'lic Chu'ch. The priest invite us to come and see how dey do things. Some of de niggers jine 'em. But I didn't, I jis' couldn't see it dat way. "I jine de Baptist Church, 'bout forty year ago. I was some 'res 'bout thirty den. A baptist preacher marry me when I git marry. I
was 'bout thirty year old. It was de third of April. I marry Mollie Williams
and us raise ten chillens. "It was jis' a quiet wedding. You couldn't have a big wedding 'cause dey was paying you fifty cents a day and de man you was working for could keep out half of dat 'til de end of de year. If you quit your job you lost de half he had. Dat was from 1875 to 1880. Den wages went
up to six bits. Seventy-five cents a day and board yourself. But I went through all dat to bring up my chillens. And I don't take no back talk off of 'em now. I jis' as soon knock 'em down, and dey know it, and dey knows dey better not try it. "Dere used to be cunjur men on de plantations. Dey go off in
de woods and Marster couldn't tell 'em nothing. Marster couldn't come 'round 'em if dey didn't want him to. Dey could send you for whiskey and de man where dey sent you let you have it. He couldn't help it,-he had to. Dat hoo-doo was good for de cullud folks. You could go to a cunjur man and he could fix you
up so Marster couldn't hurt you. Dey don't have dat kind of cunjur now. What dey got now ain't good like it used to be. Now you give 'em money and dey keeps it and don't do nothing for you. "I has seen gos's. I kin see 'em in a house. Dere was one house where a man's wife die. Dere'd be a noise like
everything turn over but when you go dere everything was right where it ought to be. He go and git de preacher to read de Scripture in de house. Den after dat he could stay in dere in peace. I say a gos' can't hurt you but dey kin make it uncomfortable where you is. "After old Marster die dey used to
hear de sugar mill running. When dey go to see 'bout it dere warn't nobody dere. It was old Marster's spi't. Heap of people don't b'lieve in ghos's but dey jis' as well to. "Dey jis' sudden 'pear and dis'pear. I used to could see a woman cross de yard jis' 'bout dusk. I jis' could see her for a minute or
two. I used to have a boy what could see 'em good. I can't see 'em so good. You kin feel a difference in de air when dey is 'round. "One evening I was riding down de road. Something hit de fence and bus' through jis' like a cow went through it. I look but I couldn't see nothing. I tell de preacher 'bout
it and he say it was a ghos'. Dat what I thought it were, too. "Dere was a man what marry old Marster's daughter. Dey see him going 'round three months after he dead. Everybody say he going 'round three months after he dead. Everybody say he going 'round 'cause he ain't at rest. She go and see de priest
bout it. He say it going to take three masses to git him at rest. So she pay him for dem masses and den she satisfy. "I's been a Odd Fellow. I's held every office in de lodge 'cepting the N.G. and P.S. When de brother what hold dem office regular ain't dere, dey 'p'int me to fill 'em 'cause I qualify.
"My pa say de spec'lator or nigger trader go North and buy niggers. De niggers what give trouble dey sell to him. He say in Virginny dey wouldn't let 'em kill a slave. "He say dere was one nigger on Mr. William Bearsland
place done something and Mr. William
go to whip him. Nigger had a hoe and he say if anybody try to whip him he gwinter kill 'em. Mr. William
tell him to put dat hoe down, but he wouldn't. Den he git he shotgun. When de nigger still won't put de hoe down, he shoot him in de legs. Still he say he ain't gwine to be beat, dey might as well give him de other load. I think dey kill him. "Mother tell 'bout a gal what run off. She say de gal stay
with her. She never know she run off. Two men come with dogs and ask her if she where de gal was. She say, 'In de field 'cross de fence.' Dey sic de dogs on her and dey tear every rag of cloth off her. "Marster's main business was making sugar. Sometimes he work his slaves right 'long through Sunday.
Sometimes he don't 'low de fires to go down 'til he git a hundred hogshead of sugar. Den after de crop was in and de sugar made, he give 'em a week off. "He give Christmas Day off. He give 'em a little dinner and whiskey. You got all you want at Christmas. "Some of de folks 'round dere had what dey
call 'free niggers'. Dey let dere niggers go anywhere 'thout a pass. "I spend mos' of my time farming. I live in Terrebonne, den I move to St. Mary Parish. I left dere and come to Beaumont nine year ago. You 'member dat big washout they had back dere in 1927? Well, when de water went down I come here.
"I think dat 'bout fix up my story."
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