Then she married Col. Haggerty and he got kilt in a gamblin' spree and left her a lot of land and 'bout three hundred slaves. he kept a nigger woman chained to a loom for a year and when she knew the slaves as gittin' free, she poisoned a lot of dem and buried dem at night. We'd hear he other slaves moanin' and cryin' at night for the dead ones. That widow Haggerdy was somethin'! I seed the 'Mattie Stephens ' boat the day after it burned and kilt sixty people. Me and Anthony Thomas went to Marshall and married the day 'fore it burnt. That was on February 12th, in 1869. I lived with him fifty-five years and raised seven chillen, and after he died I kep' on farmin' until 'bout three years ago. Then I come to live with one my son's here and this land we're on right now was part the land old Marse Baldwin owned. I gits $10.00 a month from the gov'ment. They sho' is good to me, and my son is good, too, so I's happy in my old age.

Lucy Thomas , a native Negress of Harrison County, was born in 1851, as a slave of Dr. William Baldwin . She left the Baldwins with her parents in 1868, moving to the Haggerty place. In 1869 she was married to Anthony Thomas , living with him fifty-five years and rearing seven children. Lucy continued to earn her own living on the farm after the death of her husband until about three years ago. At the present time she is living with her son at Baldwin Switch, 16 miles northeast of Marshall on the Long's Camp Road. Her son is farming part of the land originally settled by the Baldwins. Lucy now receives a $10.00 per month old age Government pension. My name is Lucy Baldwin Thomas . I was bo'n here in Harrison County on the Dr. Baldwin place at Fern Lake. The log cabin where I was bo'n sot in a grove of trees right there by the lake. The Baldwin place jined (joined) the Haggerty , Fitzpatrick , Cavin and Major Andrews places. It set right in the middle of them. The best statement I can make of my age is that I was 'bout fourteen the last year of Abe Lincoln's war. I 'members my mother saying we had been free four years when I married and dat I was eighteen years old when me and Anthony Thomas got wedded. I was big enough to chop cotton the first year of Abe Lincoln's war. You can figurate my age from that. I went to work in the field hoeing when I was nine years old and has worked in the field ever since till 'bout three years ago. They called my father Ike. The Baldwins bought him out of Alabama. My mothers name was Nancy . She was bo'n in Virginia, but the Baldwins bought her out of the New Orleans slave market for eleven hundred dollars. The Baldwins brought my grandma, Barabara , to Texas with them. I'se heard her tell how some of the owners in Alabama drug their darkies with a mule and laid them face down in a hole and beat them till them was raw as beef steak. She say the darkies on lots of places had to hide out to sing and pray. Her folks warn't like that. She say she allus belonged to good white folks like the Baldwins . I had two brothers, Anthony , named for mother's father, and Will Cammack , named for our daddy's first master. There was seven girls, Me, Floreda and Rosetta was named for our mother's sisters, Barabara was named for mother's mother, Pink and Lethe was named for friends and Nancy was named for her mother.

My Mistress name was May Amelia . She had five boys and three girls: Ben , Will , Lewis , Phil and George , and Millie , Nannie , and May Amelia . May Amelia was named for her mother, but we allus called her Love , cause she was allus so kind to everybody. The Fitzpatrick , Major Andrews and Baldwins darkies was called "Free Niggers" cause our Masters has respect for them. My old Master was a doctor, but he worked 'bout five hundred acres of land and owned 'bout eighty-five darkies. The darkies lived in log quarters. Some of them had them 'son-of-a-gun' beds made of planks pegged to the wall, and some of them didn't. We wore bachelor brogans shoes and white, red, yellow, blue and striped lowell clothes made on the place. We allus had most anything we wanted to eat. I'se seed long rows of hogs hanging in the yard at killing time. My mother allus said she had a heap better time in slavery than after she left the Baldwins . All the hands was up and in the field by day light. Nobody laid in bed up in the morning like folks do today. Dr. Baldwin allus had a fifty gallon barrel of whiskey on the place. He kept a demijohn of whiskey on the front porch all the time for the darkies to get a drink on the way to the field in the morning. You never heard of nobody getting drunk then. Master's brother-in-law, Lewis Brantley , was overseer, but he never kicked and cuffed and beat the darkies. He give us a light brushing when we needed it. The darkies was allowed to go most anywhere they wanted to if they got a permit. They had big dances on jining places but I never 'tended them. We had play parties on the place on Saturday night and played 'Red Morroco Shoes and Stockings' and games like that. The first work I done was hoeing. I went to work in the field when I was 'bout nine years old, but Mistress took me out of the field and put me in the house. My mama was house woman .. the weaver, milker and nurse.

I was bo'n to see ghosts, but times is changed and you don't see any now. Some of the darkies was allus seeing ghosts in slavery time. They had all kinds of shapes and was all sizes, but I never seed any after I got grown. I went to school three months in my life. That was the first year of Abe Lincoln's war. A Yankee named old man Mills run a school on the Sledge place. I quit to work in the field. If I had stayed with him I might have been somewhere now. There was a church on the Sledge place, too, but we didn't go much. I 'members when the war started and when it ceased. My father went to the war with Lewis Brantley . Dr. Baldwin let him go with his brother-in-law to wait on him, but he had to 'fit' (fight) 'fore it was over. My folks stayed on with the Baldwins three years after the War ceased and moved to the Haggerty place. I 'members them Ku Kluxing the darkies right after the war. I'se seed big bunches of darkies with their heads tied up pass our place going to Marshall to report the Ku Kluxers to the Progee Marshall. Just 'bout the close of the war I got hold of a song I thought was pretty and was allus singing it, but didn't know what it meant. It went like this: 'Old River ain't you sorry as you can be We go marching home, we go marching home Cause we hung Jeff Davis to a sour-apple tree.' I went through the house singing it one day and Mistress heard me and hollered, "Lucy , hush your singing that song." I had a good voice and she allus like to hear me sing so I didn't know till I was grown why she made me hush sing it. I found out it was a Yankee soldier song they sung after the surrender at the Battle of Mansfield. I knows lots 'bout old Colonel Haggerty's widow. I'se heard my Master and my grandma tell 'bout her. My Master was the doctor and the Haggerty place jined our place.

Old widow Haggerty was an Indian, and her first husband was a big chief of the Caddo Indians when they lived on Caddo Lake. Grandma Barabara told us that widow Haggerty's first husband broke a treaty with the Indians and betrayed them to the Americans and he and his wife hid out in a cave on Caddo Lake. His wife slipped out and got him food and water. One day when she was away, the Indians found him and took him away and she never seed him no more. They say the Indians scalped him like they done white folks. After the Indians killed him his wife married old Colonel Haggerty . He was a gambler and went off on a gambling spree and was killed. He left his widow a lot of property and 'bout three hundred slaves. My grandma said she kept a Negro woman chained to a loom for a year. My Master said that when Widow Haggerty knowed the slaves was going to be freed that she poisoned lot of her darkies and buried them at night. I 'members when we heard her darkies crying and moaning at one and two o'clock in the morning for their dead ones. That Widow Haggerty was sumpin'. When my folks lived on the Haggerty place, I'se been right to the cave where they say her first husband hid from the Indians. I 'members when big boats come to Port Caddo and to Jefferson. I seed the "Mattie Stephens " boat the day after it burned and killed sixty people. Me and Anthony Thomas went to Marshall and married the day 'fore it burned. We come home the next day and went to Port Caddo where they brought the hull to the shore. That was on February 12, 1869, and I was eighteen years old. That ship burning is another way I calculate how old I is. The ship was on the way to Jefferson from New Orleans when it burned, and had 'bout a hundred people on it. I'se seed darkies by the droves going to Marshall to be on the jury. Then they had to be crazy to get off it. I had a uncle called on the jury. He was busy in the craps (crops) and didn't want to go. He stuffed his clothes with rags like he was disfigured and when they 'zammended (examined) him they ask him if he knowed the day of the month and he said, "Yes Sah, it am the 67th". I laugh at him after that when he wanted on it and they wouldn't let him. That crowd then was on it and couldn't get off and this crowd now is off it and can't get on. The young set of our folks is too divided. Our folks was more together when I was young. Then they would help each other, but now they won't, less you got money.