Texas Slave Narratives

Texas Slave Narrative

  Allen Williams

Allen Williams , a 91 year old Negro of Harrison County, was born in Montgomery, Alabama, about 1846, as a slave of Henry Bullard . Allen vividly recalls being brought to Texas as a fair sized boy, by the Bullards , and also being twice sold in Marshall, Texas. His last Master was Senator Greer of Marshall, and he remained with the Greers until about six years after Emancipation. Since reaching manhood, Allen has always earned his living from farming. He now lives with his son, who resides on U.S. #80, seven miles west of Marshall.

State: Texas    Interviewee: Williams, Allen
I hardly knows how to make a statement of my age. I know I was eighteen or twenty years old when the Civil War closed. Mr. Angus Blalock , at Hallsville, told me that I was 'bout ninety-one years old when I had the papers made to try to get a pension. We is 'bout the same age and I belonged to his aunt at surrender. I was bo'n in Montgomery, Alabama and belonged to old man Henry Bullard . I know when we come to Texas, how we come and where we unloaded. I was a fair sized boy, big enough to plow and to catch Master's horse and saddle and unsaddle him. We come most of the way on boats on the Mississippi and Red Rivers, to Shreveport, and unloaded at old Port Caddo. Master Henry bought a farm at Jonesville but he lived in Marshall. He calculated going on west and buying land on the Brazos. The town was just bushes the first time I seed Marshall. The courthouse was in the middle of the square like it is now, but it was a wood building and has just four small rooms. My father was called John Williams . He was bo'n in Alabama, and we allus kept the name of Williams , the fo'ks Bullard bought him from. My mother was Harriet Bullard and was born in Alabama, too. My brothers was named Oliver and Garfield and my sisters was Ebilina , Betty and Angie . My old Grandad, Phil Bullard , come along to Texas with the drove of 'bout fifty slaves, and the Bullards . I don't 'member no stories he told 'cause Henry Bullard got killed directly after we come to Marshall and that caused a separation. That's the reason I ain't seed my mother to this day.

My Master had two or three brother-in-laws here in Marshall. Him and two of them and my father's family left to go west to buy land on the Brazos. Early one morning when they was crossing the Sabine River, one of Bullard's brother-in-laws killed him. They had been fussing a couple of days. Bullard's property was all messed up after he was killed and got scattered. Old Colonel Alford finally got the bulk of it through lawyer Lewis Wilson . All of Bullards darkies was separated by the killing. One of his brother-in-laws took my mother and father and brothers and sisters on to the west, but I fell into the hands of lawyer Wilson first. He kep' me a while and sold me to one of Master's brother-in-laws, Tom Dwyer . I think he was connected with the killing someway. He give lawyer Wilson $500.00 for me and hid me out on a cotton farm in Louisiana for 'bout a year. I 'members it was one Sunday morning that he come and fotched (brought) me back to Marshall. I lived with him some time, right close to where the square in Marshall is now. He had a log house first that sot not four blocks north of the square. Then he tore it down and built a fine house. They call it the Rosborough property now. I don't 'members how long I stayed with Dwyer . I knows when the sheriff come and told him that he would have to give me up, Dwyer said, "I give $500.00 for this Nigger and got to have me money back." John Womack was sheriff then. He took me to the courthouse and I was sold for $1,000 in gold. Old Whispering Joe Taylor cried me off. He was a big man and they say you could hear him howler five miles. He put me on the courthouse steps and say to me, "Boy, can you count?" I say, "Yes, Sah", and counted, "One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten." He say, "That's far enough; can you tend to a hoss (horse)?" I told him I could catch a hoss and saddle and unsaddle him. Then Whispering Joe say to the crowd, "Folks look what a fine, smart, strong boy, if I was buying Niggers I would give $10.00 a pound for him". Senator Greer , of Marshall, bought me for his boy to play with, and was my Master till the Niggers was freed. I had a heap better time then than I has now. I is more in slavery right now than I was then. I sho wish my old Master or my young Master was living, I wouldn't be wanting nothing. I stayed with the Greers till after I was grown. I never seed my mother after we was separated from the Bullards , and only seed my daddy once. In 1871, I heard he was in Bryan, Texas and went to see him.


I'se hunted and cooked with the white fo'ks from Jefferson to the Louisiana State Line 'fore the Civil War was ever heard of. The first work I done was playing and nussing (nursing) my young Master George . The white fo'ks said I was the best Negro nuss in the country in slavery time. There warn't much to Marshall when I first seed it. It was growed up in bushes all where the stores is now. When I was just a boy I'se slipped 'round and peeped at the Pattyrollers whipping Niggers for stealing chickens and other things. The whipping block was right there where the Marshall National Bank is now. The block was built like a bed and filled with sawdust, and had a plank fence round it. Us kids peeped through the cracks. They buckled the Niggers down by the feet and whipped them with a cat-of-nine-tails. A Pattyroller warn't 'lowed to hit a darky more than thirty-nine licks. The law could give him as many as they wanted to. If a Nigger was cotched (caught) out at night without a pass from his owner, the Pattyrollers give him thirty-nine licks at the whipping block. The first talk I heard of war was when Filmore was President. When Abe Lincoln was running for President, they said, "If Lincoln is elected the Niggers will be freed". My young Master George Greer went to the war and was sent to Brandon, Mississippi. My old Master heard they was expecting a big battle up there and went to see him. He took sick and died in Mississippi 'fore he could get back home. Young Master George was in several battles, but warn't wounded. He showed us his clothes where the bullets put holes in them. He was home on a furlough when the surrender come. I seed the first regiment of soldiers out of Marshall to the War. I 'members the day the battle of Mansfield started. General Banks was head of the Yankees at Mansfield. We heard the cannons shooting when they was fighting at Mansfield. I 'members when they had breast-works around Marshall. The day surrender come I never seed the like of guns and soldiers half starved and naked. They was running low of rations when the war ceased. I know when they put up the 'Federate Powder Mill at Marshall, it was the second year of the war. The armory house where they made caps and catridges was on Fannin Street where the ice plant is now. I'se seed the soldiers taking powder from the mill to the armory during the war. The Federates blowed up the powder they had made up when they thunk (thought) the Yankees was going to get it.

You ought to been behind a tree the day young Master George told me I was free, you would have laughed fit to kill. I was down on the farm plowing and Master George rid (rode) up on a hoss and say, "Morning, Allen ". I say, "Morning, Master George ." "Laying by the crap (crop)", he say. "Yes, Sah," I told him. Then he say, "Allen , you is free". I say, "What you mean, free". "The dam Yankees is freed you," he say. I got off the plow and he grabbed me by the arm and pushed my sleeve up and pinted (pointed) to my skin, and say, "Allen , my daddy give a thousand dollars in gold for that, didn't he?" "He sho did", I told him. Then he say, "Didn't my daddy give you to me, and didn't I put them clothes on you?" "Sho nuff you did", I say to him. Then Master George say, "Yes, and the dam Yankees took you away from me, but them is my clothes." Then he made like he was gonna take my clothes away from me and we scuffled all 'round the field. Then Master George begin to laugh, and say, "Allen , I ain't gonna take your clothes. I'se going to put some better ones on you; you is free, but I want you to stay right on and tend to your Mistress like you been doing." I lived with them till after I was grown. I was in and out five or six years 'fore I married. When I couldn't get work, I went back to them and et old Mistress' meat and bread. When the Yankees come to Marshall after the war, they called them Progoes, cause they took charge of all the law business. Major Hess was a big Yankee officer in Marshall. He was old man Progoe his self. They put ignorant southern Niggers in office. I told the darkies they was gonna get in bad in office cause they couldn't handle it. Here is the way it worked. A Yankee officer come to me, say, "Allen , I'll give you sich and sich (such and such) office, if you do what I tell you. I take the office and set back like I was somebody. Then comes one of my southern white men in to see me and say, "Allen , you got this office now?" I tell him I have and he say, "Can you handle it?" I knowed he knowed I couldn't, and so I'd hire him as my clerk. When the Yankees found out I had a southern clerk, they made a big fuss. That kind of business caused lots of trouble, but they got along tolerable well after awhile.

There was plenty of Ku Klux them days. One night 'bout seventy five of them hid in Greenwood Cemetery and raised up with lights when Niggers passed by. The next night Major Hess sent a bunch of soldiers over there and told them to arrest every one that rise up with a light, and didn't no more lights show up. I married at Hallsville in 1877, and my wife and all my five children is still living. The two girls is married and the boys is all farming in Harrison County. I use to vote the Republican ticket. When we first voted we had to go to the Loyal League in Marshall to get instructions. The Yankees started that Loyal League business to get the Niggers to vote like they wanted them to. They come from as far as Henderson to Marshall to the Loyal League. The darkies called the man at the head of it "The Progoe Man". That Loyal League business caused lots of fussing and fighting twixt (between) the southerners and the Yankees. The last President I voted for was Mr. Roosevelt in 1933. I went to Hallsville on election day, and Mr. Blair , a white man, say to me, "Allen , who you gonna vote for?" I told him, "I'll tell you who I ain't gonna vote for." He say, "Who is that?". I say to him, "You had better let Hoover be, I was freed under the Republican banner, but I is tired of it; these Democratics knows more 'bout at we need than anybody". I'se been a Democratic ever since. I think the young set of our folks is doing right well. Some them will allus need leading and some of them don't. A lot of people don't believe in the colored people having any part in law, but they put our young folks in school and educated them. I think they ought to let a man do what he is able to do. A old man like me ain't got no business in law or politics, cause all I know to do is what the white fo'ks tell me, but I believe them that is educated and able to take without being led ought to have a part in law and politics and do what they can.


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