Texas Slave Narrative
President Wilson
I was born June 18, 1857, on my master's place, which was at the southwest corner of where Waco Lake is now. My master's name was John Wilson
. My master and my mother named me. I don't know why they called me President
, but it has always been my name. You can find it in de courthouse. My father's name was Antrim Wilson
, and my mother's name was Harriet
. I had three sisters named Polly
, Jane
and Priscilla
. Polly
is de only one livin'. I haven' seen her for 'bo thirty-six years, but I heard awhile back she is livin' in Dalls had two brothers, one was named Bill Wilson
, and the other was name Burl Standifers
, and took their name. Both of my brothers is dead. I don't know where my father was born, but I think my mother was born in South Carolina. My master had 'bout twenty-five slaves. I don't know how many acres there was in his farm; 'bout a hundred and sixty, I guess. He had one son. My wife's name is Nannie
, but she was not born in slavery times. We never had no children.
My master never whipped the slaves, but he had a overseer nam Bill Ditto who whip them. When he would whip a slave he would say, "Don't thank me for this. Thank your master." So I reckon by that master had him whip us. When my father was whipped he would run away and hide in the river bottom. I seen them bring him several times. If dey whipped when dey brought him in, he would run away ag'in, but if dey didn' whip him, he would stay awhile, maby a year. We raised cotton, corn, some fruit, and cattle, and hogs. My master had some good horses. We didn't know we was free till we saw some soldiers in blue come into de country. Our master tol' us then that we was free. We stayed on de place for awhile, but Bill , my oldest brother, went off and got a job. Finally Bill Ditto tol' my mother that unless my brother come back and worked dere, we could go away. Bill , my brother, come in dat night, and my mother tol' him what Ditto had said, and so Bill took us all with him to where he was workin'. I never got no schoolin'. I don't know how to read and write. None of de master's folks would teach us, and dey never read de Bible to us or let us go to church. I don't think they went much theirselves. Dey worked us pretty hard, and dey'd whip us without no excuse lots of time. Make us lay down on a log and whip till de blood come. We didn' get to do anything much but work. We could go to see other slaves some, but we always had to have a pass. Lots of slaves run away, but dey'd most always ketch 'em and bring 'em back. We made all our clothes, and we had pretty good clothes such dey were, but never did have any shoes. Went barefoot all de time. We was feed pretty good. De slaves lived in log house. A bunch of us lived in a fairly big one. De master and his family lived in a big frame house. De master went off after de war started. I reckon he went in de war. He died sometime after de war was over and he had come back home.
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