Texas Slave NarrativeSmith Wilson Smith Wilson was born a slave in Smith County seventy five years ago. His mother Winnie Wilson was a half Cherokee Indian and half black dutch, her mother being a full blooded Cherokee and her father being a full blooded dutch from over seas. Smith Wilson was a very small boy at the beginning of the war, but his remembrance of slavery time is very remarkable. He talks with no negro brogue, and uses very good English, although he was seventeen before he could either read or write. He married Eva Exter , when he was twenty five years old. To them nine children was born, all of whom are living and live in East Texas. His wife died eight years ago and he has married again. He does not draw an old age pension and lives very modestly on what he can earn doing odd work. His home is on East 6th Avenue in Corsicana I was small during slave time, but I had to work. I had to pick up chips and carry wood for the old missus, or anything else that I was big enough to attend to around the house. Goodness, no they never give us any money. I never seen any money. I never had enough to eat much less any money. We never had anything to eat but corn bread and meat and never all we wanted of that. We didn't know what a biscuit was. I don't remember ever eating one till I was a great big boy. I have seen them at master Hyns house, but lands we wasnt allowed to touch anything up there. They raised lots of chickens but us niggers never tasted one, and we never had time to catch possums to eat. There was a night watchman to see that all the slaves went to bed when they was supposed to. He was a colored man and was a driver in the day time. We always had the same thing to eat, we had no choice, we always had to eat a piece of corn bread and a piece of meat three times a day, three hundred and sixty five days a year. The slaves was not allowed to have a garden at home and they was not allowed to get vegetables out of the masters garden. We wore cotton clothes spun and wove at home. We had the same kind summer and winter Sunday and any other day. We always tried to have clean clothes on Sunday but that was all. I never married until after slave time and by that Time I was use to having clothes and I had just as nice clothes to get married in as any other colored man. Mary Hyns
was our masters name and he was one of the meanest men I ever knowed. His wife was named Hannah
, and she was a Hannah
too. She was as mean as he was. He is dead and gone to the devil and I hope he is getting just what he give to his nigger slaves. Mary
and Hannah Hyns
had four children, William
, Kate
, Walter
, and Georgia
. William
the oldest child was a good boy, he was one of the best I ever seen. His mother and papa did not like him much because he would take up for us niggers when we was being punished. They lived in a double walled two story house. Missus would go up stairs and watch out of the window at the slaves working and if
she seen one that wasnt working for a minute she would tell the master when he come in and he would sure catch the dickens. They had nice furniture for them days. Had old fashioned wooden beds, with big post and rope slats instead of wooden slats. They had plenty of bedding, mattresses, feather beds and
covers. They did not have any money though, they was just like most farmers today, just getting by. Us slaves went hungry most of the time. There was a white overseer that just rode a horse from one field to another and give orders. Oh he was a mean pup. He would just whip the devil out of the niggers, not
when they needed it but just when he wanted to. There was a colored driver, he was an older nigger man. He just went around from one squad of hands to another to see that they was working like they should. The women and men worked separate. We never had time for any funny things to happen to us. We never had time to think of anything but work. I never was allowed to run and play with anybody. My parents tried to raise me right and make a good boy out of me. I never
have been arrested never been a witness, never been in a court room and I am not a drunkard or gambler. When slaves got sick they would have Dr. Bradford
try and get them well. Some of the real old people knew some roots and weeds that tea could be made out of, but I don't remember any of them. I have seen people hang that stinking stuff around kids necks to keep them from taking some catching disease. I guess it was asifidity. I can remember very well seeing
government wagons come to master Hyns
corn crib and get lots of corn. Master Hyns
always killed three or four hundred hogs every year, but it didnt cost him nothing to raise them, they growed wild in the woods. Some say it was June 14, some say June 15, and others say June 19. Master Hyns
called us all to the house and read a paper telling us we was free, that we could go or stay as we pleased. Some was so glad to get away that they never even stayed to hear him read all the paper. He hated to give up his slaves, he had a fortune in us niggers if he could have got the money for us. My mammy, papa and me left the next day after he give us our freedom, we was glad to get to leave. We found a man by the name of Wilson to work on the halvers for. He was such a good man that we went by the name of Wilson instead of Hyns . We hated master Hyns , so that we wouldn't go by his name at all. We worked for Mr. Wilson for two years on the halvers. We made pretty good but we eat the most of it up. We had been starved so long, that when we did get a chance to eat we sure did eat, I can tell you. When I was twenty-five I married Eva Exter . She was nineteen. We was married at her mothers house in Rusk County. She was a good wife and mother to our nine children. All of them are grown and married now and they sure are not any account to me. They all live in East Texas. My first wife died nine years ago and I have married again. I have thirty seven grand children, but no great grandchildren yet. They all live on farms but some work by the days labor. I like Corsicana better than I do East Texas and I can't live with children, they do not want me and I do not care anything about staying where I am not wanted. When we was freed we did not expect anything from master Hyns , we knowed we would not get anything from anyone so tight as he was. The ones that was crazy enough to stay with him just got what he wanted to give them. But some of them was scared and did not know how to manage so they just had to do the best they could. After the war was over and the slaves was free it was terrible how the Ku Klux Klan would go around in their white robes and rob the niggers. Take every cent they had, even take guns or anything that they could use or sell. They robbed my grandmother of $15.00 every cent she had in the world. I am a good citizen and I vote at every election. I am too old to pay poll tax and I have voted every year since I have been in Corsicana. I have always farmed and worked on the railroad. I worked on the railroad for eight years and saved my money and bought a farm in Rusk County. I still own it but it is covered in Bermuda so that it isnt fit for farming. Yessir, I think the young generation is much worse than they was when I was a boy. There is lots more fighting, fussing and killing now than they use to be. Children sure do not mind their parents now like they did when I was growing up. I think times are getting worse than getting better. They did seem to pick up a little to what they was four years ago, but now I don't know with wages so low and groceries so high they just wont work out together. I dont remember a slave uprising but there was one big nigger man on our plantation that would fight just like everything. He would fight back ever time they went to whip him and he knew what they would do to him. They always had to tie him down and he would fight to the very last. I draw no pension at all, I just get what work I can and my wife and I live just as cheap as we can and we do very well. Our home is on Fourth Avenue, Corsicana. BACK TO TEXAS "W" SLAVE NARRATIVE INDEX |