|
|
||
|
Bastrop County, TX |
||
|
|
||
|
|
IRELLA BATTLE WALKER, 86, was
born a slave at Craft's Prairie, Texas. Her parents, Mesheck and Becky Battle, belonged to
Mr. Battle, but were sold while Irella was a baby to Tom Washington, of Travis
County. Irella learned her A B C's from an old
slave. Jack James, although it was against
the rules. This was the only schooling she ever had. Irella receives a monthly old are pension of
eight dollars. She lives at 2902 Cole St., Austin, Texas "My name was Irella Battle and I was borned
on August 15th, in. 1851, down at Craft's Prairie, in Bastrop County. I
was 86 years old last August, and I'm blind in one eye. "Mammy's name was Becky
Batts, and she was a field worker, and dat about de
most work she have to do, 'cept on rainy days. She had five girls and one boy and
I'm de youngest and de only livin' one new. Daddy was Mesheck
Bettle and when I'm a baby in mammy's arms, us sold to Massa
Washington. "Daddy had to de field
work. I never knowed him de nothin'
but farm. He she' make us behave and whop us if we didn't.
Massa was purty good. De masses den times, same was good and some was bad, and about de
most of dem was bad. I had to he'p
round de big house and dey
purty good to me. But when I still little I went to
de fields. Dey give me a sack what de slaves make to pick
cotton in. Dey spin de thread and make cloth on de
loom and stitch it and make cotton
sacks. Dey short for us chillen
and de older folks had a short one to pick in and a big sack to
empty in. I could pick about a hundred fifty pounds a day when I's twelve. Israel Roberts
could pick five hundred a day. Us never get me money for pickin'. only good and clothes and a place to stay
at night. Old man Jonas watched us chillen and kept us divin'
fer dat cotton all de day
long. Us wish him dead many a time. "De plantation had a hoss-power gin and some days our rows of cotton tooked us right to de gin house and we'd look up
and watch de slave boys settin' en
de lever and drivin' dem hosses round and round. "De
cabins was log and mud and stick chimney. When one dem
chimneys cotch fire us git on top and threw water on
it." "In summer us go barefoot, but dere
shoemakers what make shoes for winter. When a beef killed, de hide kept and
cleaned and put in de tannin' trough. Whom de leather ready, de shoes make in de little shoe
shop, and when den shoes git dry dey hard as a rock. Daddy make us rub tallow or
fried grease meat or any other kind grease into dat
hard shoe leather, and it make dem soft, but when de dew and sun git
on den again dey's hard again. Times de coyotes steal dem greased shoes and make off with dem.
Dat act'ly happen a lot of times. "Old man Jack James work
at day and have night school at night. He have long beards for benches and let dem
down by ropes from de rafters. and have blue back
spellers. He point to de letters with de long broom
straw and dat's how we larn
our A B C's. I can read purty good, when my eyes let me, but I
can't write nothin". "If it rained we had to
shuck and shell corn or pull weeds in de yard, and it was a big one, too. De women spin thread for de
loons, two of dem and a spinnin'
wheel in every cabin. "Us have beds de men make
and take were out clothes and breeches and piece dem
and stuff with cotton for quilts. When
it cold us keep fire all night long. De plates an tin and a big gourd dipper to drink water
with. De men make dere own cedar water pails. "De week's ration for a crowed person run like. three pounds bacon
and a peck cornmeal and soon homemade 'lasses. No
flour and no coffee, but as parch bran or wheat and make coffee. Each night dey give a pint of sweet milk.
But de chillen all et in a special place in de kitchen. "One mornin'
Massa Washington call us all and he road from de big paper. He say. 'You is free to live and free to die and
free to go to de devil, if you wants to.' He tell us if we gather he crops he'd pay us far it.
Den he turned and walked away and started cryin'.
All de families stays but one man. De
highest price massa pay
anybody was about $15.00. but dat seem like a let of money to folks what
wasn't used to gittin' any money at all. "Finally my folks lived on
a farm on Onion Creek, in Travis County, en rented
land from Nat Watters and Dr. Shears, and
farm on de third and fourth. We stays about six years and raises cotton and corn. "But when I'm twenty years
old I marries Joe Walker and us move to Bastrep
County, and I stays
dere till he dies in 1932. Us have eleven chillen and nine of den still livin'.
I gits a pension, nine dollars de month, and it
she' am a help now I's old and nearly blind. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|