Slavery

William Moore  Age 82

William Moore recalls his times living as a slave on a plantation alongside the recollection of his family. As a family he would go to church with his mother and listen to a white man preach "bey our masters and work hard and sing and when we die we go to Heaven." This just shows how slaves were forced to obey their white masters and was enforced upon them in all aspects of life. Particularly as Moore goes on to say that praying was all that the slaves had but could not risk getting caught praying or they would get a beating.

He mentions multiple times how his mother has been so brutally beaten that they could not get the clothes off her back because they were stuck with blood. The beatings were so bad that they remained permanently scarred until the day she died. Another time he saw her tied to a tree with her clothes pulled down screaming in complete agony. She was being beaten with a bull whip and was stood completely covered in blood running down from her eyes all the way down her back. When William tries to save her the man hits him with the whip. He explains this in terms of "First white man sets himself inside that rail fence gits it from the gun" This means that as soon as you cross the fence you are in the white mans territory. If you dare to cross him or try to escape he will not hesitate to shoot you. In addition to this they are the property of the white man so he will also not hesitate to beat up the slaves so that they do not disrespect the owner and that they know there place.

Until one day he hears the news that he was free. He was in such disbelief that all he could do was look around, he saw all of the others packing little piles of clothes in the cabins. He jumped into a cart with his sister and mother and finally became a free man. Once they arrived at Miss Mary's they all celebrated by praying and singing but were so exited and full of emotion that they could not eat or stop themselves from crying.

From then on he managed to find a job not long after leaving and began a new life. He got married and had three children who even went to school, until trouble arose during emancipation. Moore goes on to mention briefly that his brother had some trouble with the Ku Klux Klan. As he became an old man his children had grown up and his wife had died he still says "I'm thankful to Gawd and praiseful for the pension what lets me have a lil somethin to eat and a place to stay." It just goes to show how grateful William Moore was to be freed that he is now content with life and is just happy to have the basic things that we today take for granted.

Despite having some tough treatment by his master William Moore lived a good life. He managed to stay together with his family which was quite rare during those times and even experienced freedom as a family. He later had his own family who could get the education that he never had and improve themselves, even though he did get shown stories by some of the children on the plantation. Therefore William Moore despite having a rough start died a happy and free man.