Wattie Curtis - North Carolina

http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/ampage?collId=mesn&fileName=111/mesn111.db&recNum=220&itemLink=D?mesnbib:16:./temp/~ammem_6Tq2::

The first thing I noticed about this passage is the English used. The use of slang in the wording is very striking, even in the first sentence; "I wus borned" and also "seberal of de chillums". It is interesting looking at the accentual differences between early and later periods. To me it looks as if they have southern accents, which is understandable given they were raised in the south. The grammar itself is significant in terms of learning the way they spoke and how they wrote. This passage was taken when Wattie was 98, which in itself is quite a feat, and she speaks as if she still hadn't learnt the English language properly. The typing indicates her accent was strong and that she had little teaching in terms of spelling.

The content regarding living conditions is vile; "I'se seen him whup my mammy wid all de clothes offen her back. He'd buck her down on a barrel an' beat de blood outen her". Even reading this type of graphic recollection is unnerving. The fact she watched it happen to her mum to start with is a talking point.

The next page talks about her religious life. They went to church on sundays, but it was as much a deterrence as actual religious freedoms. "we went to chuch on sunday an' dey preached to us dat we'd go ter hell alive iffen we sassed our white folks". The fact they were told this in church is frankly disgusting. Instead of praying they were sent direct warnings. The next section is regarding clothes. Wattie talks about having to be naked until the age of 14, and the only reason she got clothes was due to her 'mammy' speaking to the plantation owner. Which may have had its own risks, many would have likely been whipped for asking for clothes.

Wattie ends it with talking about life post civil war; she talks about the fact her parents were allowed to marry and then went on to search for their children, finding most of the 14 but not 3, who were presumed either dead or missing indefinitely.

All in all it's quite a harrowing recollection of what 99% of slaves went through, even though I was only touching the surface of this. Hundreds of biographies of slavery will feature similar content.